Climate science
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Yale Climate Connections has an interesting story about how a proposed mine in the vicinity of the Okefenokee Swamp may affect climate by changing the water supply in the area. This could lead to drying of the soil, releasing greenhouse gases like methane to the atmosphere. This is especially true if wildfires burn the dried-out…
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It’s the time of year when frost starts to affect large parts of the Southeast. One of the interesting phenomena that can occur in these chilly conditions are something called “frost flowers”. Basically, they are formed by thin ribbons of moisture freezing in the soil and being extruded upward into the air, resulting in fragile…
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In climatology, we talk about internal and external causes of climate variations. These can include things like how much sunlight is hitting the earth, volcanic eruptions, cloud coverage across the globe, and changes in the land surface. Here is an insightful article describing how internal and external variability in climate are both important but different…
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Now that fall colors are starting to appear down here in the higher elevations of the Southeast, you might be interested to know what causes the coloration in leaves. The Garden Professors posted a story about this a few years ago. You can read more here. I am looking forward to seeing more color in…
Posted in: Climate science -
Here is another weather-related lesson plan, this one for younger grades from NASA. In it, the students design and build their own rain gauges to measure daily rainfall. This teaches them about engineering skills as well as a better understanding of how to measure rain. You can view more information and download a teachers’ guide…
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This ProPublica storymap is from 2020, but I ran across it today when I was working on a talk for later this week. It’s worth looking at again. The maps show some of the likely changes in climate we can expect to see over the next 50 years as the earth gets warmer. The website…
Posted in: Climate science -
Climate scientists are constantly analyzing data and looking at results of computer modeling to better understand how the earth’s atmosphere/ocean system works. Even though it may seem like they are changing their minds, they are really updating their understanding when they see new information in the data they are studying. That is what science is.…