You are browsing the archive for science education Archives - Page 3 of 26 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.
7 August 2018
The Right Answer To The Wrong Question
You’re standing at the South Pole marker at Amundsen-Scott Station, and someone asks “which direction is the South Pole Telescope from here?” “Go north!”, is a correct answer to the wrong question! Here is another wrong question: Did climate change cause the recent Europe-wide heat wave? Did climate change cause Death Valley to have the hottest month ever reliably recorded on Earth? How about the California fires that are still burning (and …
26 July 2018
A Simple Tweet That Tells a Vivid Story
Simon Lee posted a tweet Sunday night that got a lot of attention. He’s a meteorologist who will soon begin working toward his PhD at the Univ. of Reading in England, and here’s the story: It was a hot June in the UK, and many are comparing it to the memorable heatwave of 1976. Using freely available data from NASA, Simon put together two maps that show how different the …
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 …
13 July 2018
What’s New in Climate Science? Here’s a Good Summary
Dr. Katharine Hayhoe at Texas Tech is one smart scientist, and she’s also an incredibly good science communicator. I know a lot of people who are one or the other, but vey few who are both. Any meteorologist who works in broadcast meteorology can appreciate how difficult achieving both these skills can be, so when she says something, I share it widely. Believe me, I get how difficult it is …
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 …
20 June 2018
You are About to See This Image Everywhere
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, people will notice it. When you make one about science, I can assure you that meteorologists who work in TV will definitely notice because there are few things we value more than an image that can tell a story well. Enter Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading in the UK. Ed has made some cool visuals before, but when …
Seeing the World With New Eyes
I want to share with you the kind of satellite imagery forecasters like me are using on a daily basis now, and show you how incredible it is. Thanks to GOES-R we are seeing things we never saw before, but one type of imagery, in particular, is my new favorite. So much so, that I have a running loop up every day on the monitors in our forecast center. It takes some explaining though, …
2 April 2018
Gavin Schmidt and Richard Alley’s Talk to a Full House at the Smithsonian
Anyone doing a presentation about Earth’s past climate has heard the same question. It goes something along the lines of: “How can you know what the weather was like ten thousand years ago? You weren’t there and neither was anyone else alive!” Here’s the thing though: How we know is really fascinating, and not knowing, doesn’t make it any less certain or true. Paleoclimate is my favorite subject of the many …
23 March 2018
Miami Meteorologist John Morales Says No To False Balance
You’ve seen it many times on TV and in print: A story/discussion about climate change includes an interview with a knowledgeable researcher in the field, followed/paired with the opinion of someone who has no expertise at all. Some journalists call this giving both sides, but in reality, it’s not journalism. The real name is False Balance, and many of those with scientific expertise are refusing to be a part of it. Universities make the …
12 March 2018
Why We Don’t Have Year-Round Daylight Time and Why We Should Fix it.
The Problem is Sunrise, NOT Sunset! Let’s face it, daylight saving or summer time (Europe) is popular. Everyone seems to enjoy the extra evening daylight, but the change back and forth twice a year is indeed a pain, so I have a proposal for fixing this. It will work well in the Eastern U.S. and for much of the country if we do it right. The objections to staying on …
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.