Search Results (15)

This article identifies different forms of poetic transport—understood in the sense of metaphor, transition, transfer, crossing and translation—in Hölderlin’s poem “Patmos”. There are several motifs scattered throughout the poem that semantically express a transition using highly metaphorical language: motifs reflecting on the mediation between the divine and the human, signalling the hybridization of Greek and Christian religion, and indicating transfer from ancient to modern thought. Initially, this article examines the metaphorical quality of language in contrast to its analytical capacity and proposes that the former—by seeking forms of transitions—enables mediation between the associative-affective reading of the text and the critical-analytic method of the scientific view. Hölderlin reflects on this fundamental issue as a result of his spatial transition to Regensburg. The article will further show that various forms of transfer sustain the entire poem: motifs ranging from an epochal transfer to the transition from a topographical space into the text, the superimposition of different figures and the transformation of the biblical narrative, as well as the crossing between the different layers of the draft and the poet’s task of a creative translation of various forms of encountering the world, all describe issues central to Patmos. Full article

Cultural heritage serves as a repository of a place’s history and identity, integral to its landscape and central to all three sustainability goals. However, managing and protecting cultural heritage through regulatory planning often proves inadequate. This particularly applies to islands where infrastructure development pressures and urban sprawl lead to significant changes. This study quantifies the impact of uncontrolled built-up area dispersion on islands’ cultural heritage, focusing on the Southern Aegean region. By identifying and delineating the boundaries of archaeological areas and historic sites, we assess pressures through the mapping and quantitative analysis of built-up areas derived from the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program. The results reveal spatial relations and potential conflicts, underscoring the insufficient protection of cultural heritage due to inadequate management and ineffective planning tools. Specifically, on islands like Mykonos and Naxos, over 80% of their archaeological areas are impacted by urban sprawl. Additionally, this study finds that six islands (Antiparos, Irakleia, Kea, Mykonos, Paros and Patmos) have over 60% of their built-up areas in exurban regions, exacerbating pressures on heritage sites. These findings highlight the need for an integrated spatial planning system that incorporates landscape and cultural heritage assets into strategic planning regulations, ensuring the preservation of these essential resources amidst ongoing development pressures. Full article

The Prague Circle, under the leadership of Max Brod (1884–1968), was a prominent literary group that flourished from 1900 to 1939. This era witnessed a struggle between emancipation and assimilation for German-speaking Jews within the Habsburg and German Empires. The Prague literati possessed a unique capacity for Dialogfähigkeit, which played a crucial role in safeguarding them against aggressive nationalism. The Patmos Circle, led by Martin Buber (1878–1965) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929), transformed this readiness for dialogue into dialogical thinking: a distinct capability and an action-plan to combat the prevailing forms of confessionalism and nationalism during that period. Taking the concept of Dialogfähigkeit as a crucial cornerstone of Prague and Patmos literary groups, this paper analyzes some of the key moments in its development. The aim of this paper is to highlight a certain cross-pollination of ideas between the Prague and Patmos groups without arguing for explicit vectors of influence between them. This article places the Patmos Circle in its proper context through an examination of their publication, the quarterly magazine Die Kreatur (1926–1930). By focusing on the concept of New Humanism and the end of history, this research will analyze two modernist masterpieces authored by members of the Patmos Circle: Karl Barth’s Römerbrief (1919) and Franz Rosenzweig’s Der Stern der Erlösung (1919). Through a study of the evolution of dialogical thinking within the Patmos Circle, I contend that the term “circle” is more appropriate than “school” to describe such associations, as it acknowledges the diverse and overlapping group interests that united its various members. What distinguishes the Patmos group from the literary-aesthetic circles in Prague is their commitment to eschatology within a critique of progress and their pursuit of a New Humanism based on the value of dialogue as a vital occurrence. Full article

Friedrich Hölderlin’s late hymns Patmos (first version) and Mnemosyne (early draft) create an intriguing tension between the “solid letter” that must be deciphered faithfully and the evocation of a “sounding script” that, together with an equally enigmatic “echo”, refuses direct hermeneutic understanding. At the point where the reader’s interpretive desire threatens to fail, musical settings like Peter Ruzicka’s MNEMOSYNE: Remembrance and Forgetting can be listened to as an attempt to actualize what Hölderlin’s original writing must leave unrealizable: the presence of real sound. In this audio-hermeneutic transfer, the act of listening opens up possibilities of the audible that are promised by the literary text without being actualized. The present essay interrogates this intermedial translatability between letter and sound by isolating a few selected passages from the facsimile reproduction of Hölderlin’s palimpsestic manuscript of multiple revisions, as provided by the Frankfurter Ausgabe. Mindful of the discontinuities and gaps in the original poems, my own analysis foregrounds its own fragmentary mode of reading Hölderlin’s poetry and listening to Ruzicka’s music. Full article

Climate change due to extended fossil fuel utilization strongly affects islands all over the world. Greece has a large number of islands of various sizes. As far as the electrification status and the climate surcharge of Greek islands is concerned, the current work is concentrated on the non-interconnected group of islands that cover their electricity demand on the basis of local oil-based thermal power stations. In this context, the EU-originated effort to drastically change the local electricity generation fuel mix was examined. More specifically, under the recent Territorial Just Transition Plan for the islands, a variety of actions is proposed in view of the “GReco-islands” initiative. Applying the proposed clean-green solution on a representative island (e.g., Patmos island), one may estimate the expected carbon dioxide emissions reduction. Finally, the necessary investments cost may be estimated due to the clean-green decarbonization actions implemented. Full article

Forty years of cloud observations are available globally from satellites, allowing derivation of climate data records (CDRs) for climate change studies. The aim of this study is to investigate how stable these cloud CDRs are and whether they qualify stability requirements recommended by the WMO’s Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). We also investigate robust trends in global total cloud amount (CA) and cloud top temperature (CTT) that are significant and common across all CDRs. The latest versions of four global cloud CDRs, namely CLARA-A3, ESA Cloud CCI, PATMOS-x, and ISCCP-HGM are analysed. This assessment finds that all three AVHRR-based cloud CDRs (i.e., CLARA-A3, ESA Cloud CCI and PATMOS-x) satisfy even the strictest GCOS stability requirements for CA and CTT when averaged globally. While CLARA-A3 is most stable in global averages when tested against MODIS-Aqua, PATMOS-x offers the most stable CDR spatially. While we find these results highly encouraging, there remain, however, large spatial differences in the stability of and across the CDRs. All four CDRs continue to agree on the statistically significant decrease in global cloud amount over the last four decades, although this decrease is now weaker compared to the previous assessments. This decreasing trend has been stabilizing or even reversing in the last two decades; the latter is seen also in MODIS-Aqua and CALIPSO GEWEX datasets. Statistically significant trends in CTT are observed in global averages in the AVHRR-based CDRs, but the spatial agreement in the sign and the magnitude of the trends is weaker compared to those in CA. We also present maps of Common Stability Coverage and Common Trend Coverage that could provide a valuable metric to carry out an ensemble-based analysis of the CDRs. Full article

This article aims to study the visual tradition of the Woman Clothed with the Sun from chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation in medieval times, in particular the formation, continuity and variations of the various iconographic types. For this purpose, we firstly approach the main sources, both the Book of Revelation and the exegesis or interpretation of the Church Fathers. Secondly, we analyse the first preserved representations (ninth to twelfth centuries) that correspond to examples of the Italian and French tradition and the Beatus from the Iberian tradition, works that, most likely, followed original models from the first centuries of Christianity that have now disappeared. This section is followed by the study of representations from between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries and the importance of the Anglo-Norman Apocalypses. The article closes with an iconological section in which the importance of the mulier as an ecclesiological symbol and, subsequently, its Marian interpretation is pointed out. Full article

Historic monuments in Greece represent part of the nation’s identity and, as such, they form a crucial part of local communities, not only culturally but also socially and economically. In the current paper, the design process of reconstructing a masonry two-story urban house from the late 19th century located in the historic center (Chorá) of a distant island in the Aegean Sea, Patmos, is discussed through related theories and actual design considerations. Chorá is protected as a UNESCO site; therefore, strict rules for the conservation of any structure enclosed within its boundaries apply. Analysis of the excavation findings and architectural drawings showing the current condition and the conservation proposal, together with the pathology of the building, as well as a structural analysis of the reconstructed structure, are thoroughly discussed in the present paper. These latter can serve as a record for the specific typology of the building and the processes engineers and architects must follow in order to obtain official permission to restore and even reconstruct collapsed parts of such traditional houses, while catering for climate change issues. The maintenance of the originality of the structure is of major importance and is thoroughly discussed, together with the detailed presentation of architectural and structural solutions serving this goal. Full article

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is regarded as the cleanest among fossil fuels due to its lower environmental impact. In power plants, it emits 50–60% less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared to regular oil or coal-fired plants. As the demand for a lower environmental footprint is increasing, fuel cells powered by LNG are starting to appear as a promising technology, especially suitable for off-grid applications, since they can supply both electricity and heating. This article presents a techno-economic assessment for an integrated system consisting of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack and a micro gas turbine (MGT) fueled by LNG, that feeds the waste heat to a multi-effect desalination system (MED) on the Greek island of Patmos. The partial or total replacement of the diesel engines on the non-interconnected island of Patmos with SOFC systems is investigated. The optimal system implementation is analyzed through a multi-stage approach that includes dynamic computational analysis, techno-economic evaluation of different scenarios using financial analysis and literature data, and analysis of the environmental and social impact on the island. Specific economic indicators such as payback, net present value, and internal rate of return were used to verify the economic feasibility of this system. Early results indicate that the most sensitive and important design parameter in the system is fuel cell capital cost, which has a significant effect on the balance between investment cost and repayment years. The results of this study also indicate that energy production with an LNG-fueled SOFC system is a promising solution for non-interconnected Greek islands, as an intermediate carrier prior to the long-term target of a CO₂-free economy. Full article

Clouds play an important role in the energy and moisture cycle of the earth–atmosphere system, which affects many important processes in nature and human societies. However, there are very few fine-grained and high-precision global cloud climatology data available for high-resolution models. In this paper, we produced a fine-grained (1 km resolution) global land cloud climatology (GLHCC) report based on MOD09 cloud masks from 2001 to 2016, with a temporal resolution of 10 days. The two improvements (short-wave infrared and Band 2/6 ratio threshold method) on the original MOD09 cloud mask have reduced the snow, ice, and bright areas mistakenly classified as clouds. The preliminary cloud products undergo the removal of orbital artifacts by Variational Stationary Noise Remover (VSNR) and the removal of abnormal albedo areas to generate the final cloud climatology data. The new product was directly validated by ground-based cloud observations collected from 3777 global weather stations. PATMOS-X from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and MOD/MYD35 served as comparison products for consistency check of GLHCC. The assessment results show that GLHCC demonstrated a strong correlation with ground station observations, MOD/MYD35, and PATMOS-X. When the ground observations were taken as the truth value, GLHCC and MOD/MYD35 displayed higher accuracy than PATMOS-X. In most selected interested areas where the three behave differently, GLHCC matched the facts better than MOD/MYD35 and PATMOS-X. The GLHCC can well represent the cloud distribution over the past 16 years and will play an important role in the fine-grained demands of many aspects of nature and human society. Full article

Contemporary analysis of the world that produced the Book of Revelation suggests that Patmos was not a penal settlement, and there is little evidence that Domitian systematically persecuted Christians. The Emperor Cult was widely practiced, but Christians were not being persecuted for lack of participation. The document makes much of God’s victory in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the slain and standing Lamb (Rev 5:6). The “saints” were not persecuted Asian Christians but, under the influence of the Book of Daniel, John’s presentation of those from Israel’s sacred history who lived by the Word of God and accepted the messianic witness of the prophets (8:3–4; 11:18; 13:7, 10; 14:12; 16:6; 17:6; 18:20, 24; 19:8; 20:6, 9). They already have life, the application of the saving effects of the slain and risen lamb “from the foundation of the world” (13:8). John addresses late first-century Asian Christians, presenting the model of these “saints,” offering them hope as they are tempted by the allure of the Greco-Roman world and its mores. He invites them into the life and light of the New Jerusalem, the Christian church (22:1–5). Full article

Results from four global cloud climate data records (ISCCP-HGM, ESA Cloud CCI V3, CLARA-A2 and PATMOS-x) have been inter-compared in global time series plots, in global maps and in zonal region plots covering the period in common, 1984–2009. The investigated cloud parameters were total cloud fraction and cloud top pressure. Averaged seasonal cycles of cloud cover, as observed by the CALIPSO-CALIOP sensor over the 2007–2015 period, were also used as an additional independent and high-quality reference for the study of global cloud cover. All CDRs show good agreement on global cloud amounts (~65%) and also a weak negative trend (0.5–1.9% per decade) over the period of investigation. Deviations between the CDRs are seen especially over the southern mid-latitude region and over the poles. Particularly good results are shown by PATMOS-x and by ESA Cloud CCI V3 when compared to the CALIPSO-CALIOP reference. Results for cloud top pressure show large differences (~60 hPa) between ISCCP-HGM and the other CDRs for the global mean. The two CDR groups show also opposite signs in the trend over the period. Full article

The CM SAF Cloud Fractional Cover dataset from Meteosat First and Second Generation (COMET, https://doi.org/10.5676/EUM_SAF_CM/CFC_METEOSAT/V001) covering 1991–2015 has been recently released by the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility for Climate Monitoring (CM SAF). COMET is derived from the MVIRI and SEVIRI imagers aboard geostationary Meteosat satellites and features a Cloud Fractional Cover (CFC) climatology in high temporal (1 h) and spatial (0.05° × 0.05°) resolution. The CM SAF long-term cloud fraction climatology is a unique long-term dataset that resolves the diurnal cycle of cloudiness. The cloud detection algorithm optimally exploits the limited information from only two channels (broad band visible and thermal infrared) acquired by older geostationary sensors. The underlying algorithm employs a cyclic generation of clear sky background fields, uses continuous cloud scores and runs a naïve Bayesian cloud fraction estimation using concurrent information on cloud state and variability. The algorithm depends on well-characterized infrared radiances (IR) and visible reflectances (VIS) from the Meteosat Fundamental Climate Data Record (FCDR) provided by EUMETSAT. The evaluation of both Level-2 (instantaneous) and Level-3 (daily and monthly means) cloud fractional cover (CFC) has been performed using two reference datasets: ground-based cloud observations (SYNOP) and retrievals from an active satellite instrument (CALIPSO/CALIOP). Intercomparisons have employed concurrent state-of-the-art satellite-based datasets derived from geostationary and polar orbiting passive visible and infrared imaging sensors (MODIS, CLARA-A2, CLAAS-2, PATMOS-x and CC4CL-AVHRR). Averaged over all reference SYNOP sites on the monthly time scale, COMET CFC reveals (for 0–100% CFC) a mean bias of −0.14%, a root mean square error of 7.04% and a trend in bias of −0.94% per decade. The COMET shortcomings include larger negative bias during the Northern Hemispheric winter, lower precision for high sun zenith angles and high viewing angles, as well as an inhomogeneity around 1995/1996. Yet, we conclude that the COMET CFC corresponds well to the corresponding SYNOP measurements, and it is thus useful to extend in both space and time century-long ground-based climate observations. Full article

An important component of the AVHRR PATMOS-x climate date record (CDR)—or any satellite cloud climatology—is the performance of its cloud detection scheme and the subsequent quality of its cloud fraction CDR. PATMOS-x employs the NOAA Enterprise Cloud Mask for this, which is based on a naïve Bayesian approach. The goal of this paper is to generate analysis of the PATMOS-x cloud fraction CDR to facilitate its use in climate studies. Performance of PATMOS-x cloud detection is compared to that of the well-established MYD35 and CALIPSO products from the EOS A-Train. Results show the AVHRR PATMOS-x CDR compares well against CALIPSO with most regions showing proportional correct values of 0.90 without any spatial filtering and 0.95 when a spatial filter is applied. Values are similar for the NASA MODIS MYD35 mask. A direct comparison of PATMOS-x and MYD35 from 2003 to 2014 also shows agreement over most regions in terms of mean cloud amount, inter-annual variability, and linear trends. Regional and seasonal differences are discussed. The analysis demonstrates that PATMOS-x cloud amount uncertainty could effectively screen regions where PATMOS-x differs from MYD35. Full article

Continuous satellite-derived cloud records now extend over three decades, and are increasingly used for climate applications. Certain applications, such as trend detection, require a clear understanding of uncertainty as it relates to establishing statistical significance. The use of reanalysis products as sources of ancillary data could be construed as one such source of uncertainty, as there has been discussion regarding the suitability of reanalysis products for trend detection. Here we use three reanalysis products: Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) and European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) ERA-Interim (ERA-I) as sources of ancillary data for the Pathfinder Atmospheres Extended/Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (PATMOS-x/AVHRR) Satellite Cloud Climate Data Record (CDR), and perform inter-comparisons to determine how sensitive the climatology is to choice of ancillary data source. We find differences among reanalysis fields required for PATMOS-x processing, which translate to small but not insignificant differences in retrievals of cloud fraction, cloud top height and cloud optical depth. The retrieval variability due to choice of reanalysis product is on the order of one third the size of the retrieval uncertainty, making it a potentially significant factor in trend detection. Cloud fraction trends were impacted the most by choice of reanalysis while cloud optical depth trends were impacted the least. Metrics used to determine the skill of the reanalysis products for use as ancillary data found no clear best choice for use in PATMOS-x. We conclude use of reanalysis products as ancillary data in the PATMOS-x/AVHRR Cloud CDR do not preclude its use for trend detection, but for that application uncertainty in reanalysis fields should be better represented in the PATMOS-x retrieval uncertainty. Full article