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The general warming trend of the planet cannot be denied (the average global air temperature has increased by approx. 0.85°C between 1880-2012 (IPCC, 2013). The direct consequence of this warming is an increase in extreme weather events and hence in climate risks. The monitoring and assessing precipitation, identifying the physical laws governing its course in order to be able to estimate and forecast it in the future is therefore of great interest nowadays. Using geostatistical spatial analysis methods, this paper aims at identifying the correlations between longitude and precipitation (due to the specificity of the European climate, given by the major influence of the western circulation) and then an estimation - using linear regression equations - of precipitation amounts depending on longitude. Two variables were calculated for the statistical analysis: the proportion of the mean number of days with precipitation ≥ 10 mm of the multiannual mean of precipitation days (≥0,1 mm) and the precipitation ratio between the mean precipitation quantities in summer, compared to those in winter (hereinafter referred to as summer/winter precipitation ratio). The geostatistical analysis carried out on a sample of 40 weather stations aligned from west-south-west to east-north-east argues the existence of a strong correlation between longitude and the multiannual mean of days with precipitation ≥10 mm and between longitude and the summer/winter precipitation ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ten years following the publication of Galileo Galilei's Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze (1638), the new science of motion was intensely debated in Italy, France and northern Europe. Although Galileo's theories were interpreted and reworked in a variety of ways, it is possible to identify some crucial issues on which the attention of natural philosophers converged, namely the possibility of complementing Galileo's theory of natural acceleration with a physical explanation of gravity; the legitimacy of Galileo's methods of proof and of his theory of the composition of continuous magnitudes; and the adequacy of the experimental evidence in favor of his theory. Through his published works and his correspondence, Marin Mersenne contributed in a significant way to each of these discussions. In the following, I shall provide a sketch of Mersenne's multiple engagement with the new science of motion, while trying to account for his growing skepticism concerning Galileo's law of free fall. Whereas in the 1630s, Mersenne still firmly believed in the validity of this law and tried to devise experimental and mathematical proofs in its favor, in the 1640s he developed serious doubts regarding the possibility of constructing an exact science of motion. As we shall see, Mersenne's evolving attitude sheds an interesting light on his views concerning the relation between physics and mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Space Agency has set out its priorities for the decade starting in 2015, in a report entitled Cosmic Vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]