New Study: Strong El Ninos Can Have Big Impacts On Antarctic Ice Shelves

Written by University of California - San Diego

A new study published Jan. 8 in the journal Nature Geoscience reveals that strong El Nino events can cause significant ice loss in some Antarctic ice shelves while the opposite may occur during strong La Nina events.

El Niño and La Niña are two distinct phases of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a naturally occurring phenomenon characterized by how water temperatures in the tropical Pacific periodically oscillate between warmer than average during El Niños and cooler during La Niñas.

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New Study: Rising Ocean Temps Claims are ‘Faulty Science’

Written by Chris White

Ocean temperatures have risen only 0.1 degree Celsius over the last five decades, according to a landmark study some scientists argue could change the way researchers measure the ocean’s temperature levels.

Each layer of water in the ocean has vastly different temperatures, so determining the average temperature is nearly impossible without glossing over important data. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego decided on a different model – they measured the ratio of noble gases in the atmosphere, which are in direct relation to the ocean’s temperature.

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Global Warming Not Causing Harsh U.S. Winter Weather

Written by Michael Bastasch

Record snowfall, a “bomb cyclone” and cold Arctic air have once again stirred up the debate over global warming’s impact on winter weather.

Some climate scientists are pointing the finger at manmade global warming as a culprit behind recent wintry weather, but there’s not a lot of evidence or agreement that global warming is currently driving extreme cold and snow.

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Outer space, hot or cold?

Written by Nicholas Schroeder PE

Now, the consensus answer is cold, 5 Kelvin or 3 Kelvin. But there are no molecules in outer space so what do the concepts of hot, cold, heat, energy even mean without the kinetic motion of molecules?

The International Space Station (diagram above) has not one, but a redundant pair of ammonia refrigerant cooling, air conditioning, refrigerating/freezing systems. Why? If space is cold? Why not just put that ice tray or margarita blender out on the back step and let outer space do its thang?

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The Historical Record of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Written by Patrick Moore et al. (Greenpeace co-founder)

The public is being cynically misled by the mainstream media and government scientists about ‘ocean acidification.’ All the CO2 in the atmosphere came from inside the Earth. During the early life of the planet, the Earth was much hotter, and there was much more volcanic activity than there is today.

The heat of the core caused carbon and oxygen to combine to form CO2, which became a significant part of
the Earth’s early atmosphere, perhaps the most abundant component until photosynthesis evolved. Most of the CO2
in the oceans comes from the atmosphere, although some is injected directly from ocean vents.

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Geoneutrinos & understanding Earth heat flux

Written by Journal of Physics

The paper identifies that thermal conduction does not include the heat of gases vented from within the planet. Correcting for the Enthalpy carried in these vented gases yields estimates of the planet’s internal heat ranging from 300 to 420 TW, nearly ten times the prevailing view.  Of course, the vast bulk such heat is dissipated into the ocean waters.

The body of ‘hot’ water in the western Pacific which drives the El Niño is centered directly over the Mariana Trench, only exceeded by the North Pole’s Gakkel Ridge as the closet points to the Earth’s great internal heat engine.

Abstract. The Hydride Earth model predictions of geoneutrino flux and intrinsic Earth heat flux are discussed. The geoneutrino flux predicted by the model can be adjusted to the experimental one.

The predicted intrinsic Earth heat flux is significantly larger than model dependent experimental value obtained under assumption that the main heat transfer mechanism is a thermal conductivity.

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NY Times Confuses Weather with Climate

Written by Elizabeth Harrington

Eager to criticize President Trump in its news pages last week, the paper of record smugly noted, “It’s Cold Outside. Cue the Trump Global Warming Tweet.”

“With unusually frigid weather gripping much of the Eastern United States this week, President Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to cast doubt on the reality of climate change, but he appeared unaware of the distinction between weather and climate,” the Times wrote.

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One World Marching in Time to the Cesium Clock

Written by tycho.usno

The 1955 Cesium Atomic Clock at the National Physical Laboratory, UK. It kept time to a second in 300 years.

A “cesium (-beam) atomic clock” (or “cesium-beam frequency standard”) is a device that uses as a reference the exact frequency of the microwave spectral line emitted by atoms of the metallic element cesium, in particular its isotope of atomic weight 133 (“Cs-133”). The integral of frequency is time, so this frequency, 9,192,631,770 hertz(Hz = cycles/second), provides the fundamental unit of time, which may thus be measured by cesium clocks.

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NASA Images Show ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Hitting USA

Written by Chris Ciaccia

NASA’s Earth Observatory has provided stunning images of the “temperature anomaly” in the U.S., as much of the country faces the perils of a winter storm dubbed the “bomb cyclone.”

The image above, known as a temperature anomaly map, uses data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. The heat maps are land surface tempeatures taken from Dec. 26, 2017-Jan. 2, 2018 and are compared to the eight-day average from 2001 to 2010.

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Fire reductions ‘make methane numbers add up’

Written by BBC

Australian bushfireImage copyright: EPA
Image caption: Fires globally are in sharp decline

Scientists think they can now better explain the recent surge in methane levels seen in the Earth’s atmosphere. Although only a trace component in the air, CH4 is a ‘greenhouse gas’ and has been rising rapidly since about 2006.

Tropical wetlands and fossil fuels are suspected as major sources – but the sums do not add up.

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Alaskan infant’s DNA tells story of ‘first Americans’

Written by Jonathan Amos

Excavations at the Upward Sun River archaeological site in AlaskaImage copyright: BEN POTTER
Image caption: Excavations at the Upward Sun River archaeological site in Alaska

The 11,500-year-old remains of an infant girl from Alaska have shed new light on the peopling of the Americas. Genetic analysis of the child, allied to other data, indicates she belonged to a previously unknown, ancient group.

Scientists say what they have learnt from her DNA strongly supports the idea that a single wave of migrants moved into the continent from Siberia just over 20,000 years ago.

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