"Extreme Ice" on PBS' NOVA series

Want some real evidence of Climate Change? If you missed the PBS program "Extreme Ice" you missed a lot. The program, a collaboration between PBS (Public Broadcasting) and National Geographic, highlights the rapid decline of glaciers around the planet. And even more worrisome, the unexpected changes in the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps. While losing the mountain glaciers will only bring sea level increases of one to three feet by the end of this century the loss of the major ice caps would cause changes in the hundreds of feet! This would be very bad news for any major coastal cities.

Still think Climate Change is BS? Time to wake up.

Also check out the supporting National Geographic Extreme Ice Survey site.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-03-29

• Global Climate change in action. Watch a glacier melt back in time-lapse: http://tinyurl.com/clbstl #


• Don't forget! Earth Hour 2009 tonight at 8:30pm local time. Lights out for a hour to make your statement. #


• #earthhour good participation in Auburn. Probably around 30 to 40%. Someone got the memo! #

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Nature Conservancy's State of the Birds report

I don't know about you, but one change I've seen in my environment is a reduction in birds in my backyard. Whether it's domestic cats (hopefully not, I have two!), habitat destruction, or climate change something is causing a steep decline in our avian friends. There is good news and bad news in the report. Download (4mb PDF) the report and read it for yourself.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-03-22

• With a face only a mother could love the wombat is getting help from an unlikely source, a mining company. http://tinyurl.com/ctuofc #


• Tree pollen is such a@#! pain! Need more rain! #

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ESA's Earth Explorer Satellite Program

ESA (European Space Agency) will be launching a series of satellites named Earth Explorers. Each of these satellites will examine our planet with a different set of instruments. Our planet is changing in many ways and these robotic explorers will help us understand how and why.

The first mission, Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), just launched from Russia and will map the Earth's gravitational field in detail. An unique mission, the GOCE satellite flies at the edge of the Earth's atmosphere with constant orbital corrections provided by an ion engine. The next missions are listed below from ESA's web site:

ADM-Aeolus
The prime aim of the Atmospheric Dynamics Mission is to demonstrate measurements of vertical wind profiles from space, using a high performance Doppler Wind Lidar based on direct-detection interferometric techniques. ADM-Aeolus is due for launch in 2011.

EarthCARE
Earth Clouds Aerosols and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) will improve the representation and understanding of the Earth's radiative balance in climate and numerical forecast models. EarthCARE is due for launch in 2013.


Opportunity missions:

SMOS
The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, scheduled for launch in 2009, will exploit an innovative instrument designed as a two-dimensional interferometer for acquiring brightness temperature observations at L-band (1.4 GHz) for the estimation of soil moisture and ocean salinity to further our understanding of the Earth's water cycle.

CryoSat-2
The CryoSat-2 satellite replaces CryoSat, which was lost as a result of launch failure in October 2005. Scheduled for launch towards the end of 2009, CryoSat-2 will measure fluctuations in the thickness of ice on both land and sea to provide conclusive evidence as to whether there is indeed a trend towards diminishing ice cover, furthering our understanding of the relationship between ice and global climate. CryoSat-2 will carry an innovative SAR/Interferometric Radar Altimeter (SIRAL).

Swarm
The objective of this mission is to provide the best-ever survey of the geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution in order to gain new insights into the Earth system by improving our understanding of the Earth's interior and climate. Swarm is due for launch in 2010.

North pole expedition looking for signs of climate change

A British team is on the arctic ice this Spring looking for signs of climate change. The Catlin Arctic Survey will be trying to determine if the Arctic ice cap is breaking up and if it is, put a solid time frame on the break up. To this end, the three team members, Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels, and Martin Hartley will be out on the ice from February to about May. They will be carrying a ground-penetrating radar that allows the expedition to measure ice thickness and composition.

You can follow the survey at the Catlin Artic Survey's website.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-03-15

• Gotta' get some sleep so I can learn to play with Android. Everything I've seen in the docs looks cool! #


• Fiction becomes fact. In the Matrix they used phones to jack in, now I use my G1. Any day the guy with shades will show up ... #

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Ikea introduces solar-powered lighting ...

CleanTechnica.com posted an article on Ikea's new line of solar lighting. The Swedish furniture superstore is a leader in green furnishings and lighting and it looks like they have no intention of losing that lead. The lights range from $6.99 to $19.99 in price. Here's a link to the $19.99 worklight.

Playing with the T-Mobile G1 (aka the Google phone)

I just purchased a new cell phone plan with T-Mobile. My new phone, purchased as part of the plan, is a T-Mobile G1, otherwise known as the "Google Phone".

What do I think of the phone? I like it a lot :) It has enormous potential, and a lot of that potential is locked up in the open source Android operating system. It'll be interesting to see what apps the Linux guys produce for the phone. More after I finish playing with my new toy ...

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-03-08

• anyone using a tmobile g1 to tweet or blog? #


• Pulled the trigger and bought a Tmobile G1! I'm a Google Fanboy now. #


• Stock market down to below 6600! Can't figure out if stocks are a bargain or just plain ugly... #

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EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at Power Shift 2009 ...

This is cool! EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at Power Shift 2009 telling the kids to get involved and rock our government. Way to go Boss (I work for the US EPA)! It's about time we tell the kids to get involved.

No matter what happens now, they will be dealing with some degree of climate change in their future!

Here's Lisa's talk on You Tube.

A Major Setback in Global Warming Science - OCO Launch Fails

Bad news, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) failed to reach orbit last Tuesday. Apparently, a protective fairing failed to separate from the spacecraft and prevented the OCO from reaching orbit. The OCO would have allowed scientists to "fine tune" their climate models by finding carbon sources and sinks that are not currently understood. A big loss for our understanding of the Earth's climate.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-03-01

• Sunday's APOD was just awesome with a Hubble photo of the Orion nebula http://tinyurl.com/dxjedy #

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Finally bought a new LCD TV set ...

Well Sandy and I finally gave in and bought a new TV set. Regular readers of this blog probably wonder what does that have to do with the environment or astronomy, the most common blog topics?

Well, truthfully, I just wanted the Nintendo WII out of my bedroom! The good news is the new TV is Energy Star compliant. In fact, the new set only uses a .5 watt in standby mode (off)! A big improvement over older TV sets.

Collaboration between Google and Purdue University produces a new view of CO2 ...

A collabration between Google and Purdue University gives us a new tool to help control global climate change. Purdue, in association with DOE and NASA, developed a database of CO2 sources named Project Vulcan. Google, with its experience developing Google Maps and Google Earth, used its talents to plot Project Vulcan's data onto an interactive map. The CO2 emissions map can be found at http://www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/GEarth/index.html.