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.
A photo of the ACE spacecraft which shows some of the instruments.
Click on image for full size
NASA

Related links:

The University of Michigan's Solar and Heliospheric Research Group The official ACE SWICS/SWIMS site

Mock Spherical Analyzer

ACE Instrumentation Page

The ACE spacecraft consists of a two-deck irregular octagon, about 1.6 meters (65 inches) across and about 1 meter (40 inches) high. Eight of the scientific instruments which measure a variety of particle types are mounted to the main body of the satellite. Attached to the solar panels is the ninth instrument (see table below...), a pair of magnetometers.

Instrument Acronym Principal Investigator
Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer CRIS Caltech, Washington University, GSFC, JPL, University of Chicago
Electron, Proton and Alpha Monitor EPAM JHU/APL
Magnetometer MAG UD/Bartol Research Institute, GSFC
Solar Energetic Particle Ionic Charge Analyzer SEPICA University of New Hampshire, Max Planck Institute
Solar Wind Electon, Proton, and Alpha Monitor SWEPAM Los Alamos Laboratory
Solar Wind Ionic Charge Spectrometer SWICS University of Maryland, University of Bern
Solar Wind Ion Mass Spectrometer SWIMS University of Maryland, University of Bern
Ultra Low Energy Isotope Spectrometer ULEIS JHU/APL, University of Maryland

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