Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Databases Galore - 17

Josh and The Gang do Greenland Better
Hey gang, a new dataset is available for the Greenland area.

The NASA Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project has made its data available.

I downloaded 183 "launches" which has populated 928,181 rows in one of the SQL tables.

I am working on software to generate data (in sync with WOD zones) so that we can see if adjustments to the ghost water percentages would be useful.

So far, their discoveries are that there is more under the surface than previously thought.

In other words, the glaciers emptying into the ocean are more vulnerable than was previously published in scientific papers (Unprecedented Study of Greenland’s Melting).

They expect to be able to improve sea level rise (and fall) projections in a year or so (still more data needed for their software model).

I downloaded and read two papers they authored on the subject, which were very informative (First Paper, Second Paper, both PDF).

It reminds me of the Totten Glacier discoveries in the past year or so.

Anyway, I will do some posts once I finish the database tables and processing modules.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Polar Sea Ice Trend At Both Poles - 3

Fig. 1  Not the same
Skimming the surface is a lot of fun when it comes to polar sea ice.

Skimming the surface, in this context, is like the dynamic of the canary in the coal mine.

It doesn't tell us the "why," but it quite clearly tells us the "what," which is the fact that the poles are reacting to global warming.

When the canary in the mine dies it is time to get the hell out of there at maximum speed.

There is no "move along folks, nothing to see here" proclamation.

It is like the "OOOGAH, OOOGAH DIVE, DIVE, DIVE" command given when a submarine captain is told that a submarine destroyer is fast approaching.

Fig. 2 Antarctica 2016
The U.S.eh? government, however, has become like a demented captain who says "so what, just ignore the submarine destroyer."

The government has become like the coal miner who notices that the canary has suddenly fallen off its perch and died, but in denial says "the canary is faking it."

Fig. 3 Antarctica 2017
The scientists on watch are, in contrast, like the sane submarine captain or the sane coal miner who sounds all the alarms available.

Fig. 4 Arctic 2016
Lives are at stake.

So those who warn are life savers, but those who cover-up rather than warn, are depraved-heart murderers.

We have the choice to be the one we want to be.

That is, we can be the ones who warn, and those who eschew denialism.

Fig. 5 Arctic 2017
Today's graphs show that sea ice (at both polar regions: Arctic, Antarctic) is in obvious, observable decline.

The graphs at Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show that Antarctica is following the lead of the Arctic (Fig. 4, Fig. 5), and is now clearly losing more sea ice than ever before.

The graph and link at Fig. 1 show some of the differences in the two polar regions.

For one thing, they do not have their summer and winter at the same time, which clearly indicates (to the person who thinks it completely through) that the Earth is not flat (Once Upon A Time In The West - 2).

Yet, even though it is an observable reality, even some college graduates can still arrive at the conclusion "the Earth is flat" as the following news indicates:
There’s a lot of misinformation out there. In some things, it’s good that he’s questioning established theories but this is one [the Earth is a globe] that is somewhat undeniable, so he probably shouldn’t go there [to the notion that the Earth is flat] …"
...
If it’s really just a metaphor for questioning established models, then that’s great. People should question established models. Of course, if you come up with an alternative theory, it’s got to be able to explain a lot of the observations that we’ve made that have established the theories we have.”
(Irving says ‘earth is flat’, Professors Says Prove It). That is why Dredd Blog says "put your lab coats on" (Put Your Lab Coats On, Databases Galore - 14).

Do your own lab work, and note that Humble Oil-Qaeda has taken credit for the ability to make ice at the poles disintegrate and melt (Humble Oil-Qaeda).

Warn people about them (Oil-Qaeda: The Indictment, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Second law of thermodynamics: Warm flows to cold ... it is contagious ...



Monday, February 20, 2017

World Ocean Database Project - 3

Fig. 1 Layer Four
In the posts prior to this one, I outlined some of the expectations I had about what the World Ocean Database (WOD) would reveal.

Expectations were that a Dredd Blog series or so would bring out useful data (World Ocean Database Project, 2).

One of the issues mentioned in the second post, which has not yet been fully covered is "Ocean Layer Content" such as Salinity, Oxygen, Chlorophyll, and Pressure (see WOD's User Manual, PDF, p. 19).

Fig. 2  Water temperature
So, in today's post let's talk about some of the content that we haven't talked about yet  (Fig. 3 - Fig. 6).

But, let's do so in the context of "mixing" (Fig. 7), since it plays into the parallel series (The Layered Approach To Big Water, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and (On Thermal Expansion & Thermal Contraction, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13).

Fig. 3 Salinity
There are several subjects that have troubled the writers of oceanography and cryosphere textbooks in recent years.

For example: "Antarctica is stable and will not melt from climate change," which has recently morphed into "East Antarctica is stable and will not melt from climate change," which has now morphed into "East Antarctica is melting too."

Another example: "the ocean layers are stable and do not mix well," and this:
Stability as used here refers to vertical motions of ocean water. A system is described as stable if it tends to persist in its original state without changing. Following a disturbance (i.e., vertical motion), a stable system returns to its initial state or condition. As noted above, the usual stable state of the ocean features a layer of water that is warmest near its interface with the atmosphere (the mixed layer) and the mixed layer overlies water that becomes denser with increasing depth (the pycnocline). Strong storm winds may temporarily disturb this stable stratification bringing colder than usual water to the surface. Once the wind slackens, however, the original layered structure is soon restored.
(Ocean Motion, cf this). Those are two examples that have fallen by the wayside and are destined to become missing in upcoming, more accurate textbooks.

Fig. 4 Oxygen
As today's graphs show, temperature, salinity, oxygen, chlorophyll, and pressure at a given depth mix with those entities at other depths.

Even the deepest ocean bottom shows evidence that gross pollution has been reaching even there (‘Extremely High Levels’ Of Toxic Pollutants Found In Deepest Parts Of World’s Oceans).

Fig. 5  Chlorophyll
The clear picture in today's featured Layer Four (Fig. 1), as shown by today's graphs, is that the waters at all depths are mixing "more than previously expected" (Fig. 7).

Fig. 6 Pressure
Temperatures mix (Fig. 2), Salinity mixes (Fig. 3), Oxygen mixes (Fig. 4), Chlorophyll mixes (Fig. 5), and pressures mix down to a couple hundred meters (NOTE: at this time the data is sparse on the variable "pressure" in the CTD and PFL datasets).

The ocean is filled with pollution we can actually see (New Continent Found - Garbage Gyre II, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

Fig. 7 On Traditional Mixing Concepts
Thus, it is about time we revisited these old textbook doctrines or dogmas and open our eyes to what we are doing to the oceans and what the oceans are going to do to us (The Extinction of Robust Sea Ports, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; cf. The Extinction of Chesapeake Bay Islands, The Extinction of Charleston, The Extinction of Philadelphia, The Extinction of Washington, D.C., The Extinction of Boston, The Extinction of Miami, The Extinction of Manzanillo, The Extinction of Houston, The Extinction of Providence).

By "us" I mean the human civilization that is currently treating its life support systems recklessly (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).

The previous post in this series is here.