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Pesticide residues as contaminants in agricultural soils
No full textIn this chapter, we focus on soil-pesticide monitoring data, emphasizing key findings and challenges such as legacy contamination and the interpretation of results. We also discuss the dual role of soils, as both a sink and source of pesticide residues, underlining the need for regular, harmonized, and holistic monitoring programs. Additionally, we provide recommendations for better assessing and preventing soil contamination by pesticide residues, including an initial attempt at defining relative benchmarks for pesticide residues in agricultural land. Given the high fragmentation of existing monitoring data, we chose not to conduct compound or crop-specific analyses, instead aiming for an overarching and whenever possible global perspective. Our focus is primarily on synthetic pesticides, used on most of agricultural land, and most relevant for regulatory and pesticide reduction efforts.JRC.D.3 - Land Resources and Supply Chain Assessment
Harvest date monitoring in cereal fields at large scale using dense stacks of Sentinel-2 imagery validated by Real Time Kinematic positioning data
No full textThis study presents an operational and robust method for detecting and dating cereal harvest events using temporal stacks of Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery and crop and fields border information from ancillary records. The proposed approach is exempt from training data, thereby enabling its application across diverse geographical contexts. The method was used to generate 10 m resolution maps of harvest dates for all wheat and barley fields in 2021, 2022, and 2023 in Castilla y León, a major cereal-producing region of Spain. This work also investigates the use of a reference dataset derived from real time kinematic records (RTK) in agricultural machinery as an alternative source of large-scale in situ data reference as for Earth observation-based agricultural products. The initial comparison of annual harvest date maps with the RTK-based reference datasets revealed that the temporal lag in the detection of harvest events between Earth observation-derived maps and reference harvest dates was less than 10 days for 65.7% of fields, while the temporal lag was between 10 and 30 days for 26.1% of the fields. The 3-year average root mean square error of the lag between harvest dates in the reference dataset and maps was 16.1 days. An in-depth visual analysis of the Sentinel-2 temporal series was carried out to understand and evaluate the potential and limitations of the RTK-based reference dataset. The visual inspection of a representative sample of 668 fields with large temporal lags revealed that the date of harvest of 41.11% of these fields had been correctly identified in the Sentinel-2 based maps and 16.43% of them had been incorrectly identified. The visual inspection could not find evidence of harvest in 10.52% of the analyzed fields. Monte Carlo simulations were parameterized using the findings of the visual inspection to build a series of synthetic reference datasets. Accuracy metrics calculated from synthetic datasets revealed that the quality of the harvest maps was higher than what the initial comparison against the RTK-based reference dataset suggested. The date of harvest was registered within 10 days in both the maps and the synthetic reference datasets for 90.5% of the fields, the root mean squared error of the comparison was 9.5 days, and harvest dates were registered in the Sentinel-2 based maps 2 days (median) after the dates registered in the reference dataset. These results highlight the feasibility of mapping harvest dates in cereal fields with time series of high-resolution satellite imagery and expose the potential use of alternative sources of calibration and validation datasets for Earth observation products. More generally, these results contribute to defining plausible targets for monitoring of agricultural practices with Earth observation data.JRC.D.5 - Food Securit
The Galileo-based UAV velocity: Doppler and Time-Differenced Carrier Phase
No full textAccurate GNSS navigation is crucial in several applications, e.g., automotive, aerospace, maritime, pedestrian and so on. In the aerospace domain, specifically in the UAV sector, the knowledge of the flying object dynamic is crucial, since such kind of navigation could be conducted in challenging scenario. On the one hand, the Doppler shift is one of the most common approaches to estimate the velocity of a vehicle equipped with a GNSS receiver. On other hand, the TDCP is a powerful technique, relying on carrier-phase, enabling millimetric-per-second accurate velocities. In this study, both techniques are adopted to estimate the velocity of GNSS receiver mounted on a UAV in kinematic and static scenario. Promising results have been obtained from TDCP, inspiring future and more detailed studies on the use of such a technique in the aerospace domain.JRC.E.2 - Space, Connectivity and Economic Securit
Nutrient retention in European lakes and rivers: a continental–scale ensemble models assessment
No full textNutrient retention in lakes and rivers is an essential regulating ecosystem service that protects downstream water bodies from nutrient excess, reducing anthropic impacts on aquatic habitats. Quantifying nutrient retention in freshwaters is important for basin management, but difficult as retention depends, among other things, on the spatial and temporal scales of interest. This study aimed at assessing freshwater nutrient retention in contemporary Europe at continental scale with an ensemble modeling exercise. We used the conceptual model GREEN, changing lake retention according to alternative formulations, generating six model versions for total nitrogen (TN), and seven for total phosphorus (TP). All versions were calibrated independently in six European regions, defined by the sea to which land drained to. Parameter sets that performed well in overall calibration and at stations downstream lakes formed the ensembles that were used to quantify freshwater retention over a decade (2012–2021). Ensemble median river retention was about 10% of incoming TN load and 6% TP load. Median lake retention was about 4% for TN and 6.5% for TP. Median freshwater retention amounted to 170 kg N yr−1 and 7.2 kg P yr−1 per km2 of drainage area. European freshwaters retained about 16% of incoming nitrogen and 13% of incoming phosphorus loads, preventing about 1066 kt N yr−1 and 49 kt P yr−1 to reaching the coastline. Nitrogen retention mostly occurred in rivers, whereas phosphorus retention occurred predominantly in lakes, however important regional differences were noted. The assessment likely underestimates the overall role of freshwater nutrient retention, as secondary streams, wetlands, and ponds were not considered explicitly. Nevertheless, it provides quantitative references for accounting of freshwaters ecosystem services at continental scale.JRC.D.2 - Ocean and Wate
The role of halides in the bonding and electronic structure of actinyl(VI) halides - energy match driven stability
No full textThe role of the equatorial ligands and their influence on the electronic structure and bonding properties of uranyl and other actinyls are not well understood and thus at the forefront of actinide research. In the study presented here, we found that the good energy match of uranyl(VI) with F- valence orbitals leads to substantial changes in the uranyl electronic structure, compared to uranyl-Cl- and uranyl-Br-. The good energy match between uranyl(VI) and F- likely enhances the stability of the uranyl-F- bond, contributing to the higher U-F- affinity in aqueous solution compared to uranyl-Cl-/Br-, which is also demonstrated for plutonyl(VI).
These findings are based on studies of equatorial and axial ligand covalency in three uranyl halides—NaRb8(UO2)5F19·2H2O, Rb2UO2Cl4·2H2O, and Rb2UO2Br4·2H2O. We describe covalent uranium-halide interactions, following the trend Br- ˜ Cl- > F-. Ligand K-edge XANES and DFT (including TDDFT and LFDFT) reveal significant electronic structure differences, with the F-based compound having a uranyl-based HOMO, while Cl- and Br-based compounds show predominant ligand p character in the HOMO. A newly introduced theoretical index evaluates bond covalency. U M4 edge HR-XANES and RIXS exhibit unexpected s* peak trends, not directly correlated with U=O bond lengths but well explained by LFDFT RIXS calculations.JRC.G.I.5 - Nuclear Science and Innovation for Energy and Healt
The Atlas of Data Science Research
No full textThe origin and evolution of Data Science (DS) have been a subject of ongoing debate, with perspectives varying across disciplines. Understanding the development of this field requires a data-driven approach that systematically analyzes the scientific literature and provides a practical method for its exploration. In this paper, we present the “Atlas of Data Science Research” (DS-Atlas), an interactive visualization tool designed to study the landscape of the DS field. The DS-Atlas is built on a dataset of approximately 1.3 million scientific publications from the Elsevier Scopus database, leveraging Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models, and dimensionality reduction techniques to generate a semantic representation of the DS research. The DS-Atlas provides interactive operations to explore the dataset by allowing users to focus on specific areas, filter by keywords and/or time periods, and uncover thematic connections and research trends. Examples of concrete tasks that can be addressed by DS-Atlas are discussed to show how the proposed solution can support scholars in the data-driven analysis of the data science literature. As a further DS-Atlas contribution, the paper illustrates an analysis of the Data Science discipline in terms of geographical distribution of influential authors, institutions, and journal in the field. The DS-Atlas is publicly available online for exploration and testing.JRC.S.3 - Science for Modelling, Monitoring and Evaluatio
Extensive fire-driven degradation in 2024 marks worst Amazon forest disturbance in over 2 decades
No full textThe Amazon rainforest, historically fire-resistant, is experiencing an alarming increase in wildfires due to climate extremes and human activity. The 2023–2024 drought, surpassing previous records, combined with forest fragmentation, has dramatically heightened fire vulnerability. Analysing the Tropical Moist Forest (TMF) and Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) datasets, we found a 152 % surge in forest disturbances from deforestation and degradation in 2024, reaching a 2-decade peak of 6.64 Mha (million hectares). Forest degradation, particularly large-scale degradation linked to fires, increased by over 400 %, largely exceeding deforestation. Brazil and Bolivia experienced the most severe impacts, with Bolivia seeing 9 % of its intact forest burned in 2024. Fire-driven forest degradation in the Pan-Amazon released 791 ± 86 Mt CO2 (million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, ±1 standard deviation) in 2024, a 7-fold increase compared to the previous 2 years, surpassing emissions from deforestation. The escalating fire occurrence, driven by climate change and unsustainable land use, threatens to push the Amazon towards a catastrophic tipping point. Urgent, coordinated efforts are crucial to mitigate these drivers and to prevent irreversible ecosystem damage.JRC.D.1 - Forests and Bio-Econom
Paying for Euroscepticism
Get PDFOver the past two decades, support for Eurosceptic parties has climbed from fringe to nearly one third of voters. Promising renewed prosperity through less European integration, these parties imply Euroscepticism is a ‘free lunch.’ Drawing on an original panel of 1,166 European NUTS 3 regions (2004 2023) and using fixed , random effects, and difference in differences designs, we test how rising Euroscepticism connects with regional economic and demographic outcomes. We track GDP per capita, productivity, employment, and population growth. We find that a region 10 points more Eurosceptic than another could have ended up with GDP per capita roughly 5% lower than the less Eurosceptic region, as the negative economic influence of Euroscepticism compounds across cycles and intensified after the financial and austerity crises. The same applies for productivity and employment. Demographic impacts are smaller but point in the same direction. Even without governing, Eurosceptic support appears to deter investment and raise uncertainty, deepening the very stagnation that fuels discontent. There is no free lunch: political backlash against European integration carries measurable costs for the regions that embrace it.JRC.B.3 - Territorial Developmen
The CEMS Meteorological Data Collection Centre Annual Report 2024
Get PDFThe Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) Meteorological Data Collection Centre (METEO) collects, quality-controls and post-processes in situ and ground-based remote sensed meteorological data to provide input data tailored to the needs of CEMS European Flood Awareness System, and the CEMS European Forest Fire Information System.
All data are quality-controlled. Data post-processing includes the calculation of minimum, maximum and mean values as well as the aggregation of totals over different accumulation periods. Data are then provided to CEMS as station lists or grids.
This report provides an overview of the data collection, quality control, and post-processing activities completed during the year 2024. In 2024, METEO collected real-time data for 11 parameters from 39 data providers and around 24,500 stations. On average, 9,500,000 records were added to the database each day. Furthermore, the database included more than 40,000 stations with historical data.
METEO constantly strives to improve the configuration of the database to enhance the product generation. A substantially revised data validation protocol was defined in 2023. In 2024, this protocol was implemented operationally and used for the quality control of near-real time and historic data. This effort led to an updated version of the European Meteorological Observation high-resolution multi-variable gridded dataset. Finally, this report suggests a future data collection strategy.
Meteorological Observation high-resolution multi-variable gridded dataset in 2024. Finally, an analysis on data availability led to a proposal for future data collection strategy.JRC.E.1 - Disaster Risk Managemen
Relative Velocity Estimation in a Cluster of CubeSats by Differential GNSS
No full textThe paper compares two Kalman Filters (KFs) to complement Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) method with a relative velocity estimate in the framework of CubeSat formation flying in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). One KF is a standard constant velocity implementation, whereas the second KF include relative dynamics through Hill’s model. Both filters are intended to support GNSS-based closed loop real-time on-board orbit control of relative separations in a cluster of CubeSats implementing the concept of Distributed Synthetic Aperture Radar (DSAR).JRC.E.2 - Space, Connectivity and Economic Securit