Friday, August 01, 2008
Southern Skywatch August edition is now up.
The western horizon from Adelaide at 6:10 pm on August 2 (similar views will be seen elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere at around half an hour after sunset).The August edition of Southern Skywatch is now up. We have an amazing Dance of the Planets, a partial Lunar eclipse, the Persiid meteor shower and more coming up this month.
Labels: southern skywatch
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 6:56 am 
Comments:
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Please delete this message!
My email address is: shunt1-AT-mchsi.com
There are many research papers which I need to provide you on this
subject and posting comments on your blog is not working.
I started out studying astrophysics when I was hired to working at an
observatory in 1972.
I first learned how to write software on an IBM 360 computer for the
purpose of analyzing the photographic plates obtained with a
spectrometer. I soon realized that computers would become my primary
form of employment, but I never forgot my roots.
Eventually, I ended up graduating with a degree in meteorology and was
assigned to the Atmospheric Sciences Libratory at White Sands Missile
Range, New Mexico. There, my knowledge of both meteorology and computer
programming launched me into something that I could never have dreamed
about.
When the United Nations decided to use the military option against Iraq
in 1991, I ended up getting "nominated" to supply weather information
for the military forces. A satellite system that I had helped developed
only one year earlier, ended up as the military's primary data source.
That is when I learned how to exploit the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU)
which is currently being used for satellite analysis of our global
environment. I know how it works, understand it's problems, and why it
is an important tool for climatology.
As a trained meteorologist, I know how surface stations should obtain
their data each day. I have done this for years, and when there is a
problem at a specific station, I can identify what is wrong almost
immediately.
One of the official GISS stations is located only 5 km from my home. I
live in the middle of corn fields, and if any station could be
considered as rural and almost perfect, Olivia would qualify. Until I
visited that weather station!
What the heck is going on?
Has nobody noticed such a major problem with our historical surface
weather recording stations?
Then I stumbled upon surfacestations.org and realized that another
meteorologist had also stumbled upon this problem of data quality
control.
The rest is history, and what honest science should be all about...
When I said that I could provide you with GISS's FORTRAN/Python source
code, I was not joking.
Tonight, I am working with my Echelle spectrograph and imaging Beta
Lyra, because that has always been my love.
My email address is: shunt1-AT-mchsi.com
There are many research papers which I need to provide you on this
subject and posting comments on your blog is not working.
I started out studying astrophysics when I was hired to working at an
observatory in 1972.
I first learned how to write software on an IBM 360 computer for the
purpose of analyzing the photographic plates obtained with a
spectrometer. I soon realized that computers would become my primary
form of employment, but I never forgot my roots.
Eventually, I ended up graduating with a degree in meteorology and was
assigned to the Atmospheric Sciences Libratory at White Sands Missile
Range, New Mexico. There, my knowledge of both meteorology and computer
programming launched me into something that I could never have dreamed
about.
When the United Nations decided to use the military option against Iraq
in 1991, I ended up getting "nominated" to supply weather information
for the military forces. A satellite system that I had helped developed
only one year earlier, ended up as the military's primary data source.
That is when I learned how to exploit the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU)
which is currently being used for satellite analysis of our global
environment. I know how it works, understand it's problems, and why it
is an important tool for climatology.
As a trained meteorologist, I know how surface stations should obtain
their data each day. I have done this for years, and when there is a
problem at a specific station, I can identify what is wrong almost
immediately.
One of the official GISS stations is located only 5 km from my home. I
live in the middle of corn fields, and if any station could be
considered as rural and almost perfect, Olivia would qualify. Until I
visited that weather station!
What the heck is going on?
Has nobody noticed such a major problem with our historical surface
weather recording stations?
Then I stumbled upon surfacestations.org and realized that another
meteorologist had also stumbled upon this problem of data quality
control.
The rest is history, and what honest science should be all about...
When I said that I could provide you with GISS's FORTRAN/Python source
code, I was not joking.
Tonight, I am working with my Echelle spectrograph and imaging Beta
Lyra, because that has always been my love.
# posted by 
: 12:15 pm
: 12:15 pm
What YOU can do on those evenings when the Moon is causing problems with your observations:
“a tiny change in albedo makes large changes in temperatures.”
That is a subject which I have been researching for the last year, and for something so basic, there is almost no reliable data available.
When someone mentioned measuring Earthshine as a method of measuring albedo last year, I got involved. Instead of using neutral density filters like NASA was doing, I approached the problem from another direction.
http://www.bbso.njit.edu/
Research/EarthShine/espaper/
earthshine_proposal.html
In recent years, software has been developed to combine multiple images obtained using different exposure lenghts. High dynamic range imaging allowed me to measure Earthshine and this is how I attacked the problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
Why such a basic and important measurement as albedo is not being tracked every day, is an absolute mystery to me.
Global coverage of the Moon's Earthshine is very important for a proper scientific analysis.
Australia would be a very important source of raw data for this project.
Post a Comment
“a tiny change in albedo makes large changes in temperatures.”
That is a subject which I have been researching for the last year, and for something so basic, there is almost no reliable data available.
When someone mentioned measuring Earthshine as a method of measuring albedo last year, I got involved. Instead of using neutral density filters like NASA was doing, I approached the problem from another direction.
http://www.bbso.njit.edu/
Research/EarthShine/espaper/
earthshine_proposal.html
In recent years, software has been developed to combine multiple images obtained using different exposure lenghts. High dynamic range imaging allowed me to measure Earthshine and this is how I attacked the problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
Why such a basic and important measurement as albedo is not being tracked every day, is an absolute mystery to me.
Global coverage of the Moon's Earthshine is very important for a proper scientific analysis.
Australia would be a very important source of raw data for this project.
# posted by : 11:14 pm
: 11:14 pm << Home
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