Everything Science - Everything Science

Everything Earth Science

Global Warming and Hurricanes: All Hot Air?

Written by Everything Science

Jun 13, 2006 at 12:00 AM

Last year was the most destructive hurricane season in history and this year forecasters are expecting at least 9 hurricanes, with 5 of them being major ones. With these recent years being such active hurricane seasons, why does it seem like the U.S. is getting hammered by such horrific storms?

With these recent years being such active hurricane seasons, why does it seem like the U.S. is getting hammered by such horrific storms? Some scientists say it's part of a naturally occurring cycle while others have made the claim global warming is to blame.

Some scientists say it's part of a naturally occurring cycle, while others have made the claim global warming is to blame. Two of the foremost weather and ocean scientists believe that this is all part of the cycle of nature.

Also, after analyzing data, they believe that the salinity and currents of the Atlantic Ocean play a large role in the formation of hurricanes on the East and Gulf Coasts.

The latest calculations anticipate that this coming season there's an 81 percent chance of a major hurricane. While right now these numbers are predictions, they are based on science and research - so it never hurts to be prepared.

Re: Global Warming and Hurricanes: All Hot Air?
Astronuc June 16th, 2006 - 6:10 PM

Or it's part of a natural cycle that is/will be exacerbated by the trend in global warming. If there is more energy in the atmosphere, then there will be more violent storms.

One to the problem is the great reduction in forests in the Eastern US compare to 100 or 120 or 200 years ago. Those forests mitigated some of the rainfall associated with hurricanes and major storms. Now heavy rains result in flooding, which in itself is not a problem, except for the fact that people tend to live (build houses) and travel in areas prone to flooding.

Re: Global Warming and Hurricanes: All Hot Air?
Astronuc August 13th, 2006 - 11:03 AM

The other extreme of GW might be 'Drought'! Without cool air, and with microfine dust, moisture in the atmosphere just doesn't condense.

A potential consequence -

Dakotas at 'Epicenter' of Nation's Drought
By JAMES MacPHERSON

Quote

STEELE, N.D. (AP, July 29) - Fields of wheat, durum and barley in the Dakotas this dry summer will never end up as pasta, bread or beer. What is left of the stifled crops has been salvaged to feed livestock struggling on pastures where hot winds blow clouds of dirt from dried-out ponds.

Some ranchers have been forced to sell their entire herds, and others are either moving their cattle to greener pastures or buying more already-costly feed. Hundreds of acres of grasslands have been blackened by fires sparked by lightning or farm equipment.

"These 100-degree days for weeks steady have been burning everything up," said Walter Johnson, Steele's mayor. "I'd go for 2 feet of snow than this."

Farm ponds and other small bodies of water have dried out from the heat, leaving the residual alkali dust to be whipped up by the wind. The blowing, dirt-and-salt mixture is a phenomenon that hasn't been seen in south central North Dakota since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, Johnson said.

More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

(3) Comments posted about this in the forum

Notice: Undefined index: ID_MEMBER in /home1/smforgeo/public_html/everythingscience/mambots/content/smf.discussbot.php on line 341

Notice: Undefined index: ID_MEMBER in /home1/smforgeo/public_html/everythingscience/mambots/content/smf.discussbot.php on line 341

Notice: Undefined index: ID_MEMBER in /home1/smforgeo/public_html/everythingscience/mambots/content/smf.discussbot.php on line 341

Notice: Undefined index: ID_MEMBER in /home1/smforgeo/public_html/everythingscience/mambots/content/smf.discussbot.php on line 341

Ball-lightning in the laboratory

Written by Everything Science

Jun 06, 2006 at 12:00 AM

Scientists in the joint study group of Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP) and Berlin’s Humboldt University (HUB) have generated ball-lightning in the laboratory - or, to be more precise, ball-lightning-like plasma clouds. The physicists produce luminous plasma balls above a water surface which have lifetimes of almost half a second and diameters of 10 to 20 centimetres.

A ball-lightning-like plasma cloud is produced in an underwater discharge. (Photo: D. Lange, IPP)

Ball-lightning is described as a luminous phenomenon occurring during thunderstorms. It is a mystery, however, that they should be visible not as a brief flash, i.e. just for microseconds, but exist for several seconds, i.e. a hundred thousand times as long as a flash of lightning. Besides such famous figures as the Roman philosopher Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Charlemagne and Henry II of England, in modern times the Nobel Prize winners in physics, Niels Bohr and Pjotr Kapitza, claim to have observed this phenomenon. Less renowned observers also report unexpected encounters with ball-lightning; the internet features more than a million entries on the subject. On the other hand, the phenomenon is so rare that there are still no reliable data available. Accordingly, doubtful attempts at interpretation are rampant, ranging from black holes to mini nuclear explosions and esoteric explanations.

Re: Ball-lightning in the laboratory
remcook June 7th, 2006 - 7:46 AM

cool!

Re: Ball-lightning in the laboratory
Rxke June 21st, 2006 - 10:29 AM

IMHO, too bad the scientists in the picture aren't wearing labcoats, bug-eyed with excitement....

I'm serious: it would send a message that yes, science can be exiting to young people.

Now you see two common guys just standing there, not even looking on in awe...

Re: Ball-lightning in the laboratory
remcook June 21st, 2006 - 11:17 AM

I saw an article last week sais that the gee-wiz physics demos have an opposite effect: it shows that physics is completely incomprehensible. Maybe this photo is trying to show that you -yes YOU- too can make lightning in your basement! Unless you have anything flammable in your house, in which case it as a bad idea. Bad idea!

Ball-lightning in the laboratory
chronostrg May 8th, 2008 - 6:03 PM

Interesting, I wonder how many people have seen this and their retnas have 'burnt' the image in for a couple seconds even though it may have already passed, giving them the impression that it lasted for a few seconds. Is the same lighting that has been reported to 'roll' along the bottom of clouds.

(5) Comments posted about this in the forum

Written by Everything Science

Jun 03, 2006 at 12:00 AM

This image, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, shows the central peaks of crater Zucchius.

This image, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, shows the central peaks of crater Zucchius. AMIE obtained this image on 14 January 2006 from a distance of about 753 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution of 68 metres per pixel. The imaged area is centred at a latitude of 61.3º South and longitude 50.8º West. Zucchius is a prominent lunar impact crater located near the southwest limb. It has 66 kilometres diameter, but only its inside is visible in this image, as the AMIE field of view is 35 kilometres from this close-up distance. Credits: ESA/SMART-1/Space-X (Space Exploration Institute)

AMIE obtained this image on 14 January 2006 from a distance of about 753 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution of 68 metres per pixel.
The imaged area is centred at a latitude of 61.3º South and longitude 50.8º West. Zucchius is a prominent lunar impact crater located near the southwest limb. It has 66 kilometres diameter, but only its inside is visible in this image, as the AMIE field of view is 35 kilometres from this close-up distance.

Because of its location, the crater appears oblong-shaped due to foreshortening. It lies just to the south-southwest of Segner crater, and northeast of the much larger Bailly walled-plain. To the southeast is the Bettinus crater, a formation only slightly larger than Zucchius.

(0) Comments posted about this in the forum

Notice: Undefined index: ID_MEMBER in /home1/smforgeo/public_html/everythingscience/mambots/content/smf.discussbot.php on line 341

ExoMars rover concept is a star attraction at ILA2006 Space Pavilion

Written by Everything Science

May 22, 2006 at 12:00 AM

One of the attractions at the ILA2006 Space Pavilion is the full-scale ExoMars rover mock-up based on an artist's impression of Europe’s next mission to Mars and the first robotic mission with the European Space Exploration Programme Aurora.

At the International Aerospace Exhibition and Conference (ILA) in Berlin, May 2006, a new ‘International Space Village’ within groups together space agencies and industry from around the world. In the space pavilion Europe's highly ambitious Aurora programme for the future exploration of Mars and the solar system is featured, including the ExoMars rover.

The large rover and its deployment on the surface of Mars are probably the most challenging elements of the ExoMars mission, currently slated for launch in 2011, which will search for traces of life on and underneath the surface of Mars. The rover will carry a payload, dubbed Pasteur, and will be equipped with a drilling system that will reach up to two metres below the Martian surface.

Through the mock-up and accompanying background animation the many visitors to ILA2006 could gain an appreciation of the different mission phases, the rover surface operations, as well as the rover's expected size.

While an artist's view was used to produce both the rover and its animated graphics, European industry is gearing up to design and manufacture the real thing after having conducted conceptual studies (Phase A) both for the mission and for the rover as one of the mission elements.

ExoMars rover concept is a star attraction at ILA2006 Space Pavilion
Orstio May 22nd, 2006 - 2:37 PM

It looks a lot like Spirit and Opportunity to me.....

(1) Comments posted about this in the forum

Trio of Neptunes and their Belt

Written by Everything Science

May 18, 2006 at 12:00 AM

Using the ultra-precise HARPS spectrograph on ESO’s 3.6-m telescope at La Silla (Chile), a team of European astronomers have discovered that a nearby star is host to three Neptune-mass planets. The innermost planet is most probably rocky, while the outermost is the first known Neptune-mass planet to reside in the habitable zone. This unique system is likely further enriched by an asteroid belt.

Artist's rendering of Orbital's Hybrid Launch Vehicle (HLV) in flight (Photo: Business Wire).

“For the first time, we have discovered a planetary system composed of several Neptune-mass planets”, said Christophe Lovis, from the Geneva Observatory and lead-author of the paper presenting the results.

During more than two years, the astronomers carefully studied HD 69830, a rather inconspicuous nearby star slightly less massive than the Sun. Located 41 light-years away towards the constellation of Puppis (the Stern), it is, with a visual magnitude of 5.95, just visible with the unaided eye. The astronomers’ precise radial-velocity measurements allowed them to discover the presence of three tiny companions orbiting their parent star in 8.67, 31.6 and 197 days.

Re: Trio of Neptunes and their Belt
remcook May 19th, 2006 - 5:16 AM

very cool. and the whole business of planet detection has only just begun. curious to see what else we will find

Re: Trio of Neptunes and their Belt
Astronuc May 19th, 2006 - 6:06 AM

It would be nice to have bigger and better telecsopes with higher resolution in orbit. It would also seem worthwhile to continue to support Hubble Space Telescope.

(3) Comments posted about this in the forum

More...

<< Start < Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>

Results 28 - 36 of 206