Climate science
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If you are interested in watching the progression of the summer melting of the ice sheet on Greenland, you will find the web site for the National Snow and Ice Data Center useful. You can see daily updates of the melting conditions from satellites at https://nsidc.org/greenland-today/. Why do we care? A melting Arctic can change energy…
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The bright orange and pink clouds in Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” have long been thought to be a product of a volcanic eruption, most likely the very large eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. Volcanic eruptions shoot sulfuric acid droplets and ash high into the atmosphere, producing spectacular sunsets around the world that have been linked…
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As I was browsing today, I ran across this really interesting article on how most people are killed or injured by lightning. Surprisingly, direct strikes only cause issues 3-5 percent of the time. The greatest cause of problems is ground current, where lightning hits the ground and travels along the surface (especially if the ground…
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According to Scientific American, “on Tuesday, the Mauna Loa Observatory recorded its first-ever carbon dioxide reading in excess of 410 parts per million (it was 410.28 ppm in case you want the full deal). Carbon dioxide hasn’t reached that height in millions of years. It’s a new atmosphere that humanity will have to contend with,…
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Related to my previous post on the warming climate, one of the consequences that we see from the warmer conditions in recent years is a shift in the planting zones. These zones are linked to the average annual minimum temperature in each location, which helps determine what plants can survive the winter months. Here is…
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In the past I have watched and enjoyed the reality television show “Deadliest Catch”, which shows the life of Alaskan crab fishermen competing to get the most crabs in the limited harvest season. But in recent years, the ships have been forced to move farther north into more dangerous waters farther from their home harbors…
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It’s almost too late in the year for this to apply to most of the Southeast, but I thought this blog post by Cliff Mass of Washington State was a good discussion of why cars and other surfaces can accumulate frost even if the air temperature is above freezing. The same physical principles apply in…