Current Events

  • 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.

    Courtesy of Judy Lloyd

From: Judy Lloyd
Tecamac University, March 10, 2006

Greetings from the Tecamac Technical University Site

It’s been two weeks since we arrived in Mexico and it’s been a real challenge to recreate our laboratory in a trailer in the field in this desert-like location – Tecamac – north of the Federal District of Mexico City. There are mountains all around - when you can see them through the haze. I am planning to measure hydrogen peroxide in the air if my instruments will cooperate. More on that subject in another postcard.

There are hundreds of different experiments going on here. I am sharing a trailer with Angela Baker, a graduate student working with Don Blake at U.C. Irvine. She collects trace gases in steel canisters and ships them back to her lab, where later she will analyze their contents using chromatography. One class of compounds she is interested in is the halocarbons, many of which cause depletion of the ozone layer, are greenhouse gases or are harmful to breathe. Another important group is the hydrocarbons, which play an important role in the formation of photochemical smog. Angela can detect these compounds and many others at the part-per-trillion level. By the time she is through, she will have investigated over 100 different gases in each canister.

Hydrocarbons
MILAGRO Instruments
Gallery

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