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CU: Early life on Earth supported by faint sun
Jul 21st
Solving the “faint young sun paradox” — explaining how early Earth was warm and habitable for life beginning more than 3 billion years ago even though the sun was 20 percent dimmer than today — may not be as difficult as believed, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
In fact, two CU-Boulder researchers say all that may have been required to sustain liquid water and primitive life on Earth during the Archean eon 2.8 billion years ago were reasonable atmospheric carbon dioxide amounts believed to be present at the time and perhaps a dash of methane. The key to the solution was the use of sophisticated three-dimensional climate models that were run for thousands of hours on CU’s Janus supercomputer, rather than crude, one-dimensional models used by almost all scientists attempting to solve the paradox, said doctoral student Eric Wolf, lead study author.
“It’s really not that hard in a three-dimensional climate model to get average surface temperatures during the Archean that are in fact moderate,” said Wolf, a doctoral student in CU-Boulder’s atmospheric and oceanic sciences department. “Our models indicate the Archean climate may have been similar to our present climate, perhaps a little cooler. Even if Earth was sliding in and out of glacial periods back then, there still would have been a large amount of liquid water in equatorial regions, just like today.”
Evolutionary biologists believe life arose on Earth as simple cells roughly 3.5 billion years ago, about a billion years after the planet is thought to have formed. Scientists have speculated the first life may have evolved in shallow tide pools, freshwater ponds, freshwater or deep-sea hydrothermal vents, or even arrived on objects from space.
A cover article by Wolf and Toon on the topic appears in the July issue of Astrobiology. The study was funded by two NASA grants and by the National Science Foundation, which supports CU-Boulder’s Janus supercomputer used for the study.
Scientists have been trying to solve the faint young sun paradox since 1972, when Cornell University scientist Carl Sagan — Toon’s doctoral adviser at the time — and colleague George Mullen broached the subject. Since then there have been many studies using 1-D climate models to try to solve the faint young sun paradox — with results ranging from a hot, tropical Earth to a “snowball Earth” with runaway glaciation — none of which have conclusively resolved the problem.
“In our opinion, the one-dimensional models of early Earth created by scientists to solve this paradox are too simple — they are essentially taking the early Earth and reducing it to a single column atmospheric profile,” said Toon. “One-dimensional models are simply too crude to give an accurate picture.”
Wolf and Toon used a general circulation model known as the Community Atmospheric Model version 3.0 developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder and which contains 3-D atmosphere, ocean, land, cloud and sea ice components. The two researchers also “tuned up” the model with a sophisticated radiative transfer component that allowed for the absorption, emission and scattering of solar energy and an accurate calculation of the greenhouse effect for the unusual atmosphere of early Earth, where there was no oxygen and no ozone, but lots of CO2 and possibly methane.
The simplest solution to the faint sun paradox, which duplicates Earth’s present climate, involves maintaining roughly 20,000 parts per million of the greenhouse gas CO2 and 1,000 ppm of methane in the ancient atmosphere some 2.8 billion years ago, said Wolf. While that may seem like a lot compared to today’s 400 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere, geological studies of ancient soil samples support the idea that CO2 likely could have been that high during that time period. Methane is considered to be at least 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2 and could have played a significant role in warming the early Earth as well, said the CU researchers.
There are other reasons to believe that CO2 was much higher in the Archean, said Toon, who along with Wolf is associated with CU’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The continental area of Earth was smaller back then so there was less weathering of the land and a lower release of minerals to the oceans. As a result there was a smaller conversion of CO2 to limestone in the ocean. Likewise, there were no “rooted” land plants in the Archean, which could have accelerated the weathering of the soils and indirectly lowered the atmospheric abundance of CO2, Toon said.
Another solution to achieving a habitable but slightly cooler climate under the faint sun conditions is for the Archean atmosphere to have contained roughly 15,000 to 20,000 ppm of CO2 and no methane, said Wolf. “Our results indicate that a weak version of the faint young sun paradox, requiring only that some portion of the planet’s surface maintain liquid water, may be resolved with moderate greenhouse gas inventories,” the authors wrote in Astrobiology.
“Even if half of Earth’s surface was below freezing back in the Archean and half was above freezing, it still would have constituted a habitable planet since at least 50 percent of the ocean would have remained open,” said Wolf. “Most scientists have not considered that there might have been a middle ground for the climate of the Archean.
“The leap from one-dimensional to three-dimensional models is an important step,” said Wolf. “Clouds and sea ice are critical factors in determining climate, but the one-dimensional models completely ignore them.”
Has the faint young sun paradox finally been solved? “I don’t want to be presumptuous here,” said Wolf. “But we show that the paradox is definitely not as challenging as was believed over the past 40 years. While we can’t say definitively what the atmosphere looked like back then without more geological evidence, it is certainly not a stretch at all with our model to get a warm early Earth that would have been hospitable to life.”
“The Janus supercomputer has been a tremendous addition to the campus, and this early Earth climate modeling project would have impossible without it,” said Toon. The researchers estimated the project required roughly 6,000 hours of supercomputer computation time, an effort equal to about 10 years on a home computer.
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CU Leeds School of Business: Positive, broad-based job growth forecast for Colorado in 2013
Dec 3rd
Colorado will continue on the road to recovery and add a variety of jobs in 2013 across almost all business sectors following a positive year in 2012, according to economist Richard Wobbekind of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.
Wobbekind’s announcement is part of the 48th annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook Forum presented Dec. 3 by the Business Research Division of the Leeds School.
The comprehensive outlook for 2013 features forecasts and trends for 13 business sectors prepared by more than 100 key business, government and industry professionals.
“For the state, we see a very positive environment for 2013,” said Wobbekind, executive director of the Business Research Division. “We’re seeing a wide array of jobs being added and they’re diversifying our state economy.”
Overall, the forecast calls for a gain of 42,100 jobs in 2013, compared with a gain of about 47,900 jobs this year. All sectors of the Colorado economy are predicted to grow in 2013 with the exception of the information sector, which includes publishing and telecommunications.
When comparing the Leeds School forecast to employment outlooks for other states, Colorado is expected to be in the top 10 states for job growth in 2013 and perhaps in the top six or seven, according to Wobbekind.
Even with positive job growth projected for the state, Wobbekind said uncertainty from national and international factors will play a role in slowing growth during the first and second quarters of 2013. More momentum will occur in the second half of the year.
“Resolution of the so-called fiscal cliff and the resolution of the European debt crisis will have impacts on the national economy and that will filter down to the state level,” said Wobbekind. “Once that uncertainty gets resolved, we then expect business investments to start flowing again and consumers to start making decisions based on a known environment. We think the recovery will be quite a bit smoother after that.”
The strongest sector for projected job growth in Colorado in 2013 is the educational and health services sector. The sector is expected to add 7,600 jobs in 2013.
In addition, other leading growth sectors for 2013 include the professional and business services sector with 7,400 jobs added and leisure and hospitality with 5,000 workers added, mostly in the areas of accommodation and food services.
The trade, transportation and utilities sector is the largest provider of jobs in Colorado. It includes everything from wholesale and retail trade to a variety of transportation features such as the Denver International Airport and gas pipelines, as well as utilities. The sector is expected to grow 1.4 percent in 2013 with the addition of 5,600 jobs.
The construction sector is expected to grow by 6,300 jobs in 2013 — up from a 2,800-job increase this year — and produce $12.6 billion in total value of construction. While the biggest surprise in the sector is the demand for infrastructure work, the number of new multifamily units built is a contributing factor to the increase, among others.
Commenting on the overall forecast, Wobbekind said, “It’s great to be giving positive news to people year after year. Confidence levels nationally are at their highest levels in five years. We’re really starting to see a lot more optimism on the part of the average person on the street about the future.”
Colorado’s unemployment rate is expected to decrease from 8 percent in 2012 to 7.4 percent in 2013, which is comparatively better than the national unemployment rate.
Colorado’s population grew by 1.4 percent, or 71,000 people, in 2012 and is projected to increase by 1.5 percent, or 77,500 people, in 2013. Roughly half of the increase will derive from net migration, or the increase of people moving to the state.
To view the entire economic outlook for Colorado in 2013, including an overview of each of the state’s major economic sectors, visit http://leeds.colorado.edu/BRD and click on the Colorado Business Economic Outlook 2013 icon.
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Yes, GM will loan you a Corvette if you’re scared your Chevy Volt will catch fire
Nov 29th
2012 Corvette to replace burned up Volt Woot!
By Ray Wert
Yes, GM will loan you a Corvette if you’re scared your Chevy Volt will catch fire
With news of more Chevy Volt battery packs catching fire after NHTSA crash testing, General Motors yesterday made an unprecedented damage-controlling offer: Any Volt owner concerned about safety can request a free GM vehicle loan until the issue’s resolved. Yes, any car. Even a Corvette.
Chevy Volt burns garage to ground
Earlier today, we received the official letter Mark Reuss, President of General Motors North America, is sending to all current Volt owners (they’ll also receive a follow-up phone call from their Volt Advisor — a dedicated GM employee on standby for the duration of their ownership to help them with any problems with the car). The full text of the letter’s below.
The letter includes news that GM will offer a GM loaner to any Volt owner worried about driving their car can drive a loaner car from GM until the situation’s resolved. But the verbiage in the letter — “we will provide you a GM vehicle” — piqued my curiosity.
What car would the General be handing out to owners of the automaker’s green machine? Any car GM makes? So… could you get a Corvette?
We’re not the only ones asking that question. So are several members of some of GM’s online fan forums. One forumite at GM-Volt.com said:
“I would temporally take a Corvette during the investigation. Other than that….. They aint takin my Volt!!!!”
So we called up a couple of folks at GM to find out — can you get a Corvette loaner if you’re scared your Chevy Volt will explode into a fireball after sitting in a wet parking lot for three weeks after a car accident?
It turns out the answer is yes. GM will absolutely put you in a Corvette if that’s what you so desire.
“Theoretically if you wanted to get into a Corvette, the customer’s Volt Advisor will work to get them into one,” said GM spokesperson and part-time genie in a bottle, Greg Martin.
“Obviously the intent of this program is not to provide a long-term Corvette test drive, but our priority is to make sure the customer is satisfied.”
But Martin says that they’re not concerned about a rush of owners running to grab a Corvette ZR1 or a Camaro SS for a multi-month green reprieve. Mostly because the type of person who buys a Volt presumably isn’t interested in high horsepower for the type of drives they’re taking in a Volt.
Pity. Because although I’m a fan of the Volt as a daily driver in semi-urban areas with adequate electric infrastructure, I also know I’d be even more satisfied with a multi-month “Volt vacation” in a Corvette if I were an owner.
But I do have to admit that this is a very shrewd PR move by GM and the Volt team. It’s nice to see a company once known for “turtling up” in their shell-like Detroit bunker at the first sign of a problem finally being proactive and standing by their product.
Here’s the full text of the letter from Reuss:
Dear Volt Owner,
You may have seen the recent news articles regarding the NHTSA’s (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) safety investigation of the Chevrolet Volt. I’m writing you today with more details that, I think, will put things in perspective and make you feel better about your Volt.
First and foremost, I want to assure you of one very important thing: the Volt is a safe car. The Volt continues to have a 5 star overall vehicle score for safety in NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program. It was also given a Top Safety Pick Award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
There are good reasons the Volt is safe. Our team has put more than one million miles into making the Chevrolet Volt as safe as it is remarkable. After all, our families, neighbors, co-workers and friends are among those who own the cars we’re tasked with designing, engineering and manufacturing.
Here are the facts behind the most recent news articles. In May, the NHTSA ran one of its most severe crash tests at a test facility in Wisconsin. The Volt battery was damaged and the coolant line was ruptured. Three weeks later, an electrical fire involving the test vehicle occurred.
NHSTA, working with GM engineers, has been running a program of severe impact and intrusion tests on Volt battery assemblies as part of its effort to understand and replicate the May 2011 incident. Thanksgiving night, NHTSA told us that one of the batteries tested was involved in an electrical fire similar to the one that took place in Wisconsin. As a result NHTSA has begun a preliminary investigation of Chevrolet Volt battery assemblies.
We are aware of no real world consumer incidents that have produced a similar result. These recent tests show a very rare set of circumstances: A severe impact resulting in the battery and coolant lines being compromised. And then the passing of a significant amount of time before an electrical fire may take place.
The Volt is as safe as conventional vehicles for its occupants – before, during and immediately after a crash. When electrical energy is left in a battery after a severe crash it can be similar to leaving gasoline in a leaking fuel tank after severe damage. It’s important to drain the energy from the battery after a crash that compromises the battery’s integrity. GM and NHTSA’s focus and research continue to be on battery performance, handling, storage and disposal after a crash.
Even though there have been no customer incidents, we’re taking steps to ensure your peace of mind. If you are in any way uncomfortable driving your Volt as a result of this information, we want to make it right. We will provide you a GM vehicle to drive until this issue is resolved. Contact your Volt Advisor to make arrangements or to answer your questions. If you are not aware of your specific Volt Advisor, the contact information is: phone: 877-4-VOLT-INFO (877-486-5846) email: Voltda101@gmexpert.com.
We take enormous pride in Volt and what it represents-a new era of electric vehicles that can reduce dependence on gas, reduce air pollution, and more. On-going collaboration between the government, manufacturers and other stakeholders will enhance post crash protocols and accelerate acceptance of electric vehicles.
There is nothing more important to us at General Motors than the safety of our customers. We will continue to aid the NHTSA investigation in every way possible.
We stand 100% behind the quality and safety of the Chevrolet Volt – now and always.
Thank you for being a Volt owner. By the way I am also a Volt owner, my daughter drives it every day and she will continue to do so.
Mark Reuss
President GM North America and Volt Owner (#1457)
