SpaceBit

Free Online Climate Textbook

The first version of the online textbook, “Introduction to Climate Dynamics and Climate Modelling,” by H. Goosse, P.Y. Barriat, W. Lefebvre, M.F. Loutre, and V. Zunz, and published by the Universite Catholique de Louvain is now available.

http://www.climate.be/textbook

The reader should be able to understand the dominant causes of past climate change and to critically evaluate the projections of climate change over the next centuries or millennia. The book is also intended to give the student the bases to understand how climate models are built and how they could be used to make quantitative estimates of climate variability and climate change, as well as to illustrate how models could be used to understand the most important concepts of climate science.

Climate Lawsuits

According to The Guardian, the scientific basis for climate lawsuits has been established.

It should be interesting to see what type of suits get filed, both legitimate and silly, and the type of payouts involved. Maybe some of the money could even go to those affected, or to solving the problem, rather than the lawyers…

Civil Disobedience

My source at the Clinton Global Initiative spent the morning in a room with Clinton, Gore, Bush Sr., Bono, and a bunch of other interesting people. Apparently Gore called for civil disobedience, specifically by young people, to stop construction of new coal plants. An impressive request from a respected figure, but I’m not sure why he made it a generational issue. I think a disobedient grandmother would be more impressive than a disobedient teenager.

I’ve heeded the Gore call to action (pics) in the past. As I write this I’m debating if I’m willing to chain myself to something and get arrested for this cause. I am aware that any future astronaut applications would be disqualified by this action.

An Historical Climate Model

I just found some old (1973) global climate model (GCM) documentation lying around the office. The document describes the GISS GCM at some stage between the UCLA parent and Model I. Model I evolved into Model II which became the foundation for EdGCM. I have scanned the document and submitted it to the History of Atmospheric GCMs website.

It is a beautiful document describing all aspects of the GCM: Numerics and dynamics, punch cards, grid schemes, physical equations, tables and tables of variables and units, etc. These two images (click for large version) show the punchcard order for the old GCM, and the grid scheme at the poles. I like the pole graphic because it reminds me of last year when I was at the South Pole.

The oldest paper I know of that discusses human induced climate change is from 1896, by Svante Arrhenius, titled On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground (PDF, 4413KB).

@article{Arrhenius:1896b,
        Author = {Svante Arrhenius},
        Journal = {Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science},
        Month = {April},
        Number = {41},
        Pages = {237 -- 276},
        Title = {{On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air
                upon the Temperature of the Ground}},
        Volume = {5},
        Year = {1896}}

@manual{Tsang:1973,
        Author = {L. C. Tsang and R. Karn},
        Month = {October},
        Institution = {Goddard Institute for Space Studies},
        Organization = {Computer Science Corporation},
        Title = {{A documentation of the GISS nine-level
                atmospheric general circulation model},
        Year = {1973}}

Tracking Hurricanes

Stormpulse screenshot

Hurricanes are popular again since last week when New Orleans was targeted by Gustav, and we had some nice weather on Saturday with Hanna in New York City. If you want to track the storms, you have a lot of websites to choose from. I’ve just come across Stormpulse, which is by far the best in terms of fancy graphics and interactivity. You can watch the current systems and predictions (general estimates and model tracks), or view historical storms, looking at any time period, historical cloud overlays, etc.

If you want interactivity and browsing, go with Stormpulse. If you want the raw data, head over to the NOAA National Hurricane Center. Same data, different interface.

Condition 2

We have three weather states here: Condition 3 (normal), Condition 2 (right now) and Condition 1. For condition 1, nobody is allowed outside the building they are currently in. If the weather persists through a meal or sleep time, then the search and rescue team will set up ropes between buildings and escort people to the dining hall and back to the dorm rooms.

Here is a photo out my office window of the heli-pad. Compare and contrast to most of the other photos. It has been Condition 1 for the past 10 days, but today it is Condition 2.

From Antarctica

Here is a video of Condition 1. I did not take this, nor have I experienced it yet, but I do hope we get a day or two of this while I'm down here.

Patagonia

On October 10th through 11th, a day or two after arriving at McMurdo, I'll be sleeping outside in a hole I dig in the snow as part of my survival training. The temperature right now at McMurdo is around -30 degrees Celsius.

In preparation I spent yesterday morning in the Patagonia store in SoHo getting outfitted with some underlayers that they were kind enough to donate. I'd like to especially thank Kevin (far left in that image) for working with me to get the donations. The United States Antarctic Program (USAP) provides me with 35 pounds of Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear, so Patagonia supplied a base of socks, long underwear top and bottom, and some lightweight gloves.

Not only will that outfit keep me warm, but it will double as my Halloween costume. I'll wear tight white long underwear pants, a tight blue long underwear shirt, and a chefs hat. What am I?

Sea Level Rise Maps in Google Earth

To make a sea level rise map in Google Earth, follow these steps. Caveats are a) quality is only as good as the 3D terrain in Google Earth and b) the layer is flat while the earth is curved so it will only work for small areas

1) Open Google Earth. Make sure you have Terrain turned on (bottom left panel) and optionally, turn up the vertical exaggeration (Preferences)

2) Select the Add menu then Polygon

3) On the map window, draw a box around your region of interest. Four clicks works optimally

4) In the Info window, enter a description

5) Select the Altitude tab

6) Enter the desired sea level rise (1-7m)

7) Select Absolute

8) Select OK to close the Info window

Your layer is now complete.

Solstice is Almost Here

Solstice is almost here. This year it occurs at 18:06 UTC on June 21. That means the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest in the Southern, which is also the maximum tilt by the poles toward and away from the Sun.

In McMurdo right now it is quite cold, and although todays forecast shows a Sun icon, I don't think the sun shines there at all. Maybe they get a few hours of dawn and dusk light. The degrees are in Celsius, so it is actually a bit warmer (around -20) in degrees Fahrenheit.

For those of you in New York City, solstice is nice, but July 12th and May 28th are more special. Those dates are symmetric around Solstice and they are the days that the Sun lines up perfectly with the NYC street grid just as it sets.