Weather
Boulder weather from Boulder Channel 1 News : Includes latest up to the minute weather forecasts from Nationals Weather Service in Boulder. Team coverage from Boulder Channel 1 News during Snow, and floods. See our weather on Twitter @BoulderCh1News and FaceBook Boulder Channel one. Be a weather watcher: write Boulder.BoulderChannel1@gmail.com or call News 303-447-8531
CU Boulder researchers: You think it’s cold now?
Dec 5th
DEEP FREEZES, SAYS CU-BOULDER STUDY
Two University of Colorado Boulder researchers who have adapted a three-dimensional, general circulation model of Earth’s climate to a time some 2.8 billion years ago when the sun was significantly fainter than present think the planet may have been more prone to catastrophic glaciation than previously believed.
The new 3-D model of the Archean Eon on Earth that lasted from about 3.8 billion years to 2.5 billion years ago, incorporates interactions between the atmosphere, ocean, land, ice and hydrological cycles, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Eric Wolf of the atmospheric and oceanic sciences department. Wolf has been using the new climate model — which is based on the Community Earth System Model maintained by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder — in part to solve the “faint young sun paradox” that occurred several billion years ago when the sun’s output was only 70 to 80 percent of that today but when geologic evidence shows the climate was as warm or warmer than now..
In the past, scientists have used several types of one-dimensional climate models — none of which included clouds or dynamic sea ice — in an attempt to understand the conditions on early Earth that kept it warm and hospitable for primitive life forms. But the 1-D model most commonly used by scientists fixes Earth’s sea ice extent at one specific level through time despite periodic temperature fluctuations on the planet, said Wolf.
“The inclusion of dynamic sea ice makes it harder to keep the early Earth warm in our 3-D model,” Wolf said. “Stable, global mean temperatures below 55 degrees Fahrenheit are not possible, as the system will slowly succumb to expanding sea ice and cooling temperatures. As sea ice expands, the planet surface becomes highly reflective and less solar energy is absorbed, temperatures cool, and sea ice continues to expand.”
Wolf and CU-Boulder Professor Brian Toon are continuing to search for the heating mechanism that apparently kept Earth warm and habitable back then, as evidenced by liquid oceans and primordial life forms. While their calculations show an atmosphere containing 6 percent carbon dioxide could have done the trick by keeping the mean temperatures at 57 degrees F, geological evidence from ancient soils on early Earth indicate such high concentrations of CO2 were not present at the time.
The CU-Boulder researchers are now looking at cloud composition and formation, the hydrological cycle, movements of continental masses over time and heat transport through Earth’s system as other possible modes of keeping early Earth warm enough for liquid water to exist. Wolf gave a presentation on the subject at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting held Dec. 5-9 in San Francisco.
Toon said 1-D models essentially balance the amount of sunshine reaching the atmosphere, clouds, and Earth’s terrestrial and aquatic surfaces with the amount of “earthshine” being emitted back into the atmosphere, clouds, and space, primarily in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. “The advantage of a 3-D model is that the transport of energy across the planet and changes in all the components of the climate system can be considered in addition to the basic planetary energy balance.”
In the new 3-D model, preventing a planet-wide glaciation requires about three times more CO2 than predicted by the 1-D models, said Wolf. For all warm climate scenarios generated by the 3-D model, Earth’s mean temperature about 2.8 billion years ago was 5 to 10 degrees F warmer than the 1-D model, given the same abundance of greenhouse gases. “Nonetheless, the 3-D model indicates a roughly 55 degrees F mean temperature was still low enough to trigger a slide by early Earth into a runaway glacial event, causing what some scientists call a ‘Snowball Earth,’” said Wolf.
“The ultimate point of this study is to determine what Earth was like around the time that life arose and during the first half of the planet’s history,” said Toon. “It would have been shrouded by a reddish haze that would have been difficult to see through, and the ocean probably was a greenish color caused by dissolved iron in the oceans. It wasn’t a blue planet by any means.” By the end of the Archean Eon some 2.5 billion year ago, oxygen levels rose quickly, creating an explosion of new life on the planet, he said.
Testing the new 3-D model has required huge amounts of supercomputer computation time, said Toon, who also is affiliated with CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. A single calculation for the study run on CU-Boulder’s powerful new Janus supercomputer can take up to three months.
The CU-Boulder study was funded by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship to Wolf as well as a grant from the NASA Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program.
Toon will be presented with AGU’s Roger Revelle Medal for innovative work on the effects of aerosols on clouds and climate at the 2011 San Francisco meeting. The Revelle Medal is presented annually to a scientist who has shown outstanding accomplishments or contributions toward the understanding Earth’s climate systems
See what it’s like to be poor in Boulder County
Dec 2nd
Boulder County, Colo. – The Boulder County Circles Campaign will host a poverty simulation on Dec. 15 in Longmont to allow residents, members of the business community and representatives of local nonprofit agencies to understand the realities of poverty.
What: Poverty Simulation
When: Thursday, Dec. 15, 6-8 p.m.
Where: Longmont YMCA, 950 Lashley St.
During the simulation, participants role-play the lives of low-income families. Some are Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients, some are disabled, and some are senior citizens on Social Security. They have the stressful task of providing for basic necessities and shelter on a limited budget during the course of four 15-minute “weeks.” They interact with human service agencies, grocers, pawnbrokers, bill collectors, job interviewers, police officers and others..
The simulation enables participants to look at poverty from a variety of angles and then to recognize and discuss the potential for change within their local communities. The simulation was designed to sensitize those who frequently work with low-income families, as well as to create a broader awareness of the realities of poverty among policymakers, community leaders and others.
Please contact Kara Edin at 303-441-3977 or kedin@bouldercounty.org or Eliberto Mendoza at 303-441-1503 or emendoza@bouldercounty.org for additional information and to register.
The Circles Campaign is part of Boulder County’s continued effort to help move individuals and families out of poverty and into a life of sustained self-sufficiency. The campaign provides a stable structure for people working their way out of poverty to receive guidance and support from mentors to help them develop skills and access resources needed to move toward economic stability
Boulder, U.S. set emergency alert Wed.
Nov 8th
Boulder County, Colo. – The first-ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System will occur on Wednesday, Nov. 9 at noon Mountain time and may last up to three and a half minutes.
The test is being conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Communications Commission and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The public will hear a message indicating “This is a test.” The audio message will be the same for radio, broadcast television and cable. The National-level EAS is a public alert and warning system that enables the President of the United States to address the American public during extreme emergencies. Similar to local EAS tests that are conducted frequently, the nationwide test will involve broadcast radio and television stations, cable television, satellite radio and television services and wireline providers across all states and territories.
As federal, state, and local governments prepare for and test their capabilities, this event serves as a reminder for residents to make an emergency plan and gather emergency supplies for themselves and their families, and in their communities and businesses. Visit www.boulderoem.com or www.Ready.gov for more information about how to prepare for emergencies and stay informed in the event of an actual emergency.
Over the past two years and as part of ongoing national preparedness planning efforts, FEMA, the FCC and other federal partners, state, local, tribal and territorial governments, EAS Participants, and others in the EAS Community have been working toward making this test a reality. For more information about the National-level EAS, visit www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/eas_info.shtm.