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Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for the estimation of root-zone soil water content (SWC) at the scale of several hectares. In this paper, we present the data recorded by a dense CRNS network operated from 2019 to 2022 at an agricultural research site in Marquardt, Germany – the first multi-year CRNS cluster. Consisting, at its core, of eight permanently installed CRNS sensors, the cluster was supplemented by a wealth of complementary measurements: data from seven additional temporary CRNS sensors, partly co-located with the permanent ones; 27 SWC profiles (mostly permanent); two groundwater observation wells; meteorological records; and Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R). Complementary to these continuous measurements, numerous campaign-based activities provided data by mobile CRNS roving, hyperspectral imagery via UASs, intensive manual sampling of soil properties (SWC, bulk density, organic matter, texture, soil hydraulic properties), and observations of biomass and snow (cover, depth, and density). The unique temporal coverage of 3 years entails a broad spectrum of hydro-meteorological conditions, including exceptional drought periods and extreme rainfall but also episodes of snow coverage, as well as a dedicated irrigation experiment. Apart from serving to advance CRNS-related retrieval methods, this data set is expected to be useful for various disciplines, for example, soil and groundwater hydrology, agriculture, or remote sensing. Hence, we show exemplary features of the data set in order to highlight the potential for such subsequent studies.

Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for the estimation of root-zone soil water content (SWC) at the scale of several hectares. In this paper, we present the data recorded by a dense CRNS network operated from 2019 to 2022 at an agricultural research site in Marquardt, Germany – the first multi-year CRNS cluster. Consisting, at its core, of eight permanently installed CRNS sensors, the cluster was supplemented by a wealth of complementary measurements: data from seven additional temporary CRNS sensors, partly co-located with the permanent ones; 27 SWC profiles (mostly permanent); two groundwater observation wells; meteorological records; and Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R). Complementary to these continuous measurements, numerous campaign-based activities provided data by mobile CRNS roving, hyperspectral imagery via UASs, intensive manual sampling of soil properties (SWC, bulk density, organic matter, texture, soil hydraulic properties), and observations of biomass and snow (cover, depth, and density). The unique temporal coverage of 3 years entails a broad spectrum of hydro-meteorological conditions, including exceptional drought periods and extreme rainfall but also episodes of snow coverage, as well as a dedicated irrigation experiment. Apart from serving to advance CRNS-related retrieval methods, this data set is expected to be useful for various disciplines, for example, soil and groundwater hydrology, agriculture, or remote sensing. Hence, we show exemplary features of the data set in order to highlight the potential for such subsequent studies.

Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for the estimation of root-zone soil water content (SWC) at the scale of several hectares. In this paper, we present the data recorded by a dense CRNS network operated from 2019 to 2022 at an agricultural research site in Marquardt, Germany – the first multi-year CRNS cluster. Consisting, at its core, of eight permanently installed CRNS sensors, the cluster was supplemented by a wealth of complementary measurements: data from seven additional temporary CRNS sensors, partly co-located with the permanent ones; 27 SWC profiles (mostly permanent); two groundwater observation wells; meteorological records; and Global Navigation Satellite System reflectometry (GNSS-R). Complementary to these continuous measurements, numerous campaign-based activities provided data by mobile CRNS roving, hyperspectral imagery via UASs, intensive manual sampling of soil properties (SWC, bulk density, organic matter, texture, soil hydraulic properties), and observations of biomass and snow (cover, depth, and density). The unique temporal coverage of 3 years entails a broad spectrum of hydro-meteorological conditions, including exceptional drought periods and extreme rainfall but also episodes of snow coverage, as well as a dedicated irrigation experiment. Apart from serving to advance CRNS-related retrieval methods, this data set is expected to be useful for various disciplines, for example, soil and groundwater hydrology, agriculture, or remote sensing. Hence, we show exemplary features of the data set in order to highlight the potential for such subsequent studies.

High peak current electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) are capable to drive a particle driven wakefield (PWFA) in a subsequent stage. The intrinsic short duration of these driver beams opens the possibility for PWFA studies in a higher density regime of the order of 1018·cm-3. Since optical probing provides a reasonable contrast at this density range, direct insight into the particle-driven wakefields is possible. Here we present the results of femtosecond optical probing of such beam driven wakefields, showing pronounced differences in the morphology of beam driven plasma waves when surrounded by either neutral gas or a broad pre-generated plasma channel. Moreover, the shape and size of the first cavity of the wakefields correlates with the driver beam charge. The experimental results are supported by 3D particle-in-cell simulations performed with PIConGPU. This method can be extended to a detailed study of driver charge depletion by probing the evolution of the wakefield as it propagates through the plasma. This is an important step for further understanding and optimization of high energy efficiency PWFAs.

High peak current electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) are capable to drive a particle driven wakefield (PWFA) in a subsequent stage. The intrinsic short duration of these driver beams opens the possibility for PWFA studies in a higher density regime of the order of 1018·cm-3. Since optical probing provides a reasonable contrast at this density range, direct insight into the particle-driven wakefields is possible. Here we present the results of femtosecond optical probing of such beam driven wakefields, showing pronounced differences in the morphology of beam driven plasma waves when surrounded by either neutral gas or a broad pre-generated plasma channel. Moreover, the shape and size of the first cavity of the wakefields correlates with the driver beam charge. The experimental results are supported by 3D particle-in-cell simulations performed with PIConGPU. This method can be extended to a detailed study of driver charge depletion by probing the evolution of the wakefield as it propagates through the plasma. This is an important step for further understanding and optimization of high energy efficiency PWFAs.

High peak current electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) are capable to drive a particle driven wakefield (PWFA) in a subsequent stage. The intrinsic short duration of these driver beams opens the possibility for PWFA studies in a higher density regime of the order of 1018·cm-3. Since optical probing provides a reasonable contrast at this density range, direct insight into the particle-driven wakefields is possible. Here we present the results of femtosecond optical probing of such beam driven wakefields, showing pronounced differences in the morphology of beam driven plasma waves when surrounded by either neutral gas or a broad pre-generated plasma channel. Moreover, the shape and size of the first cavity of the wakefields correlates with the driver beam charge. The experimental results are supported by 3D particle-in-cell simulations performed with PIConGPU. This method can be extended to a detailed study of driver charge depletion by probing the evolution of the wakefield as it propagates through the plasma. This is an important step for further understanding and optimization of high energy efficiency PWFAs.

High peak current electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) are capable to drive a particle driven wakefield (PWFA) in a subsequent stage. The intrinsic short duration of these driver beams opens the possibility for PWFA studies in a higher density regime of the order of 1018·cm-3. Since optical probing provides a reasonable contrast at this density range, direct insight into the particle-driven wakefields is possible. Here we present the results of femtosecond optical probing of such beam driven wakefields, showing pronounced differences in the morphology of beam driven plasma waves when surrounded by either neutral gas or a broad pre-generated plasma channel. Moreover, the shape and size of the first cavity of the wakefields correlates with the driver beam charge. The experimental results are supported by 3D particle-in-cell simulations performed with PIConGPU. This method can be extended to a detailed study of driver charge depletion by probing the evolution of the wakefield as it propagates through the plasma. This is an important step for further understanding and optimization of high energy efficiency PWFAs.

High peak current electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators (LWFA) are capable to drive a particle driven wakefield (PWFA) in a subsequent stage. The intrinsic short duration of these driver beams opens the possibility for PWFA studies in a higher density regime of the order of 1018·cm-3. Since optical probing provides a reasonable contrast at this density range, direct insight into the particle-driven wakefields is possible. Here we present the results of femtosecond optical probing of such beam driven wakefields, showing pronounced differences in the morphology of beam driven plasma waves when surrounded by either neutral gas or a broad pre-generated plasma channel. Moreover, the shape and size of the first cavity of the wakefields correlates with the driver beam charge. The experimental results are supported by 3D particle-in-cell simulations performed with PIConGPU. This method can be extended to a detailed study of driver charge depletion by probing the evolution of the wakefield as it propagates through the plasma. This is an important step for further understanding and optimization of high energy efficiency PWFAs.

Monitoring soil moisture is still a challenge: it varies strongly in space and time and at various scales while conventional sensors typically suffer from small spatial support. With a sensor footprint up to several hectares, cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a modern technology to address that challenge. So far, the CRNS method has typically been applied with single sensors or in sparse national-scale networks. This study presents, for the first time, a dense network of 24 CRNS stations that covered, from May to July 2019, an area of just 1 km(2): the pre-Alpine Rott headwater catchment in Southern Germany, which is characterized by strong soil moisture gradients in a heterogeneous landscape with forests and grasslands. With substantially overlapping sensor footprints, this network was designed to study root-zone soil moisture dynamics at the catchment scale. The observations of the dense CRNS network were complemented by extensive measurements that allow users to study soil moisture variability at various spatial scales: roving (mobile) CRNS units, remotely sensed thermal images from unmanned areal systems (UASs), permanent and temporary wireless sensor networks, profile probes, and comprehensive manual soil sampling. Since neutron counts are also affected by hydrogen pools other than soil moisture, vegetation biomass was monitored in forest and grassland patches, as well as meteorological variables; discharge and groundwater tables were recorded to support hydrological modeling experiments. As a result, we provide a unique and comprehensive data set to several research communities: to those who investigate the retrieval of soil moisture from cosmic-ray neutron sensing, to those who study the variability of soil moisture at different spatiotemporal scales, and to those who intend to better understand the role of rootzone soil moisture dynamics in the context of catchment and groundwater hydrology, as well as land-atmosphere exchange processes. The data set is a

Remote sensing can be a valuable tool for supporting nature conservation monitoring systems. However, for many areas of conservation interest, there is still a considerable gap between field-based operational monitoring guidelines and the current remote sensing-based approaches. This hampers application in practice of the latter. Here, we propose a remote sensing approach for mapping the conservation status of Calluna-dominated Natura 2000 dwarf shrub habitats that is closely related to field mapping schemes. We transferred the evaluation criteria of the field guidelines to three related variables that can be captured by remote sensing: (1) coverage of the key species, (2) stand structural diversity, and (3) co-occurring species. Continuous information on these variables was obtained by regressing ground reference data from field surveys and UAV flights against airborne hyperspectral imagery. Merging the three resulting quality layers in an RGB representation allowed for illustrating the habitat quality in a continuous way. User-defined thresholds can be applied to this stack of quality layers to derive an overall assessment of habitat quality in terms of nature conservation, i.e. the conservation status.In our study, we found good accordance of the remotely sensed data with field-based information for the three variables key species, stand structural diversity and co-occurring vegetation (R2 of 0.79, 0.69, and 0.71, respectively) and it was possible to derive meaningful habitat quality maps. The conservation status could be derived with an accuracy of 65%. In interpreting these results it should be considered that the remote sensing based layers are independent estimates of habitat quality in their own right and not a mere replacement of the criteria used in the field guidelines. The approach is thought to be transferable to similar regions with minor adaptions.Our results refer to Calluna heathland which we consider a comparably easy target for remote sensing. Hen

Forest biochemical and biophysical variables and their spatial and temporal distribution are essential inputs to process-orientated ecosystem models. To provide this information, imaging spectroscopy appears to be a promising tool. In this context, the present study investigates the potential of spectral unmixing to derive sub-pixel crown component fractions in a temperate deciduous forest ecosystem. However, the high proportion of foliage in this complex vegetation structure leads to the problem of saturation effects, when applying broadband vegetation indices. This study illustrates that multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) can contribute to overcoming this challenge. Reference fractional abundances, as well as spectral measurements of the canopy components, could be precisely determined from a crane measurement platform situated in a deciduous forest in North-East Germany. In contrast to most other studies, which only use leaf and soil endmembers, this experimental setup allowed for the inclusion of a bark endmember for the unmixing of components within the canopy. This study demonstrates that the inclusion of additional endmembers markedly improves the accuracy. A mean absolute error of 7.9% could be achieved for the fractional occurrence of the leaf endmember and 5.9% for the bark endmember. In order to evaluate the results of this field-based study for airborne and satellite-based remote sensing applications, a transfer to Airborne Imaging Spectrometer for Applications (AISA) and simulated Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) and Sentinel-2 imagery was carried out. All sensors were capable of unmixing crown components with a mean absolute error ranging between 3% and 21%.

Autoantibody formation is essential for the development of certain autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Anti-type II collagen (CII) antibodies are found in RA patients; they interact with cartilage in vivo and are often highly pathogenic in the mouse. Autoreactivity to CII is directed to multiple epitopes and conserved between mice and humans. We have previously mapped the antibody response to CII in a heterogeneous stock cohort of mice, with a strong association with the IgH locus. We positioned the genetic polymorphisms and determined the structural requirements controlling antibody recognition of one of the major CII epitopes. Polymorphisms at positions S31R and W33T of the associated variable heavy chain (VH) allele were identified and confirmed by gene sequencing. The Fab fragment binding the J1 epitope was crystallized, and site-directed mutagenesis confirmed the importance of those two variants for antigen recognition. Back mutation to germline sequence provided evidence for a preexisting recognition of the J1 epitope. These data demonstrate a genetic association of epitope-specific antibody responses with specific VH alleles, and it highlights the importance of germline-encoded antibodies in the pathogenesis of antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases.

Neutral thermospheric wind pattern at high latitudes obtained from cross-track acceleration measurements of the CHAMP satellite above both polar regions are used to deduce statistical neutral wind vorticity distributions and were analyzed in their dependence on the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). The average pattern confirms the large duskside anticyclonic vortex seen in the average wind pattern and reveals a cyclonic vorticity on the dawnside, which is almost equal in magnitude to the duskside minimum. The outer shape of the vorticity pattern agrees approximately with the outer boundary of region-1 currents in the well-known average current distributions of Iijima and Potemra (1976) The IMF dependence of the vorticity pattern resembles the characteristic FAC and ionospheric plasma drift pattern known from various statistical studies obtained under the same sorting conditions., Space Engineering, Aerospace Engineering

Neutral thermospheric wind pattern at high latitudes obtained from cross-track acceleration measurements of the CHAMP satellite above both polar regions are used to deduce statistical neutral wind vorticity distributions and were analyzed in their dependence on the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF). The average pattern confirms the large duskside anticyclonic vortex seen in the average wind pattern and reveals a cyclonic vorticity on the dawnside, which is almost equal in magnitude to the duskside minimum. The outer shape of the vorticity pattern agrees approximately with the outer boundary of region-1 currents in the well-known average current distributions of Iijima and Potemra (1976) The IMF dependence of the vorticity pattern resembles the characteristic FAC and ionospheric plasma drift pattern known from various statistical studies obtained under the same sorting conditions., Space Engineering, Aerospace Engineering

The report of the bovine chromosome 4 (BTA4) workshop is presented. Six laboratories contributed a total of 30 168 informative meioses from 62 loci. Twenty-two loci were typed by at least two independent laboratories and were used to construct a consensus linkage map of BTA4. The remaining 40 loci were subsequently incorporated into a comprehensive map. The sex-averaged consensus map covered 131 ·4 cM. The female map was 124 ·3 cM in length, while the male map was 134 ·3 cM. The comprehensive sex-averaged map spanned 141 ·6 cM. The length of the female and male comprehensive maps were 123 ·1 cM and 156 ·4 cM, respectively. Average genetic distance between loci was 6 and 2 ·3 cM for the consensus and comprehensive linkage maps, respectively.