Surfacestations update – help needed for the final stretch

21 06 2009

I’m pleased to announce that after a quality control review of all stations surveyed so far we are now at the 80.4% mark. 982 stations out of 1221 of the USHCN network have been surveyed. 239 stations remain to be surveyed.

USHCN Surface Stations remaining to be surveyed - click for larger image

USHCN Surface Stations remaining to be surveyed - click for larger image

A Google Earth KML file has also been created to help volunteers assist us in surveying these remaining stations to the best of our ability. I don’t expect to get all of them, but we should be able to easily exceed the 1000 station mark and perhaps reach 90% before the end of summer.

You can download the Google Earth KML file which was used to make the map above, get it -click here.  [Note,  if using Internet Explorer, right mouse click and choose "Save Target As.."  ~ charles the moderator] It is very helpful in locating stations. Google Earth is a free download here.

For those who don’t have Google Earth capability, get it – click here, is the list of stations remaining that you can view in your browser. Both files are useful in different ways, so I suggest getting both.

Our goal is to find the few remaining “best” CRN1 and CRN2 stations. So far there have been very few of these “best” stations, 92 so far, making up only 10% of the network. The majority of those also happen to be ASOS stations at airports, and as we have seen from the MIC in Hawaii’s WSFO, ASOS stations have not been deemed suitable for climate monitoring, since they are placed for aviation purposes.

Here are the percentage breakdowns so far, plus a nice bar chart by Gary Boden showing the states that have been completed and those that need the most attention: Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Announcements, weather_stations

Quote of the Week #11

21 06 2009

hydracable

Our QOTW comes from the newly minted Wikipedia page of the late, great Dr. Jack Eddy. Jack had a way with words, he liked them immensely and wielded them in ways that were not only profound but entertaining.

As a person who has worked on all sorts of meteorological and TV broadcast electronics systems in my career, this one quote from Dr. Eddy really hit home for me, and I think many of our readers will get the same great laugh and flash of understanding that I did from it. Then, you’ll understand the image I rendered above. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 32 Comments »

Categories : Quote of the Week, fun_stuff, solar

Global cooling – hail to the chief!

21 06 2009

“He’ll stop the globe from getting warm; fuel your car with nuts and corn”
(h/t to Tom Nelson)

The link for the YouTube video is below. It is very well done. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 59 Comments »

Categories : fun_stuff, politics

Modeling sunspots during times when few are seen

21 06 2009

(h/t to Michael Ronayne)
NCAR
Sunspots Revealed in Striking Detail by Supercomputers

BOULDER—In a breakthrough that will help scientists unlock mysteries of the Sun and its impacts on Earth, an international team of scientists led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has created the first-ever comprehensive computer model of sunspots. The resulting visuals capture both scientific detail and remarkable beauty.

flower-like shape; dark center, bright petals

The interface between a sunspot's umbra (dark center) and penumbra (lighter outer region) shows a complex structure with narrow, almost horizontal (lighter to white) filaments embedded in a background having a more vertical (darker to black) magnetic field. Farther out, extended patches of horizontal field dominate. For the first time, NCAR scientists and colleagues have modeled this complex structure in a comprehensive 3D computer simulation, giving scientists their first glimpse below the visible surface to understand the underlying physical processes.

The high-resolution simulations of sunspot pairs open the way for researchers to learn more about the vast mysterious dark patches on the Sun’s surface. Sunspots are the most striking manifestations of solar magnetism on the solar surface, and they are associated with massive ejections of charged plasma that can cause geomagnetic storms and disrupt communications and navigational systems. They also contribute to variations in overall solar output, which can affect weather on Earth and exert a subtle influence on climate patterns.

The research, by scientists at NCAR and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, is being published this week in Science Express.

“This is the first time we have a model of an entire sunspot,” says lead author Matthias Rempel, a scientist at NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory. “If you want to understand all the drivers of Earth’s atmospheric system, you have to understand how sunspots emerge and evolve. Our simulations will advance research into the inner workings of the Sun as well as connections between solar output and Earth’s atmosphere.” Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 120 Comments »

Categories : Science, solar