You may have noticed that I have been absent from WUWT for a few days. The stories have been on scheduled automated posting, and the WUWT team of moderators has held down the fort (thank you).
The reason is that I have been traveling on business. While I was traveling I was invited to photograph the weather station at what I think is probably the most visually stunning and technologically advanced meteorology center in the world today:
Can you guess what city and country this is in?
Hints below.
The building in the background has a Doppler radar on top, and is the meteorology HQ for the city. The entire building is just for meteorology and they employ 150 people. The Stevenson Screen in the foreground is where the official temperature record for the city is measured.
Hint: The city is not in the USA, NOAA has nothing like this.
I’ll have a complete report in a few days.
WUWT contributions made this portion of my trip possible, so I owe all of you a big thank you. More to come. – Anthony
UPDATE: well, that was fast. I’ll have more on this in a few days.
| WeatherMan |
Submitted on 2009/05/25 at 5:05pm
It’s the Shenzhen Meteorological Observatory in China.
REPLY: YES, WE HAVE A WINNER |
Congrats to “weatherman”! If anyone wants to locate it on Google Earth, and post URL here or lat/lon, it would save me a lot of trouble. I couldn’t take my GPS with me due to concerns at being at a gov installation with one might get me in trouble. Gotta catch a plane, back online in a day or so. – Anthony
“The tower building, the new office of the Shenzhen Meteorological Observatory, is located on a small hill in the east of the Shenzhen International Garden and Flower Expo Park”
http://english.sz.gov.cn/ln/200711/t20071106_279291.htm
A solar power project was installed on rooftops in the Garden, and this two-page summary includes photos of two of the buildings.
http://www.bpsunoasis.com/en/images/Aust_ps_solar_Shenzhen.pdf
Looking for green areas in Shenzhen with those buildings, then on the east side the tower is visible.
Coordinates are 22 32 30.25 N, 114 00 19.70 E
I am with a jones, hold the fort (as in keep out attackers), not hold down (as in a job) bit more life and death than that.
O/T (with apologies) but have you seen the Monibot article on the Carteret Islands? Might be worth a response (Carbon Cult in the Carterets?). Having lived in Bougainville with an active volcano nearby and regular earth tremors I feel there may be another explanation!
hmmm….. what did they paint the Stevenson screen with, white wash or latex?
Speaking of Doppler and radar:
http://tinyurl.com/p9ryrb
From The Times, May 25, 2009
Action on wind farm radar threat to aircraft
China then. I have to say, my initial guess was Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Etisalat, the Emirati telecoms company have several buildings with similar ‘golf balls’ on top. I believe they house microwave tansmitters / recievers.
Looking at the gray sky, I would have tipped either Hamburg or London.
And that, on a beautiful day!
Slightly OT:
That ball on top has become common across the world. What is inside? What is its purpose?
How does it differ from more conventional appearing weather stations?
Thanks!!
Never heard of “Hold down the fort” in the UK.
“Hold down a job” is a common phrase over here, as is “Hold the fort”, but we do not mix the two….
Fantastic! A place that in twenty years has gone from a few villages to a vast industrial urbanisation.
It’s definitely “Holding the fort”. Used for the situation when a superior officer or noble would mount some kind of expedition, and a junior officer would be required to take command at the outpost or castle. The instruction is meant to convey the sense that everything is to be kept running (but nothing changed and no expeditions mounted).
“Holding down the fort” might perhaps occur with a wilful fort for whom time out in the naughty corner is not sufficient.
I have a question:
.
Has anyone ever considered measuring the heat which is generated within a Stevenson Screen caused by impinging RF radiation of local radar transceivers?
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In the consideration that most of the power in a radar signal impinging upon the screen is likely miniscule —in most cases— one is given to wonder otherwise at the locations of some screens such as to give rise to artificial readings when a local radar transceiver is in operation.
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That includes radio transmitters of significant power as well.
.
Dubai
Anthony, would you kindly look at the NSIDC arctic sea ice map…I have never seen it glitch so bad…I thought they said they fixed their satellites or whatever it is they use…
Various kinds of microwave (really, really high frequency, short wavelength radio) systems use parabolic reflectors with a small illuminating antenna in front. Some are fixed in direction, some are pointable in both elevation and azimuth. While these systems generally “see through” rain and other precipitation, accumulations of moisture, and especially ice, on the antenna itself tend to degrade the antenna characteristics. Thus, the radome (the ball on top) was developed, primarily to keep the weather away. Another purpose is to keep unwanted observers from easily seeing which way a particular system is pointed.
Ot but really interesting paper by MEP http://www.brugesgroup.com/ClimatePaper.pdf
Also OT: The dead pixel on SOHO is back at 4 o’clock. It’s been at 10 for a few days. Did the satellite do a flip?
And what is under the Stevenson Screen in the photo? Looks like old stonework.
Highlander…in regards to your question about RF radiation affecting Stevenson Screens, at least at the frequency of that radar (Sband – around 3 Ghz), the RF energy should just reflect off the object and scatter back towards the antenna. The only ‘heating’ would occur if the object was covered in water drops. Then the water would absorb some of the radiation and be heated slightly…like in a microwave oven. However, the effective power levels from the radar would be so small because:
1 – it is not in the direct line of scanning (it is below 0 deg tilt)
2 – the radar is only pointed in that specific direction a small portion of the time
3 – the average power of a radar is much lower than the peak pulse power (there is alot of dead xmit time between pulses of RF going out)
With these factors in mind, any heating would probably be overwhelmed by other factors & be a very, very small impact on the actual temperature reading…kinda like CO2 in the atmosphere…eh?
Jeff
I knew it was some workers’ paradise the instant I saw the people boxes in the background. It’s interesting that many, if not most, of the guesses included the name of a country with socialist leanings. Architecture speaks volumes.
Well it ain’t in the UK, that’s for sure!
A fair way OT & apologies for doing so, but interesting @ur momisugly BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8068049.stm all about a “carbon rich meteorite, followed by this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8061929.stm.
Poor old Auntie Beeb! I wonder if they know the game is up, but just don’t know how to turn from arrogant rabid AGW propagandists into a sensible, accurate, well informed, serious & trustworthy, state funded news organisation!
Paris?
Those who guessed Singapore was not far wrong. Singapore invested heavily in Shenzhen and was consulted on its urban planning resulting in its blocky, Singaporesque skyline.
Because the tower seems to have only two of those curved wings in the Google Earth aerial photo, the Stevenson screen must be in what used to be part of the adjoining Garden. There are many decorative features in there, so what you’re seeing is indeed probably stonework (if it’s not old it may have been built to simulate stonework).
This being a scenic attraction, there are some photos taken in the area in Panorimo. I haven’t spotted the Stevenson screen location in a photo, but I did find two of the radar/broadcasting tower (one from the hill to the west, the other further north in the garden).
And do the records from the ‘most visually stunning and technologically advanced meteorology center in the world today” suggest that the globe is warming or cooling?
!!!!!
“Dubai”
You do know where Dubai is, right?