Borexino, a large volume detector for low energy neutrino spectroscopy, is currently running underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy. The main goal of the experiment is the real-time measurement of sub MeV solar neutrinos, and particularly of the mono energetic (862 keV) Be7 electron capture neutrinos, via neutrino-electron scattering in an ultra-pure liquid scintillator. This paper is mostly devoted to the description of the detector structure, the photomultipliers, the electronics, and the trigger and calibration systems. The real performance of the detector, which always meets, and sometimes exceeds, design expectations, is also shown. Some important aspects of the Borexino project, i.e. the fluid handling plants, the purification techniques and the filling procedures, are not covered in this paper and are, or will be, published elsewhere (see Introduction and Bibliography)

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Abstract. The coupling of hydrological distributed models to numerical weather prediction outputs is an important issue for hydrological applications such as forecasting of flood events. Downscaling meteorological predictions to the hydrological scales requires the resolution of two fundamental issues regarding precipitation, namely, (1) understanding the statistical properties and scaling laws of rainfall fields and (2) validation of downscaling models that are able to preserve statistical characteristics observed in real precipitation. In this paper we discuss the first issue by introducing a new multifractal model that appears particularly suitable for random generation of synthetic rainfall. We argue that the results presented in this paper may be also