The folks at Google Earth are at it again. Like last year, they have created a folder under “Weather” that lets you track the progress of the current hurricane season. Included in this folder you’ll find updated storm tracks courtesy of the National Hurricane Center. The current position, predicted track, storm overview, NHS storm advisory, reference information, and a near real-time news gadget are also provided.

Source of this post and image: Google LatLong.

The Physical Environment link: Hurricanes

The United States Global Change Research Program recently released its report “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States“, describing it as the “most comprehensive and authoritative report of its kind.”  The report looks at climate change impacts that are occurring now and in the future for different regions of the United States. It describes the changes happening to the natural environment and to various aspects of the American society and U.S. economy, e.g., energy, water, agriculture and health. The report also highlights also highlights the choices faced by the United States in coping with human-induced climate change. Written in plain language, it can serves to inform the public and private decision makers.

Download the full report here.

Watch the release ceremony, highlights from the report, and press conference  below.

The Physical Environment textbook links: Climate Change: Global warming

Upper left - Category-4 Hurricane Katrina moving towards the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on August 28, 2005. (photo credit: NASA Terra Satellite) Lower left - The eye of Hurricane Ike as seen from the International Space Station on September 4, 2008. (photo credit: NASA) Upper right - Debris pile in Galveston, TX caused by Hirricane Ike. (photo credit: FEMA) Middle right - Lines of cars leaving Beaumont, TX before the arrival of Hurricane Gustav. (photo credit: FEMA) Lower right - New Orleans, LA, flooding from Hurricane Katrina. (photo credit: USGS)

June 1st was the start of the Atlantic hurricane season and it appears that this year with be a fairly normal one according to the National Hurricane Center . Though NOAA is probably the first place many people turn to for hurricane information, the USGS also has plenty of useful resources.

Browse to the USGS Science: Before, During , and After the Storm for  “a “one-stop” USGS hurricane Web site where the public can access important storm information such as flood levels near your home; pictures of the coastline before and after the storm; information on the timing, extent and magnitude of storm tide; and much more.”

The Physical Environment textbook links: Hurricanes.

A Google Earth plugin to access real-time world earthquakes for the past 7 days has been added to Geographical Patterns of Faults and Earthquakes

ScienceDaily (2009-05-17) — Much is known about the rise of the central Andes mountains, but a new study of the eastern Andes in Colombia indicates that mountain building began much earlier there.

Read more at ScienceDaily.com

Image: Sediments that gather at the base of mountains provide important clues about how and when the mountains were formed. (Credit: Carlos Jaramillo, STRI)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

ScienceDaily (2009-05-12) — With the US Congress beginning to consider regulations on greenhouse gases, a troubling hypothesis about how the sun may impact global warming is finally laid to rest.

See: ScienceDaily for article

The Physical Environment textbook links: The Sun, Climate Change: Global Warming

A large sunspot was captured by NASA’s STEREO instrument marking what could be the end of the longest solar minimum in the last hundred years. Sunspot activity and the solar flares that are generated go through an 11-year cycle. For some unknown reason, this most recent solar minimum has lasted longer than normal.

For more see “Big Solar Flare Portends Sun’s Return to Normal” from Wired Science

The Physical Environment textbook link: “The Sun“

ScienceDaily (2009-05-05) — In the hotly debated arena of global climate change, using short-term trends that show little temperature change or even slight cooling to refute global warming is misleading, write two climate experts in a paper recently published by the American Geophysical Union — especially as the long-term pattern clearly shows human activities are causing the earth’s climate to heat up.

For more see ScienceDaily

The Physical Environment textbook link: Climate Change: Global Warming

The following post recently appeared on another blog of mine, Earth Online.

Twitter has become a phenomenon in the Web 2.0 universe. As many know, Twitter is a social messaging and microblogging site for staying connected to people in near-real time. Users send “tweets”, text-formatted posts of 140 characters in length to “followers”. Followers subscribe to these Twitter feeds, getting regular updates on their computers and smart phones. Twitter had been dominated by tech savvy Gen-Xers, Millennials, celebrities and well-known politicians like President Obama. The social networking site has experienced a recent explosion of new subscribers with diverse backgrounds and using the service for a variety of different purposes.

Those in the geoscience community have found Twitter a useful way to keep other informed. Earth science – related professional and governmental organizations are using Twitter to keep the public informed of late breaking developments related to their missions. For example, NOAA’s OceanExplorer (http://twitter.com/oceanexplorer ) uses Twitter to broadcast updates to its site, announce new programs, highlight articles in which NOAA projects are discussed. In academia, professors can “tweet” when they are in their offices and accessible to colleagues and students.

Below is a list of Twitterers related to geoscience and what they are tweeting.

USGS: http://twitter.com/USGS
Type of Tweets: Program announcements, news, answers to USGS Frequently Asked Questions.

USGS News: http://twitter.com/USGSNews
Type of Tweets: News from the USGS

USGS Earthquake: http://twitter.com/USGS_Earthquake
Type of Tweets: recent earthquake activity

NASA Earth Observatory: http://twitter.com/NASA_EO
Type of Tweets: Imagery added to their site, site updates, new articles

Geostuff: twitter.com/geostuff
Type of Tweets: News articles

Science Dailybot: http://twitter.com/sciencedailybot
Type of Tweets: News fed from ScienceDaily, a premier online new source.

AEG Arizona: http://twitter.com/AEGArizona
Type of Tweets: News links, conference announcements

The GIS Forum: http://twitter.com/thegisforum
Type of Tweets: GIS in the new, workshop announcements, data resources, applications

GetGeologyJobs: http://twitter.com/GetGeologyJobs
Type of Tweets: Geology job postings

Project Vortex -Probe 5. Chasing the storm

In the mid-1990s the National Severe Storm Lab’s Project VORTEX (Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornados Experiment) brought together leading scientists to collect field data on the conditions to create tornados. It was the first time that meteorologists were able to completely document the life cycle of a tornado.

This year, NSSL and their partners are coordinating the largest field project in the history of tornado science. The new project will involve more than 50 scientists and 40 research vehicles, including 10 mobile radars. VORTEX2 “will focus on answering new questions about how, when, and why tornadoes form, why some thunderstorms produce tornadoes and others do not, the structure of tornadoes, and the relationship of tornadic winds to damage.” VORTEX2 results are expected to increase the accuracy and timeliness of tornado forecasts and warnings. VORTEX2 will be watching the skies for severe weather from 10 May – 13 June 2009 and 1 May – 15 June 2010. NSSL is employing Web 2.0 technology to reach a broader audience by maintaining sites on Facebook and Twitter.

For more see: Tornado-Chasing Project Aims to Improve Forecasts from the Washington Post.

Or the VORTEX2 web site

The Physical Environment Textbook Link: Tornadoes

Watch NSSL in the Field below