Starship Asterisk*

bystander wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:05 pm The weather has been really weird so far this Spring.
It's like it can't make up its mind what it wants to do.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:23 pm ... The one thing that's common though is moisture, which is great. Supposed to be warm the next couple of weeks, but lots of rain or snow showers in the forecast. ...

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:23 pm
The one thing that's common though is moisture, which is great. Supposed to be warm the next couple of weeks, but lots of rain or snow showers in the forecast. That's our perfect spring. We've got grass and a few little plants popping up. I expect to see a flower (probably a pasque flower) any day now.

geckzilla wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 11:16 pm I'm... not really sure that should be given a platform anywhere, not even Asterisk.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 11:40 pm

geckzilla wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 11:16 pm
I'm... not really sure that should be given a platform anywhere, not even Asterisk.

Why not? I thought it was quite good, at least in terms of the information presented and the underlying philosophy. Of course, like any Michael Moore, the style can be a bit over the top at times.

geckzilla wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 2:38 pm
Moore's documentary is getting, if not accolades, interested close looks from some rather prominent climate deniers, who seem almost pleased with it. Meanwhile, the prominent climate scientists I follow on Twitter seem to think it's full of falsehoods and is going to set back the fight against climate change. That was enough to keep me from investing much time in it or watching it myself. I've never been a big fan of Moore to begin with.

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2020 1:16 am
Global warming; I don't know what to believe anymore! There are so many processes involved that I think it is a combination of many things of which humans play a major role! You can blame Trump; but one man isn't going to stop it! I wish that were the case! Anyway; I covered mt tomatoes for the weekend! frost is in the air!

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2020 12:48 pm Oh wow: for what it's worth; I'm a registered independent! There usually are + & - on both sides, and many issues to consider! So that is what I will do; and I will vote according to my conscience! :shock: Anyway, I don't think politics are a place for discussions here!

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 12:43 pm

When I was a kid we would get the red rain from the Oklahoma dust storms here in Nebraska!

It was blamed on poor farming methods!

orin stepanek wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 3:14 pm
We have been fortunate for fair weather for almost a week; hope it remains for a while! 🌤 🌥

https://www.kxan.com/weather/weather-blog/saharan-dust-cloud-arrives-today-thickens-up-thursday-into-weekend/ wrote:
Thickest Saharan dust ever recorded in Caribbean arrives in Texas
Weather Blog: Jun 24, 2020 / 0by: David Yeomans

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The much-discussed cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa will arrive in Central Texas starting Wednesday in light amounts. Thicker dust and haze are forecast to blow into the area Thursday through Saturday, limiting visibility and potentially capping rain chances as well.

Large clouds of dust from the Sahara frequently blow across the Atlantic during the summer months driven by the prevailing easterly winds, suppressing hurricane formation on their journey toward the United States. While it is not uncommon for these to appear from time to time in central Texas, this dust cloud is particularly thick.

Michael Lowry, former scientist with University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), posted on Twitter this morning that “The ongoing Saharan #dust outbreak across the tropical Atlantic is by far the most extreme of the MODIS satellite record — our most detailed, continuous record of global dust back to 2002.”

http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis ... ibdust.GIF
http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis ... rmdust.GIF

While it is not uncommon for these to appear from time to time in central Texas, this dust cloud is particularly thick.

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 4:49 pm Saharan dust suppression of Atlantic hurricanes is of course a good thing, but as a person who has lived most of my 62 years in Texas and has watched the weather avidly since boyhood I have to question this statement in the above news article:

While it is not uncommon for these to appear from time to time in central Texas, this dust cloud is particularly thick.

I doubt the accuracy of the “not uncommon” part of this report. During about 45 years of observing Texas weather I can only remember one incident of noticeable Saharan dust reaching Texas.

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 5:31 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 4:49 pm Saharan dust suppression of Atlantic hurricanes is of course a good thing, but as a person who has lived most of my 62 years in Texas and has watched the weather avidly since boyhood I have to question this statement in the above news article:

While it is not uncommon for these to appear from time to time in central Texas, this dust cloud is particularly thick.

I doubt the accuracy of the “not uncommon” part of this report. During about 45 years of observing Texas weather I can only remember one incident of noticeable Saharan dust reaching Texas.

I guess it depends on what "noticeable" means. These clouds hit the U.S. several times a year, every year.

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 7:04 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 5:31 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 4:49 pm Saharan dust suppression of Atlantic hurricanes is of course a good thing, but as a person who has lived most of my 62 years in Texas and has watched the weather avidly since boyhood I have to question this statement in the above news article:

I doubt the accuracy of the “not uncommon” part of this report. During about 45 years of observing Texas weather I can only remember one incident of noticeable Saharan dust reaching Texas.

I guess it depends on what "noticeable" means. These clouds hit the U.S. several times a year, every year.

Yes, it must be a matter of intensity. The one I remember was, like this one thick enough to be easily seen on sat photos, was reported on (as unusual) by local media, and left a very 'noticeable' film of dust on cars and outside surfaces.

Have you ever noticed Saharan dust clear up at Cloudbait?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saharan_Air_Layer wrote:
<<The Saharan Air Layer (SAL) is an extremely hot, dry and sometimes dust-laden layer of the atmosphere that often overlies the cooler, more-humid surface air of the Atlantic Ocean. In the Sahara Desert region of North Africa, where it originates, it is the prevalent atmosphere, extending from the surface upwards several kilometers. As it drives, or is driven out over the ocean, it is lifted above the denser marine air. This arrangement is an inversion where the temperature increases with height. The boundary between the SAL and the marine layer suppresses or "caps" any convection originating in the marine layer. Since it is dry air, the lapse rate within the SAL itself is steep, that is, the temperature falls rapidly with height.

Disturbances such as large thunderstorm complexes over North Africa periodically result in vast dust and sand storms, some of which extend as high as 6,000 meters. The layer is transported westwards cross the Atlantic by a series of broad anticyclonic eddies that are typically found 1,500–4,500 m above sea level. Through this process, dust can travel as far west as North America.

In the case of Africa, winds blow twenty percent of dust from a Saharan storm out over the Atlantic Ocean, and twenty percent of that, or four percent of a single storm's dust, reaches all the way to the western Atlantic. The remainder settles out into the ocean or washes out of the air with rainfall. Scientists think that the July 2000 measurements made in Puerto Rico, nearly 8 million tonnes, equaled about one-fifth of the total year's dust deposits.

Findings to date indicate that the iron-rich dust particles that often occur within the SAL reflect solar radiation, thus cooling the atmosphere. The particles also reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the ocean, thus reducing the amount of heating of the ocean. They also tend to increase condensation as they drift into the marine layer below, but not precipitation as the drops formed are too small to fall and tend not to readily coalesce. These tiny drops are subsequently more easily evaporated as they move into drier air laterally or dry air mixes down from the SAL aloft. Research on aerosols also shows that the presence of small particles in air tends to suppress winds. The SAL has also been observed to suppress the development and intensifying of tropical cyclones, which may be related directly to these factors.

The SAL passes over the Canary Islands where the phenomenon is named "Calima" and manifests as a fog that reduces visibility and deposits a layer of dust over everything.>>

https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2008/20/aa8372-07.pdf wrote:
Astronomy & Astrophysics 2008

El Roque de Los Muchachos site characteristics
III. Analysis of atmospheric dust and aerosol extinction

ABSTRACT: It is known that the Canary Islands are normally affected by dominant winds flowing from north-northeast, that in some meteorological conditions, can transport sand from the Sahara desert at high altitude. The dust may affect the efficiency of thetelescopes and decrease the transparency of the sky.Aims.To maximize the scientific return of the telescopes located at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos (ORM), we presentan analysis of the atmospheric dust content and its effects on astronomical observations.

Using a 5-year series database of data taken from a dust monitor located inside the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) dome, we computed mean hourly and daily values of the dust content as measured with a four-channel dust monitor. We detected particles of 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, and 5.0μm. Furthermore, using a power law we derived the content of 10.0μm particles. We found a typical local dust concentration ranging from 3×10⁶ particles per cubic metre at 0.3μm, to 10³ at 5.0μm and 10 at 10.0μm, increasing up to 3 orders of magnitudes during the dust storms, with a relatively higher increase of 1.0, 5.0, and 10.0μm particles. The number of local dust storm events is the same in the local winter and summer, but the average backgroundand storm-related increases in the dust concentration in summer are significantly higher than in winter. In a uniform approximation,during the dust storms, an average height of the dust layer of 2.5 km above the telescope is inferred.

Conclusions: During the sand storms, La Palma Island is affected by an almost uniform layer extending up to 5 km above the sealevel. The visible extinction is dominated by particles at 1.0, 5.0 and 10.0μm. In agreement with the results from Carlsberg Automatic Meridian Circle (CAMC), we find a typical extinction of about 0.2 mag airmass⁻¹ during dust storms.>>