Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Data Curation For Modeling Tall Fescue Biomass Dynamics With Dssat-Csm, M. B. Hanson, P. D. Alderman, T. J. Butler, A. Caldeira Rocateli

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

While models for predicting forage production are available to aid management decisions for some forage crops, there is limited research for a yield model designed specifically for tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus). Therefore, our objective was to adapt an existing perennial forage model, the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer Cropping Systems Model (DSSAT-CSM) for predicting forage biomass of tall fescue in the southern Great Plains. To evaluate model performance, there must first be a high level of data manipulation and cleaning. In this project, a cohesive dataset combining biomass, weather, soil, and management data were structured into DSSAT …

Priority Areas For Action And Research On Pastoralism And Rangelands In Eastern Africa, M. O. Odhiambo

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

There is an element of irony around pastoralism and research in Eastern Africa. While it is one of the most researched production and livelihood systems, pastoralism is also the least understood by policymakers and development actors, with discussions about its importance characterized by significant gaps in knowledge. What is more, policy actors have difficulties accessing empirical data specific to pastoralism and rangelands in a form that allows well-founded decision-making on policy and action. Most available data tend to be out of date and not disaggregated with reference to pastoralism and rangelands. As a result, much of the discourse around pastoralism …

Methane Emission Estimated From Different Cattle Intake Data In Heifers Grazing A Tropical Pasture, José Augusto Imaz, O. Hernández, D. Dos Santos, A. Radrizzani, J. I. Arroquy

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

The quantification of methane (CH₄) from enteric fermentation related to cattle diet is a useful tool to identify strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This is even important in tropical and subtropical regions due to the lack of CH₄ estimations in beef cattle, particularly from Bos Indicus breeds grazing tropical grasses (Kurihara et al., 1999). Several modelling approaches have been developed in order to predict CH₄ emission. However, the use of these models has limitations associated with uncertainty information required such as feed intake (FI), composition of the selected diet and animal responses (Gonzalez et …

Complex Systems Analysis In Selected Domains: Animal Biosecurity & Genetic Expression, Luke Trinity

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

I first broadly define the study of complex systems, identifying language to describe and characterize mechanisms of such systems which is applicable across disciplines. An overview of methods is provided, including the description of a software development methodology which defines how a combination of computer science, statistics, and mathematics are applied to specified domains. This work describes strategies to facilitate timely completion of robust and adaptable projects which vary in complexity and scope. A biosecurity informatics pipeline is outlined, which is an abstraction useful in organizing the analysis of biological data from cells. This is followed by specific applications of …

What Can We Do? Puzzling Over The Interpretation Of Heredity And Variation From Galton To Genetic Engineering, Peter J. Taylor

Working Papers on Science in a Changing World

First six chapters of a book motivated as follows: When I had mentioned to colleagues that I was exploring some significant issues overlooked by both sides in nature-nurture debates, the typical response was “we know, of course, that nature and nurture are intertwined”; they never asked “which nature-nurture science are you referring to?” It occurred to me that, in the long history of nature-nurture debates, opposing sides had always assumed or implied that these different scientific approaches were speaking to the same issues. If that were the case, then the challenge—something I was already puzzling over—was how best to draw …

Microarray Data Analysis And Classification Of Cancers, Grant Gates

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

When it comes to cancer, there is no standardized approach for identifying new cancer classes nor is there a standardized approach for assigning cancer tumors to existing classes. These two ideas are known as class discovery and class prediction. For a cancer patient to receive proper treatment, it is important that the type of cancer be accurately identified. For my Senior Honors Project, I would like to use this opportunity to research a topic in bioinformatics. Bioinformatics incorporates a few different subjects into one including biology, computer science and statistics. An intricate method for class discovery and class prediction is …

From Data To Decisions: Navigating The “So What?” And “What’S Next?” Conversation Around Nearshore Data, Dawn Spilsbury Pucci

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Ever wonder what happens to all those data being collected? In Island County, we are fortunate to be the focus of a plethora of data collection efforts. We have comprehensive nearshore assessments that describe where our habitats are and how those habitats are built. We have habitat assessments that are a collaborative effort between citizen science groups and state agencies. We have long-term status and trends data sets on intertidal habitats and presence for a few specific species. We have a high resolution shoreline armor dataset and we have a predictive probability model for coastal flood risk. But what do …

Development Of An Interactive Web Map To Visualize A Complex Dataset, Lisa Ferrier

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is steward to 2.6 million acres of state-owned aquatic lands. As part of its management responsibilities, DNR’s Submerged Vegetation Monitoring Program (SVMP) documents occurrences of seagrass throughout greater Puget Sound. Seagrasses are recognized globally as a sensitive indicator of water quality while providing productive, critical habitat utilized by many fish, bird and invertebrate species. The SVMP has been conducting seagrass surveys in Puget Sound, using underwater video, since 2000. Video is reviewed, classified for presence/absence, and ultimately used to characterize abundance, distribution and change in seagrass at local, regional, and sound-wide scales. …

Of Rats And Men, Thomas S. Walsh

Capstones

This capstone is a data-driven investigation into New York City's rat problem. By using publicly available government data to map rat activity in NYC, I identified several socio-economic variables that correlate with rat populations at the community district, borough, and city-scale. I used these findings (mainly that rat problems are linked to lower incomes) as the basis of an investigation, which includes interviews with residents, experts, and city officials. Prof. Bobby Corrigan, urban rodentologist and formerly with the NYC Department of Health criticizes the city's efforts for the first time on the record.

https://thomasseiyawalsh.wixsite.com/ratstone

Ifly: Code Development For An App To Support Automating Entomological Data Collection, Michael P. Cosentino, Trevor Stamper

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

We are developing a prototype entomological data-collection application called "iFly," which runs on a field-capable iPad device. In this phase, we tackled refining screens and introducing a database manager to streamline operations as info is entered, stored, retrieved and delivered. We used SQLite3 database in Apple's Xcode Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Xcode gives mixed programming results. Apple's iOS environment ensures functional and fairly error-free apps can be built. But the sophisticated Xcode IDE requires specialist developers and valuable project time is spent as new programmers learn key techniques. The iFly prototype was advanced with improved database integration; however, more work …

Slides: Rivers And People In The Neotropics: Social And Ecological Science For Environmental Flows, Elizabeth P. Anderson

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Presenter: Elizabeth P. Anderson, Florida International University

38 slides

Data In The Sciences At Colby College, A Case Study, Susan Westerberg Cole

Susan Westerberg Cole

A sabbatical project looked at the research data needs of science faculty at a small liberal arts college in order to determine potential library support services. I concluded that support needs to come from multiple campus units. This study highlighted the value of personal interviews to discover actual needs that had been unanticipated.

Error Correlation Between Co2 And Co As Constraint For Co2 Flux Inversions Using Satellite Data, H Wang, D J. Jacob, M Kopacz, D B. A Jones, P Suntharalingam, J A. Fisher, R Nassar, S Pawson, J E. Nielsen

Jenny A Fisher

Inverse modeling of CO2 satellite observations to better quantify carbon surface fluxes requires a chemical transport model (CTM) to relate the fluxes to the observed column concentrations. CTM transport error is a major source of uncertainty. We show that its effect can be reduced by using CO satellite observations as additional constraint in a joint CO2-CO inversion. CO is measured from space with high precision, is strongly correlated with CO2, and is more sensitive than CO2 to CTM transport errors on synoptic and smaller scales. Exploiting this constraint requires statistics for the CTM transport error correlation between CO2 and CO, …

Chesapeake Bay Nitrogen Fluxes Derived From A Land-Estuarine Ocean Biogeochemical Modeling System: Model Description, Evaluation, And Nitrogen Bonds, Yang Feng, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, John Wilkin, Hanqin Tian, Qichun Yang, Eileen E. Hofmann

CCPO Publications

The Chesapeake Bay plays an important role in transforming riverine nutrients before they are exported to the adjacent continental shelf. Although the mean nitrogen budget of the Chesapeake Bay has been previously estimated from observations, uncertainties associated with interannually varying hydrological conditions remain. In this study, a land-estuarine-ocean biogeochemical modeling system is developed to quantify Chesapeake riverine nitrogen inputs, within-estuary nitrogen transformation processes and the ultimate export of nitrogen to the coastal ocean. Model skill was evaluated using extensive in situ and satellite-derived data, and a simulation using environmental conditions for 2001-2005 was conducted to quantify the Chesapeake Bay nitrogen …

Validation Of Iasi Forli Carbon Monoxide Retrievals Using Ftir Data From Ndacc, T Kerzenmacher, B Dils, N Kumps, T Blumenstock, C Clerbaux, P F. Coheur, P Demoulin, Omaira Garcia, M George, David W. Griffith, F Hase, J Hadji-Lazaro, D Hurtmans, Nicholas B. Jones, E Mahieu, Justus Notholt, Clare Paton-Walsh, U Raffalski, T Ridder, M Schneider, C Servais, M De Maziere

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Carbon monoxide (CO) is retrieved daily and globally from space-borne IASI radiance spectra using the Fast Optimal Retrievals on Layers for IASI (FORLI) software developed at the Universit´e Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). The IASI CO total column product for 2008 from the most recent FORLI retrieval version (20100815) is evaluated using correlative CO profile products retrieved from groundbased solar absorption Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) observations at the following FTIR spectrometer sites from the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC): Ny-A° lesund, Kiruna, Bremen, Jungfraujoch, Iza˜na and Wollongong. In order to have good statistics for the comparisons, we …

The Acos Co2 Retrieval Algorithm - Part Ii: Global Xco2 Data Characterization, D Crisp, B Fisher, C O'Dell, C Frankenberg, R Basilio, H Bosch, L R. Brown, R Castano, B Connor, N M. Deutscher, A Eldering, D Griffith, M Gunson, A Kuze, L Mandrake, J Mcduffie, J Messerschmidt, C E. Miller, I Morino, V Natraj, J Notholt, D M. O'Brien, F Oyafuso, I Polonsky, J Robinson, R Salawitch, V Sherlock, M Smyth, H Suto, T E. Taylor, D R. Thompson, P O. Wennberg, D Wunch, Y L. Yung

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Here, we report preliminary estimates of the column averaged carbon dioxide (CO2) dry air mole fraction, XCO2, retrieved from spectra recorded over land by the Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite, GOSAT (nicknamed "Ibuki"), using retrieval methods originally developed for the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission. After screening for clouds and other known error sources, these retrievals reproduce much of the expected structure in the global XCO2 field, including its variation with latitude and season. However, low yields of retrieved XCO2 over persistently cloudy areas and ice covered surfaces at high latitudes limit the coverage of some geographic regions, even on …

A Comparison Of Spatially Explicit And Classic Regression Modelling Of Live Coral Cover Using Hyperspectral Remote-Sensing Data In The Al Wajh Lagoon, Red Sea, S Hamylton

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Live coral is a key component of the Al Wajh marine reserve in the Red Sea. The management of this reserve is dependent on a sound understanding of the existing spatial distribution of live coral cover and the environmental factors influencing live coral at the landscape scale. This study uses remote-sensing techniques to develop ordinary least squares and spatially lagged autoregressive explanatory models of the distribution of live coral cover inside the Al Wajh lagoon, Saudi Arabia. Live coral was modelled as a response to environmental controls such as water depth, the concentration of suspended sediment in the water column …

Spatial Modelling Of Benthic Cover Using Remote Sensing Data In The Aldabra Lagoon, Western Indian Ocean, Sarah Hamylton, Tom Spencer, A Hagan

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Spatially explicit ecological modelling was used to predict the distribution of 4 benthic components (live coral, carbonate sand, macroalgae and dead coral) inside the Aldabra lagoon, southern Seychelles, western Indian Ocean. Both classic ordinary least-squares and spatial autoregression techniques were carried out on a field data set of 774 spatially referenced records and 3 satellite remote sensing images to define an empirical relationship between local environmental conditions (water depth and water level variation) and benthic cover. This relationship was then used to generate a synoptic model of the spatial cover and distribution of each benthic component at the landscape (i.e. …

Development Of A Spatial Data Infrastructure For Coastal Management In The Amirante Islands, Seychelles, Sarah M. Hamylton, Justin Prosper

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Spatial data infrastructures play a key role in coastal management decision making in the Seychelles. This paper describes four components of a web-based spatial data infrastructure that were developed to facilitate coastal management of the Amirante Islands in the Seychelles. The four components include: (i) the institutional arrangement for using spatial data effectively to address local management challenges, (ii) the production of island habitat maps from remotely sensed data, (iii) the tasks undertaken for promoting access to and use of this spatial data, and (iv) an example of how this data is used for a specific coastal management application in …

Methane Observations From The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite: Comparison To Ground-Based Tccon Data And Model Calculations, Robert Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Austin Cogan, Annemarie Fraser, Liang Feng, Paul Palmer, Janina Messerschmidt, Nicholas M. Deutscher, David W. Griffith, Justus Notholt, Paul O. Wennberg, Debra Wunch

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

We report new short-wave infrared (SWIR) column retrievals of atmospheric methane (X CH4) from the Japanese Greenhouse Gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) and compare observed spatial and temporal variations with correlative ground-based measurements from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) and with the global 3-D GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model. GOSAT X CH4 retrievals are compared with daily TCCON observations at six sites between April 2009 and July 2010 (Bialystok, Park Falls, Lamont, Orleans, Darwin and Wollongong). GOSAT reproduces the site-dependent seasonal cycles as observed by TCCON with correlations typically between 0.5 and 0.7 with an estimated single-sounding precision between 0.4-0.8%. …

Rocky Intertidal Temperature Variability Along The Southeast Coast Of Australia: Comparing Data From In Situ Loggers, Satellite-Derived Sst And Terrestrial Weather Stations, Justin Adam Lathlean, David J. Ayre Prof, Todd E. Minchinton

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Predicting how both spatial and temporal variation in sea and air temperature influence the distribution of intertidal organisms is a pressing issue. We used data from satellites, weather stations and in situ loggers to test the hypothesis that satellite-derived sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and weather station air temperatures provide accurate estimates of ambient temperature variability on rocky intertidal shores for temporal (hourly for 1 yr) and spatial (10 m to 400 km) variation along the southeast coast of Australia. We also tested whether satellites and weather stations accurately detect the duration, frequency and number of extreme temperature events. Daily mean …

Calibration Of The Total Carbon Column Observing Network Using Aircraft Profile Data, Debra Wunch, G C Toon, Paul O. Wennberg, Steven C. Wofsy, Robert S. Stephens, M K.R. Fischer, O Uchino, J Abshire, P Bernath, S C Biraud, J-F Blavier, C Boone, K P. Bowman, E V. Browell, T Campos, B Connor, Bruce C. Daube, Nicholas M. Deutscher, M Diao, J W. Elkins, Christoph Gerbig, E Gottlieb, David W. Griffith, D F. Hurst, Rodrigo Jimenez, Gretchen Keppel-Aleks, E A. Kort, Ronald Macatangay, T Machidda, H Matsueda, F Moore, I Morino, S Park, J Robinson, C M. Roehl, Y Sawa, V Sherlock, C Sweeney, T Tanaka, M A. Zondlo

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) produces precise measurements of the column average dry-air mole fractions of CO2, CO, CH4, N2O and H2O at a variety of sites worldwide. These observations rely on spectroscopic parameters that are not known with sufficient accuracy to compute total columns that can be used in combination with in situ measurements. The TCCON must therefore be calibrated to World Meteorological Orga-nization (WMO) in situ trace gas measurement scales. We present a calibration of TCCON data using WMO-scale instrumentation aboard aircraft that measured profiles over four TCCON stations during 2008 and 2009. These calibrations are …

Ma, Connecticut River, Holyoke Dam, Brett Towler

Fish Passage Data Archive

No abstract provided.

Data Report: Clast Counts And Petrography Of Gravels From Site C0007, Iodp Expedition 316, Nankai Trough, Christopher L. Fergusson

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Gravel beds drilled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 316 at Site C0007 in the eastern Nankai Trough, ~100km offshore from the Kii Peninsula of Honshu, southwest Japan, have been investigated using 26 samples from two horizons (Cores 316-C0007C/C-17H and 316-C0007D-12R). The gravel from Core 316-C0007c-17H is from a 1.7m thick layer, whereas the gravel from Core 316-C0007D-12R is from a layer 4.55m thick. The upper parts of both layers are normally graded. The gravel is clast-supported, polymictic, of granule to pebble size, moderately to poorly sorted, and with subrounded to angular fragments. Clast types are similar from both cores …

Error Correlation Between Co2 And Co As Constraint For Co2 Flux Inversions Using Satellite Data, H Wang, D J. Jacob, M Kopacz, D B. A Jones, P Suntharalingam, J A. Fisher, R Nassar, S Pawson, J E. Nielsen

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Inverse modeling of CO2 satellite observations to better quantify carbon surface fluxes requires a chemical transport model (CTM) to relate the fluxes to the observed column concentrations. CTM transport error is a major source of uncertainty. We show that its effect can be reduced by using CO satellite observations as additional constraint in a joint CO2-CO inversion. CO is measured from space with high precision, is strongly correlated with CO2, and is more sensitive than CO2 to CTM transport errors on synoptic and smaller scales. Exploiting this constraint requires statistics for the CTM transport error correlation between CO2 and CO, …

Mid-Holocene Enso: Issues In Quantitative Model-Proxy Data Comparisons, J Brown, A W. Tudhope, M Collins, H V. Mcgregor

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Evaluation of climate model simulations using observed data contributes to the assessment of confidence in model predictions of future climate change. The mid-Holocene represents an opportunity to evaluate model simulations of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in comparison with coral proxy evidence of reduced ENSO amplitude. Quantitative comparisons between coral records and model output have been limited by (1) the use of different measures of ENSO amplitude, (2) possible sampling of natural variability in short records, and (3) uncertainty about the stationarity of the relationship between central Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) variability and ENSO signals at the coral site. We …

Validation Of Mipas Hno3 Operational Data, D Y. Wang, M Hopfner, C E. Blom, W E. Ward, Nicholas B. Jones, G C. Toon, E Mahieu, S Wood, M De Maziere, P Demoulin, T Blumenstock, F Hase, H W. Fischer, D Smale, G Bianchini, G Redaelli, F Mencaraglia, J Urban, D Murtagh, M Pirre, V Catoire, N Huret, H Nakajima, C Piccolo, T Sugita, A Kleinbohl, U Cortesi, C Boone, H Oelhaf, C Keim, G Y. Liu, G Wetzel, S Mikuteit, K A. Walker, P Bernath, C Vigouroux, J Kuttippurath

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Nitric acid (HNO3) is one of the key products that are operationally retrieved by the European Space Agency (ESA) from the emission spectra measured by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) onboard ENVISAT. The product version 4.61/4.62 for the observation period between July 2002 and March 2004 is validated by comparisons with a number of independent observations from ground-based stations, aircraft/balloon campaigns, and satellites. Individual HNO3 profiles of the ESA MIPAS level-2 product show good agreement with those of MIPAS-B and MIPAS-STR (the balloon and aircraft version of MIPAS, respectively), and the balloon-borne infrared spectrometers MkIV and SPIRALE, …

Crystallization And Diffraction Data Of 1h-3-Hydroxy-4-Oxoquinoline 2,4-Dioxygenase: A Cofactor-Free Oxygenase Of The Alpha/Beta-Hydrolase Family, Ruhu Qi, Susanne Fetzner, Aaron J. Oakley

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

1H-3-Hydroxy-4-oxoquinoline 2,4-dioxygenase (QDO) from Pseudomonas putida 33/1 catalyses the oxygenolysis of 1H-3-hydroxy-4-oxoquinoline to form N-formylanthranilic acid and carbon monoxide without the aid of cofactors. Both N-terminally His6-tagged and native QDO were overexpressed in Escherichia coli and purified by conventional chromatographic procedures. Untagged QDO, but not His6-tagged QDO, was crystallized by the vapour-diffusion method, giving hexagonal bipyramid crystals belonging to space group P6(1)22. Selenomethionine-containing native QDO was prepared and crystallized under identical conditions. The unit-cell parameters were a = b = 90.1, c = 168.6 A, alpha = beta = 90, gamma = 120 degrees. Using synchrotron radiation, these crystals diffract …

Validation And Data Characteristics Of Methane And Nitrous Oxide Profiles Observed By Mipas And Processed With Version 4.61 Algorithm, S Payan, C Camy-Peyret, H Oelhaf, G Wetzel, G Maucher, Nicholas B. Jones, S Wood, M De Maziere, T Blumenstock, P Duchatelet, D Smale, G Bianchini, G Redaelli, F Mencaraglia, M Pirre, N Huret, C Piccolo, U Cortesi, C Keim, N Glatthor, S Mikuteit, G P. Stiller, C Vigouroux, A Engel, M C. Volk, J Kuttippurath, H Kuellmann, P Raspollini, M Mahieu, V Payne, A Bracher, K Grunow, P Jeseck, Y Te, K Pfeilsticker, A Butz, Justus Notholt, Voltaire A. Velazco

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The ENVISAT validation programme for the atmospheric instruments MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOMOS is based on a number of balloon-bone, aircraft and ground-based correlative measurements. In particular the activities of validation scientists were coordinated by ESA within the ENVISAT Stratospheric Aircraft and Balloon Campaign of ESABC. As part of a series of similar papers on other species [this issue] and in parallel to the contribution of the individual validation teams, the present paper provides a synthesis of comparisons performed between MIPAS CH4 and N2O profiles produced by the current ESA operational software (Instrument Processing Facility version 4.61 or IPF v4.61) and …

Co Measurements From The Ace-Fts Satellite Instrument: Data Analysis And Validation Using Ground-Based, Airborne And Spaceborne Observations, C Clerbaux, M George, S Turquety, K A. Walker, Nicholas B. Jones, David W. Griffith, C P Rinsland, E Mahieu, M De Maziere, A. Kagawa, J Hannigan, M Coffey, F Hase, M Hopfner, P Duchatelet, I Kramer, A Strandberg, K Strong, Y Kasai, B Barret, P Ricaud, D Murtagh, E Dupuy, V Catoire, C Robert, C Senten, N J. Livesey, M Luo, M Lopez-Puertas, Ph Medelec, A Pazmino, H Pumphrey, T Borsdorff, P F. Coheur, J P. Cammas, James Drummond, R De Zafra, M Deeter, L Emmons, F Eddounia, J C. Gille, E Le Flochmoen, C Boone, B Funke, M Schneider, G P. Stiller, P Bernath, D P. Edwards

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) mission was launched in August 2003 to sound the atmosphere by solar occultation. Carbon monoxide (CO), a good tracer of pollution plumes and atmospheric dynamics, is one of the key species provided by the primary instrument, the ACE-Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS). This instrument performs measurements in both the CO 1-0 and 2-0 ro-vibrational bands, from which vertically resolved CO concentration profiles are retrieved, from the mid-troposphere to the thermosphere. This paper presents an updated description of the ACE-FTS version 2.2 CO data product, along with a comprehensive validation of these profiles using available observations (February …