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You are browsing the archive for May 2011 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

26 May 2011

Radar Images From The Oklahoma Tornadoes

I saved some images as the storms rolled through Oklahoma on Tuesday and just like April 27, they are amazing. Forecasters can work 20 years and see these kind of signatures on radar only once or twice, especially if they work outside of tornado alley. A short description accompanies each image. I will be in Europe on holiday for the next ten days, but I will try to post a …

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24 May 2011

Deadliest Tornado Season in 60 Years Continues As Oklahoma Prepares for Violent Tornado Outbreak

A rare HIGH RISK outlook was issued today by the Storm Prediction Center (NOAA) in Norman, OK. The last high risk was on 27 April when the tornado swarm hit Alabama and Mississippi. Without doubt, this will be the deadliest tornado season in at least 60 years and it is frankly amazing in the modern warning era. The death toll in April was over 350 and this week in Joplin …

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OZ Climate Study Pulls No Punches

Yet another peer reviewed study of climate science has used unusually urgent language, to define the growing threat from doing nothing about rising greenhouse gases. Australia ranks second only to the USA in the number of politically inspired attacks on climate scientists, although their politicians seem to be a bit more scientifically literate than many of ours. What to do about climate change is a political question, but the threat …

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23 May 2011

Different Volcano, Same Problem- Ash cloud delays flights in Europe.

The NASA Terra Satellite passed over Iceland and grabbed this shot today, ( in true colour) showing the ash cloud from an erupting Iceland volcano. Click the image for a much higher res. view. The UK Met Office has just released a new ash advisory, and airlines have canceled flights into Scotland for Tuesday. I’m headed to Manchester UK myself on Thursday, so I’ll be watching this closely. The latest …

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Deadly Tornado Wrecks Joplin Missouri (UPDATED)

An intense supercell storm spawned a violent tornado that tore through Joplin Missouri around 5:30 PM Sunday evening. The local paper is reporting 24 fatalities and the main hospital in the city took a direct hit. The hospital is being evacuated and patients transferred to nearby facilities. A friend of mine who is a storm chaser pulled 30 people from the rubble near the high school which appears to be …

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22 May 2011

Ozone and Climate Change in Antarctica

  Antarctica has behaved rather strangely compared to what’s been expected for the rest of the planet as greenhouse gases rise. That in itself, is not unexpected, because Antarctica is unlike anywhere else on the planet. It’s much colder than the Arctic, and surrounded by a frigid ocean with a continuous fast-moving current that circles the bottom of the world. As the temps. warm, Antarctica will see more snow as …

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20 May 2011

Our Very Thin Atmosphere

Click to see all the ones and zeroes as they were meant to be seen. From NASA today.

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19 May 2011

EF 5 Tornado Carries Large Sign Over 200 Kilometers

A viewer, who lives in Lincoln County, TN. brought me this sign that she found in her pasture after the April 27 swarm of tornadoes. As you can see, it is a large campaign sign, and it is made of a fairly light plastic. All in all, I would guess it weighs around 1 kg. The sign is over a meter high and around 2 meters in length. So who …

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18 May 2011

City Lights and Economics

I posted an image a couple of weeks ago from the Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellites (DMSP) showing the lack of city lights over North Alabama after the massive tornado outbreak of April 27th. Many people are at least a little familiar with these images using a special sensor on the DMSP spacecraft and they are worth more than an illustration of why most humans today have no real concept …

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17 May 2011

New NASA Image Shows Tuscaloosa Tornado Path

NASA’s Terra satellite has an instrument called ASTER, which stands for Advanced  Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer. In non-geek that means it can sense infrared and visible light (this allows areas of vegetation to  show up very well). Using multiple wavelengths, and even adding and subtracting one from another has allowed some incredible remote sensing images. The shot below has to be the top of the heap up to …

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