In a fiery speech on science, climate, and policy at the American Geophysical Union today, Gov. Jerry Brown challenged the “miasma of nonsense” from the incoming Trump administration on climate questions and promised the thousands of earth scientists in the audience that the state of California would support their work. “Never has so much power been lodgedContinue reading “Jerry Brown challenges Trump on climate”
Tag Archives: satellite
What it looks like when a big atmospheric river hits CA
When an atmospheric river reaches California it's often a beautiful sight, especially in an infrared image drawm from NASA's AIRS satellite, explored in depth in this backgrounder from the Sacramento Bee: The exciting part is that — according to Duane Waliser, a lead scientist at the NASA-backed Jet Propulsion Lab — five-day forecasts of these "PineappleContinue reading “What it looks like when a big atmospheric river hits CA”
Revkin unbound: Another successful satellite launch
Andrew Revkin, the leading climate reporter of our time, turns out not to have just a phenomenal (and huge) blog, the justly famous Dot Earth on the New York Times, but also a more informal and visual tumblr, Revkin.net, with which yours truly has fallen instantly in love. From that tumblr, here's a terrific picContinue reading “Revkin unbound: Another successful satellite launch”
Congress cuts weather satellite funding in disastrous year
The weather in these United States has been truly frightful in the last couple of years, as this graph — provided to Congress with testimony from NOAA administrator Kathryn Sullivan last month — illustrates: [The graph shows the number of events from last year, but this year will be worse, Sullivan said] Yet as theContinue reading “Congress cuts weather satellite funding in disastrous year”
Stars (not seen before)
NASA is very excited about its newly-launched satellite called WISE, which will detect stars, "failed stars," asteroids, and other interstellar bodies with infra-red technology. In the words of the press release: To sense the infrared glow of stars and galaxies, the WISE spacecraft cannot give off any detectable infrared light of its own. This isContinue reading “Stars (not seen before)”
Global Warming Satellite Crashes
Happened to be observing at Vandenberg Air Force base the launch of a satellite that scientists hoped would answer a huge question about global warming called the OCO, or Orbiting Carbon Observatory. Ten minutes after lift-off, those of us standing in a chilly field in the early morning heard the voices over the loudspeakers atContinue reading “Global Warming Satellite Crashes”
Kit Stolz 