Studies of the global distribution of lightning show that the annual number of lightning over land is higher than over the sea. However some research reveals that lightning activity is different over various geographical locations and highly variable on timescales (annual, seasonal, monthly and daily). It is of interest to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of lightning for specific...
Determination of the maximal expected magnitude (Mmax) of future earthquakes is one of the most important part of seismic hazard and risk assessment. In this research, an attempt for determining the Mmax of the three neotectonic zones in North Macedonia was made, based on available seismological data for last 42 years. Two approaches were used: first one determining Mmax using the...
The problem of pollution in Serbia is severe. In winter, concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 often exceed the permitted values. In addition to official automatic stations for measuring air quality, it is useful to have low-cost sensors that are available to everyone. The benefit of this type of measurement lies in the fact that in addition to understanding the overall problem of pollution,...
Introduction. Trying to find out what should be understood by ‘climate’, the inquisitive reader is surprised by the lack of sufficient clarity about the content of this concept even today, although the term was used in antiquity and literally translated from Greek means "slope" (of the Sun's rays relative to the Earth's surface). The purpose of the study is to trace the formation of the...
The main idea of this study is to investigate the Dst variations in the X component of the Earth's magnetic field and their latitudinal distribution in the conditions of geomagnetic disturbance in February 3, 2022. For this purpose, data from the world database of geomagnetic observatories INTERMAGNET were used. Three sectors have been selected: (i) East Europe, (ii) West Europe, (iii) East...
The external geomagnetic field is known to exhibit multifractal behavior as deduced by analyzing the extensive magnetic field time series. Usually the internal magnetic field is not discussed because its changes occur with a much longer time scale. However, one can make use of the existing palaeomagnetic measurements of the dipolar (internal) field that offer a broad view on the geological...
In this work the seasonal – diurnal variations of lightning over two different areas: continental (Bulgaria) and maritime (Black Sea) are analyzed based on a 10 year long dataset (March 2005-February 2015) provided by the ZEUS lightning detection network operated by the National Observatory of Athens. The number of recorded flashes and the flash density at time intervals (annual, seasonal,...
This work is aimed to study the spatial distribution of the magnetic field components variations during substorms. In this purpose, two isolated substorms, the substorm on 22 March 2013 at ~23:12 UT and the one on 14 January 2016, with central meridian over Europe have been chosen. Magnetic field data from INTERMAGNET, SuperMAG and IMAGE databases have been used. The X and Y variations due to...
Assessing the variability of climate extremes in changing climate is one of the greatest and most important challenges in climate science, not only because these events are rare, but also because they can be accompanied by devastating consequences. Climate change in the future could lead to an increase in the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme events and the greatest impact on the...
A few change in the global mean temperature and noticeable changes were observed in some elements of the climate around the world. One of the most popular derivatives of the global warming is the increase of the frequency of extreme weather phenomena. The most popular extreme weather events observed in the Albanian territory during the last three decades are the days of high precipitation...
The direct approach to model evaluation is to compare regional climate model (RCM) output with observations and analyze the resulting difference in order to identify deficiencies in the model itself which can be reduced by its improvement or taken into account for understanding and interpretation projections of future climate change. In previous studies, it was noticed that most of EURO-CORDEX...
Mineral dust is one of the most important aerosol types in terms of mass and optical depth. It affects radiation and alters liquid and ice cloud properties, as well as precipitation processes. Once dust particles are deposited at the surface, they provide micronutrients to the ocean or to land ecosystems, affecting fishery and agriculture activities. Moreover, very high concentrations of dust...
A project titled ”Natural and anthropogenic factors of climate change – analyzes of global and local periodical components and long-term forecasts” funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund allows us to review and stream studies of Bulgarian scientists in order to identify the role of natural and anthropogenic factors causing climate change in global or regional scale. The Natural factors...
Urban flooding in Albanian are mostly consequence of extreme daily precipitation that very often causes a huge economical and social impact. Events of extreme daily precipitation, mainly their frequency and severity play an important role and also control the long-term variation of the seasonal and annual precipitation amounts. To have a long term trend of the phenomenon and to point out the...
One of the most important difficulties in the fight against the environmental pollution and its consequences (burden on human health, climate change and others) is the development of alternative electric power sources in the place of the polluting electric power plants consuming fossil fuels. Nuclear power and nuclear plants are one of these alternatives which present a lot of advantages like...
The rainfall affects the condition of arable land and its agricultural productivity. This study aims to analyze the impact of rainfall erosivity on irrigated and non-irrigated arable land and to create relevant statistics on the differences observed over specific periods in Romania. The database is made up of historical data on rainfall erosivity from the European Soil Data Center in...
The predictability of mesoscale convective phenomena is limited by the rapid transfer of energy between the large-scale and microscale as the result of the initial conditions, the natural constraints imposed by synoptic-scale forcing, and physical processes. Uncertainties are the greatest challenge when predicting the initiation of convection as the most difficult aspects of convection, due...
Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, gives clear quantitative pictures about climate change and increasing the mean Earth’s temperature due to increasing greenhouse gas concentration, the general public concern and scientific debate still continue [1]. A clear identification of the...
The aim of this research was to analyze the earthquake hazard of the Eastern Macedonian seismogenic zone by determining the a and b values in Gutenberg-Richter law. For this purpose, the previously known division of the zone to six epicentral areas was used. The b and a values were calculated for the epicentral areas where the seismic data permits, using the least square method. Using...
There is a growing amount of evidence of possible connections between the geomagnetic field and ozone production in the lower stratosphere. They emphasize the control the geomagnetic field can exercise on production and distribution of ozone, thus inflicting minor changes in climate patterns. In the present study we investigate such connection for other atmospheric gases, namely water vapor....
The aim of this study is to investigate the atmospheric air quality in Sofia during a 2-week period in the beginning of the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. Observations of the aerosol distribution measured with two laser particle counters for PM2.5 and PM10 on clear sunny days (7 a.m. to 2 p.m.) at a site inside the built area near the bus stop Pliska on the Tsarigradsko shose during...
Methane is a powerful greenhouse biogas that plays a key role in several atmospheric environmental domains affecting the current enhancement of the greenhouse effect. It has been the cause of about 20% of the increased trapping of atmospheric infrared radiation during the past 200 years. In addition, it affects the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere and, therefore, the lifetimes of other...
This study is an attempt to identify several tsunamigenic sources located offshore in the vicinity of Peloponnese Peninsula, Kefalonia and Lefkada. Ionian Sea is surrounded by major geological structures, like the Hellenic and the Calabrian subduction zones and in addition its lithosphere is submerging beneath Eurasian tectonic plate. These tectonic features are the main cause for devastating...
