Global Climate Change Research Explorer

NASA releases iPad app for science research

NASA has launched an iPad application for those interested in Earth science.

Dubbed the NASA Visualization Explorer , the application delivers real-satellite data, including movies and stills, of Earth, that enable users to learn a bit more about the "natural world." Short stories accompany the videos and stills to explain what users are seeing and why it's important.

"The app will explore stories of climate change, Earth's dynamic systems, plant life on land and in the oceans--all of the small and large stories captured in data by NASA satellites and then visualized," Michael Starobin, a senior producer at the Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement.

"Science should be accessible to everyone, and visualization reveals the meaning and value of the often intangible, but essential, data delivered by NASA's research efforts," Starobin continued. "Data visualization makes information immediately visual and understandable when it otherwise might go unnoticed."

In addition to visualizations, the app also comes with six editorial features related to Earth science. According to NASA, two new editorials will be added each week. The organization also said it might include stories about the sun and solar system at some point.

Last September, the space agency launched its NASA App HD , which features thousands of images from its image bank, as well as video documentaries. NASA also offers an iPhone app with the same features.

The free NASA Visualization Explorer is available now in Apple's App Store.

The character of climate change part 1 « Climate Change

Figure 1 records global temperature as it runs between its minimum in January and maximum in July. Vital information is lost when we reduce the data stream to a computed mean (maximum plus minimum/2). But that vital information is retained in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Evolution of Global temperature from 1948 to early 2011 Source: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/cgi-bin/data/timeseries/timeseries1.pl

Observations in relation to figure 1

The global maximum and minimum moved up and down for thirty years between 1950 and 1980 but without establishing a clear upward or downward trend despite the increase in so-called greenhouse gases over the period.  After 1978 the minimum began to advance but not as fast as the maximum, The minimum is much more volatile than the maximum.

The Earth is closest to the sun in January and this is the time when the ocean, most of it in the southern hemisphere, is best illuminated. The year-to-year variability in the January minimum is patently unrelated to ‘greenhouse factors’ that exhibit a monotonic increase over time. What causes this variation in the January minimum? A likely candidate is a variation in the degree of illumination of the southern oceans as cloud comes and goes

How do we decide what is ‘good’?

The average between the daily maximum and the minimum is commonly reported as the ‘mean’. The mean temperature is averaged over the globe to derive the average temperature for the globe as a whole. A change in the mean can be due to change in minima or maxima. As is seen in figure 1 the maximum can change independently of the minimum.

For practical purposes it is the transition between the extremes that is important to agriculture, trade, commerce and human habitation. We find the extremes ‘remarkable’. However it is the length of the period of favorable weather between the extremes that determines whether plants will grow and mature well or poorly. The period of sunlight within the day influences the rate of photosynthesis and respiration. But, unless the air is warm plants will not grow. The same consideration applies when we consider the growing season as a whole. The mean temperature actually tells us very little about the habitability of the planet.