You are browsing the archive for September 2011 - Page 3 of 4 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
9 September 2011
Rainfall Totals from Lee
The heavy rains from Lee are falling on the very saturated ground that resulted from Irene, and severe flooding continues from Fairfax in Virginia, to Pennsylvania and New York tonight. It should start drying out some tomorrow and fairly dry weather is on the way for the next 7 days, unless TS Maria pulls a surprise on us. Update: Dave Petley over at the Landslide blog has a great post …
8 September 2011
Science, The Tea Party and The Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Ed Maibach and Anthony Leiserowitz at GMU, and the Yale Center for Climate Change Communication have released a fascinating study of the opinions of different political party members on climate change. This is all the more fascinating because it defines the Tea Party as a separate group and asks some interesting questions about climate science. Take a look at the highlights from the survey below and see if you notice …
John Cook at Skeptical Science Wins Eureka Prize
John Cook has won a well deserved Eureka Prize in Australia. His website has done much to dispel the many myths about climate change that those with a political axe to grind love to spread. It is amazing how many will believe an absolutely ridiculous falsehood if repeated loudly and constantly. Skeptical Science is a one stop misinformation killer that uses real science to dispel the myths. I’ve been proud …
Sun Unleashes Second X-Class Flare in 24 Hours
The Solar Dynamic Observatory captured the flare at 2256 GMT, just over 24 hours after yesterday’s X 2.1 flare. The NOAA X-ray flux shows it as well and the indication is this will reach the X class level. The last two flare are already causing widespread radio disruptions. Here is an update from the NOAA SWPC: 2300Z, September 7, 2011 – Twenty four hours after unleashing an R3 (Strong) Solar …
7 September 2011
The Latest and Best Symphony of Science
If I try to show my wife even the most basic equation her eyes glaze over, but she loves this. So do I. For Americans, the long-haired dude is Brian Cox formerly of a British rock band who did the best two series on astronomy and cosmology since Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. Cox is an Astrophysicist with CERN. They aired on the BBC in the past two years and you …
X-Class Flare on the Sun
We should hear more from the NASA solar physics folks tomorrow on how much of this was directed toward Earth, and what effects it will have.
6 September 2011
2011 Arctic Ice Reaches Second Lowest on Record- One or two weeks of melting left.
The NSIDC updated the Arctic ice numbers today and announced that the ice melt has now reached the second lowest on the satellite record. From NSIDC: Overview of conditions Average ice extent for August 2011 was 5.52 million square kilometers (2.13 million square miles). This is 160,000 square kilometers (61,800 square miles) above the previous record low for the month, set in August 2007, and 2.15 million square kilometers (830,000 …
5 September 2011
Out of Control Texas Wildfire from Space
The wildfire to the SE of Austin remains out of control and has burned 300 homes according to press reports. The wildfire is also visible on GOES images as well. The weather could not be possibly any worse in this situation. A summer of the worst drought in history and now a strong cool front has brought gusty northerly winds with dewpoints in the 30’s, giving very low relative …
Weekend Science Digest- A Symphony of Science
Lots of science news this week caught my eye and number one on the list is the video above (thanks to “Bad Astronomer” Phil Plait) . John Boswell has his entire collection of videos online along with the music. You can download them for whatever you think is fair. These videos are IMHO a great teaching tool about what and who we are, and what science and scientific method …
4 September 2011
Quick Update on Tropical Storm Lee
TS Lee is dumping very heavy rains along the coast tonight and moving very slowly onshore west of Baton Rouge, LA. The heavy rains are forecast to move into central AL on Sunday and then into North AL (my location) by Sunday night. While the winds may never allow Lee to be called a hurricane, the strong Canadian high pressure system moving down from the north may give …