Some Science Behind the Recent NE Blizzard

The title link is to a NY Times blog article by Andrew Revkin. In it he cites work by Judah Cohen, a weather analyst who has been studying the relationship between Oct snow cover in Siberia with winter severity in the NE US and Europe.

It is all rather complicated, but in Cohen's defense, he makes predictions based on his theory. He has also looked at past weather patterns versus Siberian snow cover and states his theory offers a better explanation for what has happened versus the theories of others. Also see Cohen's comments to Revkins post.

There are a lot of links in Revkin's post, but be sure you watch the short video on how to differentiate weather from climate.

Geoengineering with Nanoparticles

The linked article by Andrew Maynard provides a fascinating overview of how incoming sunlight might be reduced using specially designed nanodiscs dispersed in the upper atmosphere. The idea is described in detail by David Keith in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The abstract for David Keith's article: "Aerosols could be injected into the upper atmosphere to engineer the climate by scattering incident sunlight so as to produce a cooling tendency that may mitigate the risks posed by the accumulation of greenhouse gases. Analysis of climate engineering has focused on sulfate aerosols. Here I examine the possibility that engineered nanoparticles could exploit photophoretic forces, enabling more control over particle distribution and lifetime than is possible with sulfates, perhaps allowing climate engineering to be accomplished with fewer side effects. The use of electrostatic or magnetic materials enables a class of photophoretic forces not found in nature. Photophoretic levitation could loft particles above the stratosphere, reducing their capacity to interfere with ozone chemistry; and, by increasing particle lifetimes, it would reduce the need for continual replenishment of the aerosol. Moreover, particles might be engineered to drift poleward enabling albedo modification to be tailored to counter polar warming while minimizing the impact on equatorial climates."

In Andrew Maynard's article, he addresses the safety concerns of such an approach, and cites a paper about what he feels is much needed nanothechnology safety studies.

Dec 2010 Cold in Eastern US and Europe

The linked Earth Observatory image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows clearly Dec 2010 temperature anomalies. Basically, we in the NE U.S. and most of Europe have been experiencing significantly below normal temperatures, while the Canadian high artic and Greenland have been experiencing significantly above normal temperatures.

And this continues, especially in the UK, even after the Dec 10 end date for the satellite image. An obvious question is: Could this temperature flip-flop be due to greenhouse gas induced climate change?

Clouds of Uncertainty

                                                                                                                              Bill Fintel photo

The title link is to a USA Today article reporting on cloud studies from 2000 to 2010 by Andrew Dessler of Texas A&M. Dessler says his study shows clouds will have a positive feedback on greenhouse gas induced global warming. In other words, more warming will occur than just that caused by greenhouse gases.

The article cites a rebuttal to Dessler's study by climate change skeptic, Roy Spencer of the University of Alabama. Spencer believes clouds will provide a negative feedback and moderate greenhouse gas induced global warming. Overall, an interesting article from which you can draw your own conclusions.

Geoengineering support moving ahead...cautiously

The title link is to an AP article about geoengineering, and why it is receiving more support, including research funding. Following are some quotes from the article:

"The taboo is broken," Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric scientist, told The Associated Press.

Whatever the doubts, "we are amazingly farther up the road on geoengineering," Crutzen, who wrote a 2006 scientific article that sparked interest in geoengineering, said by telephone from Germany.

In September, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended in a 70-page report that the White House "establish a clear strategy for geoengineering research" within its science office.

Perhaps most significantly, the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, the global authority on climate science, agreed in October to take on geoengineering in its next assessment report. Its hundreds of scientists will begin with a session next spring."