Remote sensing science is increasingly being used to support archaeological and cultural heritage research in various ways. Satellite sensors either passive or active are currently used in a systematic basis to detect buried archaeological remains and to systematic monitor tangible heritage. In addition, airborne and low altitude systems are being used for documentation purposes. Ground surveys using remote sensing tools such as spectroradiometers and ground penetrating radars can detect variations of vegetation and soil respectively, which are linked to the presence of underground archaeological features. Education activities and training of remote sensing archaeology to young people is characterized of highly importance. Specific remote sensing tools relevant for archaeological research can be developed including web tools, small libraries, interactive learning games etc. These tools can be then combined and aligned with archaeology and cultural heritage. This can be achieved by presenting historical and pre-historical records, excavated sites or even artifacts under a "remote sensing" approach. Using such non-form educational approach, the students can be involved, ask, read, and seek to learn more about remote sensing and of course to learn about history. The paper aims to present a modern didactical concept and some examples of practical implementation of remote sensing archaeology in secondary schools in Cyprus. The idea was built upon an ongoing project (ATHENA) focused on the sue of remote sensing for archaeological research in Cyprus. Through H2020 ATHENA project, the Remote Sensing Science and Geo-Environment Research Laboratory at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), with the support of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) aims to enhance its performance in all these new technologies.
Although cultural heritage sites are documented and preserved, to date there has been limited monitoring and documentation of how cultural heritage sites are affected by air pollution. This paper aims to introduce a new approach for monitoring air pollution for areas near cultural heritage sites by using satellite remotely sensed data. This approach provides a cost-effective tool for local authorities and government agencies to identify the most polluted cultural heritage sites and make decisions regarding the conservation of these sites. Archived data may be used in order to study long term the impact of air pollution to cultural heritage sites. The study area includes significant open air monuments of Cyprus located in the four main cities of the island. In this paper the Limassol Castle is used as a focused case study. Three years of MODIS satellite data was evaluated and analyzed in order to categorize high risk long-term areas. Ground measurements using sun-photometers, spectroradiometers and particulate matter (PM10) laser photometer were also utilized in the study. The darkest pixel atmospheric correction in conjunction with the use of the radiative transfer equation was applied to retrieve the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) from Landsat TM/ETM+ satellite images in order also to cross-validate the AOT values found from MODIS and sun-photometers. The results of the study indicate that air pollution is high in all the major cities in Cyprus near cultural heritage sites. The results also found that the Limassol castle was most affected by air pollution, while the other cultural heritage sites exhibited similar results.
<p>The EXCELSIOR project aims to upgrade the existing ERATOSTHENES Research Centre established within the Cyprus University of Technology into a sustainable, viable and autonomous ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence (ECoE) for Earth Surveillance and Space-Based Monitoring of the Environment. The ECoE for Earth Surveillance and Space-Based Monitoring of the Environment will provide the highest quality of related services both on the National, European and International levels through the &#8216;EXCELSIOR&#8217; Project under H2020 WIDESPREAD TEAMING. The vision of the ECoE is to become a world-class Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) for Earth observation and Geospatial Information becoming the reference Centre in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and North Africa (EMMENA) within the next 7 years. The ECoE will lead multidisciplinary Earth observation research towards a better understanding, monitoring and sustainable exploitation and protection of the physical, built and human environment, in line with International policy frameworks. Indeed, the scientific potential of the new upgraded ECoE focusing on the integration of novel Earth observation, space and ground based integrated technologies for the efficient systematic monitoring of the environment. Furthermore, ECoE aims to excel in five domains: &#160;i) Access to energy; ii) Disaster Risk Reduction; iii) Water Resource Management; iv) Climate Change Monitoring and v) Big Earth observation Data Analytics. This will be achieved through research and innovation excellence in the respective scientific and technological disciplines and working together with other Earth observation industries, whereby the ECoE will develop a pool of scientific expertise and engineering capability as well as technical facilities. The partners of the EXCELSIOR consortium include the Cyprus University of Technology as the Coordinator, the German Airspace Center (DLR), the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) and the Department of Electronic Communications, of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works of Cyprus.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;</p><p>The EXCELSIOR project has received funding from the European Union&#8217;s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 857510 and from the Government of the Republic of Cyprus through the Directorate General for the European Programmes, Coordination and Development.</p>
<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> An unusually strong dust outbreak towards Cyprus occurred in September 2015. Mass concentrations exceeding 10 000 &#956;g/m<sup>3</sup> were estimated from visibility studies at Limassol (visibilities around 500 m on 8 September). Surprisingly, dust transport models failed to predict this record dust event. We present MODIS products (aerosol optical thickness AOT), surface PM<sub>10</sub> observations, visibility studies, and lidar profiling results (covering the main dust period from 7&#8211;11 September 2015). Vertical aerosol layering was dominated by a two-layer structure with layers from the ground to 1500 m and from about 1500&#8211;3500 m height. The maximum dust AOT reached probably values between 6&#8211;10 and was higher than 1 over Cyprus for more than three days. Dust particle extinction coefficients (532 nm) and mass concentrations up to 1300 Mm<sup>&#8722;1</sup> and 2700 &#956;g/m<sup>3</sup>, respectively, were observed with lidar in the elevated layers on 7 September, when first dense dust plumes crossed the EARLINET lidar station at Limassol. Raman lidar retrievals yield typical Middle East dust lidar ratios of 35&#8211;45 sr at 532 nm. The 532 nm particle linear depolarization ratio assumed values around 0.3.</p>
<p>Cyprus is strategically located in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa (EMMENA). As a crossroad between Europe, Asia and Africa, it is representative of meteorological conditions and coastal areas in the EMMENA region.</p> <p>Incomplete coverage with ground monitoring stations is the main limitation to make fast and significant progress in understanding the complex climate-relevant atmospheric processes around the globe and thus to improve atmospheric models used for climate change projections and extreme weather predictions. Although satellites can continuously monitor the atmosphere on a regional to global scale, they must be ground-calibrated and validated in order to incorporate satellite data into atmospheric models.</p> <p>Cyprus, and especially Limassol as a coastal city, can be considered an ideal natural laboratory for advanced and comprehensive field studies on climate change, aerosol-cloud-dynamics-precipitation interaction, and the weather-precipitation-dryness complex, providing additionally valuable ground truthing observations for satellite missions.</p> <p>The vision of the ERATOSTHENES Research Centre (ERC) in Cyprus is to become a Centre of Excellence for Earth Surveillance and Space-Based Monitoring of the Environment, in the framework of the EU H2020 Teaming project EXCELSIOR. Within this vision, a modern observational super site in Cyprus is of fundamental importance and will be build up for long-term profiling of the atmosphere (wind, humidity, aerosol and cloud properties, precipitation fields), in one of the hot spots of climate change increasing extreme weather events.</p> <p>The ERATOSTHENES station in Limassol, Cyprus with the current instrumentation (EARLINET Raman depolarization lidar) follows the CAL/VAL activities of the AEOLUS satellite launched August 2018 through the participation to the VADAM project. Selected cases that demonstrate the complex aerosol and meteorological conditions over Eastern Mediterranean will be presented as well as lidar observations during AEOLUS overpasses over Cyprus.</p> <p>Acknowledgements</p> <p>The authors acknowledge the EXCELSIOR H2020-WIDESPREAD-04-2017: Teaming Phase2 project under grant agreement No 857510, ACTRIS and the ESA AEOLUS CAL/VAL VADAM project (27409). CUT team acknowledge Research and Innovation Foundation for the financial support through the SIROCCO (EXCELLENCE/1216/0217) and AQ-SERVE (INTERGRATED/0916/0016) projects.</p>
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