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  • Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm
    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm rep...Read more

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    Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm

    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm repeatedly. Daily levels of CO2 can vary due to weather, and there are seasonal trends as well. The level of atmospheric greenhouse gases continues to increase, now over 120 ppm since the Industrial Revolution began. For more on the Keeling Curve, see http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/. Find out more about greenhouse gases and warming.
  • Massive Tornado Outbreak on Tornado Alley
    The week of May 19 brings dozens of tornadoes to Tornado Alley in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Io...Read more

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    Massive Tornado Outbreak on Tornado Alley

    The week of May 19 brings dozens of tornadoes to Tornado Alley in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. On May 20th, a massive tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, devastating communities - destroying over 100 homes and hitting two elementary schools and a hospital - with many casualties and deaths. Our thoughts are with our friends and colleagues suffering from these storms. For more on the May 20th storms, see the NOAA Storm Prediction Center Storm Report.
  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
This is a drawing showing the earth's atmosphere going around.

Motions in Jupiter's Interior

Motions in the interior of a planet help carry heat from the inside to the outside of the planet.

The drawing shows a kind of movement that is usual in the atmosphere as well as the inside of a planet. Material moves the way water does in a pot that is boiling. In the drawing, there are three different red sheets of activity where the air is turning over.

In the interior of Jupiter, the liquid layers are warm enough to move this way. Motions like this in the liquid metallic hydrogen layer inside Jupiter cause the big magnetosphere of Jupiter.

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Motions in Jupiter's Interior, part 2

Motions, or currents in the interior of a gas-giant planet such as Jupiter may be very different from the motions typical of the earth's interior. A second idea for the motions in the interior of a gas-giant...more

How Jupiter's Magnetosphere is made

Magnetospheres are generated with 1.) magnetic materials and 2.) with motions within the magnetic material. The Earth-like planets generate magnetospheres from iron at the center. This leads to roundly-shaped...more

A Look at the Inside of Jupiter

The Giant planets do not have the same kind of layers inside that the earth-like planets do. The history of the giant planets was so different that they formed with much more gas on the inside. Jupiter...more

Heat from Inside Jupiter

Have you ever thought that a planet could make energy within itself? If you think about it, the ground is not very cold at all (except in the winter). This means that the Earth makes enough energy for...more

Motions in Jupiter's Interior

Motions in the interior of a planet help carry heat from the inside to the outside of the planet. The drawing shows a kind of movement that is usual in the atmosphere as well as the inside of a planet....more

A Diagram of Jupiter's Atmospheric Structure

This is the temperature profile of Jupiter's entire atmosphere. The horizontal lines indicate the boundaries between the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, and the thermosphere. ...more

A Brown Barge in the Jovian Atmosphere

This is a picture of a brown barge. The accompanying clouds, next to the barge, look very similar to earth clouds. ...more

Where to find Jupiter's Clouds

There are three different layer of clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere, as shown in this picture. The clouds are made of complex molecules such as water. Another molecule which the Jupiter clouds are made of...more

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