You are browsing the archive for August 2012 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
30 August 2012
Hurricane Isaac By Moonlight
Can you spot Richmond, Okla. City, Tulsa, and Springfield, Missouri?? That should be a good start for you. As far as know, this is the first time a hurricane has been imaged by natural light at night. Certainly the first over the U.S. A nice image of the power of Mother Nature against the backdrop of mankind’s domination of the Earth’s surface. More on Suomi and the VIRRS here.
29 August 2012
Hurricane Isaac Strengthens Noticeably At Landfall. Risk to New Orleans Increasing.
Winds are gusting to over 100 mph just offshore now and winds are already gusting to near 80 mph around the New Orleans area tonight. The radar data shows a shrinking eye wall and that also indicates the Isaac has gotten stronger. The track now seems likely to put New Orleans in the wettest and windiest part of the storm. The storm surge and the rainfall remain the biggest worries. If you are in …
27 August 2012
The Big Weekend Weather News You Never Heard About
While the Weather Channel and the TV networks breathlessly reported on a rather puny tropical storm this weekend, there was actually some fascinating real weather to talk about. Yes, Isaac may become a hurricane and hit the Gulf Coast, but it will likely be a category one storm. It will also miss Tampa almost completely (A fact that has been obvious to any decent forecaster with a fair degree of certainty since Friday morning). …
19 August 2012
Pioneer 10 Mystery Solved
Back in April 2009, I wrote a blog post on a fascinating riddle. Pioneer 10, one of the space probes that has left the solar system, is not where it should be. This has been a growing mystery as every possible thing that could cause the spacecraft to accelerate or decelerate was accounted for. At the time, there seemed to be no answer, but now it seems to be solved. Read the original blog …
17 August 2012
Mankind’s Greatest Invention. Do you know what it is??
It’s the most imprtant thing that anyone should understand about science. It’s in nearly every science text book from grade school to high school (usually at the front but often skipped or downplayed). It made the computer you are reading this on possible and in fact it made all of modern technology possible! No, it’s not science…It’s SCIENTIFIC METHOD. Do you know what it is, what it means? Do you …
14 August 2012
El Nino Likely This Winter- Just what that means for the winter is much more complicated!
You’re likely to hear a lot about El Nino in the coming months, and your local TV weather guru may show graphics indicating that you will have a warmer/colder/drier/snowy winter as a result. Don’t believe it, (at least hook, line and sinker) because it may very well turn out to be wrong. There are a lot of factors that will play a role on the upcoming winter in the Northern …
10 August 2012
NASA Climate Expert James Hansen & An Amazing Forecast
In 1988 James Hansen published a paper with a prediction that many of his fellow scientists thought was a bit over the top. I want to explain the prediction and then give a summary of the paper he published this week showing it was (almost amazingly) correct. Imagine that the odds of a cold winter, or hot summer, are represented by a 6 sided dice. Two sides are white 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.