nostalgia circa 1989
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5707412073/
NASA video release May 10, 2011
[This movie clip contains 10 seconds of surface flows colored by sea surface temperature, followed by 6 seconds of wind currents, followed by ocean currents. ]
Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global Sea Surface Salinity.
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/88604.html
Weather chief draws flak over plea not to release radiation forecasts
The chief of the Meteorological Society of Japan has drawn flak from within the academic society over a request for member specialists to refrain from releasing forecasts on the spread of radioactive substances from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
http://atmc.jp/ has added a national radiation map to their existing database which includes air, soil, rain, food. They have also added a map of radiation at Fukushima Prefecture schools, http://atmc.jp/school/ as measured by the Fukushima Prefecture Disaster Office over three days, at present.
Bad news in this map is that schools in Fukushima City and elsewhere with numbers up around 4 to 6 microsieverts per hour are far above the 20 MILLIsieverts per year the govt is setting as an evacuation threshold. Do the math: Anything over 2.3 MICROsieverts an hour will accumulate to more than 20 MILLIsieverts a year. They should err on the side of caution considering: the intl standard for added dose is 1 millisievert annually, not 20; these are children, not adults; there is a possibility of ingesting and inhaling radioactive particles; and emissions and deposition levels are continuing and accumulating. They should evacuate.
One argument against evacuation is that these levels may be temporary, and go down soon, but that is doubtful. Even if so, I think they should temporarily evacuate the cities of Fukushima (290,000ppl), Nihonmatsu (61,000ppl), and Sukagawa (80,000ppl), or, if that is impossible, evacuate at least the children. Note that our levels down here in Chiba are 0.055 microsieverts per hour today, only 1% of what is measured at some of those schools. (compare to 5.5)
If the govt keep to their stated standard of evacuating places with a risk of accumulating over 20millisieverts/year, then they will announce an evacuation. If they keep to their established precedent of moving slowly (and erring on the side of radiation), the announcement will come in about 2 weeks (and allow another month to take effect).
Using the slider on the school map also reveals wider investigations done on previous days. I guess they are not cumulatively added to the map because yesterday's measurements may have changed by today. There are 2 measurements: at 1cm (above the soil, I assume), and 1 meter.
Measurements of the known VERY radioactive areas were done mostly on the first day.
http://atmc.jp/
has added radioactivity plume forecasts from various (foreign--and domestic!) sources
拡散予測： 日本気象庁 | ドイツ気象局 | オーストリア気象局 | イギリス気象局 | ノルウェー気象局 | 台湾気象局
with translate.google
| Diffusion: | Japan Meteorological Agency | Weather Bureau Germany | Austria Weather Bureau | Bureau of Meteorology, UK | Norwegian Meteorological Bureau | Bureau of Meteorology Taiwan |
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-18/japan-disaster-caps-decades-of-faked-reports-accidents.html
This March 18 article in BusinessWeek details the lies and cover-ups in Japan's nuclear industry.
IAEA experts said the ocean will quickly dilute the worst contamination. Radioactive iodine breaks down within weeks but cesium could foul the marine environment for decades.
In Minamisoma, a city of 71,000 about 20 miles north of the nuclear plant, all but one or two shops shut their doors because of a lack of goods and customers, said city official Sadayasu Abe.
"Commercial trucks are simply not coming to the c ...ity at all due to radiation fears," he said Saturday.
Military troops and some private companies took up the task of delivering rice, instant noodles, bottled water and canned foods to eight central spots in the city, Abe said.
He said the city was urging the 10,000 or so still holding out to leave since the situation at the plant remains precarious.
"Life is very difficult here," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "We have electricity, gas and running water, but no food."
Jacob Namminga, one of our radiation safety advisors, spoke to me via Skype about today's sampling trip in a rural area of Japan, to the north west of the Fukushima nuclear plant. We'll be reporting the details of our findings once they are compiled...They must be hoping those levels come down fast or i don't see how they really have any choice but to evacuate Fukushima City. It's only 280,000 people, not so big in Japan. At 50 miles away from F#1 , it is consistent with or a little bey...ond the US recommendation that people stay 50 miles away. That's a little worse than the evacuated area at Chernobyl. They must be reluctant because Fukushima is the major link to points north, including the main expressway and shinkansen. Without that and the eastern coastal road, the north is two-thirds severed. I also wonder whether people would welcome irradiated evacuees. http://maps.google.com/map
As we found out today, the radiation levels are high in Fukushima city -- our measurements confirmed levels that have been reported in newspapers and by the government -- in some places so high that you would get your "maximum annual dose" (if you believe in such things) in about 8 days. It's a bit strange to see people biking and going about their business.
A major crash at the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant may entail the same disastrous aftermath as the awful blast at the Ukrainian Chernobyl nuclear power plant, chairman of the Ukrainian State Committee for Nuclear Regulation Yelena Mikolaichuk told reporters here.
The risks to human health from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant are limited to an evacuated area adjacent to the facility, according to the U.K.’s Chief Scientific Officer John Beddington .
CNN's Drew Griffin reports on a pattern of cover ups in Japan's nuclear power industry.
(Reuters)- Japan is under global scrutiny over the handling of its nuclear crisis after a huge earthquake crippled several reactors at a nuclear power complex, raising fears of an uncontrolled radiation
Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday restated the Obama administration's commitment to keeping nuclear power in the mix of renewable sources under development in the U.S., but treaded carefully around questions of how the nuclear disaster in Japan might affect that effort.
"the unprecedented scale of Friday's earthquake and tsunami left questions about not only the adequacy of the measures but the basic policy of pursuing nuclear power in a country as earthquake-prone as Japan"no kidding!
OSAKA — Severe damage to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant had the central government and local authorities in neighboring towns racing Saturday to evacuate residents and implement previously agreed upon emergency response measures.
If you are interested in Japan and numerate (numerically literate?), you may want to read the newest statistical digest. This book may also be available at the government printing office bookstore in Otemachi (if it's still there) or in bookstores, 
but you can view it online or download each chapter separately (in English) in pdf form from the website:
http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/handbook/index.htm
Having a blast! Wish you were here!
Your tax dollars at work. The Strontium-90 in your teeth and bones are compliments of the house.
Photograph by US Navy, copyright by National Geographic. How does that work?
You have to wonder if the US Navy wasn't setting of H-bombs just to get their photos into National Geographic. "We can't compete on any 'Bridges of Madison County' but, by God, let's see them beat this! Make sure only Navy photographers are there."
That whole 20th-century missile gap competition with the Soviets has to be the biggest scam ever perpetuated in history. From America's nearly invulnerable position it would have been able to resist successfully with no military at all, just bicycles (like the Swiss national defense) and small arms, like Afghanistan. The USSR couldn't even hold down Afghanistan and we're supposed to believe they would have defeated the United States? Using more than a handful of nukes would have risked bringing on a nuclear winter. Some umbrella.
Photo re-appropriated by the people, for the people.
Maybe the photo is the same as the one here? In that case Nat'l Geog. may just slap their Copyright mark on everything even though it's clearly in the public domain.
Should have used that. Damn. Found it too late.
The people of the Marshall Islands continue to suffer from what was done to them--Castle Bravo.
I love the sun. (I try to stay out of it, though.) Go to the SolarSoft site to see if there is a tiny solar physicist inside you struggling to get out. Get advance warnings on your cell phone in the event of the sun exploding. No, they don't offer that service. (What good are they, then?) Guess what the "LMSAL" stands for.
Everyone has their own place in the sun--should you choose to have your remains shot into the sun upon your demise. However, they'd probably be vaporized and blown back into deep space before they got to the sun.
Today's award for best (hottest?) background on a solar physicist web site goes to Mauna Loa. This totally beats standing outside and staring into the sun--plus it is available 24 hours a day and night.
Solar monitor.org is also easy on the retina. Never attempt to examine the sun directly with your eye(s) and a powerful optical magnifier.
You can also check the space weather news if you plan to be "outside" (the earth's atmoshere).
Wind and water continue to assault Iowa, the Hawkeye state, the land between the rivers, the lakeland in the river. Reviewing video of the May 25 tornado in Parkersburg, I think the best records were those made by closed circuit television. There was this one, which shows the wind tearing apart a house in a manner reminiscent of a nuclear test blast:
There was another set of videos from inside the bank (First State Bank), which show what it is like to share a room with an EF5 tornado. And you thought your roommate (or work-mate) was messy, wasteful, and temperamental.
I am also monitoring the newest floods on the Cedar River, Iowa River, Shell Rock River, and other rivers from afar. I have been getting some firsthand accounts and pictures, which are very relevant but limited. For its broadly collected content, YouTube is a little better than the news sites in some ways. I can see videos minutes after they are uploaded and be among the first 5 or 10 people to see them. The Des Moines Register, gazetteonline.com, wcfcourier.com, Chicago Tribune, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Daily Iowan, and Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune have done some good reporting on it, but from what little I can tell, it doesn't seem to be getting as much national or international attention as one might expect. Perhaps there is only so much interest and empathy until something breaks through to a Katrina level of apocalypse. Perhaps it is only incredible to me because I know the area I am looking at. Or maybe I am just one of a small minority of people who seek to get a better grasp of reality by seeing its extremes, what happens when it is stretched and twisted. It could be that reporters just naturally cannot get in to the areas they need to to report as well as YouTube users can. However, at the moment, the story has risen to the top of Google News.
I shouldn't make promises, but I will have a little more to say about this at a future time.
Science Friday last week was a great one, with Ray Kurzweil and Richard Preston (Panic in Level 4) appearing. Kurzweil is low-key but persuasive. Preston had some amazing stories told with humanity. The fuel-cell piece and the piece about the climate change bill were good, too. It looks like today, June 13, they will have a segment about Mars.
feed://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510221
Richard Preston 'Journeys to the Edge of Science' Best-selling author Richard Preston, known for his New Yorker profiles of science and scientists, talks about his latest project, Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science. Preston talks with host Ira Flatow about his craft, and about the stories and people he has covered over the years.
Will We Recognize the Future? Futurist Ray Kurzweil explains the idea of the "singularity" — what happens when technology advances so much that it's impossible to predict what happens next. Will artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and biotechnology be able to completely reshape what it means to be human?
Greener Cars Change U.S. Auto Landscape Honda plans to lease at least 200 fuel cell vehicles in the U.S. over the next three years. And automaker General Motors announced it will shift production away from large SUVs toward smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles — and close four factories in the process.
Climate Change Legislation Fails in Senate The U.S. Senate debated proposed climate change legislation on Tuesday — but the bill failed to win the needed number of votes to avoid a filibuster and was pulled from the floor. The bill would have cut greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds by the year 2050.
It started off as a bad year for me personally, and it is shaping up globally to be a bad year of Biblical proportions.
The aftereffects of Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy delta continue to be dealt with incompetently by the Burmese bakufu. Somewhere, one Myanmarese general is commending another general, nicknamed the local equivalent of "Brownie," for doing a heckuva job. Satellite photos in today's NYT show villages in which every building has disappeared, hundreds of buildings.
In China, the Sichuan earthquake's death toll has been revised upward to 80,000 from the 60,000 it was a few days ago. The current obsession is with the possibility of secondary disasters from the new quake lakes. The quake lakes are a fortuitous result of geological forces, and air strikes are unlikely to change things one way or the other. Taiwan has some lakes that were created by recent earthquakes, and Fuji Five Lakes were the result of volcanic eruptions of Mount Fuji. Since all lakes will naturally silt up and disappear over time, the creation of new lakes is a rare and special geological gift. How else can new lakes be created? We should probably just be grateful for them. Granted, there is a chance they may not be permanently stable, but give them a chance. Doing some temporary evacuations should be enough to see if the new natural dam will erode completely, moderately, or not at all when overflowed.
Although it is smaller scale by a factor of 10,000 in terms of the death toll and human impact, the tornado in Parkersburg, Iowa was of more personal interest to me. I have been to the Burmese border, but not in Burma, and went through Chengdu and Chongqing in China, but Parkersburg is near my mother's hometown and also where my dentist used to be located. It's possible that my dental records have ended up in Wisconsin or Illinois as reportedly happened to some photographs from Parkersburg, although I doubt anyone keeps dental records that long. Coincidentally, the previous record holder for Iowa's biggest tornado was an F-5 that hit Charles City in 1968, about one county away to the northeast. I can remember seeing the ruins of that one as a small child. I found some current tornado pictures here, here, here, and here --although they are small and some of these seem to go offline after 5 days.
A large series of aerial photos here shows the total destruction as winds exceeded 200 mph (320kph?)! As you can see in other pictures, concrete block foundations and even rectangular tombstones were blown away and rolled around.
It may be best for Iowans to consider building semi-underground reinforced concrete geodesic domes or, at the very least, A-frame homes.
If this goes on, will the Beijing Games be canceled by bird flu or another contagious outbreak? Perhaps another coastal American city is due to be destroyed by sea level rise and hurricanes. Miami, taken out just before the November elections, could enrage the population even if (or because) the Floridians are given generous handouts 9-11 style to try to pay them off. Perhaps it is Europe's turn? The Dutch should be offered generous resettlement opportunities in countries above sea level.
Tonight I heard John McCain on TV talk about being "engaged in bombings which could have or did kill innocent people." That caught my attention, but it turned out that he wasn't reflecting on or repenting for his past war crimes bombing Vietnamese civilians from 35,000 feet, but was trying to insinuate some kind of slur against Barack Obama for some acquaintance of his who was once a member of the Weather Underground. I haven't had a whole lot of time to keep up with news -- particularly this kind of news, which I would normally skip right over, but it seems that neither Obama nor the former Weatherman (which Obama has been cordial to and has not condemned and denounced as is the custom) have been bombers, whereas Johnnie has been a mad bomber, both literally and figuratively.
McCain will have a lot more to answer for than that. I can see that he is already getting the old man pass
that Reagan used to use. You can take many of the lines Jellybeans Reagan used to use and try to imagine Carter or Mondale or Papa Bush using them and you know they would be laughed off stage. Conversely and perversely, Obama is getting hit with the scary-black-man construct where everything he has ever done is seen as ominous explained further here:
Old Man McCain
Grandpa McCain
I especially appreciated this post originating from Cogitamus.
and just for fun, Younger than McCain
Revenge of the Trees 2008 is well underway. This year's cedar pollen levels are forecast to be three times higher than last year due to high temperatures last August(?). It seems to be off to a later start, however. I only appear in public now wearing a surgical mask, in order to prevent nasal congestion/nasal incontinence and continue breathing through my nose. 
Yesterday's wind-driven pollen was at an eye-burning, tear-inducing high for the season so far, even inside with the windows closed. A quick check of a local environmental agency pollen measuring site (at 東邦大学) shows levels shooting off the top of the scale at 2000 grains per cubic meter. I guess they will have to make a new scale. Again. I'm not sure if this year is going to be worse than 1995 and 2005, but I vaguely recall that 1000 was once the top of the scale and that 1995 broke records with levels around 1400.
Pollenitis was virtually unheard of until the 1970s. There seem to be two reasons why this is a major health irritant in modern Japan. Cedar trees were used for mass reforestation of clear-cut slopes after WW2, and slopes were planted in 100% cedar. That made the cedar pollen levels many times higher, but it also turns out that in close proximity, cedar trees seem to produce ten times more pollen to compete with other trees. The second contribution is sanitation. The lack of intestinal worms and unsanitary conditions of modern life seem to leave people with more highly-strung immune systems that overreact to a mass infusion of cedar pollen.
Silver lining: my medication makes me drowsy so I can close my eyes any time of day and fall asleep. Very convenient during commutes.
I keep watching the projected amount of rainfall from the current typhoon (#9) increase, from 200 mm to 250 mm, to 300, 400, and now 500mm, half a meter. Typhoons usually whisk by us pretty fast by the time they get to this latitude, but this one is being blocked by two areas of high pressure. We have had 2 days of rain already, so another 18 inches or so on top of that could be a problem. Fifty meter per second winds don't sound good either.
Better than the swarms of earthquakes we had in mid-August, a few dozen of which were in Chiba or close enough to feel.
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/quake_singendo_index.html
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/quake_local_index.html
Issued at Occurred at Region Name Magnitude Maximum Seismic Intensity (JMA)
17:11 JST 18 Aug 2007 17:07 JST 18 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.0 3
17:04 JST 18 Aug 2007 16:55 JST 18 Aug 2007
E OFF CHIBA PREF M5.1 4
17:00 JST 18 Aug 2007 16:55 JST 18 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M5.1 4
13:40 JST 18 Aug 2007 13:36 JST 18 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.6 4
05:59 JST 18 Aug 2007 05:54 JST 18 Aug 2007 NIIGATA KEN CHUETSU CHIHO M2.2 1
05:16 JST 18 Aug 2007 05:11 JST 18 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M2.6 2
04:56 JST 18 Aug 2007 04:52 JST 18 Aug 2007 CHIBA KEN NANBU M3.4 3
04:43 JST 18 Aug 2007 04:38 JST 18 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M2.5 1
04:40 JST 18 Aug 2007 04:36 JST 18 Aug 2007 NEAR MIYAKOJIMA ISLAND M3.8 1
04:36 JST 18 Aug 2007 04:30 JST 18 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M2.7 2
04:19 JST 18 Aug 2007 04:14 JST 18 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.8 5-
19:14 JST 17 Aug 2007 19:08 JST 17 Aug 2007 TOCHIGI KEN NANBU M2.5 1
19:11 JST 17 Aug 2007 19:05 JST 17 Aug 2007 NEAR NIIJIMA AND KOUZUSHIMA ISLANDS M2.0 1
09:48 JST 17 Aug 2007 09:43 JST 17 Aug 2007 AKITA KEN NAIRIKU HOKUBU M3.3 2
02:16 JST 17 Aug 2007 02:10 JST 17 Aug 2007 TOCHIGI KEN HOKUBU M3.4 2
00:30 JST 17 Aug 2007 00:25 JST 17 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M3.4 2
00:26 JST 17 Aug 2007 00:22 JST 17 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.3 3
09:26 JST 16 Aug 2007 09:22 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.7 3
08:37 JST 16 Aug 2007 08:32 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.5 2
08:35 JST 16 Aug 2007 08:30 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M3.2 2
08:24 JST 16 Aug 2007 08:20 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M5.0 3
07:51 JST 16 Aug 2007 07:47 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.5 3
07:46 JST 16 Aug 2007 07:41 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.0 2
06:26 JST 16 Aug 2007 06:20 JST 16 Aug 2007 IWATE KEN NAIRIKU NANBU M2.9 1
05:09 JST 16 Aug 2007 05:04 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M4.0 2
04:26 JST 16 Aug 2007 04:15 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M5.3 4
04:19 JST 16 Aug 2007
04:15 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M5.3 4
03:37 JST 16 Aug 2007 03:32 JST 16 Aug 2007 IRIOMOTEJIMA ISLAND REGION M3.8 1
00:17 JST 16 Aug 2007 00:11 JST 16 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M2.7 1
20:39 JST 15 Aug 2007 20:34 JST 15 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M3.8 1
19:40 JST 15 Aug 2007 19:34 JST 15 Aug 2007 IWATE KEN ENGAN HOKUBU M4.2 2
18:48 JST 15 Aug 2007 18:44 JST 15 Aug 2007 TOKACHI SHICHO CHUBU M3.4 3
18:16 JST 15 Aug 2007 18:11 JST 15 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M2.6 1
12:13 JST 15 Aug 2007 12:09 JST 15 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M3.0 1
11:13 JST 15 Aug 2007 11:08 JST 15 Aug 2007 OFF MIYAGI PREF M3.8 2
09:28 JST 15 Aug 2007 09:23 JST 15 Aug 2007 E OFF AOMORI PREF M3.8 1
07:43 JST 15 Aug 2007 07:38 JST 15 Aug 2007 OFF JO-CHUETSU NIIGATA PREF M2.5 1
03:44 JST 15 Aug 2007 03:39 JST 15 Aug 2007 AKITA KEN NAIRIKU NANBU M3.0 1
02:48 JST 15 Aug 2007 02:43 JST 15 Aug 2007 NARA KEN M2.7 1
02:33 JST 15 Aug 2007 02:28 JST 15 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M2.8 1
21:38 JST 14 Aug 2007 21:33 JST 14 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M3.0 2
16:52 JST 14 Aug 2007 16:45 JST 14 Aug 2007 OFF IWATE PREF M3.6 1
13:22 JST 14 Aug 2007 13:14 JST 14 Aug 2007 W OFF SAKHALIN M5.9 2
15:53 JST 13 Aug 2007 15:47 JST 13 Aug 2007 SE OFF TANEGASHIMA ISLAND M4.3 1
12:39 JST 13 Aug 2007 12:34 JST 13 Aug 2007 OFF MIYAGI PREF M4.0 1
11:21 JST 13 Aug 2007 11:16 JST 13 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M2.6 1
09:35 JST 13 Aug 2007 09:30 JST 13 Aug 2007 E OFF CHIBA PREF M3.0 1
07:27 JST 13 Aug 2007 07:22 JST 13 Aug 2007 NEAR NIIJIMA AND KOUZUSHIMA ISLANDS
M1.9 1
06:28 JST 13 Aug 2007 06:22 JST 13 Aug 2007 SE OFF TANEGASHIMA ISLAND M3.8 1
15:22 JST 12 Aug 2007 15:17 JST 12 Aug 2007 NEAR OKINAWAHONTO ISLAND M4.0 2
10:02 JST 12 Aug 2007 09:56 JST 12 Aug 2007 OFF FUKUSHIMA PREF M3.8 1
08:19 JST 12 Aug 2007 08:13 JST 12 Aug 2007 NEAR IZU-OSHIMA ISLAND M2.0 1
01:58 JST 12 Aug 2007 01:49 JST 12 Aug 2007 HIROSHIMA KEN HOKUBU M2.6 1
01:54 JST 12 Aug 2007 01:48 JST 12 Aug 2007 E OFF OSUMI PENINSULA M4.3 1
