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Martí Bosch

Publications and source records attributed to Martí Bosch.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Revisiting urban heat indices in Switzerland using low-cost measurement networks

Urban populations are increasingly exposed to extreme heat events such as heatwaves, which can be exacerbated in cities due to the urban heat island (UHI) effect. With the aim of developing adaptation strategies, recent years have seen a growing interest in deploying high-resolution measurement networks using low-cost devices (LCDs), which enable the evaluation of intra-urban temperature distribution and its impacts at an unprecedented spatial resolution. However, the reliability of LCD measurements has been called into question, especially regarding potential overheating due to inadequate radiation shielding. In this study, we develop a statistical method to correct temperature biases based on short-wave radiation using a generalized additive model (GAM) and then apply it to LCD measurements in the urban climate networks of the cities of Bern, Lausanne, Neuchatel and Zurich (Switzerland). To that end, we first calibrate the correction procedure to the LCD models used in each city using an intercomparison field study, in which the LCD models are collocated next to a professional automated weather station (AWS) operated by MeteoSwiss in the rural surroundings of Bern. Then, we evaluate how these corrections can influence two climate indices, namely the number of tropical nights and the number of heat warnings issued in each city according to MeteoSwiss heat warning system. The findings suggest that the current AWS underestimate the heat warnings, whereas some LCD models likely overestimate them due to radiative errors. Nevertheless, uncorrected LCD measurements still provide a more reliable estimate of urban temperatures than AWS located outside urban settings. The insights can guide selection of LCD models for new monitoring networks and support the application of model-specific radiative bias corrections to existing LCDs, enabling more accurate assessments of heat and its impacts.

physics.ao-ph

Regional biases in image geolocation estimation: a case study with the SenseCity Africa dataset

Advances in Artificial Intelligence are challenged by the biases rooted in the datasets used to train the models. In image geolocation estimation, models are mostly trained using data from specific geographic regions, notably the Western world, and as a result, they may struggle to comprehend the complexities of underrepresented regions. To assess this issue, we apply a state-of-the-art image geolocation estimation model (ISNs) to a crowd-sourced dataset of geolocated images from the African continent (SCA100), and then explore the regional and socioeconomic biases underlying the model's predictions. Our findings show that the ISNs model tends to over-predict image locations in high-income countries of the Western world, which is consistent with the geographic distribution of its training data, i.e., the IM2GPS3k dataset. Accordingly, when compared to the IM2GPS3k benchmark, the accuracy of the ISNs model notably decreases at all scales. Additionally, we cluster images of the SCA100 dataset based on how accurately they are predicted by the ISNs model and show the model's difficulties in correctly predicting the locations of images in low income regions, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, our results suggest that using IM2GPS3k as a training set and benchmark for image geolocation estimation and other computer vision models overlooks its potential application in the African context.

cs.CV

Husimi Functions for Coupled Optical Resonators

Phase-space analysis has been widely used in the past for the study of optical resonant systems. While it is usually employed to analyze the far-field behaviour of resonant systems we focus here on its applicability to coupling problems. By looking at the phase-space description of both the resonant mode and the exciting source it is possible to understand the coupling mechanisms as well as to gain insights and approximate the coupling behaviour with reduced computational efforts. In this work we develop the framework for this idea and apply it to a system of an asymmetric dielectric resonator coupled to a waveguide.

physics.optics

Nonhermitian defect states from lifetime differences

Nonhermitian systems provide new avenues to create topological defect states. An unresolved general question is how much the formation of these states depends on asymmetric backscattering, be it nonreciprocal as in the nonhermitian skin effect or reciprocal as encountered between the internal states of asymmetric microresonators. Here, we demonstrate in a concrete, practically accessible setting of a lossy coupled-resonator optical waveguide that nonhermitian defect states can exist in open optical systems due to lifetime differences, without the need for asymmetric backscattering within or between the individual resonators. We apply our findings to a finite system of coupled circular resonators perturbed by nanoparticles, following the concept of creating an interface by inverting the position of the nanoparticles in half of the chain. We compare a coupled-mode tight-binding approximation to full-wave numerical simulations, showing that spectrally isolated defect states can indeed be implemented in this simple nonhermitian photonic device.

physics.optics

Super-directional light emission and emission reversal from micro cavity arrays

Optical microdisk cavities with certain asymmetric shapes are known to possess unidirectional far-field emission properties. Here, we investigate arrays of these dielectric microresonators with respect to their emission properties resulting from the coherent behaviour of the coupled constituents. This approach is inspired by electronic mesoscopic physics where the additional interference effects are known to enhance the properties of the individual system. As an example we study the linear arrangement of nominally identical Limaçon-shaped cavities and find mostly an increase of the portion of directional emitted light while its angular spread is largely diminished from 20 degrees for the single cavity to about 3 degrees for a linear array of 10 Limaçon resonators, in fair agreement with a simple array model. Moreover, by varying the inter-cavity distance we observe windows of reversion of the emission directionality and super-directionality that can be interesting for applications. We introduce a generalized array factor model that takes the coupling into account.

physics.optics