Current Events

  • 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.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.

    Image courtesy of Wiesje Bryan.

From: Wiesje Mooiweer Bryan
Arica, Chile, November 4, 2008

Communication

Communication is an integral part of large scale science projects like VOCALS. It started years ago between people from the various institutions involved, via long distance phone calls and many, many emails.

Now that we are in the field, communication is still key. In one of his earlier postcards, Dr. Robert Wood already wrote about the Center of Operations. That is where scientists plan the aircraft missions, report about the status of the other observational platforms (the other aircraft and the ships), take an initial look at all the data collected, and discuss the data with other groups.

Communication also happens on a smaller scale: in the aircraft itself during the research flights. Since the C-130 is a very noisy plane, we all wear these headsets through which we are able to communicate with each other and with the flight scientist who sits in the cockpit with the pilots.

Each scientist on board the aircraft operates a different type of instrument. These instruments look at different aspects of our atmosphere: the size, chemical composition and amount of the particles present; the concentrations of various gases and the number of water droplets; and, on a larger scale, the shape and altitude of the clouds we are flying through. Via the headsets people can then communicate with each other if their instrument is reporting something special. In turn, the other scientists will then take a closer look at their instruments to check if their instrument is indeed also reporting any interesting observations. If it is, this is where the early excitement about the science starts! Sometimes, even the most serious scientist will become like a kid in a candy store when it comes to what they are seeing in and around those clouds! This makes our job very fun.

Also, with the modern invention of the Internet, we are not only capable of communicating with you and telling you about the science of our atmosphere; we are also able to easily communicate with our families back home. These field projects last for several weeks, which means we are all away from our homes and families for quite some time! It is a sacrifice you make for science, but I therefore do think that our families also deserve some of the credit for staying behind and supporting us!

Postcards from the Field: Climate Science from the Southeast Pacific

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