. . . The Weather Research and Forecasting model used by the National Weather Service bases its forecasts on the temperature, wind and moisture in the atmosphere. "Two nights ago, it was giving us quite a bit of rain, and that didn't happen," said Doug Wesley, senior meteorologist at University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. "It was tracking the storm way up in northern Wyoming. We were right on the edge, which made it ... difficult to forecast." With inconsistent reports from various models, meteorologists based their final forecasts on experience. "Given what they had for guidance this week, I think they did a pretty good job," Wesley said.
. . . An exciting collaboration on the horizon for CU is a $60-million supercomputing data centre to be built in Cheyenne, Wyoming. A joint venture by CU, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, the University of Wyoming and the state of Wyoming, this is expected to generate a host of unique opportunities for collaboration with other parts of the research community. . . . "In terms of local Boulder jobs, there may be some disappointment," says Maura Hagan, director of the Advanced Study Program at NCAR. "But in terms of opportunities for collaboration with the universities and NCAR, that's still very strong and joint appointments are viable."
00:24:19 Hail: Some farmers in California are using loud noise canons to shoot sound waves into the sky in hopes the sound waves will break up crop damaging hail before it hits the ground. Anchor says farmer John Diepersloot sells his fruit to stores like Whole Foods and Safeway. I; Diepersloot, says the market demands perfect fruit. He describes how the sound canon works to prevent ice crop damage. I; Charles Knight, National Center for Atmospheric Research, says there is no way to tell if the canons work or not. I; Harry Ambes, University of California, says there is nothing we have come up with yet to outwit Mother Nature. Sasha Khokha of member station KQED reporting. 00:27:54
. . . Now, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., are using old Doppler radar images of Hurricane Charley in 2004 to test a computer model that matched changes in the storm's eye with its rapid intensification just before landfall. . . . By applying the computer model to the radar readings, wind speeds can be determined around the storm's eye, where the strongest winds are located. Results from the computer model showed intensity changes in Charley as they were occurring, said Wen-Chau Lee, a scientist at the Colorado research center. "With just Doppler images, you don't find that pattern," Lee said.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) (March 24, 2007) circ. 362,964
By Jared Miller
. . . Slated for construction west of Cheyenne, the National Center for Atmospheric Research data center could have important applications in many academic fields at UW, and will enhance the university's ability to retain and attract top-tier scientists, they said. . . . UW officials said they are willing to sacrifice $2 million from the newly created energy school for long-term benefits the school will reap from the supercomputer. UW researchers will have access to 20 percent of the supercomputer capacity.
. . . Consider Bangladesh . . . "Even a rise of one foot will put a huge amount of that entire country under water permanently," said geographer Susi Moser. She is among National Center for Atmospheric Research scientists who contributed to an upcoming international report on the likely worldwide impacts of climate change. . . . "It's not just the other guy's problem. It will affect us right here in our own backyard," said Kathleen Miller, an NCAR economist. . . . Carbon dioxide has a fertilizing effect on some plants, promoting growth. So crops such as soybeans and wheat could benefit from some extra CO2 , said Linda Mearns, director of the NCAR institute. . . . "In Africa, one of the sad things is that they're going to suffer much more (than residents of developed countries) when they have not caused the problems," Mearns said. . . . "We are not trying to alarm people. We just want to raise awareness of how difficult this issue is and that we need to be more proactive," said NCAR sociologist Paty Romero Lankao.
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) (March 23, 2007) circ. 362,964
By Jared Miller
. . . The growth is generating jobs, higher wages and a presumption that the rise will continue now that Cheyenne is “on the map.” . . . Another major impetus for growth is the city's nonprofit economic development arm, Cheyenne Leads.
Formed two decades ago, Cheyenne Leads helped attract the National Center for Atmospheric Research's $60 million weather data center, which will bring about 40 well-paid workers to the community.
Wall Street Journal (March 23, 2007) circ. 2,049,786
By Susan Carey and Andy Pasztor
Most of the usual suspects figured in this winter's air-travel fiascoes: wicked storms, jam-packed planes and missteps by airlines. But this year, the problems were exacerbated by an obscure meteorological condition: ice pellets. . . . Roy Rasmussen, an atmospheric scientist working with the FAA, says that 70% of the time, ice pellets are mixed with other forms of precipitation, such as rain or snow. That suggests that the new rule would only help the airlines a third of the time. Moreover, says Mr. Rasmussen, a senior scientist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federally funded Boulder, Colo., research center, it isn't even certain that ice pellets have become more common. He's currently researching the question for the FAA.
. . . Last November, [David] Schimel was appointed as chief executive of the network, which will see a set of sensors and facilities monitor ecosystems throughout the United States. . . . After two years at the Marine Biological Laboratory's Ecosystems Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and a PhD on grasslands at Colorado State University, Schimel joined the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, in 1992.
. . . The team made measurements all over the region and then, back on the ground, found that large snowflakes up to two inches wide were falling and collected samples. After compiling all the weather data and doing extensive computer modeling, the team came up with a detailed explanation. The drama had begun more than three miles up — unusually high — when large dendrites formed in moist winds that blew slightly upward, keeping the crystals aloft. “That gave them time to grow,” recalled R. Paul Lawson, a team scientist then working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colo. “And it let them fall for a long time.”
New Scientist (London, UK) (March 19, 2007) circ. 147,278
By Catherine Brahic
. . . The programme claimed to lay bare all the fallacies that have created the "great myth" that is man-made global warming. However, the programme itself was riddled with holes. . . . The period of cooling between 1940 and 1970, which the film claimed was proof that the global warming hypothesis is flawed, has a simple and proven explanation. It was caused by industrial sulphate emissions, combined with a cluster of volcanic eruptions, which also emit sulphates. The industrial sulphates have since been partially cleaned up thanks to clean air laws adopted in developed countries. This figure, published by Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 2004, shows how climate models can reconstruct 20th century temperatures, including the mid-century cooling, using different factors that contribute to both warming and cooling global temperatures.
Forbes.com (March 18, 2007) circ. 900,000 Los Angeles Times (March 18, 2007) circ. 851,832 Washington Post (March 18, 2007) circ. 724,242 New York Post (March 18, 2007) circ. 673,379 Houston Chronicle (March 18, 2007) circ. 513,387 plus San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), Washington (D.C.) Examiner, Seattle Times and 83 other publications
By Seth Borenstein (Associated Press)
. . . Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said mankind already has harmed Earth's climate inadvertently, so it's foolish to think that people can now fix it with a few drastic measures. But at Trenberth's same Boulder, Colo., research center, climate scientist Tom Wigley is exploring that mock volcano idea. "It's the lesser of two evils here (the other being doing nothing)," Wigley said. "Whatever we do, there are bad consequences, but you have to judge the relative badness of all the consequences."
San Jose Mercury News (March 18, 2007) circ. 274,382 New York Times (March 13, 2007) circ. 1,142,464
By William J. Broad
. . . Mr. Gore depicted a future in which temperatures soar, ice sheets melt, seas rise, hurricanes batter the coasts and people die en masse. “Unless we act boldly,” he wrote, “our world will undergo a string of terrible catastrophes.” He clearly has supporters among leading scientists, who commend his popularizations and call his science basically sound. In December, he spoke in San Francisco to the American Geophysical Union and got a reception fit for a rock star from thousands of attendees.
“He has credibility in this community,” said Tim Killeen, the group’s president and director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a top group studying climate change. “There’s no question he’s read a lot and is able to respond in a very effective way.”
Three climate studies published Thursday raise new concerns about the effects of warmer temperatures and pollution on polar environments. . . . A key concern of climate scientists is that melting of the polar ice caps and glaciers will raise sea levels and inundate low-lying land areas. But the sea ice study by researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center and National Center for Atmospheric Research, both in Boulder, Colo., also focuses on atmospheric climate effects.
Dwindling Arctic sea ice may have reached a 'tipping point' that could make British winters even wetter, according to researchers. . . . The wider impact on temperate regions such as Europe is discussed by Dr Serreze and Julienne Stroeve of the centre and Marika Holland of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research. . . . The potential for such rapid ice loss was highlighted in a December 2006 study co-written by Dr Holland in Geophysical Research Letters. In one climate model simulation, the Arctic Ocean became nearly ice-free in September between 2040 and 2050.
"Given the growing agreement between models and observations, a transition to a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean as the system warms seems increasingly certain," the researchers write today in Science.
USA Today (March 16, 2007) circ. 2,272,815 Forbes.com (March 15, 2007) circ. 900,000 Los Angeles Times (March 15, 2007) circ. 851,832 Washington Post (March 15, 2007) circ. 724,242 Houston Chronicle (March 15, 2007) circ. 513,387 plus Newsday, San Francisco Chronicle, Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), Sacramento Bee, Washington Examiner and 92 other publications
By Seth Borenstein (Associated Press)
. . . One of the premier climate modeling centers in the United States, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has spent the last six weeks running computer simulations of the man-made volcano scenario and will soon turn its attention to the space umbrella idea. . . . Using jet engines, cannons or balloons to get sulfates in the air, humans could reduce the solar heat, and only increase current sulfur pollution by a small percentage, said Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "It's an issue of the lesser of two evils," he said. Scientists at the [National] Center for Atmospheric Research put the idea into a computer climate model. The results aren't particularly cheap or promising, said NCAR scientist Caspar Ammann. It would take tens of thousands of tons of sulfate to be injected into the air each month, he said. "From a practical point of view, it's completely ridiculous," Amman said. "Instead of investing so much into this, it would be much easier to cut down on the initial problem." Both this technique and the solar umbrella while reducing heating, wouldn't reduce carbon dioxide.
San Jose Mercury News (March 16, 2007) circ. 274,382 Kansas City Star (March 16, 2007) circ. 270,335 Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, California) circ. 185,036 Sun Times (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) (March 16, 2007) circ. 49,462
By Julie Sevrens Lyons
. . . The combined global land and ocean surface temperature in January was 1.53 degrees warmer than the 20th-century average of 53.6 degrees - and still significantly higher than the previous record set in 2002 at 1.28 degrees above average.
It "smashed the record," said Kevin Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. . . . "This will have an impact on many things that will affect humans, from food and crops but also on all kinds of ecosystems, wildlife, forests, even fisheries and especially things like wildfires, things that can be really devastating."
Boulder Daily Camera (March 16, 2007) circ. 33,000
By Todd Neff
. . . In a report considering a decade of international research, three Boulder researchers agree that complicated forces affect the Arctic. But heat-trapping gases from fossil fuels are the driving cause of warming, the authors conclude in today's journal Science. . . . Marika Holland, a National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist and co-author of the paper, has used NCAR's best climate model to show that thinning Arctic ice could cause rapid ice retreat. The NCAR model showed an ice-free Arctic by 2040. She said the disparity between different climate models' predictions of future Arctic ice extent would probably lessen in the coming years as scientific understanding of the Arctic and the models themselves improve. At NCAR, for example, scientists are already integrating a new sea-ice module into its global model.
Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts) (March 15, 2007) circ. 60,723
By Brad Knickerbocker
. . . The Associated Press broke a big story last weekend, giving an advance look at the draft of an international scientific report due out next month. Among the findings, according to AP: "The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won't have enough water...." . . . "Things are happening and happening faster than we expected," Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., told the wire service.
Washington Examiner (Washington, DC) (March 12, 2007) circ. 260,188 USA Today (March 11, 2007) circ. 2,272,815 New York Times (March 11, 2007) circ. 1,142,464 Forbes.com (March 11, 2007) circ. 900,000 Los Angeles Times (March 10, 2007) circ. 851,832 plus Washington Post, New York Post, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, Houston Chronicle, Toronto (Canada) Star and 203 other publications
By Seth Borenstein (Associated Press)
. . . "Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent," the report says, in marked contrast to a 2001 report by the same international group that said the effects of global warming were coming. But that report only mentioned scattered regional effects.
"Things are happening and happening faster than we expected," said Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., one of the many co-authors of the new report. The draft document says scientists are highly confident that many current problems — change in species' habits and habitats, more acidified oceans, loss of wetlands, bleaching of coral reefs, and increases in allergy-inducing pollen — can be blamed on global warming.
. . . Global warming, scientists say, is reshaping the landscapes in which they work, forcing some researchers to carry shotguns to fend off stranded polar bears and leaving others to watch once- vibrant coral reefs die. . . . Joan Kleypas, a biologist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, has been studying coral reefs for more than two decades. Oceanographers once thought global warming would be great for coral reefs, Kleypas said. "With time, we realized the oceans were warming too fast," Kleypas said. "They cannot adapt, and it's killing them." . . . Today, the elkhorn are almost gone, victims of pollution, warmer water and acidification from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide seeping into oceans. "They're unbelievably magnificent," Kleypas said. "In my lifetime, these things have gone from being absolutely dominant, like a weed, to being hard to find. "This is astounding to me."
. . . What happens with NASA has major implications for Colorado. The state has the nation's third-largest space-based economy, with 164,500 space-industry-related jobs just in the private sector. NASA contracts brought Colorado businesses $337 million in fiscal 2005. The University of Colorado, Colorado State University and facilities such as the Boulder-based National Center for Atmospheric Research also receive NASA money for Earth-science research.
Bureaucratic hang-ups and unfavorable weather delayed the start of an experiment to see if cloud seeding can significantly boost snowfall in the Wyoming mountains and to help resolve the issue of whether the process really works. . . . Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder designed and are overseeing the experiment, which is funded by the state of Wyoming. It started last year with the collection of baseline weather data - but no seeding - at sites in the Wind River, Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre mountain ranges. . . . "Hopefully, we'll be able to collect enough of the right data to provide a definitive conclusion as to whether cloud seeding is a viable tool for water resource management in Wyoming," said Dan Breed, the lead NCAR scientist on the project.
. . . About 42 percent of Canada's land area, or about 4 million square kilometers, overlies permafrost, says Smith. In about half that area, the permafrost is patchy and thin, with a temperature above –2°C. If many scientists' climate-warming scenarios come to pass, Smith says, "permafrost in those regions could ultimately disappear." When it will disappear is another issue. Research published in 2005 sparked a major debate. In that report, climate scientists David M. Lawrence of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., and Andrew G. Slater of the University of Colorado at Boulder suggested that climate warming will wipe out more than 90 percent of the world's near-surface permafrost by the year 2100. . . . Lawrence agrees that the computer model that he and Slater used for their study had some limitations—for instance, it included only the top 3.4 m of the ground and didn't account for conditions associated with some soil types. The pair has now modified its model to look 50 m into the ground, says Lawrence.
. . . Precipitation has been below average, especially in the Wind River Range, and recent warm weather hasn't been good for cloud seeding, either. . . . The project is a joint effort of the state Water Development Commission, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Weather Modification Inc.
. . . The group observed that the budworm protein collects on both the corners and the flat surfaces of the ice crystals, likely cutting off both directions in which ice normally grows, Braslavsky reports. The result reinforces the proposed explanation of strong ISPs, says Charles Knight, an ice crystal expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "It places the knowledge on a solider ground," he says. Braslavsky says that researchers still want to understand how individual ISP molecules stick to ice. "It's still not clear," he says, "how they work exactly.
Pollution from the burning of wood and coal in Asia has spiked in recent years, causing increasingly erratic weather across much of the Northern Hemisphere, scientists say. . . . In essence, the researchers said, the soot particles appeared to seed intense storms that flowed toward North America. . . . Another leading climate scientist, Kevin Trenberth, said he's not even sure that storms across the Pacific Ocean have been increasing. The problem is that there have been major changes in the satellites used to observe the Pacific Ocean. . . . "This does not mean that the effects claimed by the authors are not there," said Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "But you cannot prove that they are in the way they do."
. . . Aspiring astronomers will help scientists map that "light pollution" this month through the GLOBE at Night project, headed by Boulder's University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and Colorado State University. . . . "This is an exciting event for schoolchildren, families and citizen-scientists across the country and around the world," said Kirsten Meymaris, the project coordinator at UCAR. This is GLOBE at Night's second year. Last year, more than 18,000 people from 96 countries on every continent except Antarctica reported a total of more than 4,500 observations. More than 100 recordings came from Colorado.
San Jose Mercury News (March 2, 2007) circ. 274,382 Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, California) (March 2, 2007) circ. 185,036
By Mike Taugher
Four out of five Bay Area residents think global warming is a serious threat, and about the same number favor a new law that requires Californians to sharply cut greenhouse gas emissions, a new poll shows. . . . A steady drumbeat of increasingly definitive science and more sophisticated media coverage that is less prone to inflating the importance of doubts raised about climate science are the main reasons for heightened concern, said Susanne Moser, a geographer who studies public attitudes on global warming at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. . . . ``The big dip in the 1990s, that was the result of the kind of media reporting and the contrarian work that was going on,'' Moser said. ``The science has won, and the contrarian reports have been dismantled, every single one.''
. . . Called the Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment, or RAINEX, the study found that as a storm swirls into a tighter spin, a moat of dry air develops around a hurricane eye, where the strongest winds are found. . . . NOAA provided two P-3 turboprops and the U.S. Navy provided a third to help research RAINEX during the 2005 storm season. The University of Washington and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., also participated in the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Earth & Sky Radio Series (Austin, Texas) (March 1, 2007) DMA: 0
By Jorge Salazar
. . . The project is open to the public, and it’s called GLOBE at Night , short for Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment. It’s a worldwide science and education program managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and Colorado State University, and it’s funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and supported by the U.S. Department of State. “This is an exciting event for schoolchildren, families, and citizen scientists across the country and around the world,” says Kirsten Meymaris of UCAR’s Office of Education and Outreach, who is the GLOBE at Night project coordinator. “It brings families together to enjoy the night sky and to become involved in science. And it also raises awareness about the impact of artificial lighting on our ability to see the stars.”
The city's Open Space and Mountain Parks department will close Mallory and Harmon caves, accessible from the National Center for Atmospheric Research trailhead at the end of Table Mesa Road, from Sunday to Oct. 1 to protect bats.
Gulf News (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) (March 29, 2007) circ. 4,200
By Aftab Kazmi
. . . The programme is being implemented by introducing cloud seeding technology in cooperation with the National Centre of the Atmospheric Research sic (NCAR) in the United States, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and the United States space agency Nasa, he said.
American Prospect (Washington, D.C.) (March 28, 2007) circ. 55,000
By Brian Beutler
. . . Is there a connection to be drawn between the reality of global warming and the wackiness of this past winter? Kevin Trenberth, a respected scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, has pioneered the research on the murky connection between El Niño and global warming, and, in his view, as goes the latter, so goes the former. He expects that winters like this past one will only become more common. Trenberth testified on precisely this connection before the new Congress in February.
Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) (March 26, 2007) circ. 100,000
By Steve Newman
. . . The next sunspot cycle is predicted to be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the last and will begin almost a year later than normal, according to forecasters at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. A new computer model of solar activity will allow for early warnings of solar storms, which can slow satellites in orbit, disrupt global communications and bring down power grids.
Billings (Montana) Gazette (March 25, 2007) circ. 47,851 KUTV-TV (CBS) (Salt Lake City, Utah) (March 24, 2007)
(Associated Press)
. . . The $60 million National Center for Atmospheric Research data center slated to be built near Cheyenne could have important applications in many academic fields at UW and would enhance the university's ability to retain and attract top-tier scientists, they said. . . . The supercomputer will be used for climate modeling and will be run by a consortium of universities, including the University of Wyoming.
The 2007 state Legislature appropriated $21 million to help build the supercomputer.
Question: Why haven't there been many sunspots around the sun recently? Answer: The sun goes through a cycle of peak-to-low sunspot activity every 11 years. Now at sunspot minimum, the sun has few sunspots or, as occurred early this past week, no sunspots on its Earth-facing side. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., predict that the first spots of the next cycle won't appear until late this year or early 2008. Other solar astronomers using past observing trends state that the new sunspot cycle should be starting now.
Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Herald (March 22, 2007) circ. 15,633
By Abigail Crocker
. . . Realizing that scientists must renew their perspective regarding the world around them, Moore and his colleague Richard Anthes, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, created the National Academy of Sciences Decadal Survey. Calling for various scientists in all fields of earth studies such as meteorology, oceanography and others, a committee of about 120 people from around the world was formed three years ago. . . . The fundamental vision of the panel is to continually make efforts to understand the planet and to remember that nothing is placed higher on the list of priorities.
. . . According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in an average year, about 1,000 tornadoes are reported across the United States, resulting in 80 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries, and over $1 billion US in damages annually -- Texans alone lost an average of $43 million annually to tornado damage during the years 1950 to 1995, according the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Extreme Weather Sourcebook.
Look up in the night sky at Orion tonight through Wednesday night. How many of the stars in the familiar constellation appear? The question is part of an international effort to track light pollution by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. . . . "It's basically representative of how bright a star has to be in terms of magnitude to be seen in that sky," said Dennis Ward, who works at UCAR as an educational technologist. He is a former Birmingham-area resident. The smaller the number, the brighter the star has to burn to be seen through artificial light.
Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City, Utah) (March 18, 2007) circ. 63,505
By Elaine Jarvik
. . . Data run by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder for a nine-state region that includes Utah showed that if carbon dioxide emissions double (a typical prediction), this will mean an increase in annual temperatures of between 6.5 and 11.7 degrees F (depending on who's doing the calculating) by the end of this century. It will also mean an increase in precipitation of at least 54 percent and possibly as much as 184 percent. . . . Caspar Ammann, a climate scientist working at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, also spoke at the symposium, providing graph after graph of colored lines that pointed to bad news. "What-if" scenarios, he said, show even if the world stabilizes greenhouse emissions right now, the world would still warm up a fraction of a degree. If we keep on with "business almost as usual," temperatures will rise 8 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century, he said. The result, he says, will be "of a magnitude we haven't seen before." He reiterated the conclusion drawn earlier this year in Paris by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that it is "very unlikely" that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained by natural causes alone.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how many of you out there are? That's what volunteers around Virginia and across the globe are asking as they hunt for stars in this year's GLOBE at Night project. The international project calls for professionals and "citizen-scientists" -- amateur astrono- mers, casual stargazers, night owls, families, teachers and students -- to spend a few minutes counting how many Orion's stars they can see at night through Wednesday. There is no cost to participate. . . . Answers from Credicott and other citizen-astronomers will help scientists track the world's light pollution. Only the brightest stars are visible when the sky is illuminated by artificial light sources on the ground.
Huntsville (Alabama) Times (March 16, 2007) circ. 53,145
By Kenneth Kesner
. . . Besides making it difficult or impossible for Earth-based astronomers and hobbyists to get good views of the stars and planets, the brighter night skies reduce the amount of habitat for many species, he said. That can drive wildlife into less hospitable areas, create overpopulation in some locations and even lead to extinction. And that Earthly, man-made glow also represents energy wasted by inefficient light sources, by having more lights than needed on for longer than needed, among other causes, Norman said. . . . The National Optical Astronomy Observatory, the International Dark-Sky Association and GLOBE - Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment - put together the light pollution assessment project. It's been billed as "the world's biggest star party," Norman said, and it's easy to participate, though the weather in Huntsville hasn't been cooperative.
Arctic sea ice that has been dwindling for several decades may have reached a tipping point that could trigger a cascade of climate change reaching into Earth's temperate regions, says a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. . . . "When the ice thins to a vulnerable state, the bottom will drop out and we may quickly move into a new, seasonally ice-free state of the Arctic," Serreze said. "I think there is some evidence that we may have reached that tipping point, and the impacts will not be confined to the Arctic region." A review paper by Serreze and Julienne Stroeve of CU-Boulder's NSIDC and Marika Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research titled "Perspectives on the Arctic's Shrinking Sea Ice Cover" appears in the March 16 issue of Science. . . . The potential for such rapid ice loss was highlighted in a December 2006 study by Holland and her colleagues published in Geophysical Research Letters. In one of their climate model simulations, the Arctic Ocean in September became nearly ice-free between 2040 and 2050.
. . . Using jet engines, cannons or balloons to get sulfates in the air, humans could reduce the solar heat, and only increase current sulfur pollution by a small percentage, said Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “It’s an issue of the lesser of two evils,” he said. Scientists at the [National] Center for Atmospheric Research put the idea into a computer climate model. The results aren’t particularly cheap or promising, said NCAR scientist Caspar Ammann. It would take tens of thousands of tons of sulfate to be injected into the air each month, he said. “From a practical point of view, it’s completely ridiculous,” Amman sic said. “Instead of investing so much into this, it would be much easier to cut down on the initial problem.”
01:52:17 Chat. SB; Jim says he would like to draw listeners’ attention to an article in the New York Times. Some of the scientists who believe in global warming are upset with Al Gore. Jim reads from the New York Times article featuring a scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Tim Killeen. Jim discusses upcoming guests and topics. 01:57:29
West Australian (Osborne Park, Australia) (March 11, 2007) circ. 200,687 Yahoo7News.com (Australia) (March 11, 2007)
(Australian Associated Press)
. . . This report is considered by some scientists the "emotional heart" of climate change research. . . . "Things are happening and happening faster than we expected," said Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the US, one of the many co-authors of the new report. The draft document says scientists are highly confident that many current problems - change in species' habits and habitats, more acidified oceans, loss of wetlands, bleaching of coral reefs and increases in allergy-inducing pollen - can be blamed on global warming. For example, the report says North America "has already experienced substantial ecosystem, social and cultural disruption from recent climate extremes," such as hurricanes and wildfires.
Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois) (March 10, 2007) circ. 149,446
By Burt Constable
. . . L.A. is the main U.S. competition to Chicago for the 2016 Olympics, and judges are old enough to remember when that city hosted the 1984 Games. L.A. weather was perfect that year, with temperatures comfortably ensconced between 73.9 and 82.9 and nighttime lows ranging between 63 and 68. Meanwhile, in Chicago during that same time, high temperatures hit a sticky 93.9 and overnight lows ranged from 60.1 to a stuffy 75. “That really says it. In head-to-head competition in weather it would be tough for you to beat L.A.,” says Robert Henson, author of “The Rough Guide to Weather” and “The Rough Guide to Climate Change.” A writer and editor at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Henson says Chicago can be “miserably sultry” and “far more uncomfortable” than Los Angeles, which has a cool ocean breeze that generally keeps things from getting too sweaty.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune (West Covina, California) (March 8, 2007) circ. 47,266
By Elise Kleeman
By day, the Los Angeles area sky is known for its air pollution. At night, though, light pollution also takes a toll. Here, as in urban areas around the world, the glow of the cityscape overcomes all but the brightest stars in the sky. The artificial illumination interferes with astronomical observations, waylays animal migrations, and - some scientists suggest - could even affect human health. . . . So, for the second year in a row, the observatory is leading an international effort to track Earth's brightening skies, and anyone with eyes and an Internet connection can participate. The GLOBE at Night project will collect nighttime visibility data from March 8 to March 21 by tracking how many stars in the constellation Orion observers around the world can spot.
Data collected in 2005 from Hurricane Rita is providing the first documented evidence that rapid intensity changes can be caused by clouds outside the wall of a hurricane's eye coming together to form a new eyewall. . . . Houze and Shuyi Chen, an associate professor of meteorology and physical oceanography at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, lead a scientific collaboration called the Hurricane Rainband and Intensity Change Experiment. The project is designed to reveal how the outer rainbands interact with a hurricane's eye to influence the storm's intensity. Chen is a co-author of the Science paper, as are Bradley Smull of the UW and Wen-Chau Lee and Michael Bell of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
Benton County Daily Record (Bentonville, Arizona) (March 7, 2007) circ. 15,000
By Kent Marts
. . . Want to do some science ? Sure you do. In the coming days, you can help gather data on light pollution — data that will be incorporated into the GLOBE at Night project. The project, which runs on the nights between March 8 and 21, takes no more than 30 minutes to complete. Participants will record the brightness of the night sky by matching its appearance around the constellation Orion with one of seven stellar maps of different limiting magnitude. Orion is an easy constellation to find this time of year, as darkness falls: It’s almost due south in the sky.
. . . The Legislature agreed to spend $21 million for a proposed National Center on Atmospheric Research supercomputer based in Cheyenne. It's a good investment.
Flight International (Sutton, UK) (March 5, 2007) circ. 43,092
By John Croft
. . . Between 12:20 and 15:30, 22 windscreens failed on 14 aircraft, according to Jennifer Kaiser, the NTSB official in charge of the investigation. Affected aircraft from various carriers, including SkyWest Airlines and Frontier Airlines, were Bombardier CRJ200/700s, Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias, Beech 1900s and Airbus A318/A319s. . . . The NTSB is assembling meteorological information from that afternoon, which Kaiser said included "windy, cold, warm and snow" conditions. Roy Rasmussen, researcher with the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in nearby Boulder, Colorado, said sensors at the airfield showed a cold front passed through at 12:20, with an associated increase in pressure and winds and drop-off in temperature.
Hurricane forecasters will be trying out a tool this season that lets them see if a storm is revving up right before it hits land. Such storms are a forecaster's worst nightmare because they leave little time for warning people about the violence ahead. . . . Wen Chau Lee and Michael Bell, researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., and Paul Harasti at the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, Calif., developed the method that uses coastal radar to spot sudden shifts in hurricane intensity. . . . The method has been around for a few years, Bell said, "but the change in the way that the radar data is being distributed enabled this to become more of a real-time product." It wasn't until Charley that Lee and his colleagues could test their technique.
Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois) (March 3, 2007) circ. 149,446
By Chad Brooks
Sue Quinn, a stay-at-home mom and former scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, agreed, and said the previous years of deficit spending have left doubt in some staff members’ minds. “That sort of environment is very difficult to live in,” Quinn said. “We need to ensure that, going forward, we have financial stability.”
. . . The rest of this week should bring clearer skies and progressively warmer temperatures, said Matt Kelsch, a meteorologist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. But Wednesday's storm — which set a new snowfall record for Feb. 28 — brought enough snow and slush to snarl traffic and remind residents that winter isn't over yet.
Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Florida) (March 1, 2007) circ. 168,216
By Robert P. King
In September 2005, as Hurricane Rita raged to near-record fury in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists aboard a Navy plane achieved something remarkable: a close-up view of a mysterious process that allows killer storms to gain strength rapidly. Their observations could lead to vastly more precise hurricane forecasts in several years. And so could the unusually detailed computer model that made the research possible, say the scientists, whose findings become public Friday in the journal Science. . . . The researchers running the study - based at the University of Washington, the University of Miami and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado - used the model and other high-tech imagery to direct the path of the plane as it circled Rita's eye. That let them observe the storm at the precise time when it was shedding and replacing the band of intense winds and rain around the eye.
