Posts Tagged ‘geoscience’
Volcanoes
One single remotely situated volcano managed to close down the entire European air space for days. The volcano on Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, the small country far north in the middle of the North-Atlantic, may have been known to volcanologists and other geoscientists with a keen interest in a geophysical hot spot like Iceland. But to the rest of us Eyjfjalljökull was unknown until the massive flight cancellations in Europe caused by its ash cloud. Today, Eyjafjalljökull is world famous – though pronouncing its name remains a mystery.
The Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud. Credit: Icelandic Meteorological Office
One who knew Eyjafjallajökull very well long before it erupted, is Dr. Kristin Vogfjord. Working as Research Director at the Icelandic Meteorological Office she led a European research project on volcanoes and her group’s contribution were monitoring and analysis of the seismic activity on Eyjafjallajökull. Kristin tells us how the volcanic eruption still managed to surprise her and how the ash is produced in A Green Space – A Green Earth’s volcano edition.
Earth observations from space are being used in all phases of volcanic eruptions; before, during and after. NASA scientists (Dr. Andrea Donnellan and Dr. Paul Lundgren) and leading experts on GPS and InSAR, two space based instruments and techniques applied in all three phases of an eruption, explain how they work and are being used. In particular you’ll learn how closely linked earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are. In fact, we illustrate the geophysical crème brûlée model using a genuine crème brûlée (a delicious French desert).
Eyjafjallajökull did disrupt our lives for days, but there were no casualties. When Mount St. Helens erupted 30 years ago, more than 50 persons lost their lives, including USGS volcanologist David A. Johnston on his observation post. USGS is commemorating Mount St. Helens devastating reawakening on May 18th 1980 with a series of events this summer and fall. We show some of the unique materials made available by USGS and explain why it was so lethal.
Seemingly there is nothing but trouble with these volcanoes. In fact, we can turn it completely around and say there wouldn’t be life on this planet without them. Volcanoes contribute in several ways to keep the Earth system in balance and A Green Space – A Green Earth’s Volcano edition gives you a few examples of how.
Finally, if you would like to impress your friends and colleagues by learning how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull, you can watch this episode over and over again because I say Eyjafjalljökull, like the Icelandic, numerous times. This information might perhaps assist you in your efforts: Eyja=island, fjalla=mountain and jökull=glacier. Good luck!
Climategate: To Share Or Not To Share
Climategate: To Share Or Not To Share
Climategate or no climategate? Availability of climate data is one element of the so-called Climategate, the hacker incident at East Anglia University in the UK that revealed parts of an email communication among a group of international climate scientists. The fundamental factor for the science in this case, is the question of whether the data, the facts concerning climate, is correct or not. The scientific community outside the East Anglia group, wanted access to the data upon which the research was based. In this episode of A Green Space – A Green Earth I focus on data sharing: To share or not to share. Are there any obstacles?
2009 Ends Warmest Decade on Record - Global Temperature 2009. Courtesy of NASA
2009 Ends Warmest Decade on Record. Global Temperature 2000. Courtesy of NASA
Open data policy is fundamental for modern research. Scientific communities are global and we need global earth observation data to understand the Earth system. If we look beyond the data, and analyze the scientific work method (not scientific method; that is timeless and independent of context), the modern, more open society, demands more of the scientific communities.
Links and further reading:
Nature (magazine) on climate data theft and pressure on scientists
Summary from GEO in DC (Earthzine)
From BBC: ‘Show Your Working’: What ‘ClimateGate’ means. By Mike Hulme East Anglia University and Dr Jerome Ravetz
ESA open data policy.
Sentinels: ESA and EC data policy implementation strategy.
“ESA has developed the Climate Change Initiative to generate, preserve and give access to long-term data sets of the essential climate variables and make them freely available to climate research and modelling communities worldwide,”
Group on Earth Observations – GEO
Climategate: To share Or Not To Share will be updated..