Surface snowfall rate estimates from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission’s core satellite sensors and CloudSat radar are compared to those from the Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) radar composite product generated over the continental United States (CONUS). The considered algorithms include: Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) product and its single frequency counterparts (Ka- and Ku-only); the combined DPR and multifrequency microwave imager (CORRA) product; the CloudSat SnowProfile product (2C-SNOW-PROFILE); two passive microwave products i.e. the Goddard PROFiling algorithm (GPROF) and the Snow retrievaL ALgorithm fOr gMi (SLALOM). The spaceborne and ground-based snowfall products are collocated spatially and temporally and compared at the spatial resolution of spaceborne instruments over the period spanning from January 2016 to March 2020 (4 winters). Detection capabilities of the sensors is assessed in terms of the most commonly used forecast metrices (Probability of Detection, False Alarm Ratio, etc.) whereas precision of the products is quantified by the mean error (ME) and root-mean-square-error (RMSE). 2C-SNOW product agrees with MRMS by far better than any other product. Passive microwave algorithms tend to detect more precipitation events than the DPR and CORRA retrievals, but they also trigger more false alarms. Due to limited sensitivity, DPR detects only approx. 30% of the snow events. All the retrievals underestimate snowfall rates, for the detected snowstorms they produce approximately only a half of the precipitation reported by MRMS. Large discrepancies (RMSE from 0.7 to 2.5 mm/h) between spaceborne and ground-based snowfall rate estimates is the result of limitations of both systems and complex ice scattering properties. The MRMS product is based on a power law relation and it has difficulties in detecting precipitation at far ranges; the DPR system is affected by low sensitivity while the GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) measurements are affected by the confounding effect of the background surface emissivity for snow-covered surfaces and of the emission of supercooled liquid droplet layers.

In the call of 2015, the European Geosciences Union funded the workshop “Water as hazard and water as heritage”, to take place in Rome in the consecutive year. The frame for the workshop was given by the “Spazi aperti” (=open spaces) event at the Accademia di Romania a Roma, where the convener (Maria Bostenaru Dan) was a fellow that time on a topic related to water and architecture. Spazi aperti XIV, the edition of 2016, was curated by Roxana Mihaly, former fellow of Accademia di Romania a Roma. The integration reached over the day of oral presentations, as posters of the workshop were displayed in frame of the exhibition in a creative way. Accademia di Romania a Roma opens in frame of Spazi aperti all its spaces, not only the conference room, and the posters were displayed in an underground corridor ending in spaces with related artistic works (for example the convener participated with an installation). The artists invited come from other foreign accademies in Rome, Rome being a city to be visited by scientists from humanities and artists since a number of centuries (“all ways lead to Rome”). This ensured international participation from Europe and beyond. The geosciences were also well represented, which enabled the dialogue between science and the arts. After the talks guided tours were organised to related exhibitions on water in related museums which emphasized the archaeology dimension. Apart of this event there were a number of scientific and musical events accompanying the exhibition, strenghening the dialogue. The event was part of the “month of international culture” in Rome, highly mediatised, and different of the exhibitions of just own fellows in other foreign academies. In 2018 the book was published and is subject of a poster in another session (EGU2019-2000) which all attendees are invited to see. More about the event can be followed on the webpage https://sites.google.com/site/egutopicalevent/

“Water as hazard and water as heritage” was an international workshop funded by the European Geosciences Union and run in frame of the “Spazi aperti” international event of the Romanian Academy in Rome, along with other cultural events. The “Spazi aperti” (open spaces) event is an international exhibition inviting the scholars in arts and humanities at other foreign academies in Rome, an international city. The convener of the workshop, the first author, was Vasile Pârvan fellow at that time in Rome, on a topic about water, and volunteered to the “Spazi aperti” event, whose curator was Roxana Mihaly. Fellows from different academies contributed to the book. Participation was multidisciplinary, from geosciences to archeology, art history, architecture and urban and landscape planning. Participation was also international, from Romania, Italy, the USA, the UK and Germany. In 2018 the report was published, with support of the Marie Curie Alumni Association, which also supports participation to present the book at the EGU GA in 2019. Marie Curie Alumni contributed to the book. Working on the report has been supported by two short term scientific missions in frame of the COST action TD1406 (“Intelligent management of heritage buildings”), both under the mentorship of Alex Dill, co-editor of the book, a conference stay in Karlsruhe funded by the Marie Curie Alumni Association and a mobility project of the Romanian science authority (PN-III-P1-1.1-MC2017-1334), all leading to Karslruhe, Germany. The book has also been presented at the Romanian Architecture Biennale 2018, an event in frame of the European Year of Cultural Heritage of the European Commission. The book has also been announced on platforms such as the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and CORDIS of the European Union (https://cordis.europa.eu/news/rcn/129019_de.html). A contact has been established to present also on the EGU blog. The book contains an overview of the event (both the Spazi aperti exhibition and the workshop, including its webpage) and the abstracts of the presentations, along with images and the CVs of the presenters. The presentations include: symbols of water in the work of Carlo Scarpa, water as hazard in case of earthquakes, postwar riverfront reconstruction, water in the arts, waterways across Europe, water and archaeology (architecture and archaeology, Roman baths, virtual museums), water sketching, waterscapes, precipitation estimation, water and natural risks in smart cities, pastoralism and water, new forms of water in landscape. The countries covered are in Europe and beyond (near East), including different countries in Europe than those of the authors (such as Danemark and the Balkans for example). The contributions display the dual character of water, between hazard (geoscience) and heritage (arts), and thus link to previous contributions of the first author to the EGU, co(convening) since 2002 the session on natural hazards’ impact on urban areas and infrastructure.