HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: stricher@masig.fsu.edu (Char Aznabul)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology,comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: hurricane tracking software for the mac?
Date: 12 Aug 92 23:05:17 GMT
Followup-To: sci.geo.meteorology
Distribution: na


Is there hurricane tracking software available for the mac?

James
From: hopkins@gvlf9-o.gvl.unisys.com (Bill Hopkins)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: Mission to Planet Earth
Date: 14 Aug 92 22:26:32 GMT
Reply-To: hopkins@gvl.unisys.com
Distribution: na
Organization: Paramax Systems Corp (A Unisys Company), Great Valley Labs, PA

In article <56844@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> gpetty@rain.atms.purdue.edu (Grant W. Petty) writes:
> [...]
>>That's why EOSDIS is expected
>>to be the largest civil computing contract in history, so I'm told.
>>In fact NASA just requested Hughes and TRW (the bidders) to submit new
>>cost estimates because the existing estimates were thought to be too low.
>
>This illustrates why government procurement has such a horrible
>reputation for wastefulness.  Why not just say to the lowest bidder,
>"OK, that's your estimate and you got our contract based on that
>estimate; now we (and the taxpayers) are going to hold you to it, come
>hell or high water, and make YOU eat any cost overruns!"

Ah, yes, the happy co-operation of a contractor who's taking a bath.
It makes for high quality work, good schedule performance, and top-
quality equipment.  All the way to Chapter 11.  In your dreams.

Seriously, nobody profits from a seriously underbid contract.  The
agency has to brow-beat the contractor for every deliverable, the
contractor cuts corners wherever he can, claims mount on both sides,
lawyers and bean-counters are running the show, schedules are out the
window, and nobody is happy *or* getting his money's worth.

NASA has a responsibility to ensure that the bids are reasonable.  In
this case, they have decided that neither is.  They should be commended.
The bidders are being reminded that their bids should be reasonable so
that they *can* be held to them.  Otherwise NASA can't rely on the system.

	Bill

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hopkins@GVL.Unisys.Com          Paramax Systems Corporation (A Unisys Company)
215-648-2854 or 363-7464        Great Valley Labs, PO Box 517, Paoli, PA 19301
MXE 016 radial, 8 nmi              Opening my mouth is not company policy.
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: ilana@kiowa.scd.ucar.edu (Ilana Stern)
Subject: Re: Mission to Planet Earth
Organization: NCAR/UCAR
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 15:39:45 GMT

In article <10295@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>, stricher@masig.fsu.edu (Char Aznabul) writes:
> Mark Goodman writes
> + >3) How are we going to use all that data?  Does NASA have a
> 
> A better question would be: how are we going to STORE all that
> data, and make sizable portions available to the research community?

NASA Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) at Goddard Space Flight Center.
I imagine they will release chunks on CD-ROMs, as they have with other
data.  I think we (NCAR's Data Support Section) may get some too.

-- 
/\        Ilana Stern DoD#009 | Whoever first said, "Things are seldom as they 
  \_][    ilana@ncar.ucar.edu | seem," was wrong.  Things are usually as they
      \_______________________| seem.  Otherwise, they wouldn't seem that way.
From: stricher@masig.fsu.edu (Char Aznabul)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: Rainclouds
Date: 12 Aug 92 23:01:55 GMT
Distribution: na

Ahmed Abd-Allah writes

+ (I know they're a lot, but they should be easy for the experts...)

Who? Me?

+ 1.  Is it correct to say that rain is predominately caused by cumulus,
+ cumulonimbus, stratus, nimbostratus, and stratocumulus clouds?

I think that technically speaking only a *nimbus* cloud rains, hence
stratus and nimbostratus.

+ 2.  Cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds are "heap" type, right?
+ 
+ 3.  Stratus and nimbostratus are "layer" type, right?
+ 
+ 4.  Stratocumulus is really a cumulus type that got spread out?

Yep, yep, and yep. Cumulus clouds may also be refered to as convective
clouds.
 
+ 5.  Regarding the 3 stratus types, the ones that actually yield rain must
+ necessarily become grayish or darkish before raining?  I.e. is a symptom

+ Is this more or less correct?  Oh, and does the cloud lighten up in color
+ after it has expended most of its rain?

No. It depends soley on where the sun is in relation to the cloud WRT to
your viewing point. If the cloud is between you and the sun, it will
*appear* to be dark. If you where on the other side, the cloud would 
appear to be white.

And it doesn't always appear dark. More than one net.reader has seen
the green coloration associated with severe weather. Some have reported
a yellow coloration, if I recall right.

+ 
+ 6. Again regarding the 3 stratus types, when they finally DO rain, is the
+ rain directly preceded by the cloud layer breaking up?  I think I may be 

+ start fragmenting, and then it starts to rain?  Or does the rain just 
+ come without any cloud breakup?  

The latter is correct.

+ 7. Finally (whew!), regarding the 2 cumulus raincloud types, I read that
+ if the cumulonimbus cloud gets enough vertical development, the rain 
+ droplets in the upper half can freeze, yielding hail, snow, etc.  
+ Does this mean only these type of clouds give this type of frozen 
+ precipitation (because the other types of rainclouds are all at low 
+ elevation)?  

That's a function of the height of the freezing level [FL]. In the summer
the FL is rather high and only some cumulus clouds will get that high. In
the winter, when the FL is much lower [perhaps on the ground], frozen
precipitation can come from *any* cloud.

+ Also, is the cumulonimbus the only one that can give 
+ lighting and thunder?

I think so, but I could be wrong.

James
From: mfoster@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu (Marc Foster)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: RE: Metroplex hail
Date: 18 Aug 92 18:00:13 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK


I'm not sure what the official reports said, because I didn't have
any computer access at the time.  The six inch number I gave was
from media reports, so I guess you could chop off 20% or so for
exagerration, leaving a fairly valid 4 3/4 inch figure.

marc
ousom/ounnwr
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: knapp@spot.Colorado.EDU (David Knapp)
Subject: Re: Surface UV increases due to ozone deterioration??
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 22:12:36 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.001157.27040@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford) writes:
>
>Does anyone have any numbers for this?
>
>How much more UV (and in which bands) are reaching the surface.
>
>How does this compare to the normal variance in UV intensity.


There was a Physics Today which discussed PSCs and NLCs and their role
in ozone depletion (~November?) which should have those numbers. If it isn't
right in the article, there are plenty of references given that will.


-- 
David Knapp                                      University of Colorado, Boulder
Highly Opinionated, Aging  and                      knapp@spot.colorado.edu
Perpetual Student of Chemistry and Physics.
            Write me for an argument on your favorite subject.
From: stgprao@xing.unocal.com (Richard Ottolini)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: Mission to Planet Earth
Date: 13 Aug 92 01:05:05 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Unocal Corporation
Originator: stgprao@xing

Although it tops a billion dollars and Congress is complaining,
for the amount and quality of data EOS will obtain it is a hell of a lot
cheaper than the manned space shuttle or space station.
I hope the funding survives.
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: fred@balzac.scd.ucar.edu (Fred Clare)
Subject: Meteorological symbols
Keywords: symbols,fonts
Organization: NCAR/UCAR
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 22:07:42 GMT


-- 
We would like to add a font to our graphics package that
contains meteorological symbols.  We have a procedure for
producing fonts from large scale images and what I am 
looking for is a set of such images (say characters that
are four inches tall).  Does anybody know where I could
acquire such a table of large-sized meteorological symbols?

Fred Clare
NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research)
PO Box 3000
Boulder, CO  80307-3000
(303) 497-1284
fred@ncar.ucar.edu
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: knapp@spot.Colorado.EDU (David Knapp)
Subject: Re: Surface UV increases due to ozone deterioration??
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 14:03:11 GMT

In article <56839@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> gpetty@rain.atms.purdue.edu (Grant W. Petty) writes:
>In article <1992Aug13.001157.27040@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford) writes:
>>
>>Does anyone have any numbers for this?
>>
>>How much more UV (and in which bands) are reaching the surface.
>>
>>How does this compare to the normal variance in UV intensity.
>
>
>An April 17 article in Science by Richard Stolarski et al., plus some
>followup correspondence in the Letters section of the August 7 issue,
>discusses trends in total stratospheric ozone.  According to
>Stolarski, there is an apparent downward trend in total ozone in the
>northern middle latitudes beginning around 1980 (see their Fig. 1, p.
>728, August 7 issue), based on both TOMS and Dobson measurements.
>
>On the other hand, Stolarski concludes his letter with the following
>statement:
>
>"The trend in the solar ultraviolet should respond to the trend in
>ozone.  Unfortunately, our database on trends in ground-level
>ultraviolet radiation is not yet robust enough for us to be able to
>make any quantitative statements."


Notice the *our* database part.  I've seen UV flux data in several journals
taken over many years, I just don't remember which journal.

I can only say that I do know it it out there.


-- 
David Knapp                                      University of Colorado, Boulder
Highly Opinionated, Aging  and                      knapp@spot.colorado.edu
Perpetual Student of Chemistry and Physics.
            Write me for an argument on your favorite subject.
From: stricher@masig.fsu.edu (Char Aznabul)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: salary information wanted
Date: 10 Aug 92 17:19:40 GMT
Distribution: us

In article <1992Aug3.002755.16624@talon.ucs.orst.edu> gey@ucs.orst.edu (Yan  
Ge) writes:

+ Now, I need information on reasonable salary ranges and living expenses in  
the
+ following areas:
+ 
+ 	1.  Research Associate in an university at Mississippi

Depends on where in Mississippi. I've heard good things about 
the southern part. Living is dirt cheap. The taxes are reasonable,
the housing is inexpensive (I know a guy who bought a 2 bedroom
with acreage for $35k).

+ 	2.  Computer Programmer in an university at central Florida

More expensive than Mississippi. Florida does NOT have a state
income tax. Depends on whether this is in Gainsville or Orlando.

+ 	3.  Senior Programmer near Los Angeles.

The most expensive by far. I'd expect housing to be outrageous!
Expect to pay in excess of $500/month for a 1br apartment. 

Personally, I'd go for Florida, but I'm biased, too. :)

James
stricher@masig.fsu.edu
From: gpetty@rain.atms.purdue.edu (Grant W. Petty)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: Surface UV increases due to ozone deterioration??
Date: 14 Aug 92 15:13:36 GMT
Organization: Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University

In article <1992Aug13.001157.27040@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford) writes:
>
>Does anyone have any numbers for this?
>
>How much more UV (and in which bands) are reaching the surface.
>
>How does this compare to the normal variance in UV intensity.


An April 17 article in Science by Richard Stolarski et al., plus some
followup correspondence in the Letters section of the August 7 issue,
discusses trends in total stratospheric ozone.  According to
Stolarski, there is an apparent downward trend in total ozone in the
northern middle latitudes beginning around 1980 (see their Fig. 1, p.
728, August 7 issue), based on both TOMS and Dobson measurements.

On the other hand, Stolarski concludes his letter with the following
statement:

"The trend in the solar ultraviolet should respond to the trend in
ozone.  Unfortunately, our database on trends in ground-level
ultraviolet radiation is not yet robust enough for us to be able to
make any quantitative statements."


I should add that lots of people, including some of my colleagues here
at Purdue, are now setting up devices for routinely monitoring total
UV-B fluxes at the surface.  Unfortunately, it will take some time
before these new measurements can tell us anything about long-term
trends, and of course there is no way to recover much information
about what baseline levels (on a global basis) were like prior to
1980.


-- 
Grant W. Petty                                gpetty@rain.atms.purdue.edu
Assistant Prof. of Atmospheric Science        (317) 494-2544
Dept. of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences     "All standard disclaimers apply"
Purdue University, West Lafayette IN  47907-1397  
Xref: sparky sci.geo.meteorology:2818 sci.physics:13240
From: capskb@alliant.backbone.uoknor.edu (Keith Brewster)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: Rainclouds
Date: 13 Aug 92 18:36:27 GMT
Organization: University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK

In article <1992Aug13.164925.19545@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford) writes:
>Keith Barr writes
>> In fact we have a fair amount of proof that if there is no graupel, snow, or
>> hail, it is impossible for a cloud to electrify, and therefore this is no
>> chance for lightning and thunder.
>> 
>
>Hmm.  The climate warms up, the freezing level rises.  Less lighting.  Less  
>forest fires, more carbon fixed, climate cools.
>
>Wonder if  this is a significant part of the feedback loop


I don't think so.  Your logic connection freezing level rises --> less
lightning is the weak point.  I don't think that the higher freezing level
will stop a lot of convection from reaching that level.  Furthermore, the
higher freezing level could mean greater charge separation (between ice and
ground), which could act to increase the current in lightning to ground.
In the grand scheme of things, I'd say its all minor.

Keith
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: gpetty@rain.atms.purdue.edu (Grant W. Petty)
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
Subject: Re: Rainclouds
Date: 14 Aug 92 15:28:45 GMT
Organization: Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University

In article <1992Aug13.164925.19545@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford) writes:
>Keith Barr writes
>> Interesting side note:
>> 
>> Here at the National Center for Atmospheric Research it is generally
>> believed that a storm won't electrify unless it penetrates the freezing  
>level.
>> In fact we have a fair amount of proof that if there is no graupel, snow, or
>> hail, it is impossible for a cloud to electrify, and therefore this is no
>> chance for lightning and thunder.
>> 
>
>Hmm.  The climate warms up, the freezing level rises.  Less lighting.  Less  
>forest fires, more carbon fixed, climate cools.
>
>Wonder if  this is a significant part of the feedback loop

Even the worst case global warming scenarios only predict a couple of
degrees of warming.  Yet you would have to increase the temperature by
about 6.5 deg. C to get a one km increase in freezing level (assuming
average lapse rates remained unchanged), and thunderstorms routinely
penetrate 5-10 km beyond the current freezing level.  So it seems
somewhat unlikely that there would be a measurable change in the
global rate of lightning strikes.

On the other hand, if you could somehow reduce the rate of lightning
production, the upper atmosphere (which is held at a relatively high
potential relative to the ground through thunderstorm activity) could
partially discharge, leading to a weaker fair-weather electric field,
leading to a weakening of some of the boot-strap charging mechanisms
believed to be responsible for thundercloud electrification, leading
to less lightning, ad infinitum....  Another feedback loop???
-- 
Grant W. Petty                                gpetty@rain.atms.purdue.edu
Assistant Prof. of Atmospheric Science        (317) 494-2544
Dept. of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences     "All standard disclaimers apply"
Purdue University, West Lafayette IN  47907-1397  
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology,sci.physics
From: Bruce.Scott@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Bruce Scott)
Subject: Re: pressure at the center of the earth?
Keywords: pressure, earth core, blackhole, truth or consequences
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 13:51:06 GMT

From the Preliminary Reference Earth Model [1] (actually, not so
preliminary anymore), the pressure at the earth's center is about
3.6 Mbar, which up to nitpicks is 3.6 million atmospheres. The pressure
at the center is determined by hydrostatic equilibrium:
        grad p = - rho grad phi,
where by Newtonian gravitation
        Laplacian phi = 4 pi G rho.
Unless rho is ridiculously small, the pressure *must* be large. An order
of magnitude guess may be had knowing the mass and radius of the earth.
Set p(0)/R = (3G/4 pi) (M^2/R^5). Then using R=6370 km and M=6e27 gm,
obtain 3.48 Mbar, which is coincidentally close because of the run of
pressure and density from surface to core. P and rho are known to quite
high accuracy, T only to 10 per cent or so, from data on free
oscillations of the earth.

[1] Dzeiwonski and Anderson (1981). Physics of Earth and Planetary
Interiors 25, 297.

Gruss,
Dr Bruce Scott                             The deadliest bullshit is
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Plasmaphysik       odorless and transparent
bds at spl6n1.aug.ipp-garching.mpg.de                 -- W Gibson

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: mali@athena.mit.edu (Zhu Yong)
Subject: A Unified Theoretical Model
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 21:42:25 GMT


Although there is a great progress in numerical studies of meteorology in 
the last 20 years, the theoretical study is not advanced so much. Except
some basic physical mechanisms, most of the typical atmospheric circulation
patterns remain unexplained. Recently, McHall developed a unified
theory called the geostrophic wave circulations. Unlike the traditional
theories based on a vorticity mechanism, this new theory deals with
atmospheric circulations and their low frequency variabilities in terms of 
time averaged heat and momentum balances affected by the full nonlinearities
in the primitive equations. The papers written by him have explained in many 
details the large-scale circulations in the troposphere and stratosphere, 
such as the geographical distributions of planetary stationary waves and 
blocks in both hemispheres and their seasonal variations, the typical 
baroclinity and amplitude of blocking systems, the critical conditions of 
occurrences of stratospheric sudden warmings and the reversal of circulations,
the typical heating rate in sudden warmings, and the particular propagation 
velocity and structure of stratospheric warm pools. These studies used the 
same theoretical model.

These papers are

McHall,Y.L.(1992), Wintertime stratospheric anomalies--Part I: Warm pools.
Adv. Atmos. Sci., 9, 299-310.

McHall,Y.L.(1992), Wintertime stratospheric anomalies--Part II: Sudden
warmings. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 9, 311-322.

McHall,Y.L.(1992), Instability properties of atmospheric disturbances.
Acta Met. Sinica, 6, 213-230.

McHall,Y.L.(1992), Nonlinear planetary wave instability and blocking.
Adv. Atmos. Sci., 9, 173-190.

McHall,Y.L.(1991), Blocking distributions in the atmosphere.
Adv. Atmos. Sci., 8, 327-338.

McHall,Y.L.(1991), Planetary stationary waves in the atmosphere---Part I: 
Orographical stationary waves. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 8, 211-224.

McHall,Y.L.(1991), Planetary stationary waves in the atmosphere---Part II:
Thermal stationary waves. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 8, 225-236.

If his theory is principally correct, it will be an important event in
meteorological sciences, because there was no unified theories before.
 
Also, McHall had new approaches in the study of available potential energy,
given in the papers:
 
McHall,L.Y.(1991), Available equivalent potential energy in moist
atmospheres. Met. Atmos. Phy., 45, 113-124.

McHall,L.Y.(1990), Generalized available potential energy. 
Adv. Atmos. Sci., 7, 395-408. 

McHall,L.Y.(1990), Available potential energy in the atmosphere.
Met. Atmos. Phy., 42, 39-55. 

One may hope that these theories would accept more intentions and comments. 
All these papers are available from

Y. L. McHall
Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences
MIT, 54-1810
Cambridge, MA 02139
U.S.A.



Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology
From: ilana@kiowa.scd.ucar.edu (Ilana Stern)
Subject: Re: Mission to Planet Earth
Organization: NCAR/UCAR
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:43:43 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.000550.26926@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>, sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford) writes:
> Ilana Stern writes
> > In article <10295@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>, stricher@masig.fsu.edu (Char Aznabul)  
> writes:
> > > Mark Goodman writes
> > > + >3) How are we going to use all that data?  Does NASA have a
> > > 
> > > A better question would be: how are we going to STORE all that
> > > data, and make sizable portions available to the research community?
> > 
> > NASA Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) at Goddard Space Flight Center.
> > I imagine they will release chunks on CD-ROMs, as they have with other
> > data.  I think we (NCAR's Data Support Section) may get some too.
> 
> Wait a minute.  Aren't we talking on the order of a terabyte per day?  That's  
> the figure my boss floats around.  That's 1600 CDs per day.

Let me rephrase.  I think that they will *release* data to the research
community on CDs.  There are a lot of storage media which are used to *store*
that kind of volume.  As I emailed to James, NCAR uses the Storage Tech
Silo to store and automatically mount IBM 3480 cartridges (200 MB each)
as part of our mass store system.  The Silo is a cylinder which stores 
lots of carts, and has robot arms which automatically retrieve the requested
cartridge and slide it into one of two read devices.  

The next generation is expected to be the Iceberg, which was supposed to be 
released recently but has been delayed until early 1993.  I wouldn't be 
surprised if NSSDC used something like that.

NCAR has 25,075 GB on the Mass Store -- a combination of Silo, racked carts,
and disk farm -- as of March 1992.

The biggest "bang for the buck" is definitely high-density Exabyte tape.
Almost 5 GB on something the size of a granola bar.  That's about 8 CD-ROMs.
The disadvantage is that it's a serial, not random, device.  If the read/write
devices get faster, I think that things will move in the direction of a
Silo-type device using Exabytes instead of IBM carts.  

-- 
/\        Ilana Stern DoD#009 | Whoever first said, "Things are seldom as they 
  \_][    ilana@ncar.ucar.edu | seem," was wrong.  Things are usually as they
      \_______________________| seem.  Otherwise, they wouldn't seem that way.
Newsgroups: sci.geo.meteorology