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AbstractWe propose an approach to assess the importance ranking of uncertainty sources, with regards to the behavior of the mobile CO2 during the post-injection period: a variance-based global sensitivity analysis is performed on three output parameters characterizing the location and the quantity of mobile CO2, considering residual and dissolution trapping. The use of advanced meta-modeling techniques of ACOSSO-type allows circumventing two major difficulties: 1. The large number of computationally intensive reservoir-scale flow simulations; 2. The different nature of uncertainties whether linked to parameters (continuous variables) or to modeling assumptions (scenario-like variables). The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated using a potential site for CO2 storage in the Paris basin (France), for which the amount, nature and quality of the data available at disposal and the associated uncertainties can be seen as representative to those of a storage project at the post-screening stage. A special attention has been paid to confront the results of the sensitivity analysis with the physical interpretation of the processes.

In the context of energy consumption reduction, this paper focuses on the application of Model Predictive Control to occupants’ thermal comfort together with indoor air quality control while improving the whole building energy efficiency First, an open-space office split in three zones, located in Cork Institute of Technology, is modeled. A centralized MPC is designed to control the temperature and CO2 concentration in the three zones. Then, a distributed version of the MPC, with three separate local controllers, is considered. Finally, simulation results show that the distributed MPC solution achieves control performance quite close to the centralized version with less computing effort.

Abstract GeV–TeV gamma-rays and PeV–EeV neutrino backgrounds provide a unique window on the nature of the ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). We discuss the implications of the recent Fermi-LAT data regarding the extragalactic gamma-ray background and related estimates of the contribution of point sources as well as IceCube neutrino data on the origin of the UHECRs. We calculate the diffuse flux of cosmogenic γ-rays and neutrinos produced by the UHECRs and derive constraints on the possible cosmological evolution of UHECR sources. In particular, we show that the mixed-composition scenario considered in Globus et al., which is in agreement with both (i) Auger measurements of the energy spectrum and composition up to the highest energies and (ii) the ankle-like feature in the light component detected by KASCADE-Grande, is compatible with both the Fermi-LAT measurements and with current IceCube limits. We also discuss the possibility for future experiments to detect associated cosmogenic neutrinos and further constrain the UHECR models, including possible subdominant UHECR proton sources.

AbstractIncreasing atmospheric CO2 stimulates photosynthesis which can increase net primary production (NPP), but at longer timescales may not necessarily increase plant biomass. Here we analyse the four decade-long CO2-enrichment experiments in woody ecosystems that measured total NPP and biomass. CO2 enrichment increased biomass increment by 1.05 ± 0.26 kg C m−2 over a full decade, a 29.1 ± 11.7% stimulation of biomass gain in these early-secondary-succession temperate ecosystems. This response is predictable by combining the CO2 response of NPP (0.16 ± 0.03 kg C m−2 y−1) and the CO2-independent, linear slope between biomass increment and cumulative NPP (0.55 ± 0.17). An ensemble of terrestrial ecosystem models fail to predict both terms correctly. Allocation to wood was a driver of across-site, and across-model, response variability and together with CO2-independence of biomass retention highlights the value of understanding drivers of wood allocation under ambient conditions to correctly interpret and predict CO2 responses.

This article focuses on spallation reactions, i.e. interactions of energetic nucleons, basically with a kinetic energy in the 100MeV to a few GeV range, with a target nucleus. These processes are described rather successfully by the so-called Intranuclear Cascade (INC) plus evaporation models. They can be viewed as a first stage of nucleon-nucleon collisions, ejecting fast particles, followed by evaporation of slow particles from the target remnant. These cascade + evaporation models have, now, globally reached a high level of predictive power, owing in particular to successive research programs. The present work, which is an outcome of one of these programs, the recent European Union ANDES research program, deals with a set of reactions (or observable quantities), which can be due to a single collision, such as the one-nucleon removal reactions or the quasi-elastic elastic process. A survey of the experimental data is presented, which allows to clearly point out that, often, the INC models are unsatisfactory for the description of these peculiar events, whereas they are rather successful for the rest of the experimental data. This paradoxical situation is tentatively related to quasi-particle effects which are neglected in INC models.