The Cyprus Institute

About: The Cyprus Institute is a other organization based out in Nicosia, Cyprus. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Aerosol & Environmental science. The organization has 418 authors who have published 1252 publications receiving 32586 citations.

A new optical-based technique for real-time measurements of mineral dust concentration in PM 10 using a virtual impactor

Abstract: . Atmospheric mineral dust influences Earth's radiative budget, cloud formation, and lifetime; has adverse health effects; and affects air quality through the increase of regulatory PM 10 concentrations, making its real-time quantification in the atmosphere of strategic importance. Only few near-real-time techniques can discriminate dust aerosol in PM 10 samples and they are based on the dust chemical composition. The online determination of mineral dust using aerosol absorption photometers offers an interesting and competitive alternative but remains a difficult task to achieve. This is particularly challenging when dust is mixed with black carbon, which features a much higher mass absorption cross section. We build on previous work using filter photometers and present here for the first time a highly time-resolved online technique for quantification of mineral dust concentration by coupling a high-flow virtual impactor (VI) sampler that concentrates coarse particles with an aerosol absorption photometer (Aethalometer, model AE33). The absorption of concentrated dust particles is obtained by subtracting the absorption of the submicron (PM 1 ) aerosol fraction from the absorption of the virtual impactor sample (VI-PM1 method). This real-time method for detecting desert dust was tested in the field for a period of 2 months (April and May 2016) at a regional background site of Cyprus, in the Eastern Mediterranean. Several intense desert mineral dust events were observed during the field campaign with dust concentration in PM 10 up to 45 µ g m −3 . Mineral dust was present most of the time during the campaign with an average PM 10 of about 8 µ g m −3 . Mineral dust absorption was most prominent at short wavelengths, yielding an average mass absorption cross section (MAC) of 0.24±0.01 m 2 g −1 at 370 nm and an absorption Angstrom exponent of 1.41±0.29 . This MAC value can be used as a site-specific parameter for online determination of mineral dust concentration. The uncertainty of the proposed method is discussed by comparing and validating it with different methods.

Error analysis for concentrated solar collectors

Abstract: Error sources introduced into mirror tracking systems, arising from component limitations, construction and placement of the reflectors, and the discrete motion of the tracking system itself, are examined. The main mechanisms contributing to these sources are identified and modeled. The effect of these optical and geometrical errors is numerically simulated using a ray-tracing code and their relative significance is assessed.

On hadron deformation: a model independent extraction of EMR from pion photoproduction data

Abstract: The multipole content of pion photoproduction at the $\Delta^{+}$ (1232) resonance has been extracted from a data set dominated by recent Mainz Microtron (MAMI) precision measurements. The analysis has been carried out in the Athens Model Independent Analysis Scheme (AMIAS), thus eliminating any model bias. The benchmark quantity for nucleon deformation, EMR = E2/M1 = E1+3/2/M1+3/2, was determined to be -2.5±0.4stat+syst, thus reconfirming in a model independent way that the conjecture of baryon deformation is valid. The derived multipole amplitudes provide stringent constraints on QCD simulations and QCD inspired models striving to describe the hadronic structure. They are in good agreement with phenomenological models which explicitly incorporate pionic degrees of freedom and with lattice QCD calculations.

The Effect of Standards and Fuel Prices on Automobile Fuel Economy: An International Analysis

Abstract: There is an intense debate over whether fuel economy standards or fuel taxation is the more efficient policy instrument to raise fuel economy and reduce CO2 emissions of cars. The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of standards and fuel prices on new car fuel economy with the aid of cross-section time series analysis of data from 18 countries. We employ a dynamic specification of new car fuel consumption as a function of fuel prices, standards and per capita income. It turns out that standards have induced considerable fuel savings throughout the world, although their welfare impact is not examined here. If standards are not further tightened then retail fuel prices would have to remain at high levels for more than a decade in order to attain similar fuel savings. Finally, without higher fuel prices or tighter standards, one should not expect any marked improvements in fuel economy under 'business as usual' conditions.