Journal articles on the topic 'Thunderstorms in art'

Intense thunderstorms produce rapid cloud updrafts and may be associated with a range of destructive weather events. An important ingredient in measures of the potential for intense thunderstorms is the convective available potential energy (CAPE). Climate models project increases in summertime mean CAPE in the tropics and subtropics in response to global warming, but the physical mechanisms responsible for such increases and the implications for future thunderstorm activity remain uncertain. Here, we show that high percentiles of the CAPE distribution (CAPE extremes) also increase robustly with warming across the tropics and subtropics in an ensemble of state-of-the-art climate models, implying strong increases in the frequency of occurrence of environments conducive to intense thunderstorms in future climate projections. The increase in CAPE extremes is consistent with a recently proposed theoretical model in which CAPE depends on the influence of convective entrainment on the tropospheric lapse rate, and we demonstrate the importance of this influence for simulated CAPE extremes using a climate model in which the convective entrainment rate is varied. We further show that the theoretical model is able to account for the climatological relationship between CAPE and a measure of lower-tropospheric humidity in simulations and in observations. Our results provide a physical basis on which to understand projected future increases in intense thunderstorm potential, and they suggest that an important mechanism that contributes to such increases may be present in Earth’s atmosphere.

Sprites are fleeting, luminous shapes that shoot into the upper atmosphere during large thunderstorms as lightning simultaneously reaches down to Earth. For at least a century, scientists have attempted to confirm and explain the existence of sprites with visual images and data. The author's series Lightning's Angels supplements the documentation of sprites by exploring the properties of this natural phenomenon through digitally enhanced oil portraits set to music and displayed in a large scale multimedia format, such as at a planetarium.

Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) mission is an ESA pay load which will be installed in the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS). ASIM is optimized to the observation and monitoring of luminescent phenomena in the upper atmosphere, the so called Transient Luminous Event (TLEs) and Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes(TGFs). Both TLEs and TGFs have been discovered recently (past two decades) and opened a new field of research in high energetic phenomena in the atmosphere. We will review the capabilities of ASIM and how it will help researchers to gain deeper knowledge of TGFs, TLEs, their inter-relationship and how they are linked to severe thunderstorms and the phenomena of lightning.

Abstract. The Earth and atmosphere are in constant motion. Volcanoes, glaciers, earthquakes, thunderstorms, and even the aurora borealis produce powerful low-frequency sounds known as infrasound. Infrasound is constantly passing through our atmosphere at frequencies of less than 20 Hz, below the range of human hearing, which is effectively an inaudible symphony. Inspired by wanting to allow physical access to this natural phenomenon, a collaboration between the worlds of contemporary art and meteorology has been developed. This led to a project called hertz, named after the 19th century physicist Heinrich Hertz, whose surname provides the scientific unit (Hz) for frequency. Hertz explores the manifestation of the hidden vibrations of our own planet and the secret harmonies of our stars. The manifestation of the hidden vibrations of our own planet was principally achieved using a subwoofer and furniture adapted to vibrate to the amplitude of infrasonic waves from pre-recorded sources and in real time. The project's motivations are to explore new methods for experiencing and re-engaging with parts of our planet through this phenomenon. Hertz has had a UK national tour in which 7000 people interacted with the piece, of which approximately 85 % felt more reconnected to the environment after interacting with the installation. This paper describes the concepts, creative ideas, technology, and science behind the project. It addresses its development, including the steps to make it accessible for all, and examines its impact on those who created and interacted with the work.

Abstract. In this paper, recent changes to the Meteosat thunderstorm TRacking And Monitoring algorithm (Cb-TRAM) are presented as well as a validation of Cb-TRAM against data from the European ground-based LIghtning NETwork (LINET) of Nowcast GmbH and the South African Weather Service Lightning Detection Network (SAWS LDN). Validation is conducted along the well-known skill measures probability of detection (POD) and false alarm ratio (FAR) on the basis of Meteosat/SEVIRI pixels as well as on the basis of thunderstorm objects. The values obtained demonstrate specific limitations of Cb-TRAM, as well as limitations of satellite methods in general which are based on thermal emission and solar reflectivity information from thunderstorm cloud tops. Although the climatic conditions and the occurrence of thunderstorms are quite different for Europe and South Africa, quality score values are similar. Our conclusion is that Cb-TRAM provides robust results of well-defined quality for very different climatic regimes. The POD for a thunderstorm with intense lightning is about 80% during the day. The FAR for a Cb-TRAM detection which is not even close to intense lightning is about 50%. If only proximity to any lightning activity is required, FAR is much lower at about 15%. Pixel-based analysis shows that detected thunderstorm object size is not indiscriminately large, but well within physical limitations of the satellite method. Night-time POD and FAR are somewhat worse as the detection scheme does not use the high-resolution visible information during night-time hours. Nowcasting scores show useful values up to approximately 30 min in advance.

AbstractSpecification of suitable initial conditions to accurately forecast high-impact weather events associated with intense thunderstorms still poses a significant challenge for convective-scale forecasting. Radar data assimilation has been showing encouraging results to produce an accurate estimate of the state of the atmosphere at the mesoscale, as it combines high-spatiotemporal-resolution observations with convection-permitting numerical weather prediction models. However, many open questions remain regarding the configuration of state-of-the-art data assimilation systems at the mesoscale and their potential impact upon short-range weather forecasts. In this work, several observing system simulation experiments of a mesoscale convective system were performed to assess the sensitivity of the local ensemble transform Kalman filter to both relaxation-to-prior spread (RTPS) inflation and horizontal localization of the error covariance matrix. Realistic large-scale forcing and model errors have been taken into account in the simulation of reflectivity and Doppler velocity observations. Overall, the most accurate analyses in terms of RMSE were produced with a relatively small horizontal localization cutoff radius (~3.6–7.3 km) and large RTPS inflation parameter (~0.9–0.95). Additionally, the impact of horizontal localization on short-range ensemble forecast was larger compared to inflation, almost doubling the lead times up to which the effect of using a more accurate state to initialize the forecast persisted.

AbstractLarge alluvial fans characterize the piedmonts of the White Mountains, California–Nevada, USA, with large boulders strewn across their surfaces. The boulders are interpreted as flash floods deposits with an unclear trigger for the transport process. Several triggers are possible, including glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), thunderstorms or rainfall on snow cover. From a paleoenvironmental perspective, the origin of the flash floods is of fundamental importance. The alluvial fans that flank the White Mountains at Leidy Creek display particularly impressive examples of these deposits. The boulder deposits and the source catchment at Leidy Creek were examined using 10Be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) surface exposure dating to help elucidate their age and origin. All boulders dated on the alluvial fans date to the Holocene. This is in accordance with the geomorphic analyses of the Leidy Creek catchment and its terraces and sediment ridges, which were also dated to the Holocene using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and 10Be surface exposure. The results suggest that the boulders on the alluvial fan were deposited by flash floods during thunderstorm events affecting the catchment of the Leidy Creek valley. Paleomonsoonal-induced mid-Holocene flash floods are the most plausible explanation for the discharges needed for these boulder aggradations, but a regional dataset is needed to confirm this explanation.

Abstract. Deployed on the mountainous island of Corsica for thunderstorm monitoring purposes in the Mediterranean Basin, SAETTA is a network of 12 LMA (Lightning Mapping Array, designed by New Mexico Tech, USA) stations that allows the 3-D mapping of very high-frequency (VHF) radiation emitted by cloud discharges in the 60–66 MHz band. It works at high temporal (∼40 ns in each 80 µs time window) and spatial (tens of meters at best) resolution within a range of about 350 km. Originally deployed in May 2014, SAETTA was commissioned during the summer and autumn seasons and has now been permanently operational since April 2016 until at least the end of 2020. We first evaluate the performances of SAETTA through the radial, azimuthal, and altitude errors of VHF source localization with the theoretical model of Thomas et al. (2004). We also compute on a 240 km × 240 km domain the minimum altitude at which a VHF source can be detected by at least six stations by taking into account the masking effect of the relief. We then report the 3-year observations on the same domain in terms of number of lightning days per square kilometer (i.e., total number of days during which lightning has been detected in a given 1 km square pixel) and in terms of lightning days integrated across the domain. The lightning activity is first maximum in June because of daytime convection driven by solar energy input, but concentrates on a specific hot spot in July just above the intersection of the three main valleys. This hot spot is probably due to the low-level convergence of moist air fluxes from sea breezes channeled by the three valleys. Lightning activity increases again in September due to numerous small thunderstorms above the sea and to some high-precipitation events. Finally we report lightning observations of unusual high-altitude discharges associated with the mesoscale convective system of 8 June 2015. Most of them are small discharges on top of an intense convective core during convective surges. They are considered in the flash classification of Thomas et al. (2003) to be small–isolated and short–isolated flashes. The other high-altitude discharges, much less numerous, are long-range flashes that develop through the stratiform region and suddenly undergo upward propagations towards an uppermost thin layer of charge. This latter observation is apparently consistent with the recent conceptual model of Dye and Bansemer (2019) that explains such an upper-level layer of charge in the stratiform region by the development of a non-riming ice collisional charging in a mesoscale updraft.

Abstract During the 2014–15 academic year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center (SPC) and the University of Oklahoma (OU) School of Meteorology jointly created the first SPC-led course at OU focused on connecting traditional theory taught in the academic curriculum with operational meteorology. This class, “Applications of Meteorological Theory to Severe-Thunderstorm Forecasting,” began in 2015. From 2015 through 2017, this spring–semester course has engaged 56 students in theoretical skills and related hands-on weather analysis and forecasting applications, taught by over a dozen meteorologists from the SPC, the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, and the NOAA National Weather Service Forecast Offices. Following introductory material, which addresses many theoretical principles relevant to operational meteorology, numerous presentations and hands-on activities focused on instructors’ areas of expertise are provided to students. Topics include the following: storm-induced perturbation pressure gradients and their enhancement to supercells, tornadogenesis, tropical cyclone tornadoes, severe wind forecasting, surface and upper-air analyses and their interpretation, and forecast decision-making. This collaborative approach has strengthened bonds between meteorologists in operations, research, and academia, while introducing OU meteorology students to the vast array of severe thunderstorm forecast challenges, state-of-the-art operational and research tools, communication of high-impact weather information, and teamwork skills. The methods of collaborative instruction and experiential education have been found to strengthen both operational–academic relationships and students’ appreciation of the intricacies of severe thunderstorm forecasting, as detailed in this article.

Ash cover the forest fire affected soil for some weeks or months and act as a key factor to determine the soil and water losses. Ash depth is researched here to determine how affect the soil detachment and the runoff generation. Seventy rainfall simulation experiments on paired 0.50 m2 plots (five plots with 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15- and 30-mm ash depth), and repeated one week later) under thunderstorms of 48 mmh-1 for one hour were carried out under laboratory conditions. In the first experiment, after the bed of ash was applied, the results show that ash depth determines the runoff rates as they reduce the discharge from 23.1% to 13.9%. The sediment concentration increased from 23.8 till 38.3 g L−1, and the total soil erosion from 22.9 till 27.6 Mg ha−1 y−1. In the second experiment after the bed of ash was applied, the results show that runoff discharge was higher and moved from 43.2% till 55.33%. The sediment concentration increased from 13.8 till 18.9 g L−1 and the total soil erosion slightly increased from 33.9 till 47.6 Mg ha−1 y−1. This research confirms that the fresh ash beds contribute to reduce the runoff losses and as deeper is the ash bed lower is the runoff discharge. However, the ash bed also acts as a source of sediments and as deep is the ash bed the runoff sediment concentration is higher. The soil erosion increased with the depth of the ash bed. After the simulated thunderstorms, the soils shown a reduction in their capacity to hold water due to the crust formation and runoff was enhanced. Sediment concentration is reduced due to the ash compaction and the final soil erosion rates increased as a consequence of the larger runoff discharge. This research demonstrates the highly dynamic response of the ash after the fire due to the wetting and drying processes after the thunderstorms.

On 21 July 2012, a huge thunderstorm hit Beijing, prompting the city government to act immediately to deal with the emergency. Yet great losses were caused, exposing problems about urban flood control and drainage, and making people take a new look at them. It is not uncommon for a rainfall of such a degree to happen in Asia. Comparatively speaking, however, unlike in Beijing, fewer damages are caused in Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines given the same situation. In this article, therefore, the problems arising after a heavy rainfall and their solutions will be discussed.

Thunderstorm 2.0 at the 2018 Under the Radar Festival introduced a modern Chinese classic to US audiences via radical adaptation and an assemblage of textual deconstruction, live-feed video, and Suzhou pingtan performance. It offered a timely interrogation of gender politics and deftly triangulated among tensions of live vs. mediated performance, folk traditions vs. modern drama, Chinese text vs. foreign context, and re-presenting a canonical play vs. flying “under the radar.”

Abstract. Cloud electrification and related lightning activity in thunderstorms have their origin in the charge separation and resulting distribution of charged iced particles within the cloud. So far, the ice distribution within convective clouds has been investigated mainly by means of ground-based meteorological radars. In this paper we show how the products from Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) on board CloudSat, a polar satellite of NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP), can be used to obtain information from space on the vertical distribution of ice particles and ice content and relate them to the lightning activity. The analysis has been carried out, focusing on 12 convective events over Italy that crossed CloudSat overpasses during significant lightning activity. The CPR products considered here are the vertical profiles of cloud ice water content (IWC) and the effective radius (ER) of ice particles, which are compared with the number of strokes as measured by a ground lightning network (LINET). Results show a strong correlation between the number of strokes and the vertical distribution of ice particles as depicted by the 94 GHz CPR products: in particular, cloud upper and middle levels, high IWC content and relatively high ER seem to be favourable contributory causes for CG (cloud to ground) stroke occurrence.

Abstract. This paper presents an analysis of the lightning production of convective cells. The cells were detected by the MeteoSwiss Thunderstorms Radar Tracking (TRT) algorithm in the course of a lightning measurement campaign that took place in the summer of 2017 in the area surrounding the Säntis mountain, in the northeastern part of Switzerland. For this campaign, and for the first time in the Alps, a lightning mapping array (LMA) was deployed. In the first part of the paper, we examine the relationship between the intra-cloud (IC) and cloud-to-ground (CG) activity and the cell severity, as derived by the TRT algorithm, of a large dataset of cells gathered during the campaign. We also propose and analyse the performance of a new metric to quantify lightning intensity, the rimed-particle column (RPC) height and base altitude. In the second part, we focus on two of the most severe cells detected during the campaign that produced significantly different outcomes in terms of lightning activity. The paper shows that the newly proposed metric (RPC) seems to be a very promising predictor of lightning activity, particularly for IC flashes. Future lightning nowcasting algorithms should be probabilistic in nature and incorporate the polarimetric properties of the convective cells as well as the lightning climatology.

Abstract. In this study, we introduce a newly developed upper-air observational instrument for atmospheric research. The “Storm Tracker” is an ultra-lightweight (about 20 g including battery), multi-channel simultaneous capable radiosonde designed by the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at National Taiwan University. Developed in 2016, the Storm Tracker aims to provide an alternative for observing atmospheric vertical profiles with a high temporal resolution, especially the lower-level atmosphere under severe weather conditions such as extreme thunderstorms and tropical cyclones. Field experiments were conducted as trial runs in Wu-Chi, Taichung, Taiwan, to examine the ability of the Storm Tracker to observe the boundary layer, in addition to the intercomparison between the Storm Tracker and the widely used Vaisala RS41-SGP radiosonde. Among the co-launches of the Storm Tracker and Vaisala RS41 radiosondes, the measurements of pressure, wind speed, and wind direction are highly consistent between the measurements of the Storm Tracker and the Vaisala RS41-SGP. However, a significant daytime warm bias in the Storm Tracker was found due to solar heating. A metal shield specifically for the Storm Tracker was thus installed and showed mitigation for the warm biases and the overall variance. With the much lower costs of the radiosondes and the simultaneous multi-channel receiver, the Storm Tracker system has shown great potential for high-frequency observational needs in atmospheric research.

Abstract. The detection of convective initiation (CI) is very important because convective clouds bring heavy rainfall and thunderstorms that typically cause severe socio-economic damage. In this study, deterministic and probabilistic CI detection models based on decision trees (DT), random forest (RF), and logistic regression (LR) were developed using Himawari-8 Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) data obtained from June to August 2016 over the Korean Peninsula. A total of 12 interest fields that contain brightness temperature, spectral differences of the brightness temperatures, and their time trends were used to develop CI detection models. While, in our study, the interest field of 11.2 µm Tb was considered the most crucial for detecting CI in the deterministic models and the probabilistic RF model, the trispectral difference, i.e. (8.6–11.2 µm)–(11.2–12.4 µm), was determined to be the most important one in the LR model. The performance of the four models varied by CI case and validation data. Nonetheless, the DT model typically showed higher probability of detection (POD), while the RF model produced higher overall accuracy (OA) and critical success index (CSI) and lower false alarm rate (FAR) than the other models. The CI detection of the mean lead times by the four models were in the range of 20–40 min, which implies that convective clouds can be detected 30 min in advance, before precipitation intensity exceeds 35 dBZ over the Korean Peninsula in summer using the Himawari-8 AHI data.

Abstract. The PEACH project (Projet en Electricité Atmosphérique pour la Campagne HyMeX – the Atmospheric Electricity Project of the HyMeX Program) is the atmospheric electricity component of the Hydrology cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX) experiment and is dedicated to the observation of both lightning activity and electrical state of continental and maritime thunderstorms in the area of the Mediterranean Sea. During the HyMeX SOP1 (Special Observation Period) from 5 September to 6 November 2012, four European operational lightning locating systems (ATDnet, EUCLID, LINET, ZEUS) and the HyMeX lightning mapping array network (HyLMA) were used to locate and characterize the lightning activity over the northwestern Mediterranean at flash, storm and regional scales. Additional research instruments like slow antennas, video cameras, microbarometer and microphone arrays were also operated. All these observations in conjunction with operational/research ground-based and airborne radars, rain gauges and in situ microphysical records are aimed at characterizing and understanding electrically active and highly precipitating events over southeastern France that often lead to severe flash floods. Simulations performed with cloud resolving models like Meso-NH and Weather Research and Forecasting are used to interpret the results and to investigate further the links between dynamics, microphysics, electrification and lightning occurrence. Herein we present an overview of the PEACH project and its different instruments. Examples are discussed to illustrate the comprehensive and unique lightning data set, from radio frequency to acoustics, collected during the SOP1 for lightning phenomenology understanding, instrumentation validation, storm characterization and modeling.

AbstractPhotovoltaic (PV) solar power use is increasing globally. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has legislated a renewable energy target of 90% by 2020; to reach this target, use of distributed PV solar arrays is expected to increase. Cloud cover can cause the power output of PV installations to rapidly increase or decrease, resulting in ACT-wide collective ramp events. Accurate forecasts of when the ramp events will occur are needed for electricity providers to plan for these abrupt output changes and to ensure that electricity supplies remain stable. This paper categorizes the weather events that cause changes in the output of rooftop PV arrays in the ACT, providing a foundation for future PV output forecasting to be based on weather event identification. This paper identifies citywide collective ramp events, which occur when a 60% change in collective PV power output (with respect to the clear-sky potential) is experienced within 60 min. Such events are termed critical collective ramp events. Throughout the period between January 2012 and July 2014, 34 critical ramp events occurred. Eighteen of these events were positive collective ramp events, caused most frequently by Australian northwest cloud bands and radiation fog dissipation. Sixteen negative collective ramp events were recorded, and they were caused most frequently by the passage of cold fronts and thunderstorms. The categories developed herein will make it possible to improve short-term solar forecasting methods and to enable meteorologists to contribute to forecasting critical events.

My aim in this essay is to explore certain parallels—concerning anthropomorphism—in the work of Roger Caillois, Hans Jonas, Theodor Adorno and Sigmund Freud. Both Caillois (a thinker closely connected to French Surrealism and an important source for Jacques Lacan) and Jonas (philosopher and one-time student of Heidegger) take issue with the ban on anthropomorphism—an anathema that is the legacy of Western science. Part of the thesis in Jonas’ major work, The Phenomenon of Life, is that freedom is not exclusively a human quality but a potential within the simplest organic forms, even within inorganic matter. Anthropomorphism may be the legacy of a primitive stage in human development in which the whole of creation was endowed with a soul, but this attitude, Jonas argues, is the more natural one. Whereas in the early phases of humanity death was the stranger in a world that was fundamentally alive, modern thinking made life the riddle within a world of neutral matter and mechanistic principles. Freud’s own theory of the death-drive (“an urge inherent in organic life to restore an earlier state of things which the living entity has been obliged to abandon under the pressure of external disturbing forces”) seems quite consistent with the primacy of death over life instituted by modern thought. I have a general interest in comparing Freud’s theory of the death drive, the aim of which is the restoration of an original equilibrium, with music, whose traditional structure (via the cadence) is to relieve tonal tension through a restoration of the keynote (Grundton). This bears upon the problem of anthropomorphism in that “classical” music since the seventeenth century has cast expression in terms of simulated human emotions: we hear music and perceive love, longing or fear, not to mention (in the case of pastorale) the “cheer” of birdsong or the “rage” of a thunderstorm. Adorno’s critique of this tradition, in which true expression is replaced by mere images of expression, theorizes what he calls a “tendency of the material,” extolling the composer whose sheer mastery of technique enables the material to go where it “wants” to go. What Adorno means by “material” is not merely the inventory of sounds available to the musician but the historical experience sedimented within musical convention. Nonetheless, I would like to attempt an argument whose parameters are Adorno’s “tendency of the material” and Jonas’ idea that freedom must be conceived as a “genuine potency” within physical substance.

<p>The article touches upon the analysis of the historical and literary circumstances of the appearance of one of the numerous author&rsquo;s comments by Gogol on the comedian &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo;, such as the article &ldquo;The Prenotification for those who would like to play &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; as it should be&rdquo;. A&nbsp;whole number of facts indicate that the origin of the &ldquo;The Prenotification&hellip;&rdquo; is related to the history of the creation by Gogol of the second edition of &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; in late December 1840&nbsp;&mdash; February 1841. Together with the new edition, Gogol, unsatisfied with the staging of his comedy in St.&nbsp;Petersburg and Moscow theatres, first of all with the impersonation of Khlestakov, conceived a new presentation of &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo;, believing that the revised edition would contribute to the theatrical updating of the play&nbsp;&mdash; performed &ldquo;as it should be&rdquo;. The text of the &ldquo;The Prenotification&hellip;&rdquo; precedes the creation of those fragments of &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; that Gogol sent for the new edition of the play in spring 1841 from Rome to Moscow for M.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;Pogodin and S.&nbsp;T.&nbsp;Aksakov and is a kind of a test experiment, a &ldquo;rough draft&rdquo; for &ldquo;The excerpt from a letter written by the author shortly after the first presentation of &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; to one writer&rdquo;, sent at that time to Aksakov, and simultaneously it is a preliminary description for subsequent explanations of the &ldquo;silent scene&rdquo; of &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; in the text of the very comedy. In addition, there is a connection between the &ldquo;The Prenotification&hellip;&rdquo; with drawings made by the artist A.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;Ivanov for the same final scene of &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo;, which were created during the author&rsquo;s reading of the comedy in Rome in February 1841. Thus, it is established that the &ldquo;The Prenotification for those who would like to play &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; as it should be&rdquo; properly was written not in the autumn 1846, as it is common to think, but five and a half years earlier, in early 1841. It is an opening article in the manuscript for the second edition of &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; in 1841, instead of which Gogol published here an accompanying article &ldquo;The excerpt from a letter written by the author shortly after the first presentation of &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; to one writer&rdquo;. The study allows us to conclude that Gogol&rsquo;s interpretations are deeply organic to the original religious concept of comedy. The plot stem of the &ldquo;The Government Inspector&rdquo; is the &ldquo;thunderstorm&rdquo; of a distant government law, and of the even more inevitable Last Judgment. &ldquo;The Prenotification&hellip;&rdquo; addressed to the actors, and containing an appeal to take seriously and conscientiously the performance of the roles they were cast in, to pay special attention to the final scene, is an important component of Gogol&rsquo;s strategy to bring back to his play the meanings lost due to inept staging. The presence of a number of motifs in the &ldquo;The Prenotification&hellip;&rdquo;, traditionally attributed only to the &ldquo;late&rdquo; Gogol, in the light of a new dating allows asserting the idea of the indissoluble unity and integrity of the artist&rsquo;s creative path.</p>

Abstract. Lightning data as observed by the European Cooperation for Lightning Detection (EUCLID) network are used in combination with radar data to retrieve the temporal and spatial behavior of lightning outliers, i.e., discharges located in a wrong place, over a 5-year period from 2011 to 2016. Cloud-to-ground (CG) stroke and intracloud (IC) pulse data are superimposed on corresponding 5 min radar precipitation fields in two topographically different areas, Belgium and Austria, in order to extract lightning outliers based on the distance between each lightning event and the nearest precipitation. It is shown that the percentage of outliers is sensitive to changes in the network and to the location algorithm itself. The total percentage of outliers for both regions varies over the years between 0.8 and 1.7 % for a distance to the nearest precipitation of 2 km, with an average of approximately 1.2 % in Belgium and Austria. Outside the European summer thunderstorm season, the percentage of outliers tends to increase somewhat. The majority of all the outliers are low peak current events with absolute values falling between 0 and 10 kA. More specifically, positive cloud-to-ground strokes are more likely to be classified as outliers compared to all other types of discharges. Furthermore, it turns out that the number of sensors participating in locating a lightning discharge is different for outliers versus correctly located events, with outliers having the lowest amount of sensors participating. In addition, it is shown that in most cases the semi-major axis (SMA) assigned to a lightning discharge as a confidence indicator in the location accuracy (LA) is smaller for correctly located events compared to the semi-major axis of outliers.

Abstract. In this paper a new detection scheme for convective initiation (CI) under day and night conditions is presented. The new algorithm combines the strengths of two existing methods for detecting CI with geostationary satellite data. It uses the channels of the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) onboard Meteosat Second Generation (MSG). For the new algorithm five infrared (IR) criteria from the Satellite Convection Analysis and Tracking algorithm (SATCAST) and one high-resolution visible channel (HRV) criteria from Cb-TRAM were adapted. This set of criteria aims to identify the typical development of quickly developing convective cells in an early stage. The different criteria include time trends of the 10.8 IR channel, and IR channel differences, as well as their time trends. To provide the trend fields an optical-flow-based method is used: the pyramidal matching algorithm, which is part of Cb-TRAM. The new detection scheme is implemented in Cb-TRAM, and is verified for seven days which comprise different weather situations in central Europe. Contrasted with the original early-stage detection scheme of Cb-TRAM, skill scores are provided. From the comparison against detections of later thunderstorm stages, which are also provided by Cb-TRAM, a decrease in false prior warnings (false alarm ratio) from 91 to 81% is presented, an increase of the critical success index from 7.4 to 12.7%, and a decrease of the BIAS from 320 to 146% for normal scan mode. Similar trends are found for rapid scan mode. Most obvious is the decline of false alarms found for the synoptic class "cold air" masses.

Brown trout (Salmo trutta) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fry and juveniles were episodically or continuously exposed to a metals mixture (Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd): the concentrations and ratios of the metals, and variations in water quality (pH, hardness), were selected to represent conditions measured during episodic storm events in the Clark Fork River, Montana. Brown trout fry were more sensitive (lower LC50) than rainbow trout fry to the metals in 8-h exposures with constant hardness and pH, but less sensitive to elevated metal concentrations in conjunction with depressed hardness and pH. Fry were more sensitive than juveniles when exposure was continuous, but neither life stage was clearly more sensitive when exposure was pulsed. Whole-body concentrations of K+ and Ca2+ but not Na+ were significantly depressed in fry exposed to metals. Results support the hypotheses that changes in water quality during thunderstorms are lethal to fry and juvenile life stages of brown and rainbow trouts and that the relative sensitivity of the species to the metals mixture may explain their distributions in the Clark Fork River. Low-frequency extreme conditions may effectively act as a bottleneck on the viability of populations whose relative sensitivities to such extremes may control distributions of species in a system.

Abstract North American gulf-surge events, northward low-level influxes of cool and moist air from the Gulf of California, were statistically related to monsoonal precipitation and the associated diurnal cycle for the state of Arizona. Using Dixon’s Assessing Low-Level Atmospheric Moisture using Soundings (ALARMS) method as an indicator for gulf surges, a sequence of surge events was identified for the months of July and August for the period from 1957 to 2008. A network of Arizona precipitation gauges was stratified by the surge events occurring over this period. The findings indicate that gulf surges accounted for a significant majority of rainfall events in Arizona. This signal was most apparent in the drier central and southwestern deserts (including the Phoenix metropolitan area) and least apparent in the wetter eastern and southeastern portions of the state. Diurnal patterns in rainfall were identified for the Phoenix metropolitan area and its surroundings. A strong diurnal cycle was apparent in precipitation associated with both surge and nonsurge periods over the Phoenix area, with a greater tendency toward nocturnal precipitation during gulf-surge events. These findings suggest that dissipating afternoon thunderstorms east and northeast of the Phoenix area act as catalysts for the nocturnal storm development that is prevalent in this area.

Abstract. Extreme wildfires are global phenomena that consistently result in loss of life and property and further impact the cultural, economic and political stability of communities. In their most severe form they cause widespread devastation of environmental assets and are capable of impacting the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere through the formation of a thunderstorm within the plume. Such fires are now often observed by a range of remote-sensing technologies, which together allow a greater understanding of a fire's complex dynamics. This paper considers one such fire that burnt in the Blue Mountains region of Australia in late November 2006, which is known to have generated significant pyrocumulonimbus clouds in a series of blow-up events. Observations of this fire are analysed in detail to investigate the localised processes contributing to extreme fire development. In particular, it has been possible to demonstrate for the first time that the most violent instances of pyroconvection were driven by, and not just associated with, atypical local fire dynamics, especially the fire channelling phenomenon, which arises due to an interaction between an active fire, local terrain attributes and critical fire weather and causes the fire to rapidly transition from a frontal to an areal burning pattern. The impacts of local variations in fire weather and of the atmospheric profile are also discussed, and the ability to predict extreme fire development with state-of-the-art tools is explored.

Abstract. Extreme wildfires are global phenomena that consistently result in loss of life and property, and further impact the cultural, economic and political stability of communities. In their most extreme form they cause widespread devastation of environmental assets and are capable of impacting the upper troposphere–lower stratosphere through the formation of a thunderstorm within the plume. Such fires are now often observed by a range of remote sensing technologies, which together allow a greater understanding of a fire's complex dynamics. This paper considers one such fire that burnt in the Blue Mountains region of Australia in late-November 2006, that is known to have generated significant pyrocumulonimbus clouds in a series of blow-up events. Observations of this fire are analysed in detail to investigate the localised processes contributing to extreme fire development. In particular, it has been possible to demonstrate for the first time that the most severe instances of pyroconvection were driven by, and not just associated with, extreme local fire dynamics, especially the fire channelling phenomenon, which arises due to an interaction between an active fire, local terrain attributes and critical fire weather, and causes the fire to rapidly transition from a frontal to an areal burning pattern. The impacts of local variations in fire weather and of the atmospheric profile are also discussed, and the ability to predict extreme fire development with state-of-the-art tools is explored.

Abstract. The objectives of the INSAT-3D satellite are to enhance the meteorological observations and to monitor the Earth's surface for weather forecasting and disaster warning. One of the weather-monitoring capabilities of the INSAT-3D sounder is the estimation of water vapour in the atmosphere. The amount of water vapour present in the atmospheric column is derived as the total precipitable water (TPW) product from the infrared radiances measured by the INSAT-3D sounder. The present study is based on TPW derived from INSAT-3D sounder, radiosonde (RS) observations and the corresponding National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite. To assess retrieval performances of INSAT-3D sounder-derived TPW, RS TPW observations are considered for the validation from May to September 2016 from 34 stations belonging to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The analysis is performed on daily, monthly, and subdivisional bases over the Indian region. The comparison of INSAT-3D TPW with RS TPW on daily and monthly bases shows that the root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficients (CC) are ∼8 mm and 0.8, respectively. However, on subdivisional and overall scales, the RMSE found to be in the range of 1 to 2 mm and CC was around 0.9 in comparison with RS and NOAA. The spatial distribution of INSAT-3D TPW with actual rainfall observation is also investigated. In general, INSAT-3D TPW corresponds well with rainfall observation; however, it has found that heavy rainfall events occur in the presence of high TPW values. In addition, the cases of thunderstorm events were assessed using TPW from INSAT-3D and network of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. This shows the good agreement between TPW from INSAT-3D and GNSS during the mesoscale activity. The improvement in the estimation of TPW is carried out by applying the GSICS calibration corrections (Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System) to the radiances from infrared (IR) channels of the sounder, which is used by IMDPS (INSAT Meteorological Data Processing System). The current TPW from INSAT-3D satellite can be utilized operationally for weather monitoring and forecast purposes. It can also offer substantial opportunities for improvement in nowcasting studies.

The variability of naturally occurring magnetic fields in the frequency range from [Formula: see text] over a period of one year was studied. Contour plots for the [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] components and for frequencies of 10, 100, 1000, 2000, and 8000 Hz were produced. Average, minimum, maximum, and the standard deviations of these fields were also calculated for 12 distinctive time intervals. In the 1– to 8–kHz frequency range, the noise levels are typically higher at night. In the 10- to 100-Hz frequency range, the noise levels are typically higher during the day. During mid- to late-summer, there is frequent thunderstorm activity, known in the southwest United States as the monsoon season. The magnetic field levels are often very high during this time period. These variability ranges can be used to estimate the lowest levels of noise that may be encountered during field surveys, which iswhat the authors are looking for when running controlled-source electrical method surveys. These variability ranges can also be used to estimate the highest levels that may be encountered, which is what the authors are looking for when running natural-source electrical methods surveys, such as audio frequency magnetotelluric (AMT) surveys. These measurements of magnetic field strength variability show that better data for controlled-source electrical measurements can be obtained using the minimum noise level measurements, as opposed to using signal integration or signal averaging with all of the data. The minimum noise level is found by using frequency bins adjacent to the signal-frequency bin. Likewise, if one is interested in measuring the naturally occurring magnetic field data, using the maximum values during each time interval makes AMT measurements possible when the natural signal level is very low, particularly in the AMT dead zone around [Formula: see text].

The article considers the work of the Chinese poet Wang Jiaxin (based on the works not translated into Russian), called by critics «Chinese Pasternak», as a characteristic example of the spiritual and artistic influence of Pasternak's work on modern Chinese poetry. Comparing the works of Boris Pasternak and Wang Jiaxin we discover a lot of motifs and images that are significant for the poets' artistic world (motifs of burning candle, snow and snowstorm, garden, thunderstorm, sea, rain), but one of the most powerful images Pasternak and Jiaxin share is that of the wind. The article reveals symbolic connotations of this image common for both poets: anthropomorphization of the wind; wind as a mediator between the human body and the world; wind as a universal omnipresent entity, pantheistically dissolved in the universe, a unifying force that facilitates the merging of particularities into a single cosmos; the guardian of cultural memory, creating the link between times and generations; wind as the language of art, the element in search of means of verbalization; wind as a symbol of the transformative power of art, the symbol of historical upheavals; wind as a universal metaphysical force that governs the world, etc. This article examines the intertextual links of Wang Jiaxin's work with the «wind text» of Chinese poetry, using the poetry of the Tang era and the lyrics of the poets of the 20–40s of the XX century as examples. The article concludes that Pasternak's wind is the most important component of his poetic natural cosmos, the embodiment of spontaneous playful, joyful, life-affirming creativity, while Wang Jiaxin's wind is a more severe, mysterious and irresistible element; it is not only a reflection of some values significant for the poet, but also a kind of «literary wind» that accumulates multiple cultural connotations and reflects both «wind songs» of classical Chinese poetry and the «windiness» of Pasternak's poetic universe, and the creative dialogue between Wang Jiaxin and Pasternak not only demonstrates a profound connection of Chinese and Russian poetic traditions, but also allows us to take a new look at Pasternak's poetry, seeing its brilliant reflection in Wang Jiaxin's lyrical mirror.

Abstract. We present an evaluation of the ability of passive broadband geostationary satellite measurements to detect high ice water content (IWC > 1 g m−3) as part of the European High Altitude Ice Crystals (HAIC) project for detection of upper-atmospheric high IWC, which can be a hazard for aviation. We developed a high IWC mask based on measurements of cloud properties using the Cloud Physical Properties (CPP) algorithm applied to the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI). Evaluation of the high IWC mask with satellite measurements of active remote sensors of cloud properties (CLOUDSAT/CALIPSO combined in the DARDAR (raDAR–liDAR) product) reveals that the high IWC mask is capable of detecting high IWC values > 1 g m−3 in the DARDAR profiles with a probability of detection of 60–80 %. The best CPP predictors of high IWC were the condensed water path, cloud optical thickness, cloud phase, and cloud top height. The evaluation of the high IWC mask against DARDAR provided indications that the MSG-CPP high IWC mask is more sensitive to cloud ice or cloud water in the upper part of the cloud, which is relevant for aviation purposes. Biases in the CPP results were also identified, in particular a solar zenith angle (SZA) dependence that reduces the performance of the high IWC mask for SZAs > 60°. Verification statistics show that for the detection of high IWC a trade-off has to be made between better detection of high IWC scenes and more false detections, i.e., scenes identified by the high IWC mask that do not contain IWC > 1 g m−3. However, the large majority of these detections still contain IWC values between 0.1 and 1 g m−3. Comparison of the high IWC mask against results from the Rapidly Developing Thunderstorm (RDT) algorithm applied to the same geostationary SEVIRI data showed that there are similarities and differences with the high IWC mask: the RDT algorithm is very capable of detecting young/new convective cells and areas, whereas the high IWC mask appears to be better capable of detecting more mature and ageing convection as well as cirrus remnants. The lack of detailed understanding of what causes aviation hazards related to high IWC, as well as the lack of clearly defined user requirements, hampers further tuning of the high IWC mask. Future evaluation of the high IWC mask against field campaign data, as well as obtaining user feedback and user requirements from the aviation industry, should provide more information on the performance of the MSG-CPP high IWC mask and contribute to improving the practical use of the high IWC mask.

Recent frequent “thunderstorm incidents” of P2P lending industry have caused the panic of industry investors. To predict the investment risk of P2P lending, we should scientifically and rationally analyze the key influencing factors of P2P lending investment risk. Existing key influencing factors selection methods mainly involve traditional statistical approaches and artificial intelligence methods. The traditional statistical approaches cannot deal with the high-dimensional nonlinear problems, and it cannot find the exact key influencing factors of the P2P lending investment risk. The artificial intelligence methods cannot recognize and learn the application background, and the selected attributes without active thinking and personal perception may not be the key influencing factors of P2P lending investment risk. To address the above issues, a novel key influencing factors selection approach of P2P lending investment risk is proposed by combining the proposed fireworks coevolution binary glowworm swarm optimization (FCBGSO), multifractal dimension (MFD), probit regression, and artificial prior knowledge. First, multifractal dimension combined with the proposed FCBGSO is used to select the preliminary influencing factors of the investment risk; second, the nonsignificant relevant attributes in the preliminary influencing factors are removed using the probit regression, and we add the influencing factors extracted from the original dataset of P2P lending using the artificial prior knowledge into the retaining influencing factors after removing one by one. A small and reasonable number of influencing factor subsets are achieved. Finally, we evaluate each influencing factors subset using extreme learning machine (ELM), and the subset with the best classification accuracy is efficiently achieved, i.e., it is the key influencing factors of P2P lending investment risk. Experimental results on the real P2P lending dataset from the Renrendai platform demonstrate that the proposed approach performs better than other state-of-the-art methods and that it has validity and effectiveness. It provides a new research idea for the key influencing factors selection of P2P lending investment risk.

The article begins by explaining the background of sea motifs, which can be understood as sublime in the classical theory of arts, beginning with Pseudo-Longinus and continuing with Boileau and Burke, and the re-visitation of Aristotelian theory by the latter. This part of the article focuses on the observations of grandeur, dramatic change and danger in nature, which were defined as sublime in antiquity (based on examples from Homer and Genesis in Longinus or the Gigantomachy motifs in ancient art), as well as on the role of emotion (pathos) in the Sublime. The Renaissance and Early Modern Sublime reveal the continuation of these trends in Burke’s theories and the landscape descriptions of Radcliffe in the Mysteries of Udolpho. In the latter, we also see a quotation from Beattie’s Minstrel, whose motif of a sea-wrecked mariner represents the same type of sublime as Wordsworth’s Peele Castle (which, in its turn, was inspired by a painting by Sir George Beaumont). This sublimity is felt by human beings before mortal danger and nature’s untamed and excessive forces. In German poetry and art such sublimity can be seen in the works of Hölderlin or Caspar David Friedrich. However, 16th and 17th century poetry and painting rarely focused on such sublimity and preferred the more classical harmonia discors, in which ruins or the sea were just a slight accent underlining general harmony.The article continues, focusing on the sea motifs in Estonian art and poetry. In Estonian art (initially created by Baltic Germans), the reflections of the magnificent Sublime in the paintings by August Matthias Hagen can be seen as the influence of Caspar David. In poetry, we see sublime grandeur in the ode called Singer by the first Estonian poet, Kristjan Jaak Peterson, who compared the might of the words of future Estonian poets to stormy torrents during a thunderstorm, in contrast to the Estonian poetry of his day, which he compared to a quiet stream under the moonlight. The grandeur, might and yearning for sublimity is reflected in the prose poem Sea (1905) by Friedebert Tuglas, who belonged to the Young Estonia movement. This movement was more interested in modernity and city life than in romantically dangerous or idyllic landscapes. However, the main trends of Estonian poetry seem to dwell on idyllic landscapes and quietly sparkling seas, as for example, in a poem by Villem Ridala or sea landscape by Konrad Mägi. We also see this type of sublimity at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries in the soundscapes of the sea by Ester Mägi or paintings by Aili Vint.After World War II, the influence of the romantic ode genre and sublime can be seen in a translation of Byron’s Stanzas for Music (1815) by Minni Nurme (1950). In Byron’s gentle, sweet and serene picture of a lulled and charmed ocean, the underlying dimension of the divine, and the grandeur and power of the music is not expressed explicitly. Nurme tries to bring the translation into accord with the ode genre, thereby causing a shift from the serene to the grand sublime, by focusing on the depth of water and feelings, the greatness of the ocean, and most of all, the rupture of the soul, which has been the most important factor in the sublime theory of Pseudo-Longinus. Her translation also seems influenced by her era of post-war Soviet Estonia (so that Byron’s allusions to the divine word have been replaced by the might of nature). In the same period, Estonia’s most vivid description of the romantic sublime appears in the choral poem Northern Coast (1958) composed by Gustav Ernesaks, with lyrics by another Estonian poet, Kersti Merilaas.Coastline in a leap, on the spur of attacking; each other tightly the sea and the land here are holding The rocky banks, breast open to winds, are hurling downwards the pebbles and chunks. Its adversary’s waves now grasp for its feet, gnawing and biting into the shores. Stop now! No further from here, neither of you can proceed any more! Full of might is the sea, more powerful is the land.

Abstract Although lightning rods have long been used to limit damage from lightning, there are currently no American standards for the shape and form of these devices. Following tradition, however, sharp-tipped Franklin rods are widely installed despite evidence that, on occasion, lightning strikes objects in their vicinity. In recent tests of various tip configurations to determine which were preferentially struck by lightning, several hemispherically tipped, blunt rods were struck but none of the nearby, sharper rods were “hit” by lightning. Measurements of the currents from the tips of lightning rods exposed to strong electric fields under negatively charged cloud bases show that the emissions consist of periodic ion charge bursts that act to reduce the strength of the local fields. After a burst of charge, no further emissions occur until that charge has moved away from the tip. Laboratory measurements of the emissions from a wide range of electrodes exposed to strong, normal-polarity thunderstorm electric fields show that positive ions are formed and move more readily over sharp-tipped electrodes than over blunter ones. From these findings, it appears that the electric field rates of intensification over sharp rods must be much greater than those over similarly exposed blunt rods for the initiation of upward-going leaders. Calculations of the relative strengths of the electric fields above similarly exposed sharp and blunt rods show that although the fields, prior to any emissions, are much stronger at the tip of a sharp rod, they decrease more rapidly with distance. As a result, at a few centimeters above the tip of a 20-mm-diameter blunt rod, the strength of the field is greater than that over an otherwise similar, sharper rod at the same height. Since the field strength at the tip of a sharpened rod tends to be limited by the easy formation of ions in the surrounding air, the field strengths over blunt rods can be much stronger than those at distances greater than 1 cm over sharper ones. The results of this study suggest that moderately blunt metal rods (with tip height–to–tip radius of curvature ratios of about 680:1) are better lightning strike receptors than are sharper rods or very blunt ones.

Abstract. Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) influence the formation of ice crystals in clouds and many types of precipitation. This study reports unique properties of INPs collected from 42 precipitation samples in the Texas Panhandle region from June 2018 to July 2019. We used a cold stage instrument called the West Texas Cryogenic Refrigerator Applied to Freezing Test system to estimate INP concentrations per unit volume of air (nINP) through immersion freezing in our precipitation samples with our detection capability of > 0.006 INP L−1. A disdrometer was used for two purposes: (1) to characterize the ground-level precipitation type and (2) to measure the precipitation intensity as well as size of precipitating particles at the ground level during each precipitation event. While no clear seasonal variations of nINP values were apparent, the analysis of yearlong ground-level precipitation observation as well as INPs in the precipitation samples showed some INP variations, e.g., the highest and lowest nINP values at −25 ∘C both in the summer for hail-involved severe thunderstorm samples (3.0 to 1130 INP L−1), followed by the second lowest at the same temperature from one of our snow samples collected during the winter (3.2 INP L−1). Furthermore, we conducted bacteria community analyses using a subset of our precipitation samples to examine the presence of known biological INPs. In parallel, we also performed metagenomics characterization of the bacterial microbiome in suspended ambient dust samples collected at commercial open-lot livestock facilities (cattle feedyards hereafter) in the Texas Panhandle (i.e., the northernmost counties of Texas, also known as “West Texas”) to ascertain whether local cattle feedyards can act as a source of bioaerosol particles and/or INPs found in the precipitation samples. Some key bacterial phyla present in cattle feedyard samples appeared in precipitation samples. However, no known ice nucleation active species were detected in our samples. Overall, our results showed that cumulative nINP in our precipitation samples below −20 ∘C could be high in the samples collected while observing > 10 mm h−1 precipitation with notably large hydrometeor sizes and an implication of cattle feedyard bacteria inclusion.

This time last year my review concluded with the observation that the future for the study of Latin literature is fundamentally interdisciplinary, and that we should proceed in close dialogue with social historians and art historians. In the intervening period, two books from a new generation of scholars have been published which remind us of the existence of an alternative tide that is pushing back against such culturally embedded criticism, and urging us to turn anew towards the aesthetic. The very titles of these works, with their references to ‘The Sublime’ and ‘Poetic Autonomy’ are redolent of an earlier age in their grandeur and abstraction, and in their confident trans-historicism. Both monographs, in different ways, are seeking to find a new means of grounding literary criticism in reaction to the disempowerment and relativism which is perceived to be the legacy of postmodernism. In their introductions, both bring back to centre stage theoretical controversies that were a prominent feature of scholarship in the 1980s and 1990s (their dynamics acutely observed by Don Fowler in his own Greece & Rome subject reviews of the period) but which have largely faded into the background; the new generation of Latinists tend to have absorbed insights of New Historicism and postmodernism without feeling the need either to defend their importance or to reflect upon their limitations. Henry Day, in his study of the sublime in Lucan's Bellum civile, explicitly responds to the challenges issued by Charles Martindale, who has, of course, continued (in his own words) to wage ‘war against the determination of classicists to ground their discipline in “history”’. Day answers Martindale's call for the development of some new form of aesthetic criticism, where hermeneutics and the search for meaning are replaced with (or, better, complemented by) experiential analysis; his way forward is to modify Martindale's pure aesthetics, since he expresses doubt that beauty can be wholly free of ideology, or that aesthetics can be entirely liberated from history, context, and politics. Reassuringly (for the novices among us), Day begins by admitting that the question ‘What is the sublime?’ is a ‘perplexing’ one, and he starts with the definition of it as ‘a particular kind of subjective experience…in which we encounter an object that exceeds our everyday categories of comprehension’ (30). What do they have in common, then, the versions of the sublime, ancient and modern, outlined in Chapter 1: the revelatory knowledge afforded to Lucretius through his grasp of atomism, the transcendent power of great literature for Longinus, and the powerful emotion engendered in the Romantics by the sight of impressive natural phenomena such as a mountain range or a thunderstorm? One of the key ideas to emerge from this discussion – crucial to the rest of the book – is that the sublime is fundamentally about power, and especially the transference of power from the object of contemplation to its subject. The sublime is associated with violence, trauma, and subjugation, as it rips away from us the ground on which we thought we stood; yet it does not need to be complicit with the forces of oppression but can also work for resistance and retaliation. This dynamic of competing sublimes of subjugation and liberation will then help us, throughout the following chapters, to transcend the nihilism/engagement dichotomy that has polarized scholarship on Lucan in recent decades. In turn, Lucan's deployment of the sublime uses it to collapse the opposition between liberation and oppression, and thus the Bellum civile makes its own contribution to the history of the sublime. This is an impressive monograph, much more productively engaged with the details of Lucan's poem than this summary is able to convey; it brought me to a new appreciation of the concept of the sublime, and a new sense of excitement about Lucan's epic poem and its place in the Western tradition.

AbstractThe meteorological characteristics associated with thunderstorm top turbulence and tropical cyclone (TC) gigantic jets (GJ) are investigated. Using reanalysis data and observations, the large-scale environment and storm top structure of three GJ-producing TCs are compared to three non-GJ oceanic thunderstorms observed via low-light camera. Evidence of gravity wave breaking is manifest in the IR satellite images with cold ring and enhanced-V signatures prevalent in TCs Hilda and Harvey and embedded warm spots in the Dorian and Null storms. Statistics from an additional six less prodigious GJ environments are also included as a baseline. Distinguishing features of the TC GJ environment include higher tropopause, colder brightness temperatures, more stable lower stratosphere/distinct tropopause and reduced tropopause penetration. These factors support enhanced gravity wave (GW) breaking near the cloud top (overshoot). The advantage of a higher tropopause is that both electrical conductivity and GW breaking increase with altitude and thus act in tandem to promote charge dilution by increasing the rate at which the screening layer forms as well as enhancing the storm top mixing. The roles of the upper level ambient flow and shear are less certain. Environments with significant upper tropospheric shear may compensate for a lower tropopause by reducing the height of the critical layer which would also promote more intense GW breaking and turbulence near the cloud top.

AbstractAnts can play a key role in the erosion processes on agriculture land by modifying soil properties and increasing macropore flow. Ants are abundant in organically-managed orchards in the Mediterranean region due to climate conditions, no-till practices, no pesticide use, and the resulting vegetation cover. In order to determine the effect of ants on soil and water losses from these orchards growing on moderately-sloped land (4–8%), forty 1.0 m2 plots (20 with ants mounts and 20 without ants — controls) were established during the summer of 2007. A rainfall simulator was used to apply 78 mm of water to each plot over a one-hour period, equivalent to a 20-year return-period thunderstorm. Runoff was collected at 1-minute intervals and sediment concentration measured every 10 minutes. Sediment concentrations were 300% higher on plots with ant mounds, but runoff rates were similar to the plots without ants. Average soil erosion rates averaged 41 kg ha−1 h−1 on the ant plots and 13 kg ha−1 h−1 on the control plots. The low erosion rates are due to the effect of the vegetation and litter cover in this organically-managed soil, which were little impacted by ant activity at the pedon scale.

One of the challenges when communicating forecast information to the public is properly contextualizing uncertainty. No forecast is ever certain, as no meteorological phenomenon is guaranteed to occur. As such, the uncertainty in forecast information should be communicated in a way that makes sense to end users. Previous studies of the communication of probabilistic information suggest that, although the general public are more apt to communicate uncertainty with words of estimative probability (WEPs), they prefer to receive uncertainty information numerically. Other work has suggested that a combination of numbers and WEPs is the best method for communicating probability, but fewer research studies have assessed the communication and interpretation of probabilistic meteorological information. In this study, we code 8900 tweets from the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) and analyze them to find how forecasters communicate probabilistic forecast information to the public via Twitter. This analysis reveals that WFO messaging is dominated by WEPs, with few numerical descriptions of probability. These WEPs are generally vague, unqualified notions of probability that may impede the public’s ability to interpret the information that forecasters are trying to communicate. Based on this analysis, two publicly fielded surveys also are analyzed in order to understand how participants tend to interpret the most common qualified and unqualified WEPs that WFOs used on Twitter. Though participants generally interpret qualified WEPs more consistently than unqualified WEPs, both categories featured a wide range of interpretations that suggest both types of WEPs are vaguely defined for the general public.

Whatever a work of art may be, the artist certainly cannot dare to be simple. (Rebecca West) Van Gogh's Sunflowers is [not] considered worthy of inclusion in a new selection of the world's finest art. The compilers of the Folio Society's lavish and expensive Book of the 100 Greatest Paintings believe that some works are so overexposed and have been reproduced so often that they can no longer be viewed with a fresh eye. The Independent, 24.8.2001. Sometimes the day just falls down on you. One day they'll measure the weight of a day. One day science will be able to measure the density of 24 hours. And then I can claim the burden of getting through a day as part of my fitness programme. She imagined filling in her exercise diary. Lifted three fallen days from shoulders. Pumped up biceps, triceps, amassed muscle gain in legs. Strengthened heart tissue. Deepened lung capacity. She shouldn't joke about it. But of course she did. Sometimes it was how she coped. She'd tried not joking, joking, paying attention, ignoring, running away from, facing head on, talking, not talking, sharing, selfishly selflessly, hopefully hopelessly, alone and in company. Of course some methods of dealing with it were more fun than others. She used to have sex a lot when she felt most depressed. What she'd liked most about the sex was the feeling of being what she called underneath, somewhere darker, more primal. Crawling around on the inside of things. That was how she eventually looked at it. As if it was a special sort of art she had created, woven through the threads of her brain cells and tendrils of her nerve endings. Sometimes profoundly scary, sometimes just a cheap thrill. Why can't you just be happy? she'd heard people ask. People who cared and those who didn't particularly. As if she had willed it upon herself and could just as easily will herself out of it. I choose. Or I do not choose, she might say. Either way it remains because I have understood it ultimately is not a matter of choice. I will be happy when happiness comes around again. Just the same as the sunshine comes out after the rain clouds disappear. It is a cycle and I am part of its nature. And I haven't yet learnt to control the weather. Of course shamans could do it. Certain sorts of yogis. Witches. Tap into energy flows and seismic quivers. Even then it was not a matter of controlling shifts in temperature but rather surrendering to it. Making them not just observers of natural phenomena. But participants. Adding their own energy to the natural energy. Bringing about change through focus and attention rather than resistance and will. It would be hard to stay that sensitive in the city. Too hard with all the relentless metal, the swabs of smoke and smog blinding the eyes, the clang and grrrs of the smashing traffic, all the urban thoughts circling your brain like gangs out for some kicks. She made herself scarce when the days fell like this one. Right on top of her like a mountain of collapsing ash. Even though the others had what always seemed a grudging respect for it. As if she limped. Or was blind in one eye. They sensed its genetic implications. And almost admired the way she wore it like a piece of dark, sombre clothing. Instead of letting it wear her. Still These dark days. These black moods. Like a monstrous pet She had to walk Endlessly through the city streets Until it had walked off Its rage. She closed her eyes. Somewhere in the distance she could faintly detect the scent of a certain sort of coffee, which she craved. She opened her eyes and headed up King St, peering into cafes as she passed, twitching her nostrils like a sniffer dog, nosing out the secret stash of illicit nectar that would, of course, be the momentary answer to all her problems. She walked past Café Bleu. Too stark, too gloomy. Past El Bache. Too fluorescent, too sugary. Straight past CITRUS. Too friendly, too trendy. Criss-crossed King St to Macro Whole Foods. Too positive, too pure. Back over the other side to the Marleborough Hotel. Oh no, too desperate before midday. Turned left, walked down past the hospital, briefly thought about their cafeteria. But no, way too hopeless and pessimistic. Back onto City Road, past the Uni. Way too cool and know it all. Across Broadway, past IKU. Same problem as Macro, and almost up to Badde Manors. Eek! Way, way too hip. She got herself back down almost to Paramatta Road and stopped. She briefly wondered whether she should go back to Essential Energies and see the Clairvoyant. But she was sick at the idea of handing over forty bucks for someone to tell her that everything, even depression, eventually had to pass. She may as well go up to a complete stranger on the street and ask them: Tell me what to do, please tell me what to do. In certain cultures she was sure this would work. Older, more spiritual ethnicities, which had long ago given up the idea that human beings could control everything that happened in life. They'd even laugh at the concept. They might say something ancient and wise and comforting. Something about death and rebirth and transformation and illness being a sign of health and everything the other way round. But here, pioneer's children, building, growing, planning, committing, grasping, holding on, they'd tell her to pull herself together and get on with it. If you'd just tell me what IT was, maybe I'd be able to get on with it. She might answer them if she was in the mood for a conversation. But of course she wasn't going to accost anyone. Not today. Not in Glebe. Not just down the road from Gleebooks. Too literary, too secure. She bought some Turkish bread from the Lebanese place next door, intending to feed the ducks in City Park, but slipped back inside Essential Energies, with the bread tucked under her arm, just to stand for a few moments near the oil burner. The scents were Orange, Marjoram and Lavender, a soothing combination, the sign said, to calm the troubled mind and open the third eye. Jesus, she thought to herself, suddenly laughing out loud, on days like this I'm lucky if I can keep one good eye open. Let alone two. Without realizing it, she'd been making a racket. Aware of the shop assistant staring disapprovingly at her, she backed out the door, chattering to herself like a madwoman, fleetingly remembering how being in a church always seemed to create the same sense of misadventure as being in a New Age Shop. Too clean, too quiet, too affluent, too aromatic. Back on Paramatta Road she felt like crying. Some days that was all she felt like doing, tears gathering inside her, not like great thunderstorms about to explode, but grey sheets of drizzle with their slow, maddening incessant drip drip drip on the brain. She remembered Emerald Green telling her that depression would be the Super Disease of the Millennium. Sometimes she wondered how she would last that long. If you chart your course through it, you'll mark the map for others, Emerald had told her. Maybe the true pioneers of tomorrow are those with the courage to go out alone into the most forbidding terrain and return intact. It sounded encouraging when Emerald said it, but it never helped when she was standing at crossroads such as these wondering which way to go. Walk down Broadway into Chinatown. Wolf down a Laksa for lunch. Burn her mouth and body back to life. Halfway down Broadway she stopped as she always did, at the Broadway Framers. They'd taken down the Whitely that had been in the window for ages, and replaced it with the usual assortment of famous and popular prints, framed unnecessarily, she'd always thought, in ostentatious gold. Matisse's Blue Nude, Picasso's Harlequin from his Rose period and Van Gogh's Sunflowers. When she was younger and more easily impressed, her post modernist friends had told her painting was dead and that figurative art was bogus. They seemed so sure of everything, she'd never been sure of anything and so she'd been almost ashamed to admit that one of her favourite pictures was Sunflowers. She'd never analyzed why she liked it. If pressed to give an intelligent answer it would have been something along the lines of the visceral textures of the flowers, still so apparently immediate even in the hundreds of flat prints that had crowded the waiting rooms of her life since she was a little girl. It would have had something to do with the extravagance with which the stems were stuffed into the case, the overloaded slightly bedraggled, lushness of nature crammed by the artist into the humble little pot on which he'd scrawled his name. It could have been the energy of the brush strokes, which seem to thrust the flowers towards you with such force, as if Vincent is saying to you personally: LOOK LOOK. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? He was just doing his job, Painter Bob had said, the job that artists do. To make us look at things that mostly we're too distracted, too busy, too depressed to see. The stars in the sky at night. Swirling clouds. The sloping downwards of a face and all the stories which that particular angle tells. She thought of Van Gogh whenever she saw that picture. On his lonely road to pure painting, too crazy, to stubborn to do anything else. Painter Bob had said he'd been a shaman, a channel through which his subjects passed in order to be delivered onto paper so that … we, the rest of the world, us, the rest of history, decade after decade of casual and not so casual observers of art, could see, feel, absorb through the nerve endings in our eyes the essence of what is was, not just to see the sunflowers but to be the sunflowers. Yellow, she thought. And amber. Orange. Bits of gold. They've always made me feel so happy. It couldn't be that simple, she thought. To have the courage to cross the gap that separates the subject from the object. To become the thing which you see. To empathize. To inhabit. To break down the disconnection between matter. Plump, healthy flowers, slightly past their prime. Still, she thought, they'd cost a packet at the florists. She liked sunflowers. Despite their larger than life, exotic qualities they'd always seemed to her to be completely and utterly ordinary. ..in the end only someone who suffered deeply could see the radiance in such simple things Painter Bob was right. He was after all an expert in such things. Sometimes she felt as if she didn't know much about anything at all. Here she was looking at reproductions through plate glass windows, while above her the sun was almost coming out. Feeling hopeful, she put on her sunglasses. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Neil, Linda. "Sunflowers " M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.2 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/sunflower.php>. Chicago Style Neil, Linda, "Sunflowers " M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 2 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/sunflower.php> ([your date of access]). APA Style Neil, Linda. (2002) Sunflowers . M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(2). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/0205/sunflower.php> ([your date of access]).

Introduction This article is a study in anxiety with regard to social online spaces (SOS) conceived of as dark. There are two possible ways to define ‘dark’ in this context. The first is that communication is dark because it either has limited distribution, is not open to all users (closed groups are a case example) or hidden. The second definition, linked as a result of the first, is the way that communication via these means is interpreted and understood. Dark social spaces disrupt the accepted top-down flow by the ‘gazing elite’ (data aggregators including social media), but anxious users might need to strain to notice what is out there, and this in turn destabilises one’s reception of the scene. In an environment where surveillance technologies are proliferating, this article examines contemporary, dark, interconnected, and interactive communications for the entangled affordances that might be brought to bear. A provocation is that resistance through counterveillance or “sousveillance” is one possibility. An alternative (or addition) is retreating to or building ‘dark’ spaces that are less surveilled and (perhaps counterintuitively) less fearful. This article considers critically the notion of dark social online spaces via four broad socio-technical concerns connected to the big social media services that have helped increase a tendency for fearful anxiety produced by surveillance and the perceived implications for personal privacy. It also shines light on the aspect of darkness where some users are spurred to actively seek alternative, dark social online spaces. Since the 1970s, public-key cryptosystems typically preserved security for websites, emails, and sensitive health, government, and military data, but this is now reduced (Williams). We have seen such systems exploited via cyberattacks and misappropriated data acquired by affiliations such as Facebook-Cambridge Analytica for targeted political advertising during the 2016 US elections. Via the notion of “parasitic strategies”, such events can be described as news/information hacks “whose attack vectors target a system’s weak points with the help of specific strategies” (von Nordheim and Kleinen-von Königslöw, 88). In accord with Wilson and Serisier’s arguments (178), emerging technologies facilitate rapid data sharing, collection, storage, and processing wherein subsequent “outcomes are unpredictable”. This would also include the effect of acquiescence. In regard to our digital devices, for some, being watched overtly—through cameras encased in toys, computers, and closed-circuit television (CCTV) to digital street ads that determine the resonance of human emotions in public places including bus stops, malls, and train stations—is becoming normalised (McStay, Emotional AI). It might appear that consumers immersed within this Internet of Things (IoT) are themselves comfortable interacting with devices that record sound and capture images for easy analysis and distribution across the communications networks. A counter-claim is that mainstream social media corporations have cultivated a sense of digital resignation “produced when people desire to control the information digital entities have about them but feel unable to do so” (Draper and Turow, 1824). Careful consumers’ trust in mainstream media is waning, with readers observing a strong presence of big media players in the industry and are carefully picking their publications and public intellectuals to follow (Mahmood, 6). A number now also avoid the mainstream internet in favour of alternate dark sites. This is done by users with “varying backgrounds, motivations and participation behaviours that may be idiosyncratic (as they are rooted in the respective person’s biography and circumstance)” (Quandt, 42). By way of connection with dark internet studies via Biddle et al. (1; see also Lasica), the “darknet” is a collection of networks and technologies used to share digital content … not a separate physical network but an application and protocol layer riding on existing networks. Examples of darknets are peer-to-peer file sharing, CD and DVD copying, and key or password sharing on email and newsgroups. As we note from the quote above, the “dark web” uses existing public and private networks that facilitate communication via the Internet. Gehl (1220; see also Gehl and McKelvey) has detailed that this includes “hidden sites that end in ‘.onion’ or ‘.i2p’ or other Top-Level Domain names only available through modified browsers or special software. Accessing I2P sites requires a special routing program ... . Accessing .onion sites requires Tor [The Onion Router]”. For some, this gives rise to social anxiety, read here as stemming from that which is not known, and an exaggerated sense of danger, which makes fight or flight seem the only options. This is often justified or exacerbated by the changing media and communication landscape and depicted in popular documentaries such as The Social Dilemma or The Great Hack, which affect public opinion on the unknown aspects of internet spaces and the uses of personal data. The question for this article remains whether the fear of the dark is justified. Consider that most often one will choose to make one’s intimate bedroom space dark in order to have a good night’s rest. We might pleasurably escape into a cinema’s darkness for the stories told therein, or walk along a beach at night enjoying unseen breezes. Most do not avoid these experiences, choosing to actively seek them out. Drawing this thread, then, is the case made here that agency can also be found in the dark by resisting socio-political structural harms. 1. Digital Futures and Anxiety of the Dark Fear of the darkI have a constant fear that something's always nearFear of the darkFear of the darkI have a phobia that someone's always there In the lyrics to the song “Fear of the Dark” (1992) by British heavy metal group Iron Maiden is a sense that that which is unknown and unseen causes fear and anxiety. Holding a fear of the dark is not unusual and varies in degree for adults as it does for children (Fellous and Arbib). Such anxiety connected to the dark does not always concern darkness itself. It can also be a concern for the possible or imagined dangers that are concealed by the darkness itself as a result of cognitive-emotional interactions (McDonald, 16). Extending this claim is this article’s non-binary assertion that while for some technology and what it can do is frequently misunderstood and shunned as a result, for others who embrace the possibilities and actively take it on it is learning by attentively partaking. Mistakes, solecism, and frustrations are part of the process. Such conceptual theorising falls along a continuum of thinking. Global interconnectivity of communications networks has certainly led to consequent concerns (Turkle Alone Together). Much focus for anxiety has been on the impact upon social and individual inner lives, levels of media concentration, and power over and commercialisation of the internet. Of specific note is that increasing commercial media influence—such as Facebook and its acquisition of WhatsApp, Oculus VR, Instagram, CRTL-labs (translating movements and neural impulses into digital signals), LiveRail (video advertising technology), Chainspace (Blockchain)—regularly changes the overall dynamics of the online environment (Turow and Kavanaugh). This provocation was born out recently when Facebook disrupted the delivery of news to Australian audiences via its service. Mainstream social online spaces (SOS) are platforms which provide more than the delivery of media alone and have been conceptualised predominantly in a binary light. On the one hand, they can be depicted as tools for the common good of society through notional widespread access and as places for civic participation and discussion, identity expression, education, and community formation (Turkle; Bruns; Cinque and Brown; Jenkins). This end of the continuum of thinking about SOS seems set hard against the view that SOS are operating as businesses with strategies that manipulate consumers to generate revenue through advertising, data, venture capital for advanced research and development, and company profit, on the other hand. In between the two polar ends of this continuum are the range of other possibilities, the shades of grey, that add contemporary nuance to understanding SOS in regard to what they facilitate, what the various implications might be, and for whom. By way of a brief summary, anxiety of the dark is steeped in the practices of privacy-invasive social media giants such as Facebook and its ancillary companies. Second are the advertising technology companies, surveillance contractors, and intelligence agencies that collect and monitor our actions and related data; as well as the increased ease of use and interoperability brought about by Web 2.0 that has seen a disconnection between technological infrastructure and social connection that acts to limit user permissions and online affordances. Third are concerns for the negative effects associated with depressed mental health and wellbeing caused by “psychologically damaging social networks”, through sleep loss, anxiety, poor body image, real world relationships, and the fear of missing out (FOMO; Royal Society for Public Health (UK) and the Young Health Movement). Here the harms are both individual and societal. Fourth is the intended acceleration toward post-quantum IoT (Fernández-Caramés), as quantum computing’s digital components are continually being miniaturised. This is coupled with advances in electrical battery capacity and interconnected telecommunications infrastructures. The result of such is that the ontogenetic capacity of the powerfully advanced network/s affords supralevel surveillance. What this means is that through devices and the services that they provide, individuals’ data is commodified (Neff and Nafus; Nissenbaum and Patterson). Personal data is enmeshed in ‘things’ requiring that the decisions that are both overt, subtle, and/or hidden (dark) are scrutinised for the various ways they shape social norms and create consequences for public discourse, cultural production, and the fabric of society (Gillespie). Data and personal information are retrievable from devices, sharable in SOS, and potentially exposed across networks. For these reasons, some have chosen to go dark by being “off the grid”, judiciously selecting their means of communications and their ‘friends’ carefully. 2. Is There Room for Privacy Any More When Everyone in SOS Is Watching? An interesting turn comes through counterarguments against overarching institutional surveillance that underscore the uses of technologies to watch the watchers. This involves a practice of counter-surveillance whereby technologies are tools of resistance to go ‘dark’ and are used by political activists in protest situations for both communication and avoiding surveillance. This is not new and has long existed in an increasingly dispersed media landscape (Cinque, Changing Media Landscapes). For example, counter-surveillance video footage has been accessed and made available via live-streaming channels, with commentary in SOS augmenting networking possibilities for niche interest groups or micropublics (Wilson and Serisier, 178). A further example is the Wordpress site Fitwatch, appealing for an end to what the site claims are issues associated with police surveillance (fitwatch.org.uk and endpolicesurveillance.wordpress.com). Users of these sites are called to post police officers’ identity numbers and photographs in an attempt to identify “cops” that might act to “misuse” UK Anti-terrorism legislation against activists during legitimate protests. Others that might be interested in doing their own “monitoring” are invited to reach out to identified personal email addresses or other private (dark) messaging software and application services such as Telegram (freeware and cross-platform). In their work on surveillance, Mann and Ferenbok (18) propose that there is an increase in “complex constructs between power and the practices of seeing, looking, and watching/sensing in a networked culture mediated by mobile/portable/wearable computing devices and technologies”. By way of critical definition, Mann and Ferenbok (25) clarify that “where the viewer is in a position of power over the subject, this is considered surveillance, but where the viewer is in a lower position of power, this is considered sousveillance”. It is the aspect of sousveillance that is empowering to those using dark SOS. One might consider that not all surveillance is “bad” nor institutionalised. It is neither overtly nor formally regulated—as yet. Like most technologies, many of the surveillant technologies are value-neutral until applied towards specific uses, according to Mann and Ferenbok (18). But this is part of the ‘grey area’ for understanding the impact of dark SOS in regard to which actors or what nations are developing tools for surveillance, where access and control lies, and with what effects into the future. 3. Big Brother Watches, So What Are the Alternatives: Whither the Gazing Elite in Dark SOS? By way of conceptual genealogy, consideration of contemporary perceptions of surveillance in a visually networked society (Cinque, Changing Media Landscapes) might be usefully explored through a revisitation of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, applied here as a metaphor for contemporary surveillance. Arguably, this is a foundational theoretical model for integrated methods of social control (Foucault, Surveiller et Punir, 192-211), realised in the “panopticon” (prison) in 1787 by Jeremy Bentham (Bentham and Božovič, 29-95) during a period of social reformation aimed at the improvement of the individual. Like the power for social control over the incarcerated in a panopticon, police power, in order that it be effectively exercised, “had to be given the instrument of permanent, exhaustive, omnipresent surveillance, capable of making all visible … like a faceless gaze that transformed the whole social body into a field of perception” (Foucault, Surveiller et Punir, 213–4). In grappling with the impact of SOS for the individual and the collective in post-digital times, we can trace out these early ruminations on the complex documentary organisation through state-controlled apparatuses (such as inspectors and paid observers including “secret agents”) via Foucault (Surveiller et Punir, 214; Subject and Power, 326-7) for comparison to commercial operators like Facebook. Today, artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition technology (FRT), and closed-circuit television (CCTV) for video surveillance are used for social control of appropriate behaviours. Exemplified by governments and the private sector is the use of combined technologies to maintain social order, from ensuring citizens cross the street only on green lights, to putting rubbish in the correct recycling bin or be publicly shamed, to making cashless payments in stores. The actions see advantages for individual and collective safety, sustainability, and convenience, but also register forms of behaviour and attitudes with predictive capacities. This gives rise to suspicions about a permanent account of individuals’ behaviour over time. Returning to Foucault (Surveiller et Punir, 135), the impact of this finds a dissociation of power from the individual, whereby they become unwittingly impelled into pre-existing social structures, leading to a ‘normalisation’ and acceptance of such systems. If we are talking about the dark, anxiety is key for a Ministry of SOS. Following Foucault again (Subject and Power, 326-7), there is the potential for a crawling, creeping governance that was once distinct but is itself increasingly hidden and growing. A blanket call for some form of ongoing scrutiny of such proliferating powers might be warranted, but with it comes regulation that, while offering certain rights and protections, is not without consequences. For their part, a number of SOS platforms had little to no moderation for explicit content prior to December 2018, and in terms of power, notwithstanding important anxiety connected to arguments that children and the vulnerable need protections from those that would seek to take advantage, this was a crucial aspect of community building and self-expression that resulted in this freedom of expression. In unearthing the extent that individuals are empowered arising from the capacity to post sexual self-images, Tiidenberg ("Bringing Sexy Back") considered that through dark SOS (read here as unregulated) some users could work in opposition to the mainstream consumer culture that provides select and limited representations of bodies and their sexualities. This links directly to Mondin’s exploration of the abundance of queer and feminist pornography on dark SOS as a “counterpolitics of visibility” (288). This work resulted in a reasoned claim that the technological structure of dark SOS created a highly political and affective social space that users valued. What also needs to be underscored is that many users also believed that such a space could not be replicated on other mainstream SOS because of the differences in architecture and social norms. Cho (47) worked with this theory to claim that dark SOS are modern-day examples in a history of queer individuals having to rely on “underground economies of expression and relation”. Discussions such as these complicate what dark SOS might now become in the face of ‘adult’ content moderation and emerging tracking technologies to close sites or locate individuals that transgress social norms. Further, broader questions are raised about how content moderation fits in with the public space conceptualisations of SOS more generally. Increasingly, “there is an app for that” where being able to identify the poster of an image or an author of an unknown text is seen as crucial. While there is presently no standard approach, models for combining instance-based and profile-based features such as SVM for determining authorship attribution are in development, with the result that potentially far less content will remain hidden in the future (Bacciu et al.). 4. There’s Nothing New under the Sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9) For some, “[the] high hopes regarding the positive impact of the Internet and digital participation in civic society have faded” (Schwarzenegger, 99). My participant observation over some years in various SOS, however, finds that critical concern has always existed. Views move along the spectrum of thinking from deep scepticisms (Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil) to wondrous techo-utopian promises (Negroponte, Being Digital). Indeed, concerns about the (then) new technologies of wireless broadcasting can be compared with today’s anxiety over the possible effects of the internet and SOS. Inglis (7) recalls, here, too, were fears that humanity was tampering with some dangerous force; might wireless wave be causing thunderstorms, droughts, floods? Sterility or strokes? Such anxieties soon evaporated; but a sense of mystery might stay longer with evangelists for broadcasting than with a laity who soon took wireless for granted and settled down to enjoy the products of a process they need not understand. As the analogy above makes clear, just as audiences came to use ‘the wireless’ and later the internet regularly, it is reasonable to argue that dark SOS will also gain widespread understanding and find greater acceptance. Dark social spaces are simply the recent development of internet connectivity and communication more broadly. The dark SOS afford choice to be connected beyond mainstream offerings, which some users avoid for their perceived manipulation of content and user both. As part of the wider array of dark web services, the resilience of dark social spaces is reinforced by the proliferation of users as opposed to decentralised replication. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) can be used for anonymity in parallel to TOR access, but they guarantee only anonymity to the client. A VPN cannot guarantee anonymity to the server or the internet service provider (ISP). While users may use pseudonyms rather than actual names as seen on Facebook and other SOS, users continue to take to the virtual spaces they inhabit their off-line, ‘real’ foibles, problems, and idiosyncrasies (Chenault). To varying degrees, however, people also take their best intentions to their interactions in the dark. The hyper-efficient tools now deployed can intensify this, which is the great advantage attracting some users. In balance, however, in regard to online information access and dissemination, critical examination of what is in the public’s interest, and whether content should be regulated or controlled versus allowing a free flow of information where users self-regulate their online behaviour, is fraught. O’Loughlin (604) was one of the first to claim that there will be voluntary loss through negative liberty or freedom from (freedom from unwanted information or influence) and an increase in positive liberty or freedom to (freedom to read or say anything); hence, freedom from surveillance and interference is a kind of negative liberty, consistent with both libertarianism and liberalism. Conclusion The early adopters of initial iterations of SOS were hopeful and liberal (utopian) in their beliefs about universality and ‘free’ spaces of open communication between like-minded others. 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