AOT Calibration by Spatio-Temporal Model in Northern Italy

We explore the relationship between column aerosol optical thickness (AOT) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MODIS) on the Terra/Aqua satellites and daily PM10 measured at the surface at locations in Po Valley, Northern Italy. We propose a dynamic spatio-temporal model for mapping of PM10 using AOT, mixing layer height (HMIX) and elevations as exogenous variables. Since satellite measurements have many missing values, a combination of EM algorithm and smoother Kalman filter is proposed.

Raphaël Huser
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Kriging of Return Levels and Application to an RCM Output For the Western US

In an article by Dan Cooley (2007), a Bayesian spatial modeling of extreme precipitations has been developed for the Front Range area, and the use of an alternative climate space has been proposed. We explore the idea of the climate space for a bigger region of study, the Western US, in the case of Kriging of return levels of a RCM output. We show the differences of Kriging in different spaces (geographic, climate, transformed climate space) and underline another approach using backfitting.