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NASA Scientist: Climate Just One Factor in Wildfires

By Guest PostJuly 4, 2012Environment2002 hayman fire, ash creek fire, bill patzert, climate, climate change, colorado, factor, fiery summer, forests, grasslands, horse creek fire, jpl climatologist, la niña, los angeles county, misr, nasa scientist, new mexico, southeastern montana, southern california, united states, us wildfire season, wildfire

It’s shaping up to be a fiery summer across the United States. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, as of July 3, 45 large active wildfires are currently burning in 15 states. Combined, these fires have scorched nearly three-quarters of a million acres. Since January 1, wildfires have burned nearly 2.2 million acres across the country, including devastating blazes in Colorado and New Mexico. We asked JPL Climatologist Bill Patzert to discuss the recent wildfire outbreak and whether climate change is playing a role.

Q: The U.S. wildfire season is off to an active start. What factors have contributed to the recent rash of blazes?

Patzert: Across the West, out-of-control wildfires this summer have left a heartbreaking path of destruction. The primary condition that triggered these fires was an unusually dry and warm La Nina winter and spring. These conditions primed the Western U.S. for an incendiary summer. The arrival of a persistent, scorching high-pressure system over the Western and Central U.S. just exacerbated already dangerous conditions, which reached a tipping point when strong, gusty winds sent these fires rampaging across the landscape. From New Mexico to Colorado and many other states, out-of-control wildfires are still burning through forests, grasslands and destroying neighborhoods. (more…)

NASA Sees Repeating La Niña Hitting its Peak

By Guest PostJanuary 20, 2012Environmentamerican southwest, bill patzert, climate, cnes, colorado river, diva of drought, dry years, el niño, equatorial pacific, factors, jason 1, jason 2, jason altimetric satellites, la niña, NASA, near normal, ocean temperature, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, pacific sea surface, satellite, sea surface height, south america, southern california, stormy weather, united states, watershed

La Niña, “the diva of drought,” is peaking, increasing the odds that the Pacific Northwest will have more stormy weather this winter and spring, while the southwestern and southern United States will be dry.

Sea surface height data from NASA’s Jason-1 and -2 satellites show that the milder repeat of last year’s strong La Niña has recently intensified, as seen in the latest Jason-2 image of the Pacific Ocean, available at: https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/images/ostm/20120108P1.jpg. (more…)

Diamonds and Dust for Better Cement

By Guest PostDecember 15, 2011Scienceadvanced light source, als, atomic scale structure, baking limestone, basic materials, beam of x rays, bulk modulus, c s h, calcium carbonate, calcium ions, calcium silicate hydrate, calipso, carbon dioxide, clay, clinker, CO2 emissions, diamonds, diffraction patterns, durability of concrete, human activity, hydrostatic pressure, mineral tobermorite, models, nanoscale, paulo monteiro, performance of cement, portland cement, practical alternatives, pressure, quaint village, scottish isle of mull, silicates, simon clark, southern california, stiffness, structure, surface of earth, university of california at berkeley, versatile concrete, water molecules

Structural studies at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source could point to reduced carbon emissions and stronger cements

It’s no surprise that humans the world over use more water, by volume, than any other material. But in second place, at over 17 billion tons consumed each year, comes concrete made with Portland cement. Portland cement provides the essential binder for strong, versatile concrete; its basic materials are found in many places around the globe; and, at about $100 a ton, it’s relatively cheap. Making it, however, releases massive amounts of carbon dioxide, accounting for more than five percent of the total CO₂ emissions from human activity.

“Portland cement is the most important building material in the world,” says Paulo Monteiro, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, “but if we are going to find ways to use it more efficiently – or just as important, search for practical alternatives – we need a full understanding of its structure on the nanoscale.” To this end Monteiro has teamed with researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. (more…)

Radar for Mars Gets Flight Tests at NASA Dryden

By Guest PostJune 22, 2011Sciencedesert, dryden flight research center, edwards, environmental conditions, fa 18 aircraft, florida, jet propulsion laboratory, kennedy space center, mars, mars landing radar software, mars radar, mars science laboratory mission, martian atmosphere, microbial life, NASA, nasa technology, pasadena, southern california

Southern California’s high desert has been a stand-in for Mars for NASA technology testing many times over the years. And so it is again, in a series of flights by an F/A-18 aircraft to test the landing radar for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission.

The flight profile is designed to have the F/A-18 climb to 40,000 feet (about 12,000 meters). From there, it makes a series of subsonic, stair-step dives at angles of 40 to 90 degrees to simulate what the Mars radar will see while the spacecraft is on a parachute descending through the Martian atmosphere. The F/A-18 pulls out of each dive at 5,000 feet (about 1,500 meters. Data collected by these flights will be used to finesse the Mars landing radar software, to help ensure that it is calibrated as accurately as possible. (more…)

For UCLA Expert on Chumash Indians, Roughly Hewn Beads are Child’s Play

By Guest PostMay 8, 2011Culture, Scienceamerican southwest pueblos, archaeologist, archaeology, artifacts, bead makers, beads, california, channel islands, chumash, chumash indians, chumash people, craft apprenticeship, europeans, france, global archaeological record, jeanne arnold, North America, olivella, olivella biplicata shells, Paris, santa cruz island, shells, southern california, stone age, ucla

As the world’s leading authority on beads manufactured from shells by California’s Chumash Indians, UCLA archaeologist Jeanne Arnold was stumped by a series of anomalous artifacts excavated at former settlements on the Channel Islands.

Pierced with more than one hole, often at unconventional angles or too close to the edges, the oddly configured multi-hole beads differ considerably from the smooth, round, precisely drilled beauties that served as currency among the Chumash prior to the arrival of Europeans in Southern California. (more…)

Think Globally, but Act Locally When Studying Plants, Animals, Global Warming, Researchers Advise

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2011Environment, Natureagriculture, air pollution, butterfly, camille parmesan, climate, climate change, climate change impacts, effects of climate change, extinctions, global scale, global warming, greenhouse gas, habitat fragmentation, human activities, invasive species, los angeles, mediterranean geraniums, michael singer, multiple factors, natural changes, nobel prize, plants and animals, policy makers, quino checkerspot butterfly, san diego, southern california, species, united states, urban sprawl

AUSTIN, Texas — Global warming is clearly affecting plants and animals, but we should not try to tease apart the specific contribution of greenhouse gas driven climate change to extinctions or declines of species at local scales, biologists from The University of Texas at Austin advise.

Camille Parmesan, Michael C. Singer and their coauthors published their commentary online this week in Nature Climate Change.

“Yes, global warming is happening. Yes, it is caused by human activities. And yes, we’ve clearly shown that species are impacted by global warming on a global scale,” says Parmesan, associate professor of integrative biology. (more…)

Ancient Colorado River Flowed Backwards

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2010Sciencearizona, california river, colorado river, colorado-green river system, colton formation, geologist, gulf of california, isotope, lead, mineral, mojave region, rocky mountains, southern california, steven davis, uranium, utah, zircon

Palo Alto, CA — Geologists have found evidence that some 55 million years ago a river as big as the modern Colorado flowed through Arizona into Utah in the opposite direction from the present-day river. Writing in the October issue of the journal Geology, they have named this ancient northeastward-flowing river the California River, after its inferred source in the Mojave region of southern California. (more…)

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