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4 July 2011
Jefferson, His Thermometer and The 4th.
Historians would rightfully caution against asking how Thomas Jefferson would react to today’s anti-science crowd in America. He lived in his time, and this one is far different, but on this 4th of July it is something I wonder about. What would he think about demands that science classes teach faith-based beliefs alongside subjects such as the age of the Earth, or death threats to scientists who work in the …
29 June 2011
Defunding of NOAA Weather Satellites Means Goodbye To the 7-Day Forecast.
TV viewers in America are used to seeing the 7- day forecast on the nightly weather report and the accuracy is actually as good for 7 days as it was for three back in 1980. If the polar orbiting satellite program is defunded ( as now proposed by Congress) then forecast accuracy will likely go backwards. That means a five-day forecast instead of seven and even those five will not …
16 June 2011
Good Science and Junk Science
The Good Science: NOAA released the May global temp. data today and the global land and ocean temps. were tied for 10th warmest on record. Land temps. were 7th warmest on record. The period of meteorological spring from March -May was also the 10th warmest on the instrument record. From NCDC: Global Highlights The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for May 2011 was 0.50°C (0.90°F) above the …
15 June 2011
Measuring Sea Salt From Orbit and A Fun Quiz!
I still remember clearly my first trip to the ocean at age 7 in the mid 1960’s. It was beautiful Galveston, Texas and you could drive right out onto the beach in those days. Erosion and sea level rise, has taken much of that beach away now, but the greatest surprise to me was that the ocean was salty! As a little 7-year-old from land locked Oklahoma, I had no …
13 June 2011
Why the Media Screws Up Science- Courtesy potholer54
This is one excellent video essay by an experienced science journalist. Why the media screws up science. So true, and it should be required watching for reporters.
7 June 2011
Spectacular Coronal Mass Ejection on Sun. NASA Scientist Calls it “An Amazing Event!”
The flare was one of the most dramatic ever recorded by the solar dynamics observatory but thankfully it was not directed toward Earth. This will have little or no effect on Earth but it is a powerful reminder of how dynamic our nearest star is! The entire history of human evolution is but a slow yawn in the lifetime of the sun. Here is a video with commentary by a …
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 …
11 May 2011
Doctor Who Theme on a Tesla Coil!
For those science geeks who are dyed in the wool fans of Doctor Who: (like me) Oh, this is just positively brilliant!
5 May 2011
Air Force DMSP Weather Satellite Shows The Darkness After The Storms
You’ve probably seen some of the city light images from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, but I have a new one to show you. The image below is a composite of the lights after the tornado swarm in Alabama, on Wednesday April 27th, with the lights seen just before. The lights in red are lights that were usually seen, but were missing after the tornadoes took out all of the …
4 May 2011
Amazing Image of Rotating Storm Paths from NSSL
This has to be the most amazing image (I’ve yet seen) of the super swarm of tornadoes across the SE USA last Wednesday. Doppler radars are very valuable for severe storm forecasting because they can sense rotation in a storm and this allows for advanced warnings of tornadoes. These radars were not available in 1974, but in 2011 they allowed forecasters to give an average of 24 minutes warning in …
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.