Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Black carbon (BC) is a strong radiative forcer. Because of its multiple effects on climate change, BC has been located as the second important impact factor of climate change only after carbon dioxide. Sources of BC include mainly diesel vehicles and biomass burning. Mexico’s pledges before the Paris Agreement are, between others, the reduction of BC emissions to up to 51% by 2030 compared with those in 2000. In order to know the exact contribution of BC to the emission inventory of Mexico it is necessary to estimate several BC properties, such as its radiative forcing and its effects on the radiative heating of the atmosphere, among others. In this work, a technique based on the available remote-sensing and ground-based data along with the Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC) and the Santa Barbara DISORT Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (SBDART) algorithms were used to estimate black carbon radiative forcing in the south of Mexico City during 2015. Land-based measurements were taken from a recently created monitoring network, the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), and satellite measurements were obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) (MODIS). Black carbon monthly concentrations along 2015 were between 1.9 and 4.1 μg/m3. Results show that monthly average radiative forcing on the top of the atmosphere over south Mexico City during 2015 was +30.2 ± 6.2 W/m2. November, December and January presented the highest radiative forcing values (+34.9, +46.9, +34.0, respectively). In addition, estimates of atmospheric heating show an average annual value of 0.85 ± 0.22 W/m2. Values of Ångström > 1, as obtained in this work, indicate that aerosols are of the urban type and freshly emitted. Also, low single scattering albedo values in increasing wavelengths show that aerosols are mainly from urban-industrial aerosols.

Road transportation activities are major contributors of nitrogen oxides emissions to the air. The impact on the growth of NOx emission levels is found to be strongly correlated with the traffic intensities on highways. Various types of emission models performing emission assessment of traffic-related pollutants have been developed, but few of them were developed by using real-world measurements of NOx concentrations in ambient air. The most convenient sites to perform measurements in real-world conditions are road tunnels. This paper presents a comparison of HBEFA model NOx emission calculations and NOx emission measured in a short tunnel in the Czech Republic. Simultaneously, measured time-resolved NOx concentration and traffic activity counting were performed in the Zeleny most tunnel in the Czech Republic. The experimental work yielded reliable results of the mutual correlation of NOx level and traffic intensity in the tunnel section with statistical evidence. Emission factors from HBEFA emission model for road transport were applied and compared with the results from several measurement campaigns in the Czech Republic. It was found that calculated NOx emissions differed from measured NOx emissions due to the overestimation of light vehicles emissions and underestimation of high-duty vehicles emissions.

The relationship between total column ozone (TCO) and the development of a cyclonic system that occurred in the period from January 18 to January 25, 1981 has been studied using the ERA-Interim reanalysis database. It was found that TCO increases and decreases with the development and weakening of the cyclonic system. Also, a good correlation between TCO and the thickness of the layer was found between 1000-100 hPa and tropopause pressure. The study of daily variations in TCO based on the vertical distribution of the ozone mass mixing ratio (OMR) illustrate that with the beginning of the growth period there is a high decrease of the tropopause height, which was associated to high deepening of the cyclone and was accompanied by a significant vertical increase of OMR in the troposphere and stratosphere. The obvious significant increase of OMR starts at the stratospheric layer and is then transported to the tropospheric layer. The analysis of the time-height variation of the differences of OMR between the average of the domain containing the center of the cyclone at each level and the corresponding monthly average, illustrates that during the days of maximum deepening the positive values of OMR extend downwards to reach the 850 hPa level. The increase in positive values continues to be higher in the upper levels and reaches maximum values between 300-100 hPa and also between the 60-10 hPa layer. The characteristics of these changes of OMR concentrations from layer to layer are predominantly due to dynamical processes. Also, this was attributed to the effect of horizontal advection of ozone from a different neighboring region into the column, and by a vertical exchange of air between the high ozone at the stratosphere and low ozone at troposphere.

In this study, the aerosol direct, semi-direct and indirect effects on the East Asia climate are investigated using the International Center for Theoretical Physics Regional Climate Model v. 4 (RegCM4.1.1), by focusing on the East Asian Summer Monsoon temperature and precipitation. The externally mixed aerosols, including sulfate (SO42–), black carbon and organic carbon, reduced the solar flux reaching the surface directly by scattering solar radiation, and indirectly by increasing the cloud droplet concentration and cloud liquid water path over East China. The combined aerosol effects (direct and indirect) decreased the temperature on the continent and increased it over the oceans, leading to the reduction of rainfall in the central regions of China and an enhancement of rainfall in the adjacent ocean regions.

This study presents the main differences between classical cold fronts, subtropical fronts and baroclinic troughs, as well as a climatology of these systems along the coast of Brazil. Regarding the seasonality of these systems, classical cold fronts are more frequent in winter followed by spring, subtropical fronts in spring, and baroclinic troughs in spring and summer. In southeastern Brazil, these three kinds of systems are responsible for about 40% (60%) of the total precipitation during the rainy (dry) season.

The present paper is focused on domestic Indiana architecture in Galicia as a consequence of the first large migration made between the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. Different factors which could have influenced its composition are considered, including possible written sources (enriched by indexes of images providing façade models), as well as other architectural and ornamental components. This work also analyzes other points such as stylistic influences, personal preferences, and the intervention of professionals in the project. Lastly, we will compare the forms, structures, and decorative ornaments that make these houses, located throughout Galicia and especially in coastal areas, unique.

The influence of Plato’s thought in Joaquin Torres Garcia’s writings is, nowadays, as well-known as it is little-understood. A critical approach to the artistic element of this relationship is barely identifiable within the scope of historiography. The incidence of Platonic idealism in the epochal contradictions, particularly in associating Torres with certain movements of the European avant-garde, begun to be studied in recent decades only. These three aspects will be the subject of the following article, whose purpose is to think about Torresgarcian Platonism from both a theoretical and a practical point of view and to delve into the complexity of a period of great changes in art history: the first half of the XX century.

In the following pages we present the inventory completed in 1767 of the paintings in the Santa Catalina de Córdoba church and college, which has since been converted into the Parish of Santo Domingo de Silos and San Salvador. 185 paintings are mentioned in this inventory, in which we find information concerning their mounts, dedication, measurements, and type of frame as well as the place in which they were found. In most cases, the authorship of the works is omitted, with the exception of three artists, all well-known at the time: Antonio Palomino and Velasco, Pablo de Céspedes and Juan Luis Zambrano.

Whether mysterious places or preservers of heritage, museums have become the perfect stage for videogames. Consequently, many users of all ages take a step into these places more often than they do in real life, opening their doors to new audiences. What is the image of the museums reflected in these games? What expectations do they create? In this paper, we will look at some remarkable examples (such as the Broken Sword, Tomb Raider, Pokémon or Animal Crossing sagas) and propose a new classification according to their characteristics in order to study possible trends and understand the public’s perception of these institutions based on their image in this mass industry.

The arches we see in the Baroque architecture of New Spain have such varied and rich forms that, to the careful observer, they give the impression of looking at drapes carved in stone. This article is an invitation to consider the possibility that those who commissioned or made them intended to imitate curtains. Curtains, cloaks, and canopies had an important symbolic function as representations of the sky and, from a formal perspective, manifested the movement, luxury, wealth, drama, and theatricality of Baroque art.