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Showing posts from October, 2011

NOAA satellite Mosaic images

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Here is the link to see the Mapped mosaics are daily images by NOAA seeries of satellites. The data are from the AVHRR instrument on NOAA/ESA’s polar orbiting satellites (NOAA-16, 17, 18, 19, and METOP-A). Here is the link and descriptions http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/ml/imagery/mosaics.html

COSP -- new tool for Cloud Simulations

Climate models have a hard time representing clouds accurately because they lack the spatial resolution necessary to accurately simulate the clouds.... Livermore scientists and international collaborators have developed a new tool that will help scientists better represent the clouds observed in the sky in climate models. Stephen Klein, who along with LLNL's Yuying Zhang and other collaborators have developed the Cloud-Feedback-Model Intercomparison Project Observation Simulator Package (COSP). The COSP is now used worldwide by most of the major models for climate and weather prediction, and it will play an important role in the evaluation of models that will be reviewed by the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Klein said. More information: More information about the COSP appears in the August issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/2011BAMS2856.1

Neutrinos not faster than light ......? New finding....

The discovery that 'neutrinos travel faster than light' has recently in our Headlines.... Many questioned it's sanctity.... and were looking for possible errors.... check this page on my blog....   http://akmnscience.blogspot.com/2011/09/faster-than-light-questions-relativity.html Now an independent experiment confirms that subatomic particles have wrong energy spectrum for superluminal travel. check this  http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.3763 Title: A search for the analogue to Cherenkov radiation by high energy neutrinos at superluminal speeds in ICARUS Look at this NEWS published by Nature http://goo.gl/0fkOb doi:10.1038/news.2011.605 Finding puts brakes on faster-than-light neutrinos

Earth's sea-level and energy budgets from 1961 to 2008

Scientists have examined data from 1972 to 2008 and came up with striking observations...... They found the observed sea-lev el rise (1.8 ± 0.2 mm yr−1 from tide gauges alone and 2.1 ± 0.2 mm yr−1 from a combination of tide gauges and altimeter observations)  The largest contributions come from ocean thermal expansion (0.8 mm yr−1) and the melting of glaciers and ice caps (0.7 mm yr−1), with Greenland and Antarctica contributing about 0.4 mm yr−1. The aerosol forcing, inferred as a residual in the atmospheric energy balance, is estimated as −0.8 ± 0.4 W m−2 for the 1980s and early 1990s. It increases in the late 1990s, as is required for consistency with little surface warming over the last decade. This increase is likely at least partially related to substantial increases in aerosol emissions from developing nations and moderate volcanic activity. for details, abstract and full length paper http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2011/2011GL048794.shtml Church, J. A., N. J. Wh

Improved Topographic Map of Earth

NASA and Japan released a significantly improved version of the most complete digital topographic map of Earth. Data users can download the ASTER global digital elevation model at: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov / or http://www.ersdac.or.jp/GDEM/E/4.html . For more information about ASTER, visit: http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more information on NASA's Terra mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/terra .

Global Map of Ocean Salinity

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Aquarius Yields NASA's First Global Map of Ocean Salinity The first global map of the salinity, or saltiness, of Earth’s ocean surface produced by NASA's new Aquarius instrument reveals a rich tapestry of global salinity patterns, demonstrating Aquarius' ability to resolve large-scale salinity distribution features clearly and with sharp contrast. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/JPL-Caltech › Full image and caption http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aquarius/news/aquarius20110922.html

workings of tsunamis

New computer model better explains workings of tsunamis scientists have been working nearly blind in trying to understand how tsunamis work once they reach shore. Now, Frederic Dias from University College in Dublin and his team of mathematical and computer scientists have developed a computer simulation that they believe explains how tsunamis work once they reach shore. They have described their findings in Physical Review Letters. More information:  Local Run-Up Amplification by Resonant Wave Interactions, Phys. Rev. Lett.  107, 124502 (2011)  DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.124502 http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-tsunamis.html

Deforestation reduces rainfall...?

Deforestation in the rainforests of West Africa reduces rainfall over the rest of the forest, according to new University of Leeds research published in Geophysical Research Letters. The study shows that changing land use from forest to crop land reduces rainfall over neighbouring trees by around 50% due to changes in the surface temperature which affects the formation of rain clouds. More information: 'How does local tropical deforestation affect rainfall' by L Garcia-Carreras and Douglas J Parker is published in Geophysical Research Letters doi:10.1029/2011GL049099 http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2011/2011GL049099.shtml http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-deforestation-rainfall-africa.html

Can Moon's shadow make Waves in the Atmosphere....?

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    As the Moon blots out the Sun during a solar eclipse, the patch of the Earth that is cast into darkness cools. Meanwhile, the surrounding regions continue to receive the full brunt of the Sun's energy.     This temperature difference causes waves in the atmosphere to build up behind the leading edge of the moon's shadow, like the bow wave of a ship.    Although scientists have hypothesized about the moon's atmospheric wake since the 1970's, it wasn't until a July 22, 2009 eclipse in Japan and Taiwan that they observed the phenomenon directly. Read details: http://news.discovery.com/earth/moon-makes-waves-during-eclipse-111007.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1 The research was published in Geophysical Research Letters. J. Y. Liu of the National Central University of Taiwan led the research.

SOLSTICE and EQUINOX as seen from Space

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Here is how SOLSTICE and EQUINOX mean in reality. Equinox ==== Sun's rays fall equally in both Hemisphere..... Solstice  ==== Sun's rays falls on more area in summer hemisphere. I have made this Equinox-Solstice matrix for simple and clear understanding. We were all familiar with the cartoon graphics..... now this is the reality... These images are by Meteosat in VIS channel. Image courtesy:Dundee Satellite Receiving station.

Expanding Universe theory gets Nobel Prize

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Three U.S.-born scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for discovering that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace, a stunning revelation that suggests the cosmos will eventually freeze to ice. Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess of the United States and US-Australian Brian Schmidt won the 2011 Nobel Physics Prize Tuesday for their research on supernovae, the Nobel jury said. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said American Saul Perlmutter would share the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award with U.S.-Australian Brian Schmidt and U.S. scientist Adam Riess. Working in two separate research teams during the 1990s - Perlmutter in one and Schmidt and Riess in the other - the scientists raced to map the universe's expansion by analyzing a particular type of supernovas, or exploding stars. They found that the light emitted by more than 50 distant supernovas was weaker than expected, a sign that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate, the academy

Arctic Ozone Loss!

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A NASA-led study has documented an unprecedented depletion of Earth's protective ozone layer above the Arctic last winter and spring caused by an unusually prolonged period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere. Left: Ozone in Earth's stratosphere at an altitude of approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) in mid-March 2011, near the peak of the 2011 Arctic ozone loss. Red colors represent high levels of ozone, while purple and grey colors (over the north polar region) represent very small ozone amounts. Right: chlorine monoxide – the primary agent of chemical ozone destruction in the cold polar lower stratosphere – for the same day and altitude. Light blue and green colors represent small amounts of chlorine monoxide, while dark blue and black colors represent very large chlorine monoxide amounts. The white line marks the area within which the chemical ozone destruction took place. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech  published online Sunday, Oct. 2, in the journal