Day In Question Research Articles

Petrus Apianus Draws up a Calendar

The dullest page in Petrus Apianus's magnificently illustrated Astronomicum Caesareum is folio K I verso (Figure 1). Under the title of the Greek and Latin appears a partial calendar in two columns. The column on the left begins with 26 July and includes the rest of July, August, September and 1 October, in the form assigned them by the Julian ecclesiastical calendar, the standard calendar of the medieval and Renaissance west until the Gregorian Calendar reform of the calendar decreed in February 1582. The column on the right begins with the first day of Hecatombaion, the first month of the calendar of ancient Athens. It continues through Metageitnion, the second month, and the beginning of Boedromion, the third. Apianus treats these months, oddly, as if they too were Roman, as a comparison with the left-hand column shows. He makes the first day of each Athenian month the Kalends. Then he counts down to the Ides, which he sets on the fifth day; to the Nones, which he sets on the 13th of Hecatombaion and the 15th of Metageitnion; and finally, after the Nones, to the Kalends of the next month. Though Apianus supplies no detailed explanation, he does offer supplementary materials on the right: a list of the Athenian months in order, a list of the Athenian names for the days of the lunar month (which was divided quite differently from the Roman month, into three sections of almost equal length), and a couple of historical references to Nicias - the leader of the Athenian expedition to Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War, whose defeat in 413 B.c. Thucydides narrates in the magnificent, climactic books of his History}Both subject matter and presentation seem dry enough to eliminate the need for caucus races: dry enough, indeed, to induce slumber in the normal reader. The table contrasts sharply with many of the splendid and original visual effects achieved by Apianus elsewhere in his book. The Astronomicum, after all, included gorgeous diagrams of planetary models, splendid images of eclipses, and ingenious efforts to record the changing appearance of Halley's comet and four others, day by day. The comet images gave Apianus's work lasting value as a source of data for astronomers - including Halley - long after Kepler denounced it as a fanciful rechauffe of Ptolemy.2Apianus, after all, was not only a humanist, an antiquary, and a printer of astronomical textbooks and tables, but also a man with a keen visual sensibility. A skilled observer of the heavens, he instructed readers on how to look safely at eclipses through two thick pieces of glass of different colours, with a thin sheet of paper glued between then and perforated at one point, and accurately noted that comets' tails are normally directed away from the Sun. No wonder, then, that his book seemed a marvel of design even in the decade that saw the appearance of Fuchs's Herbal and Vesalius's Fabrica? In the brilliant company of Apianus's volvelles and eclipse diagrams, carefully coloured in his shop before the book was distributed to buyers, the calendar table seems a verbal wallflower. Apianus himself, however, saw it as a particularly instructive visual tool: With the aid of this journal, he told readers, your own eyes can teach you everything about the months and the beginning of the Attic year, more clearly than light itself.4 What then did the Comparison teach, and how, and why did Apianus think it mattered? And what does it tell us about the uses of illustrations in astronomical and other literature of this period?The Roman part of the diagram - the left-hand column - is a standard, if rather partial, treatment of the Julian ecclesiastical calendar, as that took shape in the fifth and sixth centuries and continued to develop, in its sacred components, over time. Apianus lays out the data in parallel columns. They include: the names of the months, a repetitive series of letters from A to G, and the Roman dates for the days in question. …

The Value of Repeat Clostridium difficile Toxin Testing during and after an Outbreak of C difficile‐Associated Diarrhea

The recent increase in Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) has led to questions about the reproducibility and sensitivity of C difficile toxin testing (CDTT). While there have been recommendations to repeat CDTT following a negative result, previous studies have failed to show a benefit. However, no studies were performed during an outbreak of CDAD. The value of repeat CDTT after an initial negative result in patients tested during and after an outbreak of CDAD is reported in the present study, as well as the reproducibility of CDTT when multiple samples are received and tested on the same day. The results of CDTT, performed using a cell cytotoxicity assay between April 1, 2001, and March 31, 2008, were retrieved and searched for patients who had repeat samples tested after an initial negative result. The result and the number of days after a negative result were determined using the date of the most recent negative test. The cumulative positivity rate was calculated by adding all of the repeat positive test results for the days in question and dividing by the total number of tests performed during that time. A total of 8661 patients submitted 14,991 stool specimens for CDTT during the study period. There were 3095 samples that tested positive (20.6%) for the toxin. The results were divided into two time periods to reflect the CDAD outbreak, which began in April 2002: period 1 (outbreak) was from April 1, 2002, to March 31, 2006, and period 2 was from April 1, 2006, to March 31, 2008. The rate of positivity was 24.2% during period 1, and 11.6% during period 2 (P<0.001). Repeat CDTT was performed 619 times on samples received on the same day as the initial specimen, and only three (0.5%) were discordant. A total of 1630 samples were retested within one to seven days of a negative result, and 103 (6.3%) tested positive (7.8% period 1 and 2.9% period 2; P=0.002). The likelihood of a positive result on repeat testing in the first three days after a negative result was low (0.9%, 7% and 4%, respectively). The cumulative positivity for repeat testing performed in the first three days was 0.9%, 3.3% and 3.5%, respectively, and did not differ significantly at day 3 during the period of high CDTT positivity (P=0.110). The value of repeat CDTT, performed using a cell cytotoxicity assay, was low in the first three days after an initial negative result and was unchanged during a CDAD outbreak.

An Observational Study of the Extremely Heavy Rain Event in Northern Vietnam during 30 October-1 November 2008

An extraordinarily heavy rain event occurred in northern Vietnam from 30 October to 1 November 2008. The three consecutive days of extremely heavy rain resulted in the worst flooding event in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, and its environs in 24 years. Results from analysis of the Japan Meteorological Agency Climate Data Assimilation System (JCDAS) re-analysis data show that a synoptic-scale tropical wave disturbance formed over the South China Sea and traveled northwestward over the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula, brought the extremely heavy rainfall to northern Vietnam. In the mid-latitudes, a belt of surface high extended southeastward from western Mongolia to the East China Sea, causing a persistent northeasterly monsoonal flow on its south-eastern edge along the southern coast of China. The northeasterly flow worked together with the tropical disturbance, creating a strong low-level wind convergence in northern Vietnam. Examination of the structure of the tropical disturbance revealed that the meridional wind structure and cyclonic vorticity of the disturbance extended vertically to approximately 300 hPa, with the maximum fluctuations occurring at the 800-600 hPa layer and shows nearly vertical with height. A remarkable feature of the atmosphere is the large increases in the equivalent potential temperature in the upper troposphere higher than about 500 hPa, with strong southerly winds greater than 15 m s-1 in the 300-150 hPa layers for the three days in question. In conclusion, the tropical disturbance, which worked together with the persistent Asian winter monsoon, caused the extreme rainfall event.

GPS sidereal filtering: coordinate- and carrier-phase-level strategies

Multipath error is considered one of the major errors affecting GPS observations. One can benefit from the repetition of satellite geometry approximately every sidereal day, and apply filtering to help minimize this error. For GPS data at 1 s interval processed using a double-difference strategy, using the day-to-day coordinate or carrier-phase residual autocorrelation determined with a 10-h window leads to the steadiest estimates of the error-repeat lag, although a window as short as 2 h can produce an acceptable value with > 97% of the optimal lag’s correlation. We conclude that although the lag may vary with time, such variation is marginal and there is little advantage in using a satellite-specific or other time-varying lag in double-difference processing. We filter the GPS data either by stacking a number of days of processed coordinate residuals using the optimum “sidereal” lag (23 h 55 m 54 s), and removing these stacked residuals from the day in question (coordinate space), or by a similar method using double-difference carrier-phase residuals (observational space). Either method results in more consistent and homogeneous set of coordinates throughout the dataset compared with unfiltered processing. Coordinate stacking reduces geometry-related repeating errors (mainly multipath) better than carrier-phase residual stacking, although the latter takes less processing time to achieve final filtered coordinates. Thus, the optimal stacking method will depend on whether coordinate precision or computational time is the over-riding criterion.

A simple method for estimating daily and monthly mean temperatures from daily minima and maxima

Historical near-surface air temperature data from many locations are available as time series of daily minimum and maximum temperatures. However, estimation of the daily and monthly mean temperatures as the average of the minimum and the maximum is prone to large errors. Therefore, a simple method for estimating the mean daily temperature on the basis of minima and maxima is presented. The proposed method accounts for the temperature trend by including the minimum temperature on the following day in addition to the extremes on the day in question. This and a few conventional methods are tested on the temperature time series from a European flat terrain site and from an Alpine valley site. The proposed algorithm approximates the value of the actual mean daily and monthly temperatures much better than the average of extreme temperatures. Furthermore, its bias and root mean squared error on daily and monthly timescales approach those of the algorithms that require several temperature records per day. Copyright © 2006 Royal Meteorological Society

Where Are We Now? Real-Time Estimates of the Macro Economy

This paper describes a method for calculating daily real-time estimates of the current state of the U.S. economy. The estimates are computed from data on scheduled U.S. macroeconomic announcements using an econometric model that allows for variable reporting lags, temporal aggregation, and other complications in the data. The model can be applied to find real-time estimates of GDP, inflation, unemployment or any other macroeconomic variable of interest. In this paper I focus on the problem of estimating the current level of and growth rate in GDP. I construct daily real-time estimates of GDP that incorporate public information known on the day in question. The real-time estimates produced by the model are uniquely-suited to studying how perceived developments the macro economy are linked to asset prices over a wide range of frequencies. The estimates also provide, for the first time, daily time series that can be used in practical policy decisions.

THORPE'S "TESTAMENT": A CONJECTURAL EMENDATION

The Testament of William Thorpe, the Lollard preacher, was published as an appendix to his longer Examination in an edition which appeared clandestinely at Antwerp around 1530.' The editor, according to Thomas More writing in 1532, was George Constantine, but according to John Bale writing in 1544, was William Tyndale.2 The recent critical edition of the Examination, by Anne Hudson, which is based on the only surviving English manuscript, also includes the Testament, although this latter text survives only in the Antwerp edition.3 The Testament was presumably presented as an appendix in the manuscript of the Examination used for the Antwerp edition, for the two pieces come one after the other, without a break, while the third item in that book - an account of Sir John Oldcastle's appearance before Archbishop Arundel - starts on a new page and gives every indication of being an entirely separate item.The oddest feature of the conjunction of Thorpe's Examination with his Testament is the wide discrepancy in date between them. The text of the Examination itself is undated, but Thorpe tells us in the course of that work that his first appearance before Archbishop Arundel was On the sondaye next after the feste of seynt Peter / that we call lammesse in the yeare of our lorde a. M.CCCC. and .vij.' (i.e. Sunday, 7 August 14Oy).4 The Testament, however, is dated 'the friday after the rode daye and the twentye daye of September / In the yeare of our lorde a thousand foure hundred and sixtie'.5 Ruling out the improbable contingency that a heretic who was clearly not in the mood for recanting in 1407, and who had already held his opinions 'this thirty winter and more',6 could have survived to draft an unrepentant restatement of his opinions on his deathbed at the age of at least 90, we might be left with the conclusion that the Testament is either a work of fiction or a spurious attribution.7The date of 1460 would moreover make the Testament a remarkably late composition. It is not otherwise certain that any surviving Lollard texts were originally composed this late, and few enough were even copied after about 1425/ If the Lollard movement was still capable of producing such a sophisticated text so late, then it must have had greater intellectual vitality than some recent historians have been inclined to admit.9However, a simple conjectural emendation resolves the problem posed by the late date of the Testament, enabling us to dispense with the idea that Thorpe was prodigiously long-lived or the conclusion that a new Lollard text was written at such an implausibly late date.The solution comes from emending 1460 to 1409. This seems arbitrary enough at first sight. But if the numbers are reduced to Roman numerals MCCCCLX and MCCCCIX - then it becomes easy to see how the dates might have been confused through scribal or editorial error. This requires us to presume that the text from which the Antwerp editor worked gave the date of the Testament in Roman numerals rather than Arabic numerals or words.1 But this is no bold presumption, for Roman numerals predominated over Arabic in fifteenth-century English documents, and years were more commonly recorded in numerical than verbal form. Moreover, it is obvious from the Antwerp edition that the editor has not simply transcribed the date of the Testament from his source. Instead, he has integrated it into a final paragraph of his own devising, which refers to William Thorpe in the third person and then draws the reader's attention to the apparent interval of fifty-three years between the two documents (although without questioning its plausibility).11The emendation of 1460 to 1409 receives powerful support from consideration of another element in the date given for the Testament, which specifies the day in question as 'the friday after the rode daye'. The 'rode daye' is of course the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September). But while in 1460 the Friday after that feast fell on 19 September, in 1409 it did indeed fall on 20 September. …

Language death. David Crystal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. 208.

“On 4 November 1995 Kasabe existed; on 5 November it did not.” This brief obituary in David Crystal's book (p. 1) does not refer to a creature. It refers to an African language, known as Luo, that had been spoken in Cameroon; on the day in question, Bogon, the last speaker of Kasabe, died, taking his language with him. According to Crystal, half of the world's current languages are in danger of dying, and the situation is so grave that an international and interdisciplinary effort must be mounted to rescue them. Crystal has written this book to alert us to the peril and to suggest ways in which our linguistic diversity might be maintained.

Measuring potential exposure to environmental pollutants: time spent with soil and time spent outdoors.

In 1994-1995, the Electric Power Resource Institute (EPRI) undertook a major national survey of time in microenvironments with 1200 respondents aged 18 and older. It did so using a methodology that minimized the problems of respondent recall and reporting by the use of a "time diary," in which survey respondents reported in detail about their actual activities "yesterday" including time spent outdoors. In addition, respondents were asked questions about the extent of contact with soil they had on that day. Significant proportions (20%) of the American public reported coming in direct contact with soil on a typical day and those who did come in contact were exposed for about 1.7 h per day; some 6% of the public reported being exposed for more than 2 h on the day in question, mainly by hand (although 3% of respondents reported soil contact with their head or face). As expected, men reported far more soil contact than women; surprisingly few consistent differences were found by age, or by marital status, parental status or employment status. Contrary to expectations, higher contact was not reported by minorities, or by less educated or less affluent respondents. Moreover, these patterns generally remained unchanged after adjustment for other demographic predictors. More as expected, higher exposure was reported in the Spring months, on weekends, and in rural areas and in the South and West regions of the country, patterns again largely unaffected by multivariate controls for other predictors. In general, while certain predictors of soil exposure were much the same for time spent outdoors, there were some notable exceptions.

The Woolley and Roe case

Albert Woolley and Cecil Roe were healthy, middle-aged men who became paraplegic after spinal anaesthesia for minor surgery at the Chesterfield Royal Hospital in 1947. The spinal anaesthetics were given by the same anaesthetist, Dr Malcolm Graham, using the same drug on the same day at the same hospital. The outcome for the patients and their families was devastating, as it was for the use of spinal anaesthesia in the UK. At the trial 6 yr later, and against the opinion of leading neurologists, the judge accepted Professor Macintosh's suggestion that phenol, in which the ampoules of local anaesthetic had been immersed, had contaminated the local anaesthetic through invisible cracks. In an interview 30 yr after the verdict, Dr Graham believed tha the tragedy was caused by contamination of the spinal needles or syringes during the sterilization process. The subsequent explanation that, on the day in question, descaling liquid in the sterilizing pan had not been replaced by water, supported his belief and finally offered a credible explanation. We review the Woolley and Roe case, the status of spinal anaesthesia before and after 1947, and the relevant medico-legal judgments in claims for negligence in the early days of the National Health Service.

Assessing dietary intake in preschool children: The healthy start project - New York

Healthy Start is a three year research project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a cardiovascular risk reduction program in minority and low-income children and their parents. Baseline 24-hour recall data was collected on 439 three to five year-old children during the Fall of 1995. The methodology used was a combined approach: observation of the children during mealtime to determine quantities of food eaten at school coupled with completion of a food record by the parent/guardian of the child for foods eaten away from school on the same day as the observation. The food record was reviewed by phone with the parent/guardian for accuracy and completeness. In the absence of a completed food record, the parent was asked to recall the child's intake on the day in question. School meal plus home meal intake was merged for each child to create the 24-hour intake. The collection method was done according to specific criteria. The mean caloric intake was 1449 kcal, with 15% of energy from protein, 54% from carbohydrate, 31% from fat and 12% from saturated fat. This combined approach methodology allows 24-hour intakes to be collected on young children in the school setting as well as the home environment.

A Regionally Applicable Model for Estimating Flow Velocity at Ungauged River Sites in the UK

AbstractMeasurements of flow velocity are often required for a broad range of issues surrounding water‐resource management, and a velocity‐estimation method is therefore desirable where extensive field data are unavailable. This paper presents the development of a model for estimating flow velocity using readily available catchment characteristics, and flow and channel geometry data. The velocity equations were calibrated using UK data, so that their application at any river site in the UK is attainable. The calibrated equation uses the mean flow and the dimensionless magnitude of the flow on the day in question to estimate the mean reach velocity for flows at any river site in the UK.

Semi‐variable delivery routes and the efficiency of outbound logistics

Maintaining efficiency in despatching goods from a depot to geographically dispersed customers may require management at the depot to adjust its delivery routes daily if these customers’ demands fluctuate from day to day. One type of adjustment is to give drivers daily “skip lists” instructing them not to visit customers who have indicated that they do not need delivery on the day in question. This adjustment, which is appropriately referred to as semi‐variable routes, increases the depot’s outbound logistics productivity by eliminating some unnecessary travelling. Using extensive experimental data, develops a regression model that efficiently and accurately estimates this productivity increase, and illustrates how spreadsheets can be used as a decision support medium for using the model in pedagogical and applied settings. Confirms the model’s validity by standard model validation tests as well as by comparison with an existing model from previous research.

Urinary output of endogenous monoamine oxidase inhibitory activity is related to everyday stress

The MAO A and B inhibitory components of urinary tribulin were investigated in normal individuals (11 males and 24 females, mean age ± SD: 27.1 ± 4.5 years) in relation to everyday stress. Volunteers collected a urine sample at the same time (late evening) on five days over a single week. On each occasion subjects also completed a mood adjective checklist which measured perceived stress levels over the day in question. For each subject all daily measures were aggregated. Mean individual urinary MAO A and B inhibitory activity was found to be positively correlated with stress scores both before (r = 0.38, p < 0.05 and r = 0.37, p < 0.05 respectively, n = 35) and after (r = 0.35, p < 0.05 and r = 0.33, p < 0.05 respectively, n = 35) correction for the effects of urinary volume. These results suggest that in normal healthy individuals high endogenous MAO inhibitory activity in the urine is indicative of a relatively enduring state of everyday stress.

Selective sparing of later‐born ganglion cells after neonatal transection of the infraorbital nerve

A combination of [3H]thymidine labelling and retrograde tracing with either horseradish peroxidase (HRP) or true blue (TB) was used to determine whether V primary afferent neurons born on different embryonic (E) days were differentially susceptible to neonatal transection of the infraorbital nerve (ION). In one experiment, rat fetuses were exposed to [3H]thymidine on E-8.5, 9.5, 10.5, 11.5, 12.5, 13.5, 14.5, or 15.5, the left infraorbital nerve (ION) was transected on the day of birth, and both the regenerate and intact IONs were labelled with HRP when the animals reached adulthood. The percentage of HRP labelled cells that were also heavily labelled by [3H]thymidine was calculated for both the intact ganglion and that ipsilateral to the damaged nerve for each animal. A consistently higher percentage of double labelled cells on the lesioned rather than on the intact side for a given E-day was taken as an indication that cells born on the day in question had an increased probability of survival relative to the entire population of V ganglion cells that contributed axons to the ION. Cells born late in gestation on E-12.5 through 14.5 were significantly more likely than early born (E-9.5 through 11.5) cells to survive neonatal axotomy. In a second experiment, fetuses were exposed to [3H]thymidine on either E-9.5, E-10.5, or E-14.5, the vibrissa pads on both sides of the face were injected with TB within 6 hours of birth, and the ION was transected 6-8 hours later.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Developments in the darkroom: a cross-sectional study of sickness absence, work-related symptoms and environmental monitoring of darkroom technicians in a hospital in Glasgow.

Nine female technicians using both manual and automatic processing methods were matched by age, sex and smoking habits with controls from the occupational therapy department. All were interviewed using a questionnaire about symptoms experienced during the day in question and the preceding month. Sickness absence information for 1987 was obtained, and the working environment was assessed by standard occupational hygiene methods. The technicians and controls had similar numbers of episodes of sickness absence (23 versus 24, respectively) but aggregated substantially more days absence attributed to sickness (204 versus 41). The total number of 'monthly' symptoms experienced by the technicians was greater than the controls (44 versus 30) as was the number of 'daily' complaints (26 versus 6). In all cases, respiratory symptoms were responsible for about one-third of problems, but statistical analysis (Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks tests) showed that the differences were not statistically significant. Occupational hygiene results were all within normal limits.

ECONOMICALLY OPTIMUM DAY TEMPERATURES FOR GREENHOUSE HYDROPONIC LETTUCE PRODUCTION PART I: A COMPUTER MODEL

ABSTRACTAn algorithm was developed to select an economically optimum temperature trajectory for greenhouse hydroponic lettuce production. Daily air temperature was selected to maximize the difference between crop worth and cost to heat. To select an optimum temperature, crop worth was determined for a range of possible inside temperatures by projecting crop growth forward to harvest using expected values of weather variables based on historical weather data. After an optimum temperature for the day in question was selected, the status of the lettuce crop was updated based upon the selected temperature and the day's actual weather data. KEYWORDS. Lettuce, Hydroponics, Greenhouse temperatures. Modeling.

Butchers and Fishmongers: Their Historical Contribution to London's Festivity

MEDIEVAL London was proportionately more dominated by fish and flesh sales than it is today. As early as the twelfth century, Eastcheap was almost entirely a meat market and Philip E. Jones expresses some surprise that the East side of the City had developed in this way, since it was furthest from supplies in Smithfield.' Fishmongers, too, were found at Eastcheap, while in West Cheap poulterers traded and to the West again, closer to Smithfield, was another enclave of Butchers and Fishmongers in the Shambles of St. Nicholas, which today is Newgate Street, Holborn. (Illustration 1) In 1283 a grant given by Edward I established a further market between the two already there, on an open space known as Les Stokkes. The market house built by the City was rented to a fishmonger, John Benere, and six others, to sub-let for both fish and flesh sales. There was room for seventy-one stalls inside and over twenty inferior places outside in this new market which continued alongside those already in use. It seems quite extraordinary that such accommodation was needed; most other traders were limited to a single street, and the proliferation of food markets makes one think that from the thirteenth century on Londoners expected a remarkably high standard of diet. Initially, Fishmongers were even better provided. They also had Bridge Street, Old Fish Street and Stock-fishmonger's Row by London Bridge. A charter of 1399 tried to limit them to Bridge Street, Old Fish and Les Stokkes, but in 1416 attempts were still being made to keep them to their five main venues. Information from disputes in Les Stokkes leads me to the conclusion that on meat days the Butchers used most of the better stalls, and on fish days, when meat was still allowed to the sick and to children under thirteen, the Butchers so licensed moved to the inferior positions. Although the authorities treated fish and flesh as one trade and of necessity Butchers and Fishmongers normally worked together amicably, competitive tensions, which could be called those between Carnival and Lent, inevitably broke out in their trading situations. One repeated quarrel was the question of who was to have the dominant selling places on the Eves of Christmas and Easter; the point being whether it was more correct, on the day before a return to meat, to observe the fast of the day in question, or to anticipate the feast of the following day. This was an annual dispute from 1361 with the Butchers eventually obtaining Easter Eve, but in 1443, two days before the Feast of St. Bartholomew, one fishmonger was wounded and the Butchers were constrained to enter into a bond to keep the peace. There was also as much conflict between Butchers and the Citizens of London on account of the smell of the trade. In Erasmus' Colloquy A Fish Diet the Fishmonger taunts his rival with the comment that 'people would rather have ten pimps than one butcher for a neighbour'.2 In the London Shambles slaughtering was done without access to the river and resulted in notorious byways, such as Stinking Lane, and rotting detritus which found its way into the Grey Friars garden. As an Ordinance of 1361, which introduced measures to improve sanitation, put it, 'the slaughter of cattle caused an

A method to generate synthetic hourly solar radiation globally

This paper develops a stochastic procedure for generating synthetic sets of hourly solar irradiation values, suitable for use in solar simulation design work. The daily atmospheric transmittance K t for the day in question is broken down into hourly irradiation events by a stochastic disaggregation procedure. The necessary disaggregation models were constructed using the quasi-universal hourly atmospheric transmittance k t , instead of the irradiation itself, as the random variable. Analyses of meteorological records revealed that both the marginal probability and stochastic features of sets of hourly events k t within an individual day can be closely predicted using the K t for the day. Results indicated that the parameters defining the disaggregation procedure were independent of geographical location. The values of k t are found to be closely modeled by a Beta distribution, and a mean correlation coefficient between successive hourly values of k t was found to be 0.54±0.14. An algorithm is described from which unlimited hourly solar irradiation data may, therefore, be generated using only the 12 monthly means of daily events, K t .

Numerical Simulation of a Satellite-Observed Calm Zone in Montetey Bay, California

Satellite imagery from 18 April 1978 suggests the presence of a semicircular zone of calm or new-calm seas in Monterey Bay, California. It is hypothesized that sea breeze circulations account for the calm zone in the bay, although a lack of in situ surface and upper air observations prevents direct verification of this theory. A three-dimensional numerical model of the marine atmospheric boundary layer is used to simulate the development of the low-level wind field on the day in question, under sea breeze conditions. The model produces a zone of winds speeds under 1.0 m s−1 over the center of the bay, near the time of the satellite image. These model results suggest that a sea breeze circulation may have accounted for the zone of very light winds and calm sea.