You are browsing the archive for NASA Archives - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
24 November 2019
How You Can Destroy Civilization and Virtually No One Would Notice- At Least For a Few Days!
Chris Colose is a NASA Climate expert working on a new global climate model (GCM). It’s called ROCKE-3D, and is designed to be used not only on earth but on extraterrestrial planets! I can show you could destroy civilization because Chris did it in the new GCM by taking out the CO2 and Methane in one of his model runs, but there’s something you should know first. Were you …
20 July 2019
50 Years Ago Today
Where was I at 30 seconds past 4:17 PM EDT 50 years ago today? When the Eagle landed on the Moon I was in a car north of Tulsa in Oklahoma with my Great Grandmother. Annie Higgins was an amazing woman who as a girl walked to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) behind a covered wagon. She remembered reading in the paper of the Wright Bros. flight. She watched the news-reels …
13 November 2018
The Cloud That Appears on Top of The Most Dangerous Storms
We meteorologists knew that the new GOES satellites would be revolutionary, and a new paper presented at an AMS conference on severe storms is a good example of just that. It’s about a cloud signature visible on high- resolution imagery that can lead to more lead time on severe weather warnings and fewer false alarms. It’s called an AACP: Above Anvil Cirrus Cloud, and when a forecaster sees one on …
8 November 2018
Deadly Smog Covers Much of India This Morning.
The smog in Delhi has reached near toxic levels this morning. Current air quality readings have reached a level labeled “Extremely Hazardous. This smog is being greatly aggravated by the autumn burning of fields and fireworks from the Diwali festival. The BBC reports that efforts to get residents to not set off the gunpowder failed. The results are clearly visible from space. This will be a killer smog event. A visual picture of …
20 July 2018
A Space and History Lesson on the 49th Anniversary of the Moon Landing
It was 49 years ago today that Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, and while I remember it vividly, I often think about those who were born after that event. Can they truly imagine the wonder of it? If you’re under 50, you grew up in a world where people walking on the Moon was a part of our history and I know you appreciate the event, but likely not …
10 July 2018
Think Humans Can’t Control the Earth’s Weather?? Don’t be Silly.
The new GOES-16 satellite produces stunning images every day of weather phenomena, but this is something that surprised me! The NWS at Grand Forks in North Dakota posted the image below on Twitter today. Note the yellow speckles in the upper part of the image. That’s Canola. The bright yellow is visible from space using the true color GOES-16 images. With the increased reflectivity (albedo) of the ground, I wondered how …
23 May 2018
The New Goes-17 Weather Satellite May Have a Serious Problem
Update: May 25,2018 It’s been pointed out that Harris Corp. made the ABI/cooling system, but this isn’t something that requires any blame at this stage. These new GOES satellites are complex machines made of the highest high. I witnessed a GOES satellite fall into the Atlantic just after launch in 1986, and am keenly aware of how difficult it is to get a working satellite into geostationary orbit! I’m hearing …
16 April 2018
Notes From A Slow Motion Disaster
Assateague Nat. Seashore is one of the jewels of Maryland and I never tire of soaking in the beauty of this windswept barrier island at the edge of the continent. This past weekend I grabbed my camera and spent some time with the famous pony’s on the back side of the barrier island away from the beach. While doing so, I noticed something that few visitors would: climate change underway …
18 January 2018
2017 Was Another Year of Amazing Heat. It’s not Natural, and It IS the Greenhouse Gases
NASA and NOAA both announced their global temperature results for 2017 today. NASA says it was the second warmest year on record and NOAA which does the analysis slightly differently came up with the 3rd hottest. Interestingly, if you remove the impacts of El Nino and La Nina, 2017 was THE hottest on record (see below). Forest Vs. Trees There are only three things that affect Earth’s temperature: Incoming radiation …
26 July 2017
Summer Heat Too Much for You? NASA has Just the Place for You!
The James Webb telescope is designed to detect light in the infrared portion of the spectrum, and its instruments will only work at a temp. of just a few degrees above absolute zero! But how do you test them?? This is how! The room will keep getting colder and colder. NASA has a live webcam of the room online with a look at the indoor and outdoor temperatures at the …
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.