The impact of a future solar minimum on climate change projections in the Northern Hemisphere

Solar variability represents a source of uncertainty in the future forcings used in climate model simulations. Current knowledge indicates that a descent of solar activity into an extended minimum state is a possible scenario. With aid of experiments from a state-of-the-art Earth system model, we investigate the impact of a future solar minimum on Northern Hemisphere climate change projections. This scenario is constructed from recent 11 year solar-cycle minima of the solar spectral irradiance, and is therefore more conservative than the 'grand' minima employed in some previous modeling studies. Despite the small reduction in total solar irradiance (0.36 W m^-2), relatively large responses emerge in the winter Northern Hemisphere, with a reduction in regional-scale projected warming by up to 40%. To identify the origin of the enhanced regional signals, we assess the role of the different mechanisms by performing additional experiments forced only by irradiance changes at different wavelengths of the solar spectrum. We find that a reduction in visible irradiance drives changes in the stationary wave pattern of the North Pacific and sea-ice cover. A decrease in UV irradiance leads to smaller surface signals, although its regional effects are not negligible. These results point to a distinct but additive role of UV and visible irradiance in the Earth's climate, and stress the need to account for solar forcing as a source of uncertainty in regional scale projections.

MEGARA control system

MEGARA (Multi-Espectrografo en GTC de Alta Resolucion para Astronomia) is an optical Integral-Field Unit (IFU) and Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) designed for the GTC 10.4 m telescope in La Palma. The MEGARA Control System will provide the capabilities to move the different mechanisms of the instrument, to readout the data from the detector controller and the necessary routines for the Inspector Panels, the MEGARA Observing Preparation Software Suite, the Data Factory and the Sequencer strategies.

Detection of Carbapenemase Production in a Collection of Enterobacteriaceae with Characterized Resistance Mechanisms from Clinical and Environmental Origins by Use of Both Carba NP and Blue-Carba Tests

Rapid-screening methods to confirm the presence of resistance mechanisms in multidrug-resistant bacteria are currently recommended. Carba NP and Blue-Carba tests were evaluated in carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae from hospital (n = 102) and environmental (n = 57) origins for detecting the different molecular classes among them. Both methods showed to be fast and cost-effective, with high sensitivity (98% to 100%) and specificity (100%), and may be easily introduced in the routine laboratory.