You are browsing the archive for July 2010 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
31 July 2010
Oldest Greenland Ice Core Recovered
I’ve just returned today from Greenland and am looking forward to seeing my first “night” in 10 days! The 14 countries that have supported the NEEM ice core project got their money’s worth this week. The two year project to drill an ice core through 2,500 meters of ice finally reached Greenland rock. Where Is It The NEEM site is at 8,300 feet on top of the ice sheet. I arrived …
20 July 2010
North of 60 Again- Greetings from Greenland!
Well I have made it back to Greenland and the Arctic. Seven months and 8 days ago I was at the South Pole. This morning I wake up 60 miles on the cold side of the Arctic Circle. If the weather holds, and that is iffy, the NY 109th Air Guard will land us on a ski equipped LC130 at NEEM around 11am. I will then be just around 700 …
17 July 2010
The Big One Itself is Now Melting- Amazing Pics
The Glacier Research Imaging Project (GRIP) has released some stunning images of Everest taken from the same spot In 1921 by George Mallory and in 2007. Go to the Asia Society web site and see the changes for yourself. Click the pic to go to the site. Compare that with Michael Mann’s famous graph. The reason scientist come to have faith in a theory is NEVER based on one single …
15 July 2010
NOAA: First 6 Months of 2010- Hottest On Record.
NOAA/NCDC released a whole slew of rather grim climate news today. It’s important to remember that besides the sun and increasing greenhouse gases there is a lot of built in variability in the climate system. It’s only been in the last couple of decades that the greenhouse warming has risen out of the noise created by weather. That said, even with El Nino gone and the sun coming out of …
14 July 2010
Ice Core at NEEM Approaching Greenland Bedrock
While the lower 48 bakes this summer, a group of 30 researchers are drilling a big hole in the ice at the top of the world. It’s all in the name of science. The North Greenland Eemian ice core project is not the first ice core to be drilled through the Greenland icecap. It may be the most important though. Rewriting Earth’s Climate History Earlier cores have rewritten the climate …
10 July 2010
A Story About Science – (How rising greenhouse gases are increasing the risk of the ISS hitting space junk.)
I saw an interesting press release about a paper this past week. The headline was along the lines of “Climate Change Increasing Space Junk”. Say what? I can predict the comments now that this will get. “You blame everything on global warming!” Well, let’s look at what the paper really says and why they reached the conclusions they did. I know one of the authors of this paper. Judith Lean is …
9 July 2010
June 2010 Ties 2006 for 3rd Warmest on Record
The NASA GISS global temperature data was released tonight. It appears that June 2010 land and sea temps. were 5.9C above the 1951-1980 average. This means it ties for 3rd warmest. Only 2009 and 1998 were warmer. The USA temps. were the 8th warmest on the instrument record that dates to 1880. Land temperatures alone for June 2010 were tied with 1998 for the warmest on record. The Northern Hemisphere …
8 July 2010
Stormy Sun May Be About To Cause Trouble
Space weather experts at NOAA and NASA have been monitoring a very active sunspot over the last few days. This area has produced several Coronal Mass Ejections (CME). These flares can cause trouble with radio communication and even cause power outages if they hit Earth. Satellites can be especially hard hit. Past solar flares have crippled communication satellites. A really big flare could cause billions of dollars in damage to …
7 July 2010
Science and Democracy II: Dumbing Ourselves to Death
Frank Adams has a must read article on the NPR web site. Click the image below to read it. He is absolutely right. We are totally failing in America to educate our young people in science. Don’t believe me? Attend any college graduation, and look at the nationality of those who are getting the PhD’s.
6 July 2010
On Thin Ice That's Getting Thinner
I was looking for a post on something other than climate science this time, but the news is too big to pass up. The NSIDC today posted another update of the melting Arctic sea ice. The June ice coverage was the lowest on record and the melt rate highest recorded. It is looking very possible that a new record low in Arctic ice cover may be on the way for …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.