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Archive for the ‘Weather’ Category

Sunday At The Movies: Bill Whittle’s, “What We Believe,” Full Version

by Flyovercountry ( 107 Comments › )
Filed under Climate, Environmentalism, EPA, Global Warming Hoax, Science, Weather at July 27th, 2014 - 3:09 pm

So, here’s this weeks submission for a replacement hour of network television over your weekend. Think of it as an alternative to that hour long conservative bash fest that all Hollywood produced crime dramas seem to have become. It’s all seven of the excellent Bill Whittle, “What We Believe,” videos put together in one shot. Personally, I’d not seen all seven previously, as I missed one or two of them. As the sunspot activity this week is actually something that’s been labeled an, “All Quiet Event,” you may have noticed that the weather in much of the country will not match the typical hot sunny out doorsy model we’re used to seeing this time of year.

Cross Posted from Musings of a Mad Conservative.

Saturday Lecture Series, The Sun and Lighting

by coldwarrior ( 161 Comments › )
Filed under Academia, Astronomy, Climate, Open thread, saturday lecture series, Science, Weather at May 17th, 2014 - 8:00 am

Good morning all! Welcome to the Saturday Lecture here at the Blogmocracy Observatory and BBQ joint. Today we are going to explore the effect that the Sun has on lighting. Yes, I know. The Global Warming Climate Change Chaos Disruption ‘scientists’ (most of whom aren’t scientist in the field in question) do not ever place that thermonuclear reactor that is 8 light minutes away in their climate models. The Sun can effect weather here on earth, and effect the climate too! I know, it’s crazy.

 

Here is the Abstract:

Abstract

The response of lightning rates over Europe to arrival of high speed solar wind streams at Earth is investigated using a superposed epoch analysis. Fast solar wind stream arrival is determined from modulation of the solar wind V y component, measured by the Advanced Composition Explorer spacecraft. Lightning rate changes around these event times are determined from the very low frequency arrival time difference (ATD) system of the UK Met Office. Arrival of high speed streams at Earth is found to be preceded by a decrease in total solar irradiance and an increase in sunspot number and Mg II emissions. These are consistent with the high speed stream’s source being co-located with an active region appearing on the Eastern solar limb and rotating at the 27 d period of the Sun. Arrival of the high speed stream at Earth also coincides with a small (~1%) but rapid decrease in galactic cosmic ray flux, a moderate (~6%) increase in lower energy solar energetic protons (SEPs), and a substantial, statistically significant increase in lightning rates. These changes persist for around 40 d in all three quantities. The lightning rate increase is corroborated by an increase in the total number of thunder days observed by UK Met stations, again persisting for around 40 d after the arrival of a high speed solar wind stream. This result appears to contradict earlier studies that found an anti-correlation between sunspot number and thunder days over solar cycle timescales. The increase in lightning rates and thunder days that we observe coincides with an increased flux of SEPs which, while not being detected at ground level, nevertheless penetrate the atmosphere to tropospheric altitudes. This effect could be further amplified by an increase in mean lightning stroke intensity that brings more strokes above the detection threshold of the ATD system. In order to remove any potential seasonal bias the analysis was repeated for daily solar wind triggers occurring during the summer months (June to August). Though this reduced the number of solar wind triggers to 32, the response in both lightning and thunder day data remained statistically significant. This modulation of lightning by regular and predictable solar wind events may be beneficial to medium range forecasting of hazardous weather.

Here is the link for the entire article. There are some other interesting topics within the article itself and I invite our more intrepid readers to check it out.

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Here is an update on a past suject:

EXTREMOPHILES BLASTED BY COSMIC RADIATION: On May 10th, the students of Earth to Sky Calculus flew four colonies of halobacteria to the stratosphere, setting a high-altitude ballooning record for this species of microbe. During the two and a half hour flight, they ascended to 111,000 feet. Radiation data from an X-ray/gamma-ray sensor on the payload have just been analyzed and, suffice it to say, the microbes had a blast:

The halobacteria were hit by ionizing radiation 28 times stronger than at ground level, similar to what they might experience on the planet Mars. It might seem counterintuitive that the radiation peak did not occur at the apex of the flight. Instead, the extremophiles absorbed their greatest dose about half way up. This peak at ~60,000 feet is the “Pfotzer Maximum,” named after physicist George Pfotzer who discovered it using balloons and Geiger tubes in the 1930s.

When cosmic rays crash into Earth’s atmosphere, they produce a spray of secondary particles. With increasing depth in the atmosphere, primary cosmic rays decrease as the secondary particles increase. This complex situation results in a maximum dose rate in the tropopause, not the overlying stratosphere. .

The students have been flying halobacteria through the Pfotzer Maximum to explore the possibility that terrestrial extremophiles could survive in places like Mars. The answers are growing inside an incubator in the students’ AP Biology classroom. Stay tuned for updates from the Petri dish.

 

Open Letter to U.N. Secretary General: Science Does Not Substantiate Your Global Warming Statements

by huckfunn ( 69 Comments › )
Filed under Barack Obama, Climate, Communism, Corruption, Democratic Party, Economy, Energy, Environmentalism, government, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Marxism, meteorology, Multiculturalism, Political Correctness, Politics, Regulation, Socialism, taxation, Weather, World at December 2nd, 2012 - 10:02 am

 

World leaders and high government officials  around the world have gotten into the habit of making public pronouncements that every extreme weather event is the result of man made “global warming” or “climate change” despite the scientific facts to the contrary. Recently, U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-Moon made the following statements before the U.N. General Assembly:

 “Extreme weather due to climate change is the new normal … Our challenge remains, clear and urgent: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to strengthen adaptation to … even larger climate shocks … and to reach a legally binding climate agreement by 2015 … This should be one of the main lessons of Hurricane Sandy.”

There’s been very little public push back against the Global Warming Hoax (GWH) as the compliant press has joined the GWH conspiracy to seize Western wealth by implementing confiscatory  carbon taxes and regulations. However, on November 29, 129 scientists (over half with PhD’s) published an open letter to the Secretary General challenging his unsubstantiated blatherings.

Mr. Secretary-General:

On November 9 this year you told the General Assembly: “Extreme weather due to climate change is the new normal … Our challenge remains, clear and urgent: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to strengthen adaptation to … even larger climate shocks … and to reach a legally binding climate agreement by 2015 … This should be one of the main lessons of Hurricane Sandy.”

On November 13 you said at Yale: “The science is clear; we should waste no more time on that debate.”

The following day, in Al Gore’s “Dirty Weather” Webcast, you spoke of “more severe storms, harsher droughts, greater floods”, concluding: “Two weeks ago, Hurricane Sandy struck the eastern seaboard of the United States. A nation saw the reality of climate change. The recovery will cost tens of billions of dollars. The cost of inaction will be even higher. We must reduce our dependence on carbon emissions.”

We the undersigned, qualified in climate-related matters, wish to state that current scientific knowledge does not substantiate your assertions.

The U.K. Met Office recently released data showing that there has been no statistically significant global warming for almost 16 years. During this period, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations rose by nearly 9% to now constitute 0.039% of the atmosphere. Global warming that has not occurred cannot have caused the extreme weather of the past few years. Whether, when and how atmospheric warming will resume is unknown. The science is unclear. Some scientists point out that near-term natural cooling, linked to variations in solar output, is also a distinct possibility.

The “even larger climate shocks” you have mentioned would be worse if the world cooled than if it warmed. Climate changes naturally all the time, sometimes dramatically. The hypothesis that our emissions of CO2 have caused, or will cause, dangerous warming is not supported by the evidence.

Read the entire article here. Hat tip – Climate Depot.

 

 

Undulatus Asperatus – Holy Crap Clouds

by Bunk Five Hawks X ( 98 Comments › )
Filed under Climate, Humor, meteorology, OOT, Open thread, Science, Weather at June 24th, 2012 - 11:00 pm

No new cloud type has been officially classified since 1951 but Gavin Pretor-Pinney who runs the Cloud Appreciation Society believes that there is a new cloud that deserves international recognition. He calls it asperatus, which means rough in Latin. Hanmer Springs, South Island, New Zealand, 2009. [via]

If I saw a sky like this, I’d tell the missus and the kids to pack a bag and get in the car as quietly as possible. Then we’d back out slowly, idle to the freeway on-ramp, and floor it for a couple of days.

Or not. Apparently this unusual cloud formation is benign, not related to precipitation, violent weather or mass extinctions, but merely a harbinger of
The Overnight Open Thread.