Saturday, July 17, 2010

We're alright, Jack


and thanks for the ice.

*from cyrosphere today, 7/15/2010

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eli, this is most disturbing. Please put the image the right way up.

Richard C

Ron Broberg said...

In extent and concentration, there isn't anything unusual (by the bar of the last few years) to see here. But I like the pretty colors.

carrot-eating cockroach said...

I don't get it.

Horatio Algeranon said...

Horatio was under the impression that Global Warming was a Bourbon Myth.

But Jack prolly works just dandy, too.

J Bowers said...

Can't say I'm convinced we're alright to be honest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjaVp6AS5XU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjaVp6AS5XU

bluegrue said...

Uh-oh! Gentlebunnies, we are witnessing the beginning of Beaufortgate. Any second now McIntyre is going to investigate the use of the upside-down Beaufort Sea to cast doubt on the sea ice anomalies.

Apart from that, I'm with carrot-eating cockroach.

carrot eater said...

Just so there's no confusion, the carrot-eating cockroach is me.

And not because I've recently read die Verwandlung.

EliRabett said...

Eli always knew you had a lot of Archy in you kid.

carrot eating cockroach said...

Well, keep in mind that Watts clarified, to let us know we were only metaphorical cockroaches. That was helpful, to know that Watts doesn't think we literally crawl around on 6 legs.

carrot eating cockroach said...

hmm, blogger must have rejected my faux tags.

Anyway, I had no idea what was Archy, but wikipedia led me to this gem

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5838/571

Deech56 said...

archy and mehitabel

Roach56

AnonymousToProtectMyCandyAss said...

The picture is pretty and all, but does it really matter? This is like all those who follow the NSDIC curve looking for every squiggly deviation from a very smooth line.

Did not almost all the ice experts just last month predict that this year's extent would be larger than last year's?

carrot eating cockroach said...

I still don't understand why I'm supposed to be looking at the pretty picture. I do like the tilt though, reminiscent of .. was it Nils-Axel Moerner?

Anonymous said...

It looks like a bunny!

Tom W.

Anonymous said...

Dinna forget young William changed the scale a while back. Still, those terra and Aquis pictures showing so much of the pack as chopped up ice do look a little scary, 'cept when I mistakes the cloud for good ice.

Little Mouse

carrot eating cockroach said...

what sort of mutant fluorescent bunnies do you guys hang out with

Anonymous said...

Scaredy Mouse says to run some 30-day movies. The ice circulation changed in early July and is no longer shedding as quickly out of Fram Strait; but it's being pushed into the Beaufort Sea which is relatively far south. The ice seems to be drifting way too fast. At any rate, I expect to see wildly changing values for ice extent, which probably says more about Arctic ice conditions than total extent.

Doug Mackie said...

In particular, this from archy is, IMHO, worth a read.

http://www.donmarquis.com/readingroom/archybooks/ants.html

(word preview before edit was beetl)

Anonymous said...

Obviously the good professor is experiencing a late period change of life. The image is indeed that of a mutant fluorescent (playboy) bunny.

Proper response: “Yes sir - you’re still cool, or you would have been until the Archy reference.” (My dad was an A&M fan…I never got it)

Or:

Goddard and Watts have made us Archies look at CT way too many times to check on reality and the color choices there have taken a heavy toll on the perceptions of Professor.

Possible response: “Hey look: If you stand back and cross your eyes slightly you can see 2 whales, a dolphin and a panda playing poker in 3D!”

Or:

“Jack” is an insider’s reference to the honorable Dr. “Jack” Rorschach, and this was a sneaky little professorly test.

Appropriate response: “Oops, I failed”

arch stanton

jyyh said...

(using ski slope classification - Rabettology, black diamond)

EliRabett said...

Good lord, does Eli have to lead you by the link all the time.

Horatio Algeranon said...

The Jack is most definitely working.

Anther couple shots and it will be a piranha

Anonymous said...

I thought sea ice was white.

Richard C

Paul Klemencic said...

I still think it looks more like the Playboy bunny (head) than a prawn. Just MHO.

carrot eating cockroach said...

Rabett Run: where obscurity is a feature, not a bug.

EliRabett said...

Hey, even obscurity isn't all it's cracked up to be. OTOH, it ain't a bad hog's head, if you like hog's heads.

Horatio Algeranon said...

Rabett Run: where Bugs is a feature, not an obscurity.

Antiquated Tory said...

Totally and completely off topic, but could someone who understands atmospheric physics please, please, please look at this space.com article on collapse of the thermosphere and shine some light into the dark cave of ignorance that is the comments? http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/puzzling-collapse-earth-atmosphere-100715.html#comments
Should I cross post to RC? Can someone just drop someone an email? I know about 50% of what I'd need to comment in that thread, but I'm a bloody cultural anthropologist/tech writer.

carrot eating cockroach said...

antiquated:

what particular question would you like to know more about? taking a glance, it looks as if people are confused how CO2 can cause cooling in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. If that's what you need more about, well.. stratospheric cooling due to CO2 is a subtle thing, and not terribly easy to explain in a way that's both essentially correct and simple. Many have tried.. Eli has, somewhere round here. This site is sort of a stand-by. http://www.atmosphere.mpg.de/enid/20c.html

I must admit I never thought of it in the thermosphere before this week.

EliRabett said...

Hi AQ, The thermosphere is about 100km and up. It is "supported" by energy from particle collisions and really energetic UV from the sun. If this stuff is low, as it is in a solar minimum, the thermosphere cools and contracts, but this time it went to zilch. Details at 11 (google thermosphere collapse and look for reputable links (NASA, etc.)

Rattus Norvegicus said...

In case anyone wanted an example of what a nasty, petty little man Steve McIntyre is click on the link.

The guy is a first class bastard who personalizes every slight he receives. What a wanker.

chek said...

Rattus - wrt McIntyre, you left out "with delusions of competence", a quality Schneider quite rightly seems to have been very aware of.

Deech56 said...

I'm curious: which source code that is publicly available has McI audited? The availability of code seems to be important to him.

Anonymous said...

http://www.elfwood.com/~stephie/Red-Winged-Rabbit.3254844.html

Little Mouse

Antiquated Tory said...

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually got off my butt and went through RC archives until I found that enid page that carrot eater kindly suggested, and I posted that to space.com.
Eli, I've looked at the NASA site and the issue is that the collapse of the thermosphere seems to be greater than what would be expected from the solar minimum, or even the solar minimum + CO2.

carrot eater said...

Tory:

RC archives? Why should it be in there? Actually be careful, as RC has an ill-fated attempt at explaining stratospheric cooling. They did put a note at the top, saying it's not any good.

Right, the scientific issue is that the magnitude of the collapse is unexpected and as of yet inexplicable. So somebody somewhere has gotten to work, trying to figure it out. Rome wasn't built in a day.