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You are browsing the archive for September 2011 - Page 2 of 4 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

23 September 2011

The Aurora Australis from the ISS

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22 September 2011

NASA Video of the Summer 2011 Arctic Melt

In case you have not seen this video- As I mentioned yesterday, the NSIDC put this summer’s minimum of ice as the 2nd lowest on record. When talking about the sea ice, there are three measurements that are most important. 1.Extent and 2. Area are calculated differently and the IARC website describes it very succinctly here: “The area of sea-ice cover is often defined in two ways, i.e., sea-ice “extent” …

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21 September 2011

Still Open Season on Hurricanes

  Tropical storm Ophelia is looking a little better organized this afternoon with winds near 60 mph just outside the center. While it is feeling like fall across much of North America, the tropical waters are still quite warm and we will likely see a couple of more storms. The risk of landfall seems pretty low as the NWP models are all re-curving the system into the North Atlantic after …

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20 September 2011

NASA: Global Temps. In August 2011 4th Warmest. Sea Ice Melt Comes in Number Two

NASA-GISS has put up the numbers for August, and the global  land and ocean temperatures in August were the 4th warmest on record. NOAA has August pegged at the 8th warmest using a slightly different methodology. Land temperatures in August were the second warmest on record according to the NOAA-NCDC data. The summer Arctic sea ice melt has ended, and NSIDC says the minimum sea ice was the second lowest …

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18 September 2011

Weekend Digest- Hadrons and Asteroids

With all the talk of the hunt for the increasingly elusive Higgs Boson, I ran across a great info graphic that makes some sense of the Standard Model. Click the image to make it much bigger and save it for future reference. It was produced by the Contemporary Physics Education Project and would make a great wall poster in classrooms. I’ve mentioned courses by the Teaching Company before and they …

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16 September 2011

Common Sense Is Assumed In Scientific Method- Or at least it should be!

I am told reliably that this is a true story, but you always hear that! (Although it’s likely a myth it’s a FUNNY read all the same): Scientists at Rolls Royce built a gun specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners and military jets all travelling at maximum  velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of …

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14 September 2011

Educating The Educators

This is part two of a guest post from retired professor John Annexstad about education. Part one is here. In my last (post) I related the advances in education that the country of Finland is enjoying. I also noted that a columnist, Eggers, from the Bemidji Pioneer has suggested that we remove grading from our schools. It is interesting to note that Finland does require testing but they do not …

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12 September 2011

Remains of Katia Hit Ireland and UK

The remains of Hurricane Katia have brought gales gusting to near hurricane force across the northern areas of the UK today. The UK Met Office has several severe weather warnings up. A close friend in Wales reports a very windy and wet day. The BBC has more here. In spite of the cold water that Katia passed over, it takes awhile for these systems to spin down and it long …

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10 September 2011

Arctic Ice At Record Low- Univ. of Bremen

The Volume of the ice also appears to be at a record low, but NSIDC is still showing the extent to be a little above 2007. Ice area is different from the extent and it too seems to be at record low values. All in all, 2011 is either the new winner or has reached the levels of 2007, depending on how you look at it.

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9 September 2011

USA Records Second Hottest Summer On Record

Climate Highlights — August (from NCDC) The average U.S. temperature in August was 75.7 degrees F (24.3 degrees C), which is 3.0 degrees F (1.6 degrees C) above the long-term (1901-2000) average, resulting in the second warmest August on record. Precipitation averaged across the nation was 2.31 inches (58.7 mm). This was 0.29 inch (7.3 mm) below the long-term average, with large variability between regions. The excessive heat which dominated …

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