Climatological software produced for massive use

Comprehending the weather behavior might not be as complicated as once thought, and is needed to possess more elements for making decisions and protection against disasters, as severe weather or typhoons.

Scientists in the National Autonomous College of Mexico (UNAM) offer for anybody the chance to understand their community, condition or country's weather activity for today and several weeks ahead.

Several specialists from the middle of Environment Geography Research (CIGA) designed the program Moclic (Monitoring Global Warming) trough that is easy to organize, store and operate geo-recommended data from climate elements.

Francisco Bautista Z??iga, investigator at CIGA and mind of Monoclic project, highlights the software enables an agronomist to acquire annual rain fall records and relate these to the crops production figures for explanation of the possible event.

"Likewise, can be done to recognize desiccation processes inside a region, which will come helpful when thinking about using enhanced seed products that may resist droughts, or even the optimisation of rainwater catching techniques, storage or kinds of irrigation.

"A health care provider can acquire details about the weather habits of specific amounts of time to understand the behaviour of intestinal illnesses in a few climate conditions,Inch describes Bautista Z??iga.

He highlights that understanding the habits concerning the change of atmospheric conditions is required by every federal entity, since it can benefit taking measures just before a potential ton.

Moclic can calculate bio and agroclimatic indications, for example humidity, aridity, rain erosion and rain fall concentration.

The program was created for Home windows, searching to favor functionality for that user. It eats data from weather stations in almost any condition or country, unlike current software which use global information, that what goes on in a tiny ranch regarding temperature could be known more precisely and anticipate the utmost, minimum and average records.

"Using Moclic with local information is crucial because global models don't include land relief nor closeness to ocean data, amongst others. The program really is easy and could be utilized by making decisions figures, as governors, dog breeders, doctors, maqui berry farmers, students, or anybody whose consequences might have economic, politic or social effects."

Moclic was design by specialist in the CIGA using the participation of professors in the Superior Technological Institute of Tac?mbaro, Michoac?n. Because of its commercialization, Bautista Z??iga is creating a company with global achieve, because the software continues to be asked for within the Usa, Europe and South america.

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Thin, low Arctic clouds played an important role in the massive 2012 Greenland ice melt

April 3, 2013

The ICECAPS Mobile Science Facility at Summit Station against a backdrop of Arctic clouds. ICECAPS is short for Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state and Precipitation.

Download here (Credit: CIRES/University of Colorado )

Clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were “just right” for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point, according to a new study by scientists at NOAA and the Universities of Wisconsin, Idaho and Colorado. The study, published today in Nature, found that thin, low-lying clouds allowed the sun’s energy to pass through and warm the surface of the ice, while at the same time trapping heat near the surface of the ice cap. This combination played a significant role in last summer's record-breaking melt.

“Thicker cloud conditions would not have led to the same amount of surface warming,” said Matthew Shupe, research meteorologist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado and the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. “To understand the region’s future, you’ll need to understand its clouds. Our finding has implications for the fate of ice throughout the Arctic.”

Scientists around the world are trying to understand how quickly Greenland is warming because ice melt there contributes to sea level rise globally. The Greenland Ice Sheet is second only to Antarctica in ice volume. In July, more than 97 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet surface experienced some degree of melting, including at the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station, high atop the ice sheet. According to ice core records, the last time the surface at Summit experienced any degree of melting was in 1889, but it is not known whether this extended across the entire ice sheet.

To investigate whether clouds contributed to, or counteracted, the surface warming that melted the ice, the authors modeled the near-surface conditions. The model was based on observations from a suite of sophisticated atmospheric sensors operated as part of a study called the Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric State and Precipitation at Summit.

“The July 2012 ice melt was triggered by an influx of unusually warm air sweeping in from North America, but that was only one factor,” said David Turner, research meteorologist with the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory and one of the lead investigators. “In our paper, we show that low-lying clouds containing a low amount of condensed water were instrumental in pushing surface air temperatures up above freezing and causing the surface ice to melt.”

Clouds can cool the surface by reflecting solar energy back into space, and can warm it by radiating heat energy back down to the surface. The balance of those two processes depends on many factors, including wind speed, turbulence, humidity and cloud “thickness,” or liquid water content.

In certain conditions, these clouds can be thin enough to allow some solar radiation to pass through, while still “trapping” infrared radiation at ground level. That is exactly what happened last July: the clouds were just right for maximum surface warming. Thicker clouds would have reflected away more solar radiation; thinner ones couldn’t have trapped as much heat, and in either of those cases, there would have been less surface warming.

The researchers also found these thin, low-lying liquid clouds occur 30 to 50 percent of the time in summer, both over Greenland and across the Arctic. Current climate models tend to underestimate their occurrence in the Arctic, which limits those models’ ability to predict how clouds and their warming or cooling effects may respond to climate change.

“The cloud properties and atmospheric processes observed with the Summit Station instrument array provide a unique dataset to answer the large range of scientific questions we want to address,” said Turner. “Clouds play a big role in the surface mass and energy budgets over the Greenland Ice Sheet. Melting of the world’s major ice sheets can significantly impact human and environmental conditions via its contribution to sea-level rise.”

Better understanding of clouds also improves climate models.

“Our results may help to explain some of the difficulties that current global climate models have in simulating the Arctic surface energy budget, including the contributions of clouds,” said Ralf Bennartz, lead author for the study and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Above all, this study highlights the importance of continuous and detailed ground-based observations over the Greenland Ice Sheet and elsewhere. Only such detailed observations will lead to a better understanding of the processes that drive Arctic climate.”

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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Massive storm that tore through Alaska moves into Rockies (Reuters)

(Reuters) – The hurricane-like storm that tore through Alaska earlier this week moved into the Rocky Mountains on Saturday, triggering winter storm and high wind warnings across the region.

Corey Mead, a meteorologist at the National Storm Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said the system, which was likened to a Category 3 hurricane when it hit Alaska on Thursday, had weakened as it moved south.

But he said it still remained "fairly strong" and was already causing isolated blizzard-like conditions in some parts of the northern Rockies.

Otherwise, weather conditions across the continental United States were relatively quiet.

The only exception was in the southern high plains, especially eastern New Mexico, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, where Mead said high winds and low humidity were raising the risk of wildfires.

Over the past year, firefighters in Texas have responded to more than 20,000 fires that have burned a record 3.5 million acres, prompting the Texas Forest Service to declare this the worst fire season in the state's history.

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher)

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Joplin Residents Live to Describe Inside of Massive Tornado (ContributorNetwork)

The Joplin Globe reports a rare occurrence and yet another amazing story to come out of the EF5 tornado that destroyed large part of Joplin, Mo. Three amateur storm chasers were out trying to track the storm May 22, 2011, when the tornado grew too big for them to chase.

As Eric Parker, his sister Kaylee Parker and their friend Mac Wright were taking shelter from the tornado at a local liquor store, Kaylee Parker was able to get a glimpse of the inside of the mammoth twister.

"I look up and saw these vortexes, and saw debris flying the in the air. It looked like I could see blue sky at the top," Kaylee told the Globe .

Her description sounds like it's from a movie. If you've seen the movie "Twister " you know exactly what Parker is talking about. Towards the end of the movie, both main characters witness the inside of a huge F5 tornado which matches Parker's view from the inside of the storm.

Scientists from the National Weather Service say the tornado was so wide, an eye could have formed that was several hundred yards wide. Much like the eye of a hurricane, the middle of a slow-moving tornado provides a dramatic and relative calm for a few seconds before the wall of the tornado hits again. This wall barrier also contains the highest winds in the tornado.

Radar hits near enough to tornadoes over the past 10 years have provided meteorologist with a computerized look at the inside of a tornado. Eyewitness accounts verify the radar's probing of the twisters.

As rare as this sight is for human eyes, others in Joplin reported seeing the same blue sky inside the funnel. It was a scarce combination of the size, damaging winds and slow movement of the tornado that allowed witnesses to both survive and see the tornado. Once debris was pulled away from houses where people were taking shelter, they could see the full fury of the storm.

All of these stories, eyewitness accounts and scientific appraisals of the tornado that hit Joplin will hopefully make our scientific understanding of nature's most powerful storms. If knowledge gained from the event saves one human life in the future, then the 150 people who died would not have done so in vain.

Even six weeks after the tornado struck, more amazing stories continue to come out of the debris. Every person's story is valuable and worth repeating in memory of those lives that were lost.

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