Atmospheric

More Snowfall At Airports? Airplanes Bring Their Own Climate Change

As airplanes fly through clouds, they can punch holes through those with supercooled water, or water that has remained in liquid form below its freezing point and researchers are now saying this phenomenon can lead to increased snowfall around the world� ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 21 2011 - 8:43pm

The Making of the Northern Light

Came across this nice video that explains how the Northern light forms, made by Per Byhring and the physics department of the University of Oslo. In it, it is explained how solar storms trigger Northern (and Southern) lights, during daytime as well as nigh ...

Blog Post - Gunnar De Winter - Jul 7 2011 - 8:41am

Help Solve Global Warming By Using More Wood

Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow so forests are a completely natural way to offset climate change- but rather than let them passively sit there, the amount of carbon dioxide they extract from the atmosphere could be boosted by 4 ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2011 - 7:56pm

Global Annual Daily Temperatures, 1929-2010

While standing outside in the middle of a cold night tending my telescope, I started wondering about how much heat is getting radiated into space under clear skys, that increases in CO2 should be reducing that radiation, and whether or not it would be dete ...

Blog Post - Mi Cro - Jul 22 2011 - 2:11pm

Global Negative Temperature imbalance starting in the early 80's?

The Integrated Surface Database  http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/isd/index.php   is a joint project of the National Climatic Data Center, the Navy, and the Air Force, and is a combination of over 100 data sources http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/isosmtg/lot ...

Blog Post - Mi Cro - Jul 26 2011 - 8:21pm

O-H-oh-no: Catching My Breath In America’s Most Toxic Air?

COLUMBUS, OHIO-- After a full day in and out of airplanes and airports, there’s really nothing like stepping out of the terminal and taking your first breath of unfiltered, unconditioned, unpressurized air.  Sure, the curbside may be cluttered with exhaust ...

Article - Holly Moeller - Jul 27 2011 - 10:50pm

Research Shows Decline In Methane And Ethane Levels

Recent data demonstrate that fossil-fuel related emissions of both methane and ethane, two of the most abundant hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, declined at the end of the twentieth century, according to a paper in Nature. The causes of the decline in meth ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 15 2011 - 4:54pm

5 Hurricane Myths Dispelled

As hurricane season ramps up, MyWeather.com is offering critical information to those at risk of tropical storms and hurricanes.   Here is the science behind the storms and 5 common myths debunked. 1) Myth: The area and size of a hurricane determines the s ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 16 2011 - 1:19am

Fukushima Radiation In California

We all remember the earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Japan (see figure 1) and caused major troubles in the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was severely damaged. Problems with containing radiation followed, leading to the pumping of huge amount ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Aug 16 2011 - 10:25am

Nitrogen Cycle To The Rescue? Bedrock Nitrogen May Help Against Climate Change

 It seems trees have the ability to tap into nitrogen found in rocks, boosting the trees’ growth and their ability to pull more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That's good news in the short term.  Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas most are wor ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 31 2011 - 10:01am