Science & Technology News

[GordMay]

Roy Spencer responds to a peer-reviewed article, published in the American Geophysical Union's “Geophysical Research Letters”, with a criticism, on his personal Blog.

I wonder why Dr. Spencer mostly seems to publish his ‘science’ articles, in Bogs, & the popular press, these days; rather than in the peer-reviewed literature. He says he’s being ostracized & censored.

Roy W. Spencer's research while affiliated with University of Alabama in Huntsville and other places
➥ https://www.researchgate.net/scienti...pencer-5628228

Dr. Roy: “I had a comment that my publication record seems rather limited, so I’ve updated my Research Articles page with the following:"
➥ https://www.drroyspencer.com/research-articles/


We may agree on one thing: Your time may be better spent sailing, rather than regurgitating the nonsense of Bloggers like Anthony W & Dr. Roy S.

[SailOar]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Well he is correct and his data is correct and verified hell RSS and UAH are identical

The RSS group had to be convened because UAH was doing such terrible work, yet was squawking loudly about their mistaken interpretation of the satellite data. What a waste of scientific talent and resources. But that is how the scientific process works. Check and double check. Which is why the scientific process is the most reliable method of information-gathering that we humans have been able to come up with, and which is why that we need to take the scientific community's warnings about AGW seriously.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by SailOar

The RSS group had to be convened because UAH was doing such terrible work, yet was squawking loudly about their mistaken interpretation of the satellite data. What a waste of scientific talent and resources. But that is how the scientific process works. Check and double check. Which is why the scientific process is the most reliable method of information-gathering that we humans have been able to come up with, and which is why that we need to take the scientific community's warnings about AGW seriously.

Really wish you would actually quote me when you quote me.

RSS and UAH temperature numbers are identical at .5°C apart on the curve so your troll is not valid as usual .

BTW what is your scientific background if I may ask .

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by newhaul

...RSS and UAH temperature numbers are identical at .5°C apart on the curve so your troll is not valid as usual ...

Since when is 0.5°C apart identical?

However, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI):
Microwave Sounding Unit Temperature Anomalies
For 2020: UAH @ 0.36°C, vs RSS @ 0.641°C, = Difference 0.281°C
➥ https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-p...bal/lt/dec/ytd
➥ https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/msu/overview

FWIW: I'm not a scientist, doctor, candlestick maker, nor trucker.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Since when is 0.5°C apart identical?

However, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI):
Microwave Sounding Unit Temperature Anomalies
For 2020: UAH @ 0.36°C, vs RSS @ 0.641°C, = Difference 0.281°C
➥ https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-p...bal/lt/dec/ytd
➥ https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/msu/overview

FWIW: I'm not a scientist, doctor, candlestick maker, nor trucker.

I stand corrected .281°C different not a full .5°C so well within rhe margin for calculations.

[SailOar]

Originally Posted by GordMay

FWIW: I'm not a scientist, doctor, candlestick maker, nor trucker.

Ditto.

[Reefmagnet]

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by Reefmagnet

Nice view that will last

[GordMay]

A new study [1] suggests that coelacanths live nearly 100 years and females can be pregnant for five years.

The coelacanth — a wondrous fish that was thought to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago before unexpectedly being found alive and well in 1938 off South Africa's east coast — is offering up even more surprises.

Scientists said a new study [1] of these large and nocturnal deep-sea denizens shows that they boast a lifespan about five times longer than previously believed — roughly a century — and that females carry their young for five years, the longest-known gestation period of any animal.

Focusing on one of the two living species of coelacanth, the scientists also determined that it develops and grows at among the slowest pace of any fish and does not reach sexual maturity until about age 55.

More about ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/coel...ssil-1.6074328

[1] “New scale analyses reveal centenarian Africancoelacanths” ~ by Kelig Mahe, Bruno Ernande, & Marc Herbin
➥ https://www.cell.com/current-biology...822(21)00752-1

[GordMay]

Blue whales are known for their massive size, but somehow a new population of pygmies went undetected in the Indian Ocean for nearly 20 years.

How were they discovered? Scientists combing through acoustic data obtained by an underwater nuclear bomb detection array, according to a study [1] published earlier this year. The data collected also included sound recordings that revealed a never-before-heard song dating back almost two decades.

The new group of pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) is considered to be a smaller subspecies of blue whale that can grow to a maximum length of 79 feet (24 metres). They are known as the Chagos population, named after a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean near the group's home.

More about ➥ https://www.livescience.com/secret-b...iscovered.html

[1] "Multiple pygmy blue whale acoustic populations in the Indian Ocean: whale song identifies a possible new population” ~ by Emmanuelle C. Leroy et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s415...ntent=deeplink

“A new blue whale song-type described for the Arabian Sea and Western Indian Ocean” Salvatore Cerchio et al
➥ https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/v43/p495-515/


See also ➥ https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/...BlueWhale.html

[newhaul]

Someone please reconcile these two charts and explain why the Danes show the Arctic below normal and climate reanalizer shows the opposite.

Dmi shows about 1°C below normal. Reanalizer shows 1.5°C above average.
Or call it a wash and temps are normal .

https://climatereanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/#t2anom

Ocean and Ice Services | Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Blue whales are known for their massive size, but somehow a new population of pygmies went undetected in the Indian Ocean for nearly 20 years.

How were they discovered? Scientists combing through acoustic data obtained by an underwater nuclear bomb detection array, according to a study [1] published earlier this year. The data collected also included sound recordings that revealed a never-before-heard song dating back almost two decades.

The new group of pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) is considered to be a smaller subspecies of blue whale that can grow to a maximum length of 79 feet (24 metres). They are known as the Chagos population, named after a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean near the group's home.

More about ➥ https://www.livescience.com/secret-b...iscovered.html

[1] "Multiple pygmy blue whale acoustic populations in the Indian Ocean: whale song identifies a possible new population” ~ by Emmanuelle C. Leroy et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s415...ntent=deeplink

“A new blue whale song-type described for the Arabian Sea and Western Indian Ocean” Salvatore Cerchio et al
➥ https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/v43/p495-515/


See also ➥ https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/...BlueWhale.html

Read that the other day and is really interesting .

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by GordMay

A new study [1] suggests that coelacanths live nearly 100 years and females can be pregnant for five years.

The coelacanth — a wondrous fish that was thought to have gone extinct along with the dinosaurs 66 million years ago before unexpectedly being found alive and well in 1938 off South Africa's east coast — is offering up even more surprises.

Scientists said a new study [1] of these large and nocturnal deep-sea denizens shows that they boast a lifespan about five times longer than previously believed — roughly a century — and that females carry their young for five years, the longest-known gestation period of any animal.

Focusing on one of the two living species of coelacanth, the scientists also determined that it develops and grows at among the slowest pace of any fish and does not reach sexual maturity until about age 55.

More about ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/coel...ssil-1.6074328

[1] “New scale analyses reveal centenarian Africancoelacanths” ~ by Kelig Mahe, Bruno Ernande, & Marc Herbin
➥ https://www.cell.com/current-biology...822(21)00752-1

Wonder what extinct species we will find next still swimming in the oceans.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Wonder what extinct species we will find next still swimming in the oceans.

Humans.

[GordMay]

Is the Earth’s Core Lopsided?

Scientists have discovered a mystery at the centre of the Earth.
The solid iron core of our planet is cooling faster on one side than the other, and nobody knows why.

The interior of Earth is arranged in layers. Moving downward from the surface, there's the rocky crust and mantle, the liquid nickel-iron outer core, and the solid nickel-iron inner core. Crushed under all the weight of the rest of the planet around it, the inner core experiences pressures over 3.5 million times stronger than the air pressure we experience here on the surface. With this intense pressure comes intense heating. The temperature of the inner core is around 5,200°C — nearly as hot as the Sun's surface.

As the solid core's heat radiates outward, it is absorbed by the liquid outer core, which keeps the metal churning around and generating Earth's protective geomagnetic field. At the same time, the heat lost from the core results in more iron solidifying around it, causing it to grow by about 1 millimetre every year.

There's something unusual going on with this process, though.

A team of researchers, led by Dr. Daniel Frost, a seismologist at the University of California Berkeley, found that seismic waves behave very strangely as they pass through the inner core. [1]

These seismic waves are generated by the numerous earthquakes that occur near the planet's surface. As the waves are picked up by various seismic monitors positioned around the world, the differences in how long it takes the waves from an earthquake to reach different monitors can tell us two things. First, since these waves travel quickly through the crust, it allows seismologists to triangulate exactly where the earthquake took place. Second, these waves also travel through the planet's interior and move at different speeds depending on what kind of material they pass through. Thus, they can provide us with a reasonably accurate picture of the interior structure of Earth.

Now, because the inner core is a giant solid metal sphere, seismic waves that reach it should pass through at the same speed, no matter what direction they arrive from. Frost and his colleagues discovered that's not actually the case, though.

In a new study published in early June [1], they showed that waves travelling between the poles pass through the core faster than those travelling through from east to west.

The reason for this appears to be the specific structure of the iron crystals in the core. As shown in the diagram above, they appear to be hexagonal, with the hexagons oriented along Earth's axis of rotation. However, this is unusual. There's no reason why they should take on this arrangement. After running highly detailed computer simulations of how Earth's inner core grows, though, Frost and his team believe they have the answer.

"The simplest model seemed a bit unusual — that the inner core is asymmetric," Frost said in a UC Berkeley press release [2]. "The west side looks different from the east side all the way to the center, not just at the top of the inner core, as some have suggested. The only way we can explain that is by one side growing faster than the other."

This does not mean that the solid core is physically lopsided. The intense pull of gravity keeps the core spherical by redistributing the newly frozen iron crystals in the relatively 'soft' outer part of the inner core. This does show that the core is apparently cooling faster on one side, underneath Indonesia, compared to the other side, which is under Brazil.

At this moment, there's no telling why this is happening. It has apparently been going on since the inner core formed, some 1-1.5 billion years ago. Does it have something to do with the 'South Atlantic Anomaly' — a weak spot in Earth's magnetic field under Brazil and the South Atlantic Ocean?


[2] “Is Earth’s core lopsided? Strange goings-on in our planet’s interior”
➥ https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/06/03...nets-interior/

[1] “Dynamic history of the inner core constrained by seismic anisotropy” ~ by Daniel A. Frost et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00761-w