Image via Eliot Herman.
EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!
Image via Eliot Herman.
EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!
November 30, 2018. If you could see the stars in the daytime, you’d see the sun shining in front of the border of the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius on this date. The sun crosses a constellation boundary, into Ophiuchus.
You can’t see the constellation Ophiuchus when the sun lies in front of it. But, each Northern Hemisphere summer, you’ll find this constellation to the north of the bright star Antares in the constellation Scorpius.
At about this time each year, the sun passes out of Scorpius to enter Ophiuchus. Like Scorpius, Ophiuchus is a constellation of the zodiac … but unlike Scorpius, Ophiuchus is not one of the traditional twelve zodiacal constellations.
The sun will remain in front of Ophiuchus until December 18.
The ecliptic – which translates on our sky’s dome as the sun’s annual path in front of the background stars – actually passes through 13 constellations, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), although this is not commonly known. After all, when you read the horoscope in the daily newspaper or a monthly magazine, you see only 12 constellations, or signs, mentioned.
There are the 12 traditional zodiacal constellations that have been with us since ancient times. The relatively recent addition of Ophiuchus as a member of the zodiac has increased the number to 13.
Today’s constellation boundaries were drawn out by the International Astronomical Union in the 1930s.
View larger. | Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.
Look at the chart carefully, and you’ll see that the border between Ophiuchus and the constellation Scorpius for the most part lies just south of, or below, the ecliptic. In ancient times, the Ophuichus-Scorpius border was likely placed to the north of, or above, the ecliptic. Had the International Astronomical Union placed its constellation boundary where the ancients might have, the sun’s annual passing in front of Scorpius would be from about November 23 till December 18, not November 23 to November 30.
Sun in zodiacal constellations 2018
Bottom line: As seen from Earth, the sun passes in front of the constellation Ophiuchus each year from about November 30 to December 18.
Birthday late November to middle December? Here’s your constellation
EarthSky astronomy kits are perfect for beginners. Order today from the EarthSky store
November 30, 2018. If you could see the stars in the daytime, you’d see the sun shining in front of the border of the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius on this date. The sun crosses a constellation boundary, into Ophiuchus.
You can’t see the constellation Ophiuchus when the sun lies in front of it. But, each Northern Hemisphere summer, you’ll find this constellation to the north of the bright star Antares in the constellation Scorpius.
At about this time each year, the sun passes out of Scorpius to enter Ophiuchus. Like Scorpius, Ophiuchus is a constellation of the zodiac … but unlike Scorpius, Ophiuchus is not one of the traditional twelve zodiacal constellations.
The sun will remain in front of Ophiuchus until December 18.
The ecliptic – which translates on our sky’s dome as the sun’s annual path in front of the background stars – actually passes through 13 constellations, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), although this is not commonly known. After all, when you read the horoscope in the daily newspaper or a monthly magazine, you see only 12 constellations, or signs, mentioned.
There are the 12 traditional zodiacal constellations that have been with us since ancient times. The relatively recent addition of Ophiuchus as a member of the zodiac has increased the number to 13.
Today’s constellation boundaries were drawn out by the International Astronomical Union in the 1930s.
View larger. | Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.
Look at the chart carefully, and you’ll see that the border between Ophiuchus and the constellation Scorpius for the most part lies just south of, or below, the ecliptic. In ancient times, the Ophuichus-Scorpius border was likely placed to the north of, or above, the ecliptic. Had the International Astronomical Union placed its constellation boundary where the ancients might have, the sun’s annual passing in front of Scorpius would be from about November 23 till December 18, not November 23 to November 30.
Sun in zodiacal constellations 2018
Bottom line: As seen from Earth, the sun passes in front of the constellation Ophiuchus each year from about November 30 to December 18.
Birthday late November to middle December? Here’s your constellation
EarthSky astronomy kits are perfect for beginners. Order today from the EarthSky store
Here we go again. It's always emails with these people.
First there was "Climategate!" — the misquoting, selective quoting, and uninformed quoting of stolen emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in Great Britain. Emails between CRU scientists and other climate scientists around the world promised to peel back the curtain and reveal the global warming scam. Alarmist scientists had used "tricks" to "hide the decline"! They "can't account for the lack of warming" so they have to fake the temperature data! The whole thing is a hoax!
Not so much.
With out-of-context quoting you can make scientists say anything. And that was the case with Climategate — it suffered from an extreme lack of context. The full context of the emails simply showed scientists discussing their work openly with each other. They show that they are merely human — they are argumentative as well as congratulatory; they get angry, with each other and the contrarians who attack them and their work.
Despite contrarians' promise to reveal the nefarious world of scheming scientists, the larger context of emails plus the peer-reviewed literature merely shows how science works. The literature gives us the finished products of scientific research, while the emails give us a glimpse of the back-and-forth between scientists as they hash out their experiments, data, and interpretations, and work toward publishing their results. This science has withstood assaults like Climategate (and the nothingburger Son of Climategate: Climategate II) because there is no nefarious world to reveal here.
But that has not stopped the contrarians from trying the same thing over and over again. The latest example is the use of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — which are designed to allow taxpayers to have access to certain government records — to litigate for the release of more emails. Of particular interest are the emails of one Michael E. Mann, because apparently all of climate science hinges on his work, especially the “Hockey Stick”. Show that Mann’s research is fake and the entire house of cards will crumble.
In 2011, the American Tradition Institute (ATI) brought a lawsuit against Dr. Mann and the University of Virginia (where Mann was a professor from 1999 to 2005) for the release of his emails, claiming that as a public university professor, Mann’s emails were effectively government records that should be turned over to anyone who asked under Virginia’s FOIA law. The case went all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court, which rejected this premise and blocked this email release in 2014.
What is a climate science denying outfit like ATI supposed to do? Move on to a more “compliant” state. ATI morphed into the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E) and brought a lawsuit in Arizona against the University of Arizona and two of its professors: Malcolm Hughes, a coauthor of Mann’s on the famous Hockey Stick papers, and Jonathan Overpeck, a lead author on the IPCC’s fourth and fifth Assessment Reports.
E&E claims they are bringing these lawsuits in the interests of open science, to make the workings of scientific research available to all American arm-chair “scientists”. That sounds like a lofty goal. Except they also say they want the emails released in order to “embarrass both Professors Hughes and Overpeck and the University [of Arizona].” They also have not sought data, results, or other study information — only emails. Well, that doesn’t sound very “scientific”.
One wonders, if the shoe were on the other foot, and the private correspondence and paperwork of E&E were made available, what might the public learn about this “charity.
In the end, the courts in Arizona have proved to be more compliant than in Virginia: the emails will be released. But only after hours and hours of wasted time by Drs. Hughes and Overpeck in sifting through their years of emails to cull any truly confidential information:
Dr. Hughes testified it took him ten weeks to go through all the emails, and he lost an entire research summer to reviewing old emails as well as losing a grant that expired. Dr. Overpeck testified it took him six weeks to go through everything and he was unable to use his sabbatical. (Source)
This “wasted time” is another of the unstated goals of such lawsuits: take precious time away from climate scientists’ real research by burying them in frivolous busy-work.
In a preemptive move Michael Mann has decided to publish his own copies of the emails that the U of AZ was forced to release to E&E:
Of course, I wish I did not need to do this. But since these emails will be handed over any day now to David Schnare [of E&E], it is our hope to use this exercise instead as a teaching moment and an opportunity to further public appreciation and understanding of science...
You can access Mann's emails here, (enter “mail_guest” for both username and password).
In days and weeks to come, contrarians (who think they are arm-chair scientists) might sift through the U of AZ emails in hopes of finding some nugget to embarrass Mann, Hughes, Overpeck or any of the numerous scientists they email every day in their effort to understand how the climate system works. They may uncover more “tricks” used by scientists as they describe their research. There may be strong disagreements between scientists. There may be ridicule of the contrarians who pepper scientists with amateurish questions.
But the hoped for climate change scam will still fail to materialize from this new batch of emails. Anyone reading these emails (really reading them — not just poking at them to try to find “gotcha” phrases) will find scientists merely working together to understand the climate, and trying to find the best way to communicate what they discover to the wider world.
Thanks to jg for the illustration.
Here we go again. It's always emails with these people.
First there was "Climategate!" — the misquoting, selective quoting, and uninformed quoting of stolen emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in Great Britain. Emails between CRU scientists and other climate scientists around the world promised to peel back the curtain and reveal the global warming scam. Alarmist scientists had used "tricks" to "hide the decline"! They "can't account for the lack of warming" so they have to fake the temperature data! The whole thing is a hoax!
Not so much.
With out-of-context quoting you can make scientists say anything. And that was the case with Climategate — it suffered from an extreme lack of context. The full context of the emails simply showed scientists discussing their work openly with each other. They show that they are merely human — they are argumentative as well as congratulatory; they get angry, with each other and the contrarians who attack them and their work.
Despite contrarians' promise to reveal the nefarious world of scheming scientists, the larger context of emails plus the peer-reviewed literature merely shows how science works. The literature gives us the finished products of scientific research, while the emails give us a glimpse of the back-and-forth between scientists as they hash out their experiments, data, and interpretations, and work toward publishing their results. This science has withstood assaults like Climategate (and the nothingburger Son of Climategate: Climategate II) because there is no nefarious world to reveal here.
But that has not stopped the contrarians from trying the same thing over and over again. The latest example is the use of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — which are designed to allow taxpayers to have access to certain government records — to litigate for the release of more emails. Of particular interest are the emails of one Michael E. Mann, because apparently all of climate science hinges on his work, especially the “Hockey Stick”. Show that Mann’s research is fake and the entire house of cards will crumble.
In 2011, the American Tradition Institute (ATI) brought a lawsuit against Dr. Mann and the University of Virginia (where Mann was a professor from 1999 to 2005) for the release of his emails, claiming that as a public university professor, Mann’s emails were effectively government records that should be turned over to anyone who asked under Virginia’s FOIA law. The case went all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court, which rejected this premise and blocked this email release in 2014.
What is a climate science denying outfit like ATI supposed to do? Move on to a more “compliant” state. ATI morphed into the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E) and brought a lawsuit in Arizona against the University of Arizona and two of its professors: Malcolm Hughes, a coauthor of Mann’s on the famous Hockey Stick papers, and Jonathan Overpeck, a lead author on the IPCC’s fourth and fifth Assessment Reports.
E&E claims they are bringing these lawsuits in the interests of open science, to make the workings of scientific research available to all American arm-chair “scientists”. That sounds like a lofty goal. Except they also say they want the emails released in order to “embarrass both Professors Hughes and Overpeck and the University [of Arizona].” They also have not sought data, results, or other study information — only emails. Well, that doesn’t sound very “scientific”.
One wonders, if the shoe were on the other foot, and the private correspondence and paperwork of E&E were made available, what might the public learn about this “charity.
In the end, the courts in Arizona have proved to be more compliant than in Virginia: the emails will be released. But only after hours and hours of wasted time by Drs. Hughes and Overpeck in sifting through their years of emails to cull any truly confidential information:
Dr. Hughes testified it took him ten weeks to go through all the emails, and he lost an entire research summer to reviewing old emails as well as losing a grant that expired. Dr. Overpeck testified it took him six weeks to go through everything and he was unable to use his sabbatical. (Source)
This “wasted time” is another of the unstated goals of such lawsuits: take precious time away from climate scientists’ real research by burying them in frivolous busy-work.
In a preemptive move Michael Mann has decided to publish his own copies of the emails that the U of AZ was forced to release to E&E:
Of course, I wish I did not need to do this. But since these emails will be handed over any day now to David Schnare [of E&E], it is our hope to use this exercise instead as a teaching moment and an opportunity to further public appreciation and understanding of science...
You can access Mann's emails here, (enter “mail_guest” for both username and password).
In days and weeks to come, contrarians (who think they are arm-chair scientists) might sift through the U of AZ emails in hopes of finding some nugget to embarrass Mann, Hughes, Overpeck or any of the numerous scientists they email every day in their effort to understand how the climate system works. They may uncover more “tricks” used by scientists as they describe their research. There may be strong disagreements between scientists. There may be ridicule of the contrarians who pepper scientists with amateurish questions.
But the hoped for climate change scam will still fail to materialize from this new batch of emails. Anyone reading these emails (really reading them — not just poking at them to try to find “gotcha” phrases) will find scientists merely working together to understand the climate, and trying to find the best way to communicate what they discover to the wider world.
Thanks to jg for the illustration.
The tiny Martian moon Phobos, with its enigmatic grooves and Stickney crater in the bottom right corner of the image. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
Phobos is a very groovy moon, literally. The surface of this moon of Mars is covered with odd linear grooves, and for a long time scientists have wondered how they formed. Now, a new study from researchers at Brown University might have solved this mystery. The researchers say that boulders rolling across Phobos’ surface probably created the markings. The new peer-reviewed findings were published in Planetary and Space Science on November 16, 2018.
The study suggests that the rolling boulders were sprayed across the surface of Phobos during the impact that created the large Stickney crater on one end of the oblong Martian moon. The team used computer models to simulate the movement of debris from the crater. As Ken Ramsley, a planetary science researcher at Brown University who led the work explained:
These grooves are a distinctive feature of Phobos, and how they formed has been debated by planetary scientists for 40 years. We think this study is another step toward zeroing in on an explanation.
Computer models showing the possible paths of debris from the large Stickney crater on Phobos. Image via Ramsley et al/Brown University.
Computer simulation showing how boulders “flew over” one area of Phobos, leaving it devoid of grooves. Image via Ramsley et al/Brown University.
The grooves are a striking feature on this tiny moon of Mars, and were first seen by the Mariner and Viking missions in the 1970s. Another theory had been that the grooves were the result of structural failure in the moon, as Mars’ gravity is very slowly tearing the moon apart.
The idea of rolling boulders isn’t new, either. In the late 1970s, planetary scientists Lionel Wilson and Jim Head had also proposed the idea that bouncing, sliding and rolling boulders from Stickney might have created the grooves. Head is a co-author on the new paper.
It is also fortunate that the impact that created Stickney crater didn’t destroy Phobos. Stickney crater is about 5.6 miles (9 km) across and Phobos itself is only 16.7 miles (27 km) at its widest point. This little moon came perilously close to being smashed into smithereens, in the event that created Stickney crater.
The new theory sounds pretty straightforward although there are still some nagging questions. Most of the grooves radiate away from Stickney crater, but some do not. Some grooves also lie on top of other grooves, showing that they were created at different times. How does that reconcile with all the grooves being created by a single impact? Other grooves even run right through Stickney crater itself. The crater must have already been there when those grooves formed, otherwise the impact that created the crater would have wiped them out in that area.
Global map of Phobos, taken by the Viking orbiter, showing the locations of all the grooves relative to other features. Image via Planetary Data System/Phil Stooke.
Despite those problems however, Ramsley found that the computer models re-created the groove patterns quite well, even though he didn’t know just what to expect:
The model is really just an experiment we run on a laptop. We put all the basic ingredients in, then we press the button and we see what happens.
The grooves tend to be parallel to each other, and according to the computer models, the boulders would have been ejected from the crater-forming impact in parallel paths as well. The boulders would also have kept rolling for much longer than on larger moons or planets, due to Phobos’ very weak gravity. If some boulders rolled all the way around the moon, that could explain why some grooves are not radially aligned to the crater. It could also explain the grooves formed on top of other grooves, since grooves that were created right after the impact were then crossed minutes to hours later by boulders completing their journeys around the moon, hence the time difference in their formation. Also, if some boulders did roll all the way around the moon, they could have rolled right across Stickney crater.
A closer view of some of the grooves from Mars Express. Image via ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).
But what about the “bare spot” where there are no grooves? The computer simulations explain that also – the spot is a low-elevation area surrounded by a taller “lip.” The boulders would have hit that lip first, catapulting them over the region, and landing again on the other side. As Ramsley described it:
It’s like a ski jump. The boulders keep going but suddenly there’s no ground under them. They end up doing this suborbital flight over this zone.
So it seems like all of the odd features can be explained by these computer models. As Ramsley noted:
We think this makes a pretty strong case that it was this rolling boulder model accounts for most if not all the grooves on Phobos.
Bottom line: Mars’ moon Phobos is a very intriguing little world, with features that have perplexed scientists for decades. Now, thanks to advanced computer modeling from scientists at Brown University, we may finally know how this little world came to be so groovy.
Source: Origin of Phobos grooves: Testing the Stickney Crater ejecta model
The tiny Martian moon Phobos, with its enigmatic grooves and Stickney crater in the bottom right corner of the image. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
Phobos is a very groovy moon, literally. The surface of this moon of Mars is covered with odd linear grooves, and for a long time scientists have wondered how they formed. Now, a new study from researchers at Brown University might have solved this mystery. The researchers say that boulders rolling across Phobos’ surface probably created the markings. The new peer-reviewed findings were published in Planetary and Space Science on November 16, 2018.
The study suggests that the rolling boulders were sprayed across the surface of Phobos during the impact that created the large Stickney crater on one end of the oblong Martian moon. The team used computer models to simulate the movement of debris from the crater. As Ken Ramsley, a planetary science researcher at Brown University who led the work explained:
These grooves are a distinctive feature of Phobos, and how they formed has been debated by planetary scientists for 40 years. We think this study is another step toward zeroing in on an explanation.
Computer models showing the possible paths of debris from the large Stickney crater on Phobos. Image via Ramsley et al/Brown University.
Computer simulation showing how boulders “flew over” one area of Phobos, leaving it devoid of grooves. Image via Ramsley et al/Brown University.
The grooves are a striking feature on this tiny moon of Mars, and were first seen by the Mariner and Viking missions in the 1970s. Another theory had been that the grooves were the result of structural failure in the moon, as Mars’ gravity is very slowly tearing the moon apart.
The idea of rolling boulders isn’t new, either. In the late 1970s, planetary scientists Lionel Wilson and Jim Head had also proposed the idea that bouncing, sliding and rolling boulders from Stickney might have created the grooves. Head is a co-author on the new paper.
It is also fortunate that the impact that created Stickney crater didn’t destroy Phobos. Stickney crater is about 5.6 miles (9 km) across and Phobos itself is only 16.7 miles (27 km) at its widest point. This little moon came perilously close to being smashed into smithereens, in the event that created Stickney crater.
The new theory sounds pretty straightforward although there are still some nagging questions. Most of the grooves radiate away from Stickney crater, but some do not. Some grooves also lie on top of other grooves, showing that they were created at different times. How does that reconcile with all the grooves being created by a single impact? Other grooves even run right through Stickney crater itself. The crater must have already been there when those grooves formed, otherwise the impact that created the crater would have wiped them out in that area.
Global map of Phobos, taken by the Viking orbiter, showing the locations of all the grooves relative to other features. Image via Planetary Data System/Phil Stooke.
Despite those problems however, Ramsley found that the computer models re-created the groove patterns quite well, even though he didn’t know just what to expect:
The model is really just an experiment we run on a laptop. We put all the basic ingredients in, then we press the button and we see what happens.
The grooves tend to be parallel to each other, and according to the computer models, the boulders would have been ejected from the crater-forming impact in parallel paths as well. The boulders would also have kept rolling for much longer than on larger moons or planets, due to Phobos’ very weak gravity. If some boulders rolled all the way around the moon, that could explain why some grooves are not radially aligned to the crater. It could also explain the grooves formed on top of other grooves, since grooves that were created right after the impact were then crossed minutes to hours later by boulders completing their journeys around the moon, hence the time difference in their formation. Also, if some boulders did roll all the way around the moon, they could have rolled right across Stickney crater.
A closer view of some of the grooves from Mars Express. Image via ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).
But what about the “bare spot” where there are no grooves? The computer simulations explain that also – the spot is a low-elevation area surrounded by a taller “lip.” The boulders would have hit that lip first, catapulting them over the region, and landing again on the other side. As Ramsley described it:
It’s like a ski jump. The boulders keep going but suddenly there’s no ground under them. They end up doing this suborbital flight over this zone.
So it seems like all of the odd features can be explained by these computer models. As Ramsley noted:
We think this makes a pretty strong case that it was this rolling boulder model accounts for most if not all the grooves on Phobos.
Bottom line: Mars’ moon Phobos is a very intriguing little world, with features that have perplexed scientists for decades. Now, thanks to advanced computer modeling from scientists at Brown University, we may finally know how this little world came to be so groovy.
Source: Origin of Phobos grooves: Testing the Stickney Crater ejecta model
A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below.
Mankind
Decreased takeoff performance of aircraft due to climate change
Failure to protect beaches under slowly rising sea level (open access)
Quantification and evaluation of intra-urban heat-stress variability in Seoul, Korea
Characterizing heat stress on livestock using the temperature humidity index (THI)—prospects for a warmer Caribbean (open access)
Assessing the alignment of national-level adaptation plans to the Paris Agreement
A framework for assessing community adaptation to climate change in a fisheries context
Constraints on farmer adaptability in the Iowa-Cedar River Basin
Climate change impact and adaptation for wheat protein (open access)
Livestock productivity as indicator of vulnerability to climate hazards: a Mongolian case study
Simple scaling of climate inputs allows robust extrapolation of modelled wheat yield risk at a continental scale (open access)
Future climatic suitability of the Emilia-Romagna (Italy) region for grape production
Biosphere
Climate change impacts on the distribution of venomous snakes and snakebite risk in Mozambique
Ocean acidification increases iodine accumulation in kelp‐based coastal food webs (open access)
Environmental and physiochemical controls on coral calcification along a latitudinal temperature gradient in Western Australia (open access)
Grazer movements exacerbate grass declines during drought in an African savanna
Delayed herbivory by migratory geese increases summer‐long CO2 uptake in coastal western Alaska (open access)
Bottom‐up and top‐down effects of browning and warming on shallow lake food webs
Divergent trends in the risk of spring frost damage to trees in Europe with recent warming (open access)
Near‐future forest vulnerability to drought and fire varies across the western United States (open access)
Trends in phytoplankton phenology in the Mediterranean Sea based on ocean-colour remote sensing (open access)
The relationship between drought activity and vegetation cover in Northwest China from 1982 to 2013
Leaf area index identified as a major source of variability in modeled CO2 fertilization (open access)
The influence of climatic legacies on the distribution of dryland biocrust communities (open access)
FACE facts hold for multiple generations; Evidence from natural CO2 springs (open access)
Environmental drivers interactively affect individual tree growth across temperate European forests (open access)
Effect of interannual precipitation variability on dryland productivity: A global synthesis (open access)
Plastic and genetic responses of a common sedge to warming have contrasting effects on carbon cycle processes (open access)
Other impacts
Climate seasonality as an essential predictor of global fire activity
The occurrence of forest fires in Mexico presents an altitudinal tendency: a geospatial analysis
New insights in the relation between climate and slope failures at high-elevation sites
Climate change communication
Climate Policy
Designing air ticket taxes for climate change mitigation: insights from a Swedish valuation study (open access)
Energy production
Energy dependence behind the Iron Curtain: The Bulgarian experience
Analyzing major renewable energy sources and power stability in Taiwan by 2030
Emission savings
Limited potential of harvest index improvement to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies
Fresh‐state performance design of green concrete mixes with reduced carbon dioxide emissions
Geoengineering
Decreasing “alpine tundra” climatic type with global warming in the Tibetan Plateau
Temperature, precipitation, wind
Evaluation of air temperature and rainfall from ECMWF and NASA gridded data for southeastern Brazil
Precipitation variability and its relation to climate anomalies in the Bolivian Altiplano
Climate warming increases vertical and seasonal water temperature differences and inter-annual variability in a mountain lake (open access)
Extreme events
Strong heat and cold waves in Poland in relation with the large-scale atmospheric circulation (open access)
The 2017 record marine heatwave in the Southwestern Atlantic Shelf
Concurrent droughts and hot extremes in Northwest China from 1961 to 2017
Forcings and feedbacks
Wintertime internal climate variability over Eurasia in the CESM large ensemble
Signs of the ozone recovery based on multi sensor reanalysis of total ozone for the period 1979–2017 (open access)
A new global anthropogenic SO2 emission inventory for the last decade: a mosaic of satellite-derived and bottom-up emissions (open access)
Cryosphere
Modelling the fate of surface melt on the Larsen C Ice Shelf (open access)
Neutral equilibrium and forcing feedbacks in marine ice sheet modelling (open access)
Spatiotemporal analysis of snow cover in Iran based on topographic characteristics
Contrasting lake ice responses to winter climate indicate future variability and trends on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain (open access)
An estimate of ice wedge volume for a High Arctic polar desert environment, Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island (open access)
Hydrosphere
The Changing Character of the California Sierra Nevada as a Natural Reservoir
Atmospheric and oceanic circulation
The Influence of Atmospheric Circulation Patterns on Cold Air Outbreaks in the Eastern United States
Connections between the Madden–Julian Oscillation and surface temperatures in winter 2018 over eastern North America (open access)
Weak El Niño and Winter Climate in the mid-high latitude Eurasia
Carbon and nitrogen cycles
Emissions from dry inland waters are a blind spot in the global carbon cycle (open access)
What Limits Predictive Certainty of Long‐Term Carbon Uptake?
General climate science
Shipboard automated meteorological and oceanographic system data archive: 2005–2017 (open access)
Palaeoclimatology
Cryosphere carbon dynamics control Early Toarcian global warming and sea level evolution
North Atlantic versus Global Control on Dansgaard‐Oeschger Events
A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below.
Mankind
Decreased takeoff performance of aircraft due to climate change
Failure to protect beaches under slowly rising sea level (open access)
Quantification and evaluation of intra-urban heat-stress variability in Seoul, Korea
Characterizing heat stress on livestock using the temperature humidity index (THI)—prospects for a warmer Caribbean (open access)
Assessing the alignment of national-level adaptation plans to the Paris Agreement
A framework for assessing community adaptation to climate change in a fisheries context
Constraints on farmer adaptability in the Iowa-Cedar River Basin
Climate change impact and adaptation for wheat protein (open access)
Livestock productivity as indicator of vulnerability to climate hazards: a Mongolian case study
Simple scaling of climate inputs allows robust extrapolation of modelled wheat yield risk at a continental scale (open access)
Future climatic suitability of the Emilia-Romagna (Italy) region for grape production
Biosphere
Climate change impacts on the distribution of venomous snakes and snakebite risk in Mozambique
Ocean acidification increases iodine accumulation in kelp‐based coastal food webs (open access)
Environmental and physiochemical controls on coral calcification along a latitudinal temperature gradient in Western Australia (open access)
Grazer movements exacerbate grass declines during drought in an African savanna
Delayed herbivory by migratory geese increases summer‐long CO2 uptake in coastal western Alaska (open access)
Bottom‐up and top‐down effects of browning and warming on shallow lake food webs
Divergent trends in the risk of spring frost damage to trees in Europe with recent warming (open access)
Near‐future forest vulnerability to drought and fire varies across the western United States (open access)
Trends in phytoplankton phenology in the Mediterranean Sea based on ocean-colour remote sensing (open access)
The relationship between drought activity and vegetation cover in Northwest China from 1982 to 2013
Leaf area index identified as a major source of variability in modeled CO2 fertilization (open access)
The influence of climatic legacies on the distribution of dryland biocrust communities (open access)
FACE facts hold for multiple generations; Evidence from natural CO2 springs (open access)
Environmental drivers interactively affect individual tree growth across temperate European forests (open access)
Effect of interannual precipitation variability on dryland productivity: A global synthesis (open access)
Plastic and genetic responses of a common sedge to warming have contrasting effects on carbon cycle processes (open access)
Other impacts
Climate seasonality as an essential predictor of global fire activity
The occurrence of forest fires in Mexico presents an altitudinal tendency: a geospatial analysis
New insights in the relation between climate and slope failures at high-elevation sites
Climate change communication
Climate Policy
Designing air ticket taxes for climate change mitigation: insights from a Swedish valuation study (open access)
Energy production
Energy dependence behind the Iron Curtain: The Bulgarian experience
Analyzing major renewable energy sources and power stability in Taiwan by 2030
Emission savings
Limited potential of harvest index improvement to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies
Fresh‐state performance design of green concrete mixes with reduced carbon dioxide emissions
Geoengineering
Decreasing “alpine tundra” climatic type with global warming in the Tibetan Plateau
Temperature, precipitation, wind
Evaluation of air temperature and rainfall from ECMWF and NASA gridded data for southeastern Brazil
Precipitation variability and its relation to climate anomalies in the Bolivian Altiplano
Climate warming increases vertical and seasonal water temperature differences and inter-annual variability in a mountain lake (open access)
Extreme events
Strong heat and cold waves in Poland in relation with the large-scale atmospheric circulation (open access)
The 2017 record marine heatwave in the Southwestern Atlantic Shelf
Concurrent droughts and hot extremes in Northwest China from 1961 to 2017
Forcings and feedbacks
Wintertime internal climate variability over Eurasia in the CESM large ensemble
Signs of the ozone recovery based on multi sensor reanalysis of total ozone for the period 1979–2017 (open access)
A new global anthropogenic SO2 emission inventory for the last decade: a mosaic of satellite-derived and bottom-up emissions (open access)
Cryosphere
Modelling the fate of surface melt on the Larsen C Ice Shelf (open access)
Neutral equilibrium and forcing feedbacks in marine ice sheet modelling (open access)
Spatiotemporal analysis of snow cover in Iran based on topographic characteristics
Contrasting lake ice responses to winter climate indicate future variability and trends on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain (open access)
An estimate of ice wedge volume for a High Arctic polar desert environment, Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island (open access)
Hydrosphere
The Changing Character of the California Sierra Nevada as a Natural Reservoir
Atmospheric and oceanic circulation
The Influence of Atmospheric Circulation Patterns on Cold Air Outbreaks in the Eastern United States
Connections between the Madden–Julian Oscillation and surface temperatures in winter 2018 over eastern North America (open access)
Weak El Niño and Winter Climate in the mid-high latitude Eurasia
Carbon and nitrogen cycles
Emissions from dry inland waters are a blind spot in the global carbon cycle (open access)
What Limits Predictive Certainty of Long‐Term Carbon Uptake?
General climate science
Shipboard automated meteorological and oceanographic system data archive: 2005–2017 (open access)
Palaeoclimatology
Cryosphere carbon dynamics control Early Toarcian global warming and sea level evolution
North Atlantic versus Global Control on Dansgaard‐Oeschger Events
Artist’s concept of Tabby’s Star. It’s possible that dust causes its mysterious dips in brightness, which are similar to those in a newly found star, called VVV-WIT-07. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Remember Tabby’s Star? It periodically dims in a sporadic and mysterious way. For awhile, astronomers thought it might have an alien-built Dyson sphere around it, but now they think not. Astronomers have now found another mysteriously dimming star, perhaps similar to Tabby’s Star!
Tabby’s Star – aka Boyajian’s Star – created a lot of public interest last year and earlier this year when it started to “act up” again, periodically dimming in brightness in ways that astronomers still haven’t fully explained. It even brightened significantly more than usual sometimes. Although astronomers now know that fine dust near Tabby’s Star is at least part of the answer, they don’t yet know where this dust might come from, or why it is behaving the way it does. So the mystery of Tabby’s Star continues.
This month (November, 2018), astronomers have been hashing over what may be a newly discovered second star similar to Tabby’s Star. At least, the new-found star displays some similar characteristics. The star – called VVV-WIT-07 (for “What is this?”) was found by astronomers in Chile using the VISTA telescope in the Atacama Desert. Roberto Saito of the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, Brazil and his colleagues first reported the star’s odd flickering on November 6, 2018 in a peer-reviewed paper on arXiv.org. The findings were then reported in Science News on November 16. As Saito simply put it:
We don’t know what the object is, and that’s interesting.
Artist’s concept of VVV-WIT-07, which has been observed dipping in brightness in a manner similar to Tabby’s Star. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.
The team wasn’t actually looking for something like VVV-WIT-07, rather they were searching for supernovas – exploding stars – part of a larger survey of the center of the galaxy called the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea, or VVV.
But this star, like Tabby’s Star, suddenly dimmed. The star had been observed to periodically dim and brighten again before, between 2010 and 2018, with no set pattern, similar to Tabby’s Star. But while Tabby’s Star has been seen dimming as much as about 22%, this star was observed to suddenly dim as much as 80 percent! According to astronomer Tabetha Boyajian of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who Tabby’s Star is named after:
If this phenomenon is the same as what’s happening with Tabby’s star, then we can’t invoke an elaborate explanation for what’s happening in both systems,” Boyajian says. “If you’re starting to see stars similar to this all over the place, then it’s got to be a really common thing that happens in nature. That’s really cool.
Light curve of VVV-WIT-007 from 2010-2018. The star dipped in brightness an incredible 80 percent in 2012 (shown in more detail in inset). Image via R. K. Saito et al.
If other stars could be found which dim in a similar manner, then they may be fairly common.
Astronomers are still not exactly sure what of star VVV-WIT-07 is even. It lies in the plane of the galaxy from our viewpoint, so there is a lot of dust that partially obscures it. If it’s a young variable star, then the dimming might simply be internal to the star itself. But if it’s not, then it is still a largely open question. As Boyajian noted:
Pretty much everything’s on the table for it right now. We need more data.
There is also another star – J1407 – that may be an even closer match to Tabby’s Star. that star has been observed to periodically dim by up to a whopping 95 percent. Astronomer Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester in New York and his colleagues reported the discovery in 2012. Astronomers think that J1407 hosts an orbiting young giant planet or brown dwarf with an enormous ring system – much larger and heavier than Saturn’s – that periodically eclipses the star.
False-color image of VVV-WIT-007. Image via R. K. Saito et al.
According to Mamajek:
This planet is much larger than Jupiter or Saturn, and its ring system is roughly 200 times larger than Saturn’s rings are today. You could think of it as kind of a super Saturn.
As Matthew Kenworthy at Leiden Observatory in The Netherlands added:
The details that we see in the light curve are incredible. The eclipse lasted for several weeks, but you see rapid changes on time scales of tens of minutes as a result of fine structures in the rings. The star is much too far away to observe the rings directly, but we could make a detailed model based on the rapid brightness variations in the star light passing through the ring system. If we could replace Saturn’s rings with the rings around J1407b, they would be easily visible at night and be many times larger than the full moon.
VVV-WIT-07 may also turn out to be more similar to J1407, where a giant young planet or brown dwarf with a gigantic ring system orbits the star. Image via Ron Miller.
Figuring out what is causing the weird dimming of VVV-WIT-07 – as with Tabby’s Star – will require further observations. Saito and his colleagues are hoping to be able to follow up using bigger telescopes, like the twin 8.1-meter Gemini telescopes or the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, both in Chile. Until then, astronomers can mostly just make educated guesses and come up with theories to explain the star’s behavior.
Bottom line: The mystery of Tabby’s Star still hasn’t been solved yet, and now there is another star that seems to be behaving in a similar manner – VVV-WIT-07. The findings made about one of them may help to solve the enigma of both – or it may turn out that there are two different exotic explanations for why these stars suddenly dip in brightness so much. Either way, what we learn about them should be very interesting.
Source: VVV-WIT-07: another Boyajian’s star or a Mamajek’s object?
EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!
Artist’s concept of Tabby’s Star. It’s possible that dust causes its mysterious dips in brightness, which are similar to those in a newly found star, called VVV-WIT-07. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Remember Tabby’s Star? It periodically dims in a sporadic and mysterious way. For awhile, astronomers thought it might have an alien-built Dyson sphere around it, but now they think not. Astronomers have now found another mysteriously dimming star, perhaps similar to Tabby’s Star!
Tabby’s Star – aka Boyajian’s Star – created a lot of public interest last year and earlier this year when it started to “act up” again, periodically dimming in brightness in ways that astronomers still haven’t fully explained. It even brightened significantly more than usual sometimes. Although astronomers now know that fine dust near Tabby’s Star is at least part of the answer, they don’t yet know where this dust might come from, or why it is behaving the way it does. So the mystery of Tabby’s Star continues.
This month (November, 2018), astronomers have been hashing over what may be a newly discovered second star similar to Tabby’s Star. At least, the new-found star displays some similar characteristics. The star – called VVV-WIT-07 (for “What is this?”) was found by astronomers in Chile using the VISTA telescope in the Atacama Desert. Roberto Saito of the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, Brazil and his colleagues first reported the star’s odd flickering on November 6, 2018 in a peer-reviewed paper on arXiv.org. The findings were then reported in Science News on November 16. As Saito simply put it:
We don’t know what the object is, and that’s interesting.
Artist’s concept of VVV-WIT-07, which has been observed dipping in brightness in a manner similar to Tabby’s Star. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.
The team wasn’t actually looking for something like VVV-WIT-07, rather they were searching for supernovas – exploding stars – part of a larger survey of the center of the galaxy called the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea, or VVV.
But this star, like Tabby’s Star, suddenly dimmed. The star had been observed to periodically dim and brighten again before, between 2010 and 2018, with no set pattern, similar to Tabby’s Star. But while Tabby’s Star has been seen dimming as much as about 22%, this star was observed to suddenly dim as much as 80 percent! According to astronomer Tabetha Boyajian of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who Tabby’s Star is named after:
If this phenomenon is the same as what’s happening with Tabby’s star, then we can’t invoke an elaborate explanation for what’s happening in both systems,” Boyajian says. “If you’re starting to see stars similar to this all over the place, then it’s got to be a really common thing that happens in nature. That’s really cool.
Light curve of VVV-WIT-007 from 2010-2018. The star dipped in brightness an incredible 80 percent in 2012 (shown in more detail in inset). Image via R. K. Saito et al.
If other stars could be found which dim in a similar manner, then they may be fairly common.
Astronomers are still not exactly sure what of star VVV-WIT-07 is even. It lies in the plane of the galaxy from our viewpoint, so there is a lot of dust that partially obscures it. If it’s a young variable star, then the dimming might simply be internal to the star itself. But if it’s not, then it is still a largely open question. As Boyajian noted:
Pretty much everything’s on the table for it right now. We need more data.
There is also another star – J1407 – that may be an even closer match to Tabby’s Star. that star has been observed to periodically dim by up to a whopping 95 percent. Astronomer Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester in New York and his colleagues reported the discovery in 2012. Astronomers think that J1407 hosts an orbiting young giant planet or brown dwarf with an enormous ring system – much larger and heavier than Saturn’s – that periodically eclipses the star.
False-color image of VVV-WIT-007. Image via R. K. Saito et al.
According to Mamajek:
This planet is much larger than Jupiter or Saturn, and its ring system is roughly 200 times larger than Saturn’s rings are today. You could think of it as kind of a super Saturn.
As Matthew Kenworthy at Leiden Observatory in The Netherlands added:
The details that we see in the light curve are incredible. The eclipse lasted for several weeks, but you see rapid changes on time scales of tens of minutes as a result of fine structures in the rings. The star is much too far away to observe the rings directly, but we could make a detailed model based on the rapid brightness variations in the star light passing through the ring system. If we could replace Saturn’s rings with the rings around J1407b, they would be easily visible at night and be many times larger than the full moon.
VVV-WIT-07 may also turn out to be more similar to J1407, where a giant young planet or brown dwarf with a gigantic ring system orbits the star. Image via Ron Miller.
Figuring out what is causing the weird dimming of VVV-WIT-07 – as with Tabby’s Star – will require further observations. Saito and his colleagues are hoping to be able to follow up using bigger telescopes, like the twin 8.1-meter Gemini telescopes or the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, both in Chile. Until then, astronomers can mostly just make educated guesses and come up with theories to explain the star’s behavior.
Bottom line: The mystery of Tabby’s Star still hasn’t been solved yet, and now there is another star that seems to be behaving in a similar manner – VVV-WIT-07. The findings made about one of them may help to solve the enigma of both – or it may turn out that there are two different exotic explanations for why these stars suddenly dip in brightness so much. Either way, what we learn about them should be very interesting.
Source: VVV-WIT-07: another Boyajian’s star or a Mamajek’s object?
EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!
Wanda Diaz Merced speaks at TED2016 – Dream, February 15-19, 2016, Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver, Canada.
By Graham Jones of Ten Sentences and Richard Gelderman, an astronomy professor and director of the Hardin Planetarium at Western Kentucky University. Interview by Richard Gelderman.
After losing her sight in her 20s, Wanda Díaz Merced became a pioneer of sonification, a technique for turning data into sounds. Her TED talk on How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars is one of TED’s most-watched astronomy videos. We caught up with Wanda at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Vienna earlier this year.
Scientists used data sonification to transform a photo of sunrise on Mars into a piece of music.
Wanda Díaz Merced was deep in a conversation about her effort to draw more information out of an important data set. I was waiting to break into this discussion, introduce myself, and ask a question of this respected astronomer. To any onlooker, the energy and brightness shared as she expounded on the details of her research were no different from what we experience in encounter after encounter, all through each day, at the IAU General Assembly.
When I got the chance to introduce myself, Wanda’s hand was so confidently extended toward mine that I momentarily wondered if Wanda had at least partial use of her sight. This caught my attention, because I was there to ask a question about how she, as a person with complete loss of her eyesight, uses sound to experience multi-dimensional data sets and images.
Wanda was 19 years old and in the USA studying mathematics and physics at university when her first symptoms of blind spots occurred. Wanda was born with diabetic retinopathy, and it slowly destroyed her eyesight until she was completely blind at age 29.
Our ancestors believed that the movements of celestial bodies were a form of music – they called it the music of the spheres. Wanda Diaz Merced, a blind astrophysicist from Puerto Rico, studies the universe through sound and carries on this ancient tradition. Using Wanda’s actual sounds, this film weaves a journey of a truly unique scientist. Watch it here. Image via Wild & Scenic Music Festival.
During these difficult young adult years, Wanda resolved to find a way to continue her study of astronomy. At NASA-GSFC during a summer 2005 ACCESS internship, heliophysicist Robert Candey agreed that Wanda should be able to get as deeply involved with the data as any sighted astronomer. She used that encouragement to develop methods to turn plots into dimensions of time and pitch, loudness, or duration. As her efforts increased, they became the foundation of her groundbreaking PhD thesis from the University of Glasgow.
Wanda announced to the audience of her 2016 TED talk:
Information access empowers us to flourish.
However, creating a scientific playing field that is not dependent upon access to all five senses is only one aspect of Wanda’s research.
During our conversation at the IAU’s Inspiring Stars booth, I noted with some surprise as Wanda seamlessly transitioned from facing me, to pointing out a nearby demo, to turning to type on her laptop. She explained:
Without sight, I require a sequence to orient me.
Her work with sonification of digital data is an example of a similar organizational framework.
Astronomical research frequently involves the scrutiny of representations of digital data. Visual interpretation of plots is one way to pursue this goal, but the results of Wanda’s research show that combining sensory modalities makes anyone better at such interpretation.
The computer application interprets brightness, wavelength, position, or temporal information into pitch, loudness, or rhythm changing over time. It is these changes that Wanda listens for. She said:
I keep vigilant for the unexpected. Sensitivity to events increases when you use sound. In noisy data, those in our studies identify more peaks, dips, and pulses than just with sight.
Bottom line: Astronomer Wanda Díaz Merced explains how turning digital data into sound can help us find the patterns hidden in the information we receive from telescopes.
EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!
Wanda Diaz Merced speaks at TED2016 – Dream, February 15-19, 2016, Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver, Canada.
By Graham Jones of Ten Sentences and Richard Gelderman, an astronomy professor and director of the Hardin Planetarium at Western Kentucky University. Interview by Richard Gelderman.
After losing her sight in her 20s, Wanda Díaz Merced became a pioneer of sonification, a technique for turning data into sounds. Her TED talk on How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars is one of TED’s most-watched astronomy videos. We caught up with Wanda at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Vienna earlier this year.
Scientists used data sonification to transform a photo of sunrise on Mars into a piece of music.
Wanda Díaz Merced was deep in a conversation about her effort to draw more information out of an important data set. I was waiting to break into this discussion, introduce myself, and ask a question of this respected astronomer. To any onlooker, the energy and brightness shared as she expounded on the details of her research were no different from what we experience in encounter after encounter, all through each day, at the IAU General Assembly.
When I got the chance to introduce myself, Wanda’s hand was so confidently extended toward mine that I momentarily wondered if Wanda had at least partial use of her sight. This caught my attention, because I was there to ask a question about how she, as a person with complete loss of her eyesight, uses sound to experience multi-dimensional data sets and images.
Wanda was 19 years old and in the USA studying mathematics and physics at university when her first symptoms of blind spots occurred. Wanda was born with diabetic retinopathy, and it slowly destroyed her eyesight until she was completely blind at age 29.
Our ancestors believed that the movements of celestial bodies were a form of music – they called it the music of the spheres. Wanda Diaz Merced, a blind astrophysicist from Puerto Rico, studies the universe through sound and carries on this ancient tradition. Using Wanda’s actual sounds, this film weaves a journey of a truly unique scientist. Watch it here. Image via Wild & Scenic Music Festival.
During these difficult young adult years, Wanda resolved to find a way to continue her study of astronomy. At NASA-GSFC during a summer 2005 ACCESS internship, heliophysicist Robert Candey agreed that Wanda should be able to get as deeply involved with the data as any sighted astronomer. She used that encouragement to develop methods to turn plots into dimensions of time and pitch, loudness, or duration. As her efforts increased, they became the foundation of her groundbreaking PhD thesis from the University of Glasgow.
Wanda announced to the audience of her 2016 TED talk:
Information access empowers us to flourish.
However, creating a scientific playing field that is not dependent upon access to all five senses is only one aspect of Wanda’s research.
During our conversation at the IAU’s Inspiring Stars booth, I noted with some surprise as Wanda seamlessly transitioned from facing me, to pointing out a nearby demo, to turning to type on her laptop. She explained:
Without sight, I require a sequence to orient me.
Her work with sonification of digital data is an example of a similar organizational framework.
Astronomical research frequently involves the scrutiny of representations of digital data. Visual interpretation of plots is one way to pursue this goal, but the results of Wanda’s research show that combining sensory modalities makes anyone better at such interpretation.
The computer application interprets brightness, wavelength, position, or temporal information into pitch, loudness, or rhythm changing over time. It is these changes that Wanda listens for. She said:
I keep vigilant for the unexpected. Sensitivity to events increases when you use sound. In noisy data, those in our studies identify more peaks, dips, and pulses than just with sight.
Bottom line: Astronomer Wanda Díaz Merced explains how turning digital data into sound can help us find the patterns hidden in the information we receive from telescopes.
EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!
