This is global warming and I have not get completed my observations.

I will further discuss the MIXING of Earth's two lower atmospheres and there is one more paper that even discusses problems of mixing in the mesosphere. This mess with the climate has gone on too long and too many abuses have occurred.

There is only one way out of this mess and that is to stop greenhouse gas emissions.

No different than there is more and more likely only one way out of the COVID mess and that is isolation to END THE SPREAD.

If neither of these strategies is taken seriously, then humans are a destructive force to their own demise.

February 8, 2021
By Kalyan Ray

As many as 26 people (click here) were killed and over 200 people were still missing in massive flooding in the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers that followed after what is seen as glacier burst in Joshimath of Uttarakhand's Chamoli district. The deluge damaged five...

An avalanche triggered (click here) by heavy snowfall for two consecutive days in the upper reaches of Chamoli district – and not the snapping of a glacier as thought earlier - was the likely cause behind the devastating flash flood in Uttarakhand, Indian scientists have found after analysing satellite images of the area....

The type of oxygen found in the stratosphere is unique.

The oxygen in the stratosphere is not breathable oxygen. It is there for a reason and it is to protect life on Earth. There is not a soul alive in this world that should be willing to play around with Earth's atmosphere. If ever the O3 in the stratosphere were assaulted because human beings can't control their urges for wealth and power, you can forget about life on Earth.

...Ozone, (click here) an unusual type of oxygen molecule that is relatively abundant in the stratosphere, heats this layer as it absorbs energy from incoming ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. Temperatures rise as one moves upward through the stratosphere. This is exactly the opposite of the behavior in the troposphere in which we live, where temperatures drop with increasing altitude. Because of this temperature stratification, there is little convection and mixing in the stratosphere, so the layers of air there are quite stable. Commercial jet aircraft fly in the lower stratosphere to avoid the turbulence which is common in the troposphere below.

The stratosphere is very dry; air there contains little water vapor. Because of this, few clouds are found in this layer; almost all clouds occur in the lower, more humid troposphere. Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) are the exception. PSCs appear in the lower stratosphere near the poles in winter. They are found at altitudes of 15 to 25 km (9.3 to 15.5 miles) and form only when temperatures at those heights dip below -78° C. They appear to help cause the formation of the infamous holes in the ozone layer by "encouraging" certain chemical reactions that destroy ozone. PSCs are also called nacreous clouds....

I will tell you how complicated Earth is...

...in 2017, Professor Darryn W. Waugh, of John Hopkins University, discussed the effect of "Rossby Waves" on climate. Rossby Waves are planetary waves. No one discusses Rossby Waves in relation to climate. There are few that study these planetary waves and as of 2017, the Rossby Wave became a climate issue. Not that it causes the climate crisis, just that it is still another element in Earth's climate balance. Do you want to wipe out Rossby Waves and then go "oops?" I don't want to wipe out Rossby Waves and no one else should either!

To say this is complicated is grossly understating the dynamics at work. It is far easier to get rid of the petroleum industry (which remains difficult to convince that their lives are at risk) than to attempt human manipulations of climate. Where did humans get the arrogance to think everything they did, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, was okay? It is not okay. Absolutely not okay.

In particular, (click here) Professor Waugh’s simulations allowed him to examine the characteristics of Rossby waves – north-south meanders in the polar vortex caused by variations in topography, oceanic heating and other factors. When these Rossby waves ‘break’, they can result in vortex stripping, where a long filament of air separates from the main body of the vortex, moves south and mixes with the warmer air.

The team showed a strong agreement between their observations and simulations of vortex stripping, and published their findings in the Journal of Geophysical Research in 1994. In this work, the simulations were matched with NASA highaltitude observation flights, where stripped vortex filaments were found. These filaments were detected using equipment that measured temperature variations and the concentrations of multiple chemical ‘tracers’ occurring naturally in the atmosphere. These tracer compounds are present in diferent concentrations inside and outside polar vortex air, and provide a signature of vortex filaments....

He will be missed. A great contributor to humanity.

February 4, 2021
By John Schwartz

Paul Crutzen (click here)

Geo-engineering was a thought, but, it was never a solution. The best of scientists will warn about the unexpected consequences in seeking to control Earth's atmosphere.

Paul J. Crutzen, (click here) a Dutch scientist who earned a Nobel Prize for work that warned the world about the threat of chemicals to the planet’s ozone layer and who went on to push for action against global warming, died on Jan. 28 in Mainz, Germany. He was 87.

The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz announced the death, in a hospital, but did not state the cause. Susanne Benner, a spokeswoman for the institute, said Dr. Crutzen had been treated for Parkinson’s disease.

Martin Stratmann, the president of the Max Planck Society, said in a statement that Dr. Crutzen’s work had led to the ban on ozone-depleting chemicals, “a hitherto unique example of how Nobel Prize-winning basic research can directly lead to a global political decision.”...

Tropospheric oxygen at 21 percent is where human beings and most animals live. Interesting Earth is just right.

...Figures 1 and 2 (click here) show the progression of O₂ over earth's geologic history. While possibly not at the peak experienced 10's of millions of years ago, the level of atmospheric oxygen levels (~21%) are high enough to allow Earth's ecological systems (and humans) to flourish. Significant levels of O₂ are, cosmically, really quite rare! Oxygen will chemically react with almost anything, so having such a large amount of oxygen available in the atmosphere means that it must be continuously produced. The oxygen is produced by photosynthesis, but if that were to ever stop chemical reactions would make it all go away quite rapidly. If the chemical signature of molecular oxygen were found on another planet it would be a sure sign of life, since molecular oxygen wouldn't exist without life creating it....

Ya think chlorophyll would get some respect in the year 2021.

August 19, 2009 

By David Biello

It's hard to keep oxygen molecules around, (click here) despite the fact that it's the third-most abundant element in the universe, forged in the superhot, superdense core of stars. That's because oxygen wants to react; it can form compounds with nearly every other element on the periodic table. So how did Earth end up with an atmosphere made up of roughly 21 percent of the stuff?

The answer is tiny organisms known as cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. These microbes conduct photosynthesis: using sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and, yes, oxygen. In fact, all the plants on Earth incorporate symbiotic cyanobacteria (known as chloroplasts) to do their photosynthesis for them down to this day.

For some untold eons prior to the evolution of these cyanobacteria, during the Archean eon, more primitive microbes lived the real old-fashioned way: anaerobically. These ancient organisms—and their "extremophile" descendants today—thrived in the absence of oxygen, relying on sulfate for their energy needs....

The Delaware River fracking ban is important and necessary.

To begin with the Delaware River touches many states and it is nearly impossible to prevent Pennsylvania pollution from enter New Jersey waters.

Fracking is a very crude and dirty process and once it starts there will be a lot of violations into the water quality of that river. This demand to frack that land is irresponsible with no basis in need.

February 7, 2021
By Andrew Maykuth

More than a decade (click here) after environmentalists and landowners first formed battle lines over natural gas drilling in the Delaware River basin, the prolonged fight over fracking is finally heading to a resolution in a Scranton courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani last month set an October trial date to hear a challenge to the drilling moratorium imposed in 2010 by the Delaware River Basin Commission, the interstate agency that manages water use in the vast Delaware watershed. A Wayne County landowner group alleges that the DRBC doesn’t have jurisdiction over gas drilling....

The DRBC is a very legal entity created in the 1960s by President John F. Kennedy. Pennsylvania does not have the right to unilaterally frack the river basin. Not only that, but, Pennsylvania has the federal government as a partner as well.

A breakthrough in water resources management (click here) occurred in 1961 when President Kennedy and the governors of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York for the first time signed concurrent compact legislation into law creating a regional body with the force of law to oversee a unified approach to managing a river system without regard to political boundaries....

...When the DRBC was created, some 43 state agencies, 14 interstate agencies, and 19 federal agencies exercised a multiplicity of splintered powers and duties within the watershed, which stretches 330 miles from the Delaware River's headwaters near Hancock, N. Y., to the mouth of the Delaware Bay.

The Compact's signing marked the first time since the nation's birth that the federal government and a group of states joined together as equal partners in a river basin planning, development, and regulatory agency....

There will be more urban pollution and there goes Environmental Justice. There is only one way to protect the area from pollution and violatoins of the Clean Water Act and that is to prohibit permanently any fracking along the Delaware River Water Basin.

September 11, 2017
By Phil Gregory

A New Jersey lawmaker (click here) is urging continuation of a temporary moratorium on fracking in the Delaware River watershed.

Senator Kip Bateman says the drilling process that uses high-pressure liquid to extract natural gas has benefits but allowing it in the Delaware River Basin could endanger water quality.

"There's a great deal of concern that some of the chemicals that they're using to fracture the shale or the rock to get to the gas is contaminating water supply. So until we know for sure, and I know some studies are being done, I would like them to at least continue the ban."

The Delaware River Basin Commission put the moratorium in place in 2010 until it adopts regulations on fracking....

There are changes in temperature in the historical Earth.

...The Stratosphere (click here) extends around 31 miles (50 km) down to anywhere from 4 to 12 miles (6 to 20 km) above the Earth's surface. This layer holds 19 percent of the atmosphere's gases but very little water vapor.

In this region the temperature increases with height. Heat is produced in the process of the formation of Ozone and this heat is responsible for temperature increases from an average -60°F (-51°C) at tropopause to a maximum of about 5°F (-15°C) at the top of the stratosphere.

This increase in temperature with height means warmer air is located above cooler air. This prevents "convection" as there is no upward vertical movement of the gases. As such the location of the bottom of this layer is readily seen by the 'anvil-shaped' tops of cumulonimbus clouds....

As Earth heats the height of the arctic regions change. Along with that height change is a density per square inch of air changes as well.

 

January 14, 2021

Lee esta historia en español aquí. (click here)

Rising temperatures are causing phenomena (click here) such as loss of sea ice and ice sheet mass, sea level rise, longer and more intense heat waves, and shifts in plant and animal habitats. Understanding such long-term climate trends is essential for the safety and quality of human life, allowing humans to adapt to the changing environment in ways such as planting different crops, managing our water resources and preparing for extreme weather events.

A separate, independent analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded that 2020 was the second-warmest year in their record, behind 2016. NOAA scientists use much of the same raw temperature data in their analysis, but have a different baseline period (1901-2000) and methodology. Unlike NASA, NOAA also does not infer temperatures in polar regions lacking observations, which accounts for much of the difference between NASA and NOAA records.

Having a non-shifting baseline from 1901-2000 creates better data. A shifting baseline is a corruption in the system.

Like all scientific data, these temperature findings contain a small amount of uncertainty – in this case, mainly due to changes in weather station locations and temperature measurement methods over time. The GISS temperature analysis (GISTEMP) is accurate to within 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit with a 95% confidence level for the most recent period....

Germany is a Russian satellite now?

The real issue at hand is, "What to do with old Russian cooperation projects after returning to the G7?"

That is the ship Russia brought halfway around the world to finish laying the pipe. No one can stop Russia from being belligerent because it needs the money.

Putin isn't really pushing his luck. He knows The West will not start a war over a pipeline. But, it does prove Putin has no respect for life and the future of the planet only for his Gasprom.

The G7 needs to decide what to do about an aggressive Russia in the face of the rejection of it's anti-human rights practices. Putin lingers too long as the head of the corrupt Russian government.

February 7, 2021

Tugboats get into position on the Russian pipe-laying vessel "Fortuna" in the port of Wismar, Germany, Thursday, Jan 14, 2021. The special vessel is being used for construction work on the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.

Berlin - The company building a disputed Russian-German underwater gas pipeline (click here) that’s been the target of U.S. sanction threats said work on it has resumed, the German news agency dpa reported Sunday.

Construction work on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was restarted late Saturday, dpa reported.

On Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood by her support for the gas pipeline despite Russia's treatment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny case and the threat of U.S. sanctions.

Merkel said her government’s position on Nord Stream 2 is separate from tensions with the Kremlin over Navalny, who recovered in Germany from a poisoning with a nerve agent last summer that he blamed on the Kremlin. He was arrested on his return to Russia in January. Russia denies any involvement and has tried to question if there even was a poisoning, even though it was found by several European labs.

The Nord Stream 2 project, which would bring Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, has drawn major criticism from the United States, some other European countries and environmental groups.

Washington says the project would make Europe more dependent on Russian gas and hurt European energy security. The Kremlin has responded by accusing the U.S. government of trying to promote sales of its own liquefied natural gas.

Nord Stream 2 is owned by Russian state company Gazprom, with investment from several European companies. The pipeline construction was suspended in December 2019 when a Swiss firm pulled its ships out of the project amid threats of U.S. sanctions, forcing Gazprom to try to complete it with its own resources.

The project is close to completion.

Patterns of Polar Atmosphere

Changing patterns of high pressure are found in both polar regions. (click here) In the north polar region, the Northern Annular Mode is an area of high atmospheric pressure that moves between a location over the North Pole and a ring around the Pole at 45°N latitude. The changing location of the high-pressure zone causes changes in wind patterns and affects weather patterns from year to year such as how cold it will get in North America and Europe during a winter. In the south polar region, the Southern Annular Mode is similar. It involves a zone of high pressure that moves its location between the South Pole and a ring around the pole at 45°S latitude.

The poles are difficult to explain in relation to "normal" atmospheres. The Arctic Ocean is an ocean at sea level, yet, it is very cold, and due to that reason the atmosphere is less thick/elevation/altitude than at the equator. Cold air compacts and the hot air expands, so while most of the air pressure of Earth is fairly consistent, that is not the case at the poles.

The illustration to the left is fairly simple but shows the difference in height/elevation of the troposphere. E stands for equator and S for the South Pole and N for the North Pole. The troposphere definitely is effected by temperature when it comes to it's height over land.

Antarctica has a different dynamic because its "cold" is over land and not sea. All of the tropospheres is not at sea level in Antarctica. There are mountains there.

Add to all these polar dynamics the changing seasons and the position of the sun and the variation of the height of the troposphere can be dynamic. The height is at it's lowest during winter when less sunlight reaches the poles.

It (the troposphere) contains 75% of the atmosphere's mass and 99% of the total mass of water vapour and aerosols. The average height of the troposphere is 18 km (11 mi; 59,000 ft) in the tropics, 17 km (11 mi; 56,000 ft) in the middle latitudes, and 6 km (3.7 mi; 20,000 ft) in the polar regions in winter.

February 5, 2021
By Michael Hawthorne

The picture to the left is the Trump Tower in Chicago with cranes.

Former President Donald Trump’s hotel along the Chicago River (click here) violated state environmental laws by sucking in massive amounts of water without a valid permit, a Cook County judge ruled in a decision made public Friday.

Judge Sophia H. Hall’s one-page ruling is the latest development in a case brought to public attention in 2018, when the Chicago Tribune revealed the Trump International Hotel & Tower was the only downtown high-rise that had failed to take legally mandated steps to protect fish in the rapidly improving waterway.

Former President Donald Trump’s hotel along the Chicago River violated state environmental laws by sucking in massive amounts of water without a valid permit, a Cook County judge ruled in a decision made public Friday.

Judge Sophia H. Hall’s one-page ruling is the latest development in a case brought to public attention in 2018, when the Chicago Tribune revealed the Trump International Hotel & Tower was the only downtown high-rise that had failed to take legally mandated steps to protect fish in the rapidly improving waterway....

Normal air pressure on Earth.

The standard (click here), or near-average, atmospheric pressure at sea level on the Earth is 1013.25 millibars, or about 14.7 pounds per square inch. That probably doesn't mean that much for most folks. But, the 14.7 pounds per square inch isn't created by gravity, although gravity does act to keep the atmospheres in place of a rotating Earth.

So where does air pressure come from? From the pressure/weight of the air. I am not being a wise guy. The air pressure in pounds per square inch means that air/atmosphere has weight. Molecules have weight. Earth's atmospheres are made of molecules. So at Earth's surface, one square inch is the surface measurement, but the other measurement goes straight up. That means for a column of air above that square inch there is the weight of the molecules measures 14.7 pounds (click here). No, no one really feels that 14.7 pounds over their entire body because we are immune to that weight of air. But, it is there.

The illustration below shows how air becomes more thin as elevation increases. Hence, as the air thins, the air pressure is less as well. 

It is Sunday Night on Monday.

The SPEI Global Drought Monitor (click here)  offers near real-time information about drought conditions at the global scale, with a 1 degree spatial resolution and a monthly time resolution. SPEI time-scales between 1 and 48 months are provided. The calibration period for the SPEI is January 1950 to December 2010. The starting date of the dataset is 1955 in order to provide common information across the different SPEI time-scales....

Don't expect the global drought monitor to pass information about the existing desserts, including ice fields and glaciers such as Greenland. That is why they are in white. There is no drought data for deserts and the North Pole and the South Pole are considered deserts.

 

Roy Rogers (at the microphone) singing with the Sons Of The Pioneers in Roy’s movie “Idaho,” 1943. From left to right, are: Hugh Farr, Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan, Roy Rogers (at the microphone), Lloyd Perryman, Karl Farr, and Pat Brady on the bass.

"Cool Water" as performed by the Sons of the Pioneers

All day I've faced a barren waste

Without the taste of water, cool water
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry
And souls that cry for water
Cool, clear, water

Keep a-movin, Dan, dontcha listen to him, Dan
He's a devil, not a man
He spreads the burning sand with water
Dan, can ya see that big, green tree?
Where the water's runnin' free
And it's waitin' there for me and you?

The nights are cool and I'm a fool
Each star's a pool of water
Cool water
But with the dawn I'll wake and yawn
And carry on to water
Water, water, water

Keep a-movin, Dan, dontcha listen to him, Dan
He's a devil, not a man
He spreads the burning sand with water
Dan, can ya see that big, green tree?
Where the water's runnin' free
And it's waitin' there for me and you?

Cool, clear, water
Cool, clear, water

SARS-CoV-2 mutates easily and quickly.

• • This cannot go on forever. Israel is reporting good results with the vaccine (click here).
• • 
    
  Steven A. Kemp, 
• Dami A. Collier, 
• […]
• Ravindra K. Gupta

Nature (2021)

SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein (click here) is critical for virus infection via engagement of ACE21, and is a major antibody target. Here we report chronic SARS-CoV-2 with reduced sensitivity to neutralising antibodies in an immune suppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma, generating whole genome ultradeep sequences over 23 time points spanning 101 days. Little change was observed in the overall viral population structure following two courses of remdesivir over the first 57 days. However, following convalescent plasma therapy we observed large, dynamic virus population shifts, with the emergence of a dominant viral strain bearing D796H in S2 and ΔH69/ΔV70 in the S1 N-terminal domain NTD of the Spike protein. As passively transferred serum antibodies diminished, viruses with the escape genotype diminished in frequency, before returning during a final, unsuccessful course of convalescent plasma. In vitro, the Spike escape double mutant bearing ΔH69/ΔV70 and D796H conferred modestly decreased sensitivity to convalescent plasma, whilst maintaining infectivity similar to wild type. D796H appeared to be the main contributor to decreased susceptibility but incurred an infectivity defect. The ΔH69/ΔV70 single mutant had two-fold higher infectivity compared to wild type, possibly compensating for the reduced infectivity of D796H. These data reveal strong selection on SARS-CoV-2 during convalescent plasma therapy associated with emergence of viral variants with evidence of reduced susceptibility to neutralising antibodies.

This is the article about the results in Israel.

Initial real world evidence for lower viral load of individuals who have been vacinated by BNT162b2

February 7, 2021

...Our estimate suggests that vaccination reduces the viral load by 1.6x to 20X (click here) in individuals who are positive for SARS-CoV-2....

Why isn’t there food and water staged for Africa.

 Stop waiting for a vaccine that isn’t coming, invoke the New Zealand Model. Why aren’t the NGOs involved in staging food and water along with masks and education to END THE SPREAD?

This should have been over a long time ago, especially in Africa. Quarantine for 3 weeks to a month. Villages can do this. I realize poverty creates close quarters. Use Masks not excuses.

African leaders have the capacity to save their people.

China has similar poverty among some of their people and used drones to stop people from leaving their homes. It was a verbal reminder that their own best interest is served by staying in the home. 

The people of Africa can do this, I know they can. Waiting for a vaccine will cost more lives.

So, Trumpka doesn’t believe in the future.

Unions have to fall in line with the demands of the climate crisis. They need to be demanding good pay for green jobs, not enforce Republican paradigms of pollution and bigoted polluters.

The KXL should never have begun yet coveted for a few union jobs.

It looks like the unions need new leadership that believes in American ingenuity and the promise to generations they will have good lives and a beautiful country.

The KXL represents the greed guaranteed by big oil not a benevolent future.

The KXL was never going to even carry oil, it was nothing but Canadian tar sand sludge.

2005 was Peak Oil. Get used to hearing the truth. All this mess the petroleum industry drummed up was determined danger a long time ago.

Big Oil wants Americans to believe they will be energy paupers because they aren’t needed nor wanted anymore. LOL! Big Oil are already paupers. Big Oil is exactly the tale of “The Emperor Needs New Clothes.” Live in denial so the status quo is maintained.

Oil isn’t going to be Wall Street’s easy cash flow anymore. The geniuses of Wall Street might actually have to work for a living. Apple isn’t having any cash flow problems, what is wrong with the rest of them?

Wall Street firms, especially Hedge Funds have been handed trillions of dollars since the global economic collapse that began in 2007. Enough is never enough for them. The world needs a future and it ain’t fossil fuels. No more hand holding!

Quarantine hotels

San Diego is quarantining all those that arrive from the southern border for ten days. To date, there seems to be no such effort by Texas. New Mexico, Arizona also need to increase their vigilance of border crossings. These are people in need after hurricanes that devastated their countries.

There must be partnerships put in place to prevent mass migration. A while ago there was a program within the UN called the Millennium Project. It ran until 2015. I think that needs to be revisited to find ways to protect land so people have homes.

Parents are losing their children to Foster Care.

There are many reasons children are taken from impoverished parents to be placed in the adoption industry including religious bigotry. This $3000 per year is about what Foster parents and then adoptive parents (with certain conditions) receive from the government anyway. This $3000 per year will help keep children living with their natural parents in many instances. 

Say good-bye to Foster Care. Bye, bye and good riddance.

65% of foster children will change schools 7 or more times until they graduate high school. At the most 3 percent attend college but 25 percent will be in prison two years after emancipation. It is called the “Foster Care to Prison Pipeline.” Don’t try to deny it. The studies stating the truth of this failed system go back decades.

I am going to leave the previous entries at the top of the blog until later today. 

Thank you.

Yesterday, besides the Super Bowl.

February 7, 2021
By Martin Crutsinger

Secretary Janet Yellen (click here)

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (click here) said Sunday the country was still in a "deep hole" with millions of lost jobs but that President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief plan could generate enough growth to restore full employment by next year.

Republican senators argued that Biden's proposal was too expensive and they cited criticism from Larry Summers, a treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, that passage of the measure could run the risk of triggering runaway inflation. Summers also contended that Biden's plan would make less money available for other initiatives such as improving the nation's infrastructure.

Yellen, a former Federal Reserve chair who is the first woman to lead the Treasury Department, said the central bank had the tools to handle any potential inflationary threat. She said the urgent need now was to deal with the problems raised by the pandemic-induced recession: as joblessness, lost small businesses and reopening schools....