Channel 1 Networks
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Posts by Channel 1 Networks
Alert! Crocus sticks head out of ground in North Boulder Home Spring has sprung
Jan 18th

Though mid January does seem a bit early for Boulder, it is more typical than not. Crocus will continue to pop up and will be full bloom in March.
Firefighters rescue three dogs from icy waters in two days
Jan 18th
Boulder Fire Rescue personnel would like to remind the public that there are significant dangers associated with venturing onto lakes, ponds and creeks that appear frozen. While most people understand these dangers, pets do not. Owners are reminded to keep their dogs on leashes to prevent them from going onto the ice.
In the past two days, Boulder fire crews have responded to three animal rescue calls: one at Admiral Arleigh A. Burke Park at Mohawk and Pawnee drives and two at a lake near Table Mesa and South Loop drives. In each case, dogs that were not leashed walked onto the ice and fell through. All three were rescued with the help of firefighters who had to go out on the ice to pull them out. In each case, divers were mobilized in the event that they were needed.
The Front Range is susceptible to rapidly fluctuating temperatures, which can lead to unsafe ice conditions. Although ice may appear to be thick in some spots, it is likely to be much thinner over other parts of the water and may not be capable of supporting weight. Ice that was thick one day may melt significantly with just a few hours of warmer weather.
“Just one day can make a big difference. Making the rescues today was much more difficult than yesterday,” said Battalion Chief Gil Espinoza. “We care about dogs, but every time a firefighter goes out onto the ice, we are taking a risk.”
Firefighters would like to ask pet owners to keep their dogs out of harm’s way in the first place, by leashing them around bodies of water this time of year.
If your animal falls through ice, call 9-1-1 immediately so that emergency personnel can respond. If the ice was not thick enough to support your pet, it will not be thick enough to support you.
Do not attempt to go onto the ice or rescue your animal yourself. You are risking hypothermia which is a life-threatening condition. After even just a few minutes in cold water your heart, lungs and kidney functions can be compromised and even fatal. Even after a person has exited the water, hypothermia symptoms may exist.
Remember, by trying to save your dog, you are risking your own life. Call 9-1-1 for fire rescue response instead.
People are urged to stay off ice on any natural bodies of water in the City of Boulder unless the area has been posted and approved for ice-related recreational activities.
Scientists Boulder IMPROVED MEASUREMENTS OF SUN TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Jan 15th
In a new study of laboratory and satellite data, researchers report a lower value of that energy, known as total solar irradiance, than previously measured and demonstrate that the satellite instrument that made the measurement—which has a new optical design and was calibrated in a new way—has significantly improved the accuracy and consistency of such measurements.
The new findings give confidence, the researchers say, that other, newer satellites expected to launch starting early this year will measure total solar irradiance with adequate repeatability – and with little enough uncertainty – to help resolve the long-standing question of how significant a contributor solar fluctuations are to the rising average global temperature of the planet.
“Improved accuracies and stabilities in the long-term total solar irradiance record mean improved estimates of the sun’s influence on Earth’s climate,” said Greg Kopp
of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) of the University of Colorado Boulder.
Kopp, who led the study, and Judith Lean of the Naval Research Laboratory, in Washington, D.C., published their findings today in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
The new work will help advance scientists’ ability to understand the contribution of natural versus anthropogenic causes of climate change, the scientists said. That’s because the research improves the accuracy of the continuous, 32-year record of total solar irradiance, or TSI. Energy from the sun is the primary energy input driving Earth’s climate, which scientific consensus indicates has been warming since the Industrial Revolution.
Lean specializes in the effects of the sun on climate and space weather. She said, “Scientists estimating Earth’s climate sensitivities need accurate and stable solar irradiance records to know exactly how much warming to attribute to changes in the sun’s output, versus anthropogenic or other natural forcings.”
The new, lower TSI value was measured by the LASP-built Total Irradiance Monitor (TIM) instrument on the NASA Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) spacecraft. Tests at a new calibration facility at LASP verify the lower TSI value. The ground-based calibration facility enables scientists to validate their instruments under on-orbit conditions against a reference standard calibrated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Before the development of the calibration facility, solar irradiance instruments would frequently return different measurements from each other, depending on their calibration. To maintain a long-term record of the sun’s output through time, scientists had to rely on overlapping measurements that allowed them to intercalibrate among instruments.
Kopp said, “The calibration facility indicates that the TIM is producing the most accurate total solar irradiance results to date, providing a baseline value that allows us to make the entire 32-year record more accurate. This baseline value will also help ensure that we can maintain this important climate data record for years into the future, reducing the risks from a potential gap in spacecraft measurements.”
Lean said, “We are eager to see how this lower irradiance value affects global climate models, which use various parameters to reproduce current climate: incoming solar radiation is a decisive factor. An improved and extended solar data record will make it easier for us to understand how fluctuations in the sun’s energy output over time affect temperatures, and how Earth’s climate responds to radiative forcing.”
Lean’s model, which is now adjusted to the new lower absolute TSI values, reproduces with high fidelity the TSI variations that TIM observes and indicates that solar irradiance levels during the recent prolonged solar minimum period were likely comparable to levels in past solar minima. Using this model, Lean estimates that solar variability produces about 0.1o Celsius (0.18o Fahrenheit) global warming during the 11-year solar cycle, but is likely not the main cause of global warming in the past three decades.
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Notes for Journalists
Journalists and public information officers (PIOs) of educational and scientific institutions who have registered with AGU can download a PDF copy of this paper in press by clicking on this link:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010GL045777/abstract;jsessionid=7AE633544C9A94E3832D9F67B4F39D70.d02t02
Or, you may order a copy of the final paper by emailing your request to Peter Weiss at pweiss@agu.org. Please provide your name, the name of your publication, and your phone number.
Neither the paper nor this press release are under embargo.
Title:
“A new, lower value of total solar irradiance: Evidence and climate significance”
Authors:
Greg Kopp: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder,
Colorado, USA;
Judith L. Lean: Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D. C., USA.