Timini Cricket

Northernlights, you can just change the year in the date field of the page at EarthWindMap to get the archive a year ago - it was around 400ppm: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2016/05/10/0130Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=co2sc/orthographic=-350.29,49.02,3000/loc=-3.692,57.647

Still the most CO2 dense (675ppm) place on earth:

Thanks BFTV, Flicking through the timeframes on the earth.nullschool.net atmospheric chem view in the Northern territories and Western Australian outback there are several ongoing SO2 plumes at surface level, but only the one I indicated had high CO and CO2 levels too - I guess there must have been a lot of old standing Eucalyptus timber burning, relative to the other sites, where they were likely to be predominantly bushfires on younger, shorter growth nearer to the ground where the sulphur sources would be found.

Data Source | GEOS-5 / GMAO / NASA CO2 display from https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/chem/surface/level/overlay=co2sc/orthographic=-230.54,-18.46,3000/loc=129.435,-21.034 Google Maps CO display from https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-236.32,-19.84,3000/loc=129.435,-21.034 SO2 display from https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/chem/surface/level/overlay=so2smass/orthographic=-236.32,-19.84,3000/loc=129.435,-21.034 Is it smelting, cement production or some natural phenomenon - there's nothing apparent on the satellite image from Google:

Apart from the fireworks, vedur.is has published a full preview of a paper on: Volcanic system: Bárðarbunga system Alternative name: Veiðivötn system Compiled by: Gudrún Larsen and Magnús T. Gudmundsson Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland http://en.vedur.is/media/jar/Bardarbunga_kafli20140825.pdf note and summary:

Here's an example of a cloud that I fail to understand the reasons for it being so grey: The view is looking north towards the south downs from Portsea Island (Portsmouth), 1:50pm July16 2014. The sky is brilliantly clear overhead, with just a few thin cirrus over towards the north, and hot sunshine behind the photographer. Yet these more distant clouds are fringed (on all edges, top and bottom) with dark grey, and there is no indication that they are bathed in sunlight, as they surely must be, since there are no other clouds between these and the sun. So I am wondering if anyone can explain how the illusion works?

I've never had the physics explained, of the supposed ability of the jet stream to influence the movement and variation in the weather systems of the lower troposphere. How can a phenomenon with high speeds in the near friction-free thin atmosphere at around 250 millibar (i.e. with 75% of the atmospheric column below it and upwards of 20% of the atmosphere above), at a temperature of around minus 40 C, contain enough energy to influence the planetary boundary layer with the necessary friction that the dense atmosphere near the surface imposes on the topology of the surface features? I can understand that this feature is easier to model computationally, and thus to extrapolate to the motions of the lower troposphere for forecasting models, but surely it is the energetic features below that impart a little of their energy to the layer below the tropopause, rather than the other way around? Like cracking a whip - the tip may break the sound barrier, but the arm that wields it supplies the much greater force that powers it!

For on moment, imagine if the earth had 2 suns. One, the one we know so well, which is the source of all of our incident energy, more or less, 93 million miles away, radiating with a surface temperature of 5 to 6 thousand deg C. The other one, with apparent diameter from earth, and apparent temperature the same, but where the moon is, a quarter of a million miles away, orbiting just like the moon does. How would that change the conditions on earth? Twice as much incoming energy, but with a highly variable frequency of irradiation. Now instead of where the moon is, move that glowing sphere of energy, radiating with the black body temperature of an estimated 5 to 6 thousand deg C to about 2,000 miles away from every point on the earth's surface. The only way to do that is to move it inside the earth. Hang on though, it's there already! If you had created a vertical shaft 2,000 miles deep, the surface at the bottom would glow like the sun. It is estimated at that temperature because the pressure, density and physical characteristics suggest a solid core of iron and nickel and a fluid core surrounding it of iron and nickel with some oxide and silicate components helping to keep it fluid like a solderer's flux. Its been there for 4.5 billion years, cooling at a rate of perhaps a degree or less per century, but also has an energy source of an unknown quantity of fissile nuclear fuel keeping it hot, according to all the estimates that have been made, meaning that the data we have about it is actually quite sparse. That this is a negligible source of heating at the surface (or any number of points near the surface) is just as much of an educated guess. It could be described as a large known unknown. The IPCC does not figure it is worthy of a mention in the current climate analysis.

Since 2005, The American Meteor Society has kept logs of fireball sightings reported in to them: http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/fireball-report/ lots of good information there (2013 to date) 2005 467 2006 517 2007 591 2008 730 2009 699 2010 954 2011 1636 2012 2145 2013 2250 pending 201 This indicates an almost five-fold increase in sightings over the last 8 years. Why would this be? More fireballs or more observer-hours watching the skies? It is certainly easier to communicate to report by mobile phone/internet services, so there may be some observational bias here. More fireballs is also possible - more satellite debris falling to earth would increase fireball numbers, or is our region of space just getting dirtier? Is the solar system passing through a debris cloud? NLC -noctilucent clouds, Polar Mesospheric clouds have been linked to meteor burn-up debris or meteor smoke as nuclei for formation, and have been increasingly observed over the past few years. http://www.spaceclouds.info/ for lots more info, incl Chelyabinsk and Volcanic effects. (Megatonne explosion = equivalent weight of TNT to get that explosive effect, and is nothing to to with the mass of the object as it enters the atmosphere.)

I saw a man eating cabbage once... it was horrible!

Still very quiet and dry in Portsmouth. Just a few small droplets avoided evaporation before reaching the ground at about 1500 today. I think I imagined a distant rumble, Otherwise sunny or hazy sunshine, with a light SW breeze.

The BBC IPlayer has a treat for Archaeology Buffs here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/collections/p018818x/archaeology-at-the-bbc Featuring the oh-so BBC presentation and style of early TV, with characters such as Sir Mortimer Wheeler, and a young Magnus Magnusson. Of course the programmes are historical features in themselves, with live recordings, BBC English plummy dialogue, 4:3 ratio, black and white, and 405 lines, but none the less still enjoyable IMHO. I particularly enjoyed the following from 1954: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01819j0/Buried_Treasure_The_Peat_Bog_Murder_Mystery/ - not least for the Bronze Age cooking spot and a fashion show featuring a rather embarrassed young model trying to hide her long legs in a very short Norse number that would not be reprised until the mid nineteen sixties! But there are 24 to choose from altogether...

It's the best mushroom spring for many years. Fairy Ring Champignons, St Georges Mushroom, Blewits and the first Horse Mushroom of 2012 have appeared in the local playing fields of West London, and ended up in soups, fry-ups and preserved in jars of oil. Collecting well over a pound weight a day for the last week. All easy to find because of the rings of lush grass giving away the position of the mushrooms, even if hidden by the grass. Mostly due to the rains in April and May, but also due to the warm March kick-start. The cool damp weather keeps the fungus flies at bay too. Just hope the council grasscutters keep off too!