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.
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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.
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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?
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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?