What could it be? Something from Los Angeles?
Robert Clemenzi tells us in comments:
Fox5 news in DC just announced that Earth Networks (Gaithersburg, MD) is providing a new service to provide real time CO2 foot print videos for cities. Associated with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, they plan to spend $25 million to “complete” the system. It is unbelievable that, using only 100 sensors, they are able to directly monitor the air over the ocean near LA. They even have altitude data.
===================================================
Here’s the press release:
Germantown, Md. and La Jolla, Calif. – January 12, 2011 – Earth Networks, formerly AWS Convergence Technologies and the owner and operator of the popular WeatherBug® products and services, announced its expanded focus to include additional environmental observations and measurements, beginning with the deployment of the largest global greenhouse gas (GHG) observation network in close collaboration with Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Earth Networks CEO Robert Marshall and Dr. Tony Haymet, director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, will announce the news at a press event on the Scripps campus in La Jolla, Calif., today at 10 am PST / 1 pm EST, and is available via webcast through the media center at earthnetworks.com and at http://earthnetworks.com/MediaCenter/LiveEarthNetworksPressConference.aspx.
The immediate goal of the Earth Networks Greenhouse Gas Observation Network is to improve the understanding of GHGs in the atmosphere. By deploying and networking many instruments and combining that data with information from its existing weather networks around the world, Earth Networks will become a valuable source for detailed and reliable global environmental information. The data will be available to inform the research community, policy makers and private industry with more precise environmental intelligence.
Further, the network will enable the independent measurement, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas levels and emissions to support international and regional climate policy initiatives. In embarking on this new and expanded mission, Earth Networks is establishing the Earth Networks Center for Climate Research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This new center forms the pinnacle of scientific research collaboration between Earth Networks and Scripps and will be co-directed by Scripps Professor Ralph Keeling and Distinguished Scripps Research Professor Ray Weiss.
Scripps Oceanography, a part of the University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for ocean and earth science research, education and public service in the world. Scripps scientists are playing a vital role in advising Earth Networks regarding the network design, methods to ensure data quality, and linking the network data to atmospheric modeling experts at research institutions around the world. Looking ahead, Scripps researchers and their scientific colleagues plan to leverage the Earth Networks Center for Climate Research to conduct new, broad and far-reaching climate science. Today, only a few dozen continuous GHG observing locations exist, which limits analysis. In contrast, Earth Networks will initially deploy 100 GHG observing systems worldwide, beginning with 50 in the continental U.S., followed by deployments in Europe and other areas of the world. The density of the Earth Networks approach will make it possible to quantify and map more localized GHG emissions and uptakes (sinks), and importantly, their changes over time.
Earth Networks will initially utilize environmental instruments from Sunnyvale, California-based Picarro. The Picarro GHG analyzers utilize a technique known as cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) to make precise and reliable measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Earth Networks will use gas calibration standards from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that insure compatibility with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) scales for GHGs. CO2 and CH4 are the two most important long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Earth Networks is also working with scientific collaborators to apply sophisticated atmospheric modeling techniques to establish carbon and carbon-equivalent footprint reports for considerably smaller geographic regions than is currently practical.
The atmospheric modeling techniques involve coupling greenhouse gas and weather measurements with computer models of regional atmospheric transport to quantify GHG emission and uptake processes on a regional scale. This combined approach enables a better understanding of the complex global distribution and circulation of GHGs in the atmosphere. Earth Networks – similar to its experience with weather networks – anticipates that the initial network deployment will increase substantially over time and become a “network of networks” with several hundred observing systems worldwide.
Press release link
Video animation
http://ghg.earthnetworks.com/GHG3dAnimate.aspx?stationid=SNDGS
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And the question is: What good is this beyond some hype on your local TV newscast? “Earth Networks” aka WeatherBug is a TV service. So will our local TV meteorologists and weathercasters now terrorize viewers with giant blobs of CO2 attacking the city?
Bet on it.
The complete and total economic collapse can’t come soon enough, in order to cut the money off from these morons.
OT
Mount Etna Erupting?
“Is there a VIX index of climatic and/or geologic activity? Cause the last few weeks have been off the charts. Breaking News shares pictures showing that the Etna volcano has erupted (or at least is projectiling magma far more potently than it traditionally does in its dormant state). As of now, it is unclear if millions of birds, crabs, or fish have fallen out of the sky surrounding Vesuvius. Conveniently this occurs hours after we presented Nigel Farage’s rather “glass half emptyish” outlook on Italy’s prospects.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mount-etna-erupting
[img]http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/havenstein/Etna_0.jpg[/img]
I, for one, am grateful to have these warnings of when great blobs of CO2 are heading our way. And through the science of science fiction movies, we even know how to combat them: fire extinguishers.
Oh, wait.
This looks like it could probably be used for some interesting science. Too bad it will only be used for evil.
Oh great, more hogwash to feed the unsuspecting people.
What next? Maybe they’ll tell us that CO2 is bad for plants!!!!
This smells of charlatans. Such a pity that they could not measure anything relevant; say water vapour, nitrous oxides, particulates
I first thought the picture would be one of Al Gore based upon the description of “giant evil gaseous blob”, but then, I had not heard any snow warnings for San Diego.
This actually could backfire on the Warmist agenda. If places are cold, while having a high Carbon Dioxide level, or hot with low CO2, then it could be interpreted loosely as invalidating the warming hypothesis in the eyes of most “men on the street” types. I know that isn’t what they claim, but most people are not that into the mechanics of the postulate, just the simple equation more CO2 = more heat = bad.
I heard that Hansen will be in charge of homogenizing the data and filling in the grids.
“Giant evil gaseous blob attacks San Diego, film at 11”
….at first I thought you were speaking about Al Gore!! *whew!* GHGs are much less noxious than the Goracle!
100 sensors… fed into a MODEL manufactured by entities with a vested interest in the output… all for a CGI manufactured paranoia of epic proportions.
Well, it worked for Avatar.
The pathetic part is that some poor mark is going to accept this as fact. Might as well use the appropriate terminology.
mark (n.) 13. Slang A person who is the intended victim of a swindler; a dupe.
The “gas” is the wrong colour – it should be green!
“Bob Diaz says:
January 12, 2011 at 10:04 pm”
Better tell Richard Branson, he laid the gauntlet down for someone to invent a machine that will scrub air of CO2 a few years back. Up until that day, I had great respect for Branson. Won’t be, if I can help it, flying on his airplanes nor buying his coke.
To Robert Clemenzi, maybe Earth Networks have adapted the GISS 1200km algorithm to suit their requirements.
More sensors will help determine how “well mixed” CO2 is, since we seem to be using only the Hawaiian data to represent the whole planet. As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So this will give us a little more knowledge.
Unfortunately, this will probably result in a stronger “call to action.”
They should put oxygen and nitrogen sensors instead. That would really show the composition of the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is still in the ppm range.
You can’t tax what you can’t measure.
Dont worry. Its wheather, not climate.
Sadly, I missed WeatherBug’s offering.
Every time I reboot my computer, I dig out all the
WeatherBug files and every registry entry I can
find.
They disappear until the next time I do a full restore.
http://condellpark.com/bear/smogbasin.htm This site may have dubious security but I have never had a problem. It’s been around since 2004 with relatively few viewers, I presume because of the security do-dah.
This area, Sydney Metropolitan Basin, has very little wind, breezes yes but few full blown gales. The smog build up is described in the images with a deadly sting for those in our ‘northern’ area.
Branson proves that brains are not essential to becoming a Billionaire.
He cares diddley squat about pollution but cares a lot about personal publicity.
His laughing gas/rubber burning black smoke markers at $100,000+ a seat will leave a trail from 30K to near space every time they fly.
Why scrub CO2 out of the atmosphere [other than to gather Greenie points!]?
This CO2 blob map is the single most stupid idea that I have come across today. I have come across a few beauties, but this is far, far ahead of the field. If only the people setting this sort of thing up had to pay for it out of their own pocket it would cease instantly. There are real problems in the World that they could be working on instead.
Nicholas Tesdorf
I can see it on the evening news ,CO2 WARNING alarm rings rrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrr URGENT please go too your bunker put on your CO2 filter and start praying that the very bad CO2 assending cloud will not kill you
And the question is: What good is this beyond some hype on your local TV newscast?
—
Absolutely nothing Anthony. What really gets me is why they will spend millions of dollars on such a system but won’t install simple thermometer stations outside of the cities that would show whether co2 has any real effect at all. To me they would find it is miniscule at most. With such logic it seems we’ve really slipped over the edge.
However, after seeing the latest published record of central England mean temperature for 2010 by no less that Hadley Center, my confidence in them and isolated science went up 1000%. If they will still publish such truth maybe science has a chance yet. I’ve posted it before but here is the link if you missed it http://hadobs.metoffice.com/hadcet/cetml1659on.dat. The years of 1659, 1676, 1754, 1902, 1956 & 2010 all were 8.83 °C. Amazing, and the linear trend on that 350 years of data is ¼ degree per CENTURY, not a decade. Yes, there’s hope. Could that ¼ degree per century be merely the UHI of London and suburbs?
“It is unbelievable that, using only 100 sensors, they are able to directly monitor the air over the ocean near LA. They even have altitude data.”
Well, it isn’t so hard to figure out. See, every night the Pacific ocean gets up for a little snack. At about 1am, he begins to get a little, uhm, “gassy”.
Seriously, though, this is an absolute waste of money. Is any of this $25 million coming from public money? If so we should immediately demand that every penny of it be returned. I have never seen such an absolute waste of money in a long time. What useful information is to be gained from this? That there is CO2 in the air? What absolute idiocy. This entire boondoggle hinges on convincing a generation of Americans that CO2 is in some way harmful or even worth being concerned about. That is something that I don’t believe anyone has shown.
The US or any state or local government better not be purchasing this data because it is absolute snake oil.
Look, we are getting ready to have 10,000 people A DAY going onto social security. That is 300,000 a month. It will be that way for about the next 15 years or so. They better come up with a way to provide 300,000 jobs a month in order to pay those boomers going on retirement and stop wasting money on this sorry nonsense.
Bob Diaz says: Better tell Richard Branson, he laid the gauntlet down for someone to invent a machine that will scrub air of CO2 a few years back.
I’ve invented one! I call it: Terra Recovered Eco Energy and I’m now looking for $1billion seed funding.
It’s totally solar powered and all it needs is a bit of water and some nitrogen and trace elements and it will create huge chunks of hydrocarbon which can then be used for constructing buildings, fences, furniture or it can be recycled and burnt.
Goly gosh, I was taught that plain old water vapor was the most important greenhouse gas, 44 times as potent as CO2.
Why would these jive artists say otherwise?
After looking at the live data of San Diego at Scripps site, it appears we’ve got a problem Houston, the ghg concentration and temperature have an distinct inverse correlation. Co2 up, temperature down, methane up, temperature down, methane down, temperature up. OH, NO! Quick, shut the site before too many people can see what is really happening. ☺
LOL.
100 surface measurement points fed into computer models? Do these fools really think that can trump the empirical data form the IBUKI satellite? There is only one plausible explanation for using computer models when empirical data is available, and that would be manipulation of results. Japan may be pressured by the US government to suppress data, but the same techniques will not work on India and China, and they both have space launch capability.
I read this article twice and still can’t see the point of doing this.
Yes, there will be more carbon dioxide and methane around cities than in the countryside. In the former, it may be as much as one or two parts per million; in the latter it may be one or two parts per 100 million. So what! Where are we going to run, when the alarm goes out that a cloud of CO2 of 2 parts per million (ppm) above the current norm of 390ppm is approaching?
This is just another case of the uncontrolled breeding of pointless, expensive, bureaucracies.
Of course, the counter-argument is: “it sounds green, so it’s gotta be good.”
The indoctrination of the masses continues! What happens when the masses turn off the mainstream media?
Surely anything which encourages actual collection of real data is to be applauded?
The obsession with CO2 is unstoppable. There is obviously a psychological need for humans to clutch to a fictional belief. From Santa to the Easter bunny and from Zeus to the Cargo Cults- humans and from Bigfoot to Green Men from Mars, humans seem to need to clutch to things that don’t exist.
Why? Maybe the same genetic makeup that gives us intelligence and creativity also give us irrationality as well.
To think of all the resources wasted on worry about CO2: an invisible life-giving gas in practically unmeasurable quantitie. Resources that could go to real issues such as cancer, hunger, poverty. It’s a shame and a sham.
The sheer determination of the establishment to demonise CO2 continues.
As does the resistance!
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RHx9ZbrmAc ]
REPLY: Readers, this experiment is poorly done and provides no value to the skeptical argument, I suggest you ignore it. For reasons why, see Jeff Id’s takedown of this here
http://noconsensus.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/kicking-puppies/
– Anthony
Time to Go Green!
Start covering the sunny side of all tall buildings in the area with trellises. Grow ivy. Sprinkle with eco-friendly recovered grey water as needed.
That’ll take care of the problem.
Carbontracker used to do this ( http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/carbontracker/ ), and did quite a good job of it too. However they stopped, most likely because mapping CO_2 concentrations didn’t turn out to be politically useful. The developed world as a whole shows up on such maps as having an inconveniently low CO_2 level, which isn’t`on message’ in terms of the campaign for carbon restraint.
Harry Bergeron says:
January 13, 2011 at 12:30 am
Golly gosh, I was taught that plain old water vapor was the most important greenhouse gas, 44 times as potent as CO2.
…about that tea kettle you own? It’s banned now. Please turn it into the nice UN soldiers at your local park.
and if you have a furnace — rip out the thermostat. All furnaces are now banned as they produce both CO2 and water vapor. The nice soldiers will be around to throw your furnace and water heater (too much energy) into the scrap bin! Quickly now! Kittens are burning up at the north pole due to the temperature anomalies….
All hail the UN!
As far as scientists are concerned the current weather is just a blip in the AGW theory and they will keep pushing onward and upward until we all freeze to death.
After all they are the experts who should not be questioned.
Even partially-educated thermists realize that CO2 in the lower troposphere has no immediate greenhouse effect — it’s swamped by water-vapor. CO2 around the height of the tropopause is what causes it.
Mike Haseler says:
January 13, 2011 at 12:29 am
I’ve invented one! I call it: Terra Recovered Eco Energy and I’m now looking for $1billion seed funding.
Love it: “Seed” funding. Trust the pun was intended. Good one.
It’s a valuable service to owners of green businesses and buildings. Wander into the reception of a banking or finance office and you’ll probably see a couple of plasma displays showing news and market data. That’s nasty capitalist stuff so unsuitable for an environmentally conscious reception area. Now they can have plasma screens showing this. If the blob suddenly goes red, and starts flowing towards your location, you’ll also know the local CCS project* has sprung a leak and it’s time to get to high ground. All yours for a modest monthly fee and a better way to demonstrate you are a cutting edge technosavvy soldier in the war on climate than some found art from the local commune.
*or some pranksters with fire extinguishers have found the CO2 sensors.
CO2 map rule #1: CO2 maps may only be used in association with heatwave forecasts.
That’s not CO2. That’s smug!
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s10e02-smug-alert
By improving time and space resolution, they hope to get a better handle on the relative contribution of anthropogenic CO2 to atmospheric concentration. I expect they will find no long lasting anthropogenic plumes, only short lived spikes on the top of an ever changing natural background controlled by ever changing source and sink rates of the Pacific. I expect that those spikes contribute less than 1% to the long term average of atmospheric CO2 concentration.
The BBC are going to love this.
The atmospheric modeling techniques involve coupling greenhouse gas and weather measurements with computer modelsof regional atmospheric transport to quantify GHG emission and uptake processes on a regional scale
It is VIRTUAL!
That VIRTUAL fog is killing birds, really awesome!:
http://www.huliq.com/10164/more-strange-bird-deaths-time-northern-california
Even if the tech and sampling are good, won’t it just confirm that the ocean is emitting CO2 heavily?
So we are now having CO2 monitors and online graphics telling us in which areas grass, grains, vegetables and trees will grow the biggest and the fastest. Farming land where CO2 has the highest values will be revalued upwards due to better growing conditions due to more CO2.
OK I’m taking bets. These sensors will be fully operational with unquestionable data during heat waves but somehow the data won’t be available during cold snaps.
On a serious note, would I be correct in saying that during cool air temps CO2 will settle and show up has “high” on the sensors, conversely, during warm air temps the rising air will take the CO2 away and show up as “low” on the sensors.
If I’m correct, they’ve blown their millions.
Michael, Etna is only clearing its throat, that could go on for months/years. The big eruption will eventually happen though, they think it will be bad. I follow the updates from Boris Bencke at eruptions/big think.com.
I believe that this imagery is incomplete to the point of being fraudulent. I can’t help but notice that northern Baja California is depicted on the right side of the image.
This area includes the cities of Tijuana, (that according to Wikipedia has a city population of 1,483.992, and a total metro area population of 1,784,034,) and also Mexicali (population 653,046, and a total metro population of 995,962.)
If I didn’t know anything about the geography of the area I might conclude that Northern Baja California is an unpopulated wilderness, and not home to 2.7 million people!
Do these bustling urban areas produce ZERO CO2 emissions? Or is this an incomplete, and hence inaccurate picture being presented as “science”? After all if the image showed ALL of the CO2 emissions depicted in the frame, one might come to the “erroneous” conclusion that Southern California is just a small part of a larger CO2 producing global community.
Smug Alert
The funniest south park episode ever. As I recall the the story didn’t end so well for San Fransisco
Complete waste of money and a duplication of effort.
Why wasn’t the funding given to NASA to improve the AQUA satellite information related to CO2 readings — currently displayed as 31 day or monthly? Maybe daily readings aren’t important in relation to atmospheric mixing?
http://climate.nasa.gov/Eyes/eyes.html
Enter the 3D model > choose AQUA > choose ozone or CO2 data set and adjust the view by dragging the globe around.
Get website visualization but it would be even better if one could overlay several of the data sets from different satellites to potentially show cause and effect.
sorry, s/b
Great website visualization but it would be even better if one could overlay several of the data sets from different satellites to potentially show cause and effect.
This is the original report as seen on Fox news
http://www.myfoxdc.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=6994WeatherBug Operator, Earth Networks, Measuring Greenhouse Gases: MyFoxDC.com
Will they include the important greenhouse gaswater vapor in the cartoon? If so, will this cartoon properly depict their relative importance as greenhouse gases?
If so, then there is no need for the animation because we already have water vapor satellite images which will show essentially the same thing.
If places are cold, while having a high Carbon Dioxide level, or hot with low CO2
You see, CO2 “causes” warming because it peaks every year just before the plants wake up in the spring. A definite causal link, since the rise in CO2 comes BEFORE the springtime temperature rise every year. Very reliable. CO2 definitely causes warming in the late winter, early spring. Throughout the summer, the CO2 levels drop as the plants hungrily consume as much as they can find. The DROP in CO2 levels causes the temperatures to drop in the autumn. Every year, the change in CO2 levels precedes the predicted change in temperature by 5-6 months.
This is why monthly CO2 level measures are used to correlate with temperature, rather than annual. At the annual level, the correlation between temperature & CO2 level is insignificant. (I have a link to a J. Hansen paper, somewhere…)
The giant evil gaseous blob is Liberal thought, slouching its way down from San Fransicko.
genezeien says:
January 13, 2011 at 11:04 am
You are 180 degrees out of phase with reality. Radiation is essentially line of sight and fast as light. Note how fast the surface air cools on a no wind, clear cold night. If CO2 was having any affect on OLR, it certainly would not show up as a 6 months delay. Read http://www.kidswincom.net/CO2OLR.pdf.
Ah, Fred-I think you may have misread genezeien’s intented point.
Sorry-“intended”.
Fred H. Haynie says:
January 13, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Dang it, Fred! I was paraphrasing a quote from J. Hansen. Paraphrasing ‘cuz my memory isn’t photographic. Now I’ll have to find the original source 🙁
Please note that I did not say “I believe…” any of it 😉
Sorry Gene. I’m not into sarcasm and your’s was the kind of comment you would expect from “true belivers”.
At this time of year, the prevailing winds in SoCal are westerly. From the picture it looks like CO2 expelled from the ocean is blown toward the coast and builds up in front of the San Gabriel mountains.
David L says at 1:15 am:
“The obsession with CO2 is unstoppable. There is obviously a psychological need for humans to clutch to a fictional belief.”
The Gaian cultists spring from exactly – and I do mean *literally exactly and precisely* – the same psychological impulse as these guys, and none of us should be surprised at the blood thirst that occasionally leaks out from the Gaian cult (e.g., the “10:10” exploding people video).
http://dvdmedia.ign.com/dvd/image/article/773/773344/apocalypto-20070316000537705.jpg
I actually welcome this boondoggle program, which, in its fund-grabbing frenzy, SIO is only too happy to lead. The data will eventually show quite unequivocally that regional variations in CO2 concentration are either incoherent or LAG temperature variations. What will the distinguished professors say when they’re hung by their own petard?
I scanned the comments so maybe I missed it but, I thought the reason given to defend the Hawaiian CO2 record was that CO2 was well-mixed in the atmosphere and therefore the Hawaiian record was representative. The model doesn’t look like the CO2 is well-mixed to me.
I had thought a a novel plan which I truely hope no government will implement.
A new law, making it mandatory for all AGW believers to xxxxxxxx.
That should solve the problem.
I hasten to say that this was intended as a joke.
On reflection, it was in very poor taste and was self snipped.
But I will just comment.
Does anybody else feel that the AGW proponents are getting siller by the day?
Phil and others,
The graphic is not based on measured data of an existing network. It is a simulation of what they expect to see from one. So far they have shown how their plume location methodoligy works on a single site at La Jollia. Grifton, NC would be a better site to use in demonstrating their technique. The raw flask data shows large spikes when a light wind is blowing from the southwest. There is a 15KW coal fired power plant 4km southwest of this small town site. There is another site in Kansas fairly near a larger coal fired power plant. I expect they will find that these plumes they are able to observe, rapidly vanish to natural background which is being controlled by liquid moisture in the air, rivers and lakes, soil, and plants.
beng;
You REALLY need to go to Robert Clemenzi’s site and do some reading. And d/l and read his http://qs.mc-computing.com//Global_Warming/EPA_Comments/TheGreenhouseEffect.doc
Will this be gone in April, I’m hoping to visit and don’t want to carry an oxygen mask around?