You are browsing the archive for August 2010 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
30 August 2010
You do know they just make it up, right??
I always enjoy reading the stories in the Farmers Almanac. It’s been around for a LONG time and they have good basic astronomical info in it. Although you can get much more precise info from free programs like Stellarium. About this time every year they release their forecast for the upcoming winter. TV stations everywhere gobble it up and do news stories on what the coming winter will be like. …
27 August 2010
Northwest Passage Opens (4th consecutive year)
Meteorologist Jeff Masters has a lot more about it, but the NW Passage is now mainly free of ice and is navigable. You can see a cool 30 day animation of the melt here. It looks like the NE Passage from Europe to Alaska is almost free as well. Masters says this is the 4th consecutive year that the passage has opened. It’s also the 4th time in recorded history. …
26 August 2010
A Good Website To Bookmark
NASA’s top climate scientist James Hansen has put together a new website. It basically updates the graphics in his book “Storms of My Grandchildren“. Definitely worth checking out for the graphics which are from papers published in the peer reviewed literature. If you have not read the book, I highly recommend it. It’s even available for iPad and Kindle (Which makes me happy since I pretty much read everything on …
24 August 2010
Are You An Authoritarian? (Some fascinating psychological research)
I recently read a fascinating book. It’s called the Authoritarians and it was written by Robert Altemeyer. Altemeyer is a professor of Psychology at the University of Manitoba. You can read his book online for free or buy it from amazon.com. I stumbled across it doing research on climate skepticism. I have often wondered why some people are totally immune to facts. I’m talking about the kind of person who, …
23 August 2010
Tropics Are Heating Up
We are now in the peak of the hurricane season and the Tropical Atlantic is heating up. The second hurricane of the season formed this afternoon in the mid Atlantic. Hurricane Danielle will likely re-curve though and not affect North America. There is a slight chance of it approaching the NE coast of the U.S. or Canada. More interesting is the strong tropical wave coming off of Africa behind it. …
Keep Looking Up Jack and RIP
His signature sign-off was “KEEP LOOKING UP!” Jack Horkheimer was the star of the PBS series Star Gazer and taught millions to look up at the night sky in wonder. He was a grand ambassador for science. He died on Friday, and the astronomy world is the poorer for it. There are astronomers to be who will have gotten the star bug from Jack Horkheimer. He leaves a great legacy. …
16 August 2010
iRenew and Q-Ray Scams- A Follow-Up
In the two months since I wrote the post about what a scam the iRenew bracelet was, I have had more comments than any other post I have ever written. Mostly from people who like me are amazed that people will fall for it. Many other comments explain very well why these scammers will make millions of dollars. The adverts are now all over Fox news and other outlets on …
12 August 2010
First 7 months of 2010 Were Hottest On Record- NASA
NASA released the July global temp data this evening. The last 7 months are the warmest January – July on record. The thermometer record goes back to 1880. Before 1880 there are proxies for temperature. Tree rings and ice cores for example. These proxies (See Oldest Ice Core Recovered from Greenland) indicate we are very possibly in the warmest period in at least one thousand years. The temperature anomalies map …
11 August 2010
Amazing NASA Images of Russian Heat and Smoke
The amazing and unprecedented Russian heat wave continues. Moscow hit 34C today, which is cooler than the near 38C (100°F) temperatures of the last few days. The fires burning in the drought ravaged peat bogs and forests around Moscow continue to cover Western Russia in a thick pall of smoke. The intense heat can also be seen from the MODIS sensor on the NASA Terra satellite. This sensor allowed researchers …
10 August 2010
Tropical Storm Forming Off of Florida? (Update: Tropical Depression 5 Now)
There are strong signs that the area of disturbed weather in the Gulf is beginning to get organized today. Pressures are dropping and there seems to be a circulation already present. I suspect the the folks at the NHC in Miami will begin advisories on it later today. If it makes it to tropical storm strength it will be named Danielle. While it is a bit early to talk about …
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.