Climate Commons^™

Challenges Associated With Space Weather Analysis And Prediction, John Lanicci

John M Lanicci

The term “space weather” is typically used to describe environmental conditions in the region extending from the sun’s surface, through the interplanetary medium, to the earth’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere, with a focus on those conditions that can affect the earth, its technological systems, and population. Space weather conditions are monitored continuously by a number of agencies around the world. These agencies use both satellite- and ground-based measurements to build analyses and employ predictive models that form the basis for impacts-based products dealing with myriad users in satellite operations, the utility industry, aviation, and satellite-based communications, to name a …

Coastal Lagoons And Climate Change: Ecological And Social Ramifications In The U.S. Atlantic And Gulf Coast Ecosystems, Abigail Anthony, Joshua Atwood, Peter August, Carrie Byron, Stanley Cobb, Cheryl Foster, Crystal Fry, Arthur Gold, Kifle Hagos, Leanna Heffner, D. Kellogg, Kimberly Lellis-Dibble, James Opaluch, Candace Oviatt, Anna Pfeiffer-Herbert, Nicole Rohr, Leslie Smith, Tiffany Smythe, Judith Swift, Nathan Vinhateiro

Peter August

Lagoons are highly productive coastal features that provide a range of natural services that society values. Their setting within the coastal landscape leaves them especially vulnerable to profound physical, ecological, and associated societal disturbance from global climate change. Expected shifts in physical and ecological characteristics range from changes in flushing regime, freshwater inputs, and water chemistry to complete inundation and loss and the concomitant loss of natural and human communities. Therefore, managing coastal lagoons in the context of global climate change is critical. Although management approaches will vary depending on local conditions and cultural norms, all management scenarios will need …

Meteoric 10Be, FeD, And Clay In Critical Zone Soils, Front Range, Colorado, Cianna Wyshnytzky, James Mccarthy

Cianna E Wyshnytzky

The critical zone is the zone within which meteoric water, atmospheric gases, soil, and bedrock interact, encompassing the zone of soil formation (Anderson et al., 2007). The concentrations of various pedogenic compounds at a given location indicate the degree of weathering that has taken place in the Critical Zone. Among the products of chemical weathering are secondary phyllosilicate minerals (clays) and iron (Birkeland, 1999). At stable sites, chronosequence studies have shown that the amount of pedogenic iron oxide and clay increase as soils become older (McFadden and Hendricks, 1985).

Meteoric ¹⁰Be is a cosmogenic nuclide produced from oxygen and nitrogen …

The Magnitude, Timing And Abruptness Of Changes In North African Dust Deposition Over The Last 20,000 Years, D. Mcgee, P. Demenocal, G. Winckler, J. Stuut, Louisa Bradtmiller

Louisa I. Bradtmiller

No abstract provided.

Spatio-Temporal Variability Of Daily And Weekly Precipitation Extremes In South America, Shiraj Khan, Gabriel Kuhn, Auroop Ganguly, David Erickson Iii, George Ostrouchov

Auroop R. Ganguly

Spatial and temporal variability of precipitation extremes are investigated by utilizing daily observations available at 2.5° gridded fields in South America for the period 1940–2004. All 65 a of data from 1940–2004 are analyzed for spatial variability. The temporal variability is investigated at each spatial grid by utilizing 25-a moving windows from 1965–2004 and visualized through plots of the slope of the regression line in addition to its quality measure (R²). The Poisson-generalized Pareto (Poisson-GP) model, which is a peaks over threshold (POT) approach, is applied to weekly precipitation maxima residuals based on the 95%-quantile threshold, while daily data are …

Book Review: The Great Warming: Climate Change And The Rise And Fall Of Civilizations, James Fleming

James R. Fleming

No abstract provided.

Dialogue Television: The Climate Engineers, James Fleming

James R. Fleming

The problem of global warming is getting massive public attention. This comes forty years after the first major government report outlining the problem. But there is considerable disagreement over what steps should be taken to mitigate the problem and some scientist fear that politicians are not displaying sufficient urgency. James Fleming describes the technological quick fixes proposed by some scientists and the problems they might create.

The Climate Engineers: Playing God To Save The Planet, James Fleming

James R. Fleming

As alarm over global warming spreads, a radical idea is gaining momentum. Forget cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, some scientists argue. Find a technological fix. Bounce sunlight back into space by pumping reflective nanoparticles into the atmosphere. Launch mirrors into orbit around the earth. Create a “planetary thermostat.” But what sounds like science fiction is actually an old story. For more than a century, scientists, soldiers, and charlatans have hatched schemes to manipulate the weather and climate. Like them, today’s aspiring climate engineers wildly exaggerate what is possible, and they scarcely consider political, military, and ethical implications of attempting to manage …