Slashdot Mirror
Ask Dr. Bryan Killett About Climate Change and GRACE
Bryan Killett is a physicist working on the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. GRACE is a joint mission of NASA and the German Aerospace Center which collects satellite data to learn about Earth's changing gravity field, specifically the high frequency changes associated with ocean tides. As the high tide comes in, more water is present, so gravity in that location is temporarily strengthened. These changes are detected with GRACE and used to improve ocean tide models. Dr. Killett provides the open source (GPLv3) code used to process GRACE data on his home page. Bryan has agreed to take a break from measuring gravity fields and answer your questions about GRACE and the climate changes it has revealed. Feel free to ask as many as you like but please confine your questions to one per post.
What in the world was up with this letter from ex-employees (also discussed on Slashdot)? Was that just totally out of left field? Was there an internal reaction to it? Did you respond?
My work here is dung.
Your work seems to be primarily centering on observing and simulating these changing gravitational fields. What benefit or detriment could result from controlling such tides? From a science fiction standpoint, do you see this as a possibility? What engineering feat would you propose to achieve it? Is there any reason at all why this might one day be a necessity?
My work here is dung.
If you had unlimited resources and unlimited materials (planet sized masses, black hole measuring devices, you name it), what hypotheses and tests would you construct to give us more information on what precisely gravity is?
My work here is dung.
How much money does it cost to run your program and what are the economic benefits?
Why should this money be spent on your project and not on, say, fusion, advanced battery development, hydrogen storage techniques, etc?
or a muslim?
Is there anyone here on /. who falls for that inane bullshit>?
Should I go out with Linda or Amy?
I always wondered if either of these have any play on the gravitational field and in turn the tides. For example could a very powerful solar storm, in the right conditions, cause a massive tidal shift?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
What does this have to do with Climate Change? There's no reference to it in any of the pages linked. I assume mapping tides is important if sea level rises, but that's just a guess.
How does the Raspberry Pi apply to your project?
I am assuming that the Pi has something to do with it otherwise Slashdot wouldn't have taken an interest in you.
Why are aeronautical engineers, astrophysicists, rocket scientists, etc. involved in perpetuating a political agenda based on bad "science" for an administration that refuses to fund the organization's actual purpose?
We've seen a lot of surface melting on Greenland over the past few weeks. Does GRACE provide enough detail quickly enough so to quantify that melting, and shed any light on how well we understand ice sheet melting dynamics?
In your field of study is there any evidence to suggest the possibility the poles are shifting, or at least moving uncharacteristically?
GRACE's main use in climate change is to detect the loss of mass from melting glaciers (mostly in Greenland and Antarctica), which results in sea level rise. It can also help map surface currents in the ocean, and track the motion of water through the hydrological cycle.
Will you be starting a Kickstarter campaign?
Should science drop the "Climate Change" mantra and get back to basics like pollution and sustainability? I believe climate change has become a political boogeyman and that science would be better off focusing on more clearly defined goals (making renewable energy usage more affordable etc).
How have GRACE GPS radio occultation results compared with TEC data from other observations at the same time and along nearby paths (from GPS ground sites, from other radio occultation observations from e.g. C/NOFS or COSMIC, etc.)? Is the GRACE GPS R/O data publicly available? If so, with how much delay? Thanks.
I would like to know if there is an appreciable change in sea surface evaporation rates due to the changes in the gravity at the tidal location. Can the gravitational changes ( though very minute), change weather patterns by channeling atmospheric molecules; or is the gravity force simply much weaker than molecular collisions, wind patterns, etc. ?
If the planet burns, it burns. I'll be dead before it happens. So for me it's all about big SUVs and AC running 24/7.
I recognize that this is a way out there question to the point of making me laugh, but nevertheless, it's a real physics question in the same general domain as GRACE's measurements. A general idea of the magnitudes involved would certainly be interesting.
By how many orders of magnitude do orbital measurements of local gravity fall short of being able to detect human or human-generated movement on the planet's surface, for example the travel of a train across the country? Related, would the main difficulty likely be to achieve sufficient sensitivity, or to extract the desired signal from the noise floor of atmospheric gravity and other sources? And finally, what is the gravitational contribution of the atmosphere to your measurements?
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
how do you define 'climate' as opposed to 'weather'?
I'll ask the opposite question: why shouldn't aeronautical engineers, astrophysicists, and rocket scientists be involved in trying to make unambiguous measurements of a critical issue, to try to resolve key questions in a way that's independent of computer models or temperature measurements? Making an independent measurement of key scientific claims using a different technique is pretty much the gold standard of science.
Because it's not their field of expertise.
Precision measurements of the gravity field of the Earth using spacecraft? It most certainly is their field of expertise.
Because they should be focusing on what my tax dollars pay them to do - develop methods for space exploration and explore space.
Here is the wording of the Space Act of 1958, which established NASA and listed its mission and objectives. After declaring that NASA will be a civilian agency to undertake aeronautical and space activities of the U.S. "for the benefit of all mankind," it states: ..."
"The aeronautical and space activities of the United States shall be conducted so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives:
(1) The expansion of human knowledge of the Earth and of phenomena in the atmosphere and space. (2)
Expanding human knowledge of the Earth and phenomena in the atmosphere: yes, the GRACE objectives fit into the mission that NASA is explicitly instructed to do.
Reference: http://history.nasa.gov/spaceact-legishistory.pdf
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Do you feel partly responsible for the failure of America's manned space program by supporting the diversion of funds from NASA's main purpose? Have you calculated how much of NASA's budget goes toward projects that are only vaguely space-related at best? With projects like this consuming more and ore of NASA's resources, do you think America even has a future in space, or will China and Russia remain the only spacefaring countries into the future?
Who said the manned space program is NASA's main purpose? Have you read either the Space Act or their mission statement? Earth observation and science has always been a major part of their purpose.
Furthermore, you have no idea how NASA is funded, do you? It's not like if all of NASA's Earth observation activities were shifted to NOAA, Congress would suddenly give NASA more money for the manned space program.
Finally, it's kind of comical that you seem to consider Earth observation satellites "only vaguely space-related at best".
They make fun of creationists but don't notice that this stuff is no different. Arrogant, libtards most of em.
Psychologists call that projection. It is one of the key ego defence mechanisms, and is present surprisingly often in politically motivated speech, due to the cognitive bubble.
Somebody is being an arrogant %&*#-tard. It must be the 1000s of scientists of all political persuasions, who have dedicated their lives to what Karl Rove pejoratively referred to as the reality based community.
Of course you have the "truth", and your mind is firewalled to uncomfortable ideas.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
If the code and his research are federally funded by the US Government, shouldn't it be released into public-domain instead of GPLv3?
Is the climate of Florida the same as the climate of Nugent Sound?
No?
How do you tell?
If, for example, we took every watt needed for the world out of the tides, how much would the moon get further away?
Or did you not get around to explaining how to work out your claim's proof?
I dare ANY scientist to put his life on the line and say a crisis is "certain" and be willing to be charged with uttering death threats when proved wrong in a court of law.
Safe to say there isn’t any crisis and the theory was 100% wrong.
Look for yourself; not one single IPCC report mentions any “crisis” without a “possible” or “likely”. The end is near............maybe? Help my house is on fire.........maybe after 26 years and millions of studies. Can you say consultant’s wet dream.
I need proof before I condemn my own children to the greenhouse gas ovens of climate change crisis hell. REAL planet lovers are glad any crisis was exaggerated.
Do you WANT Romney in power? The just keep cursing the voter’s kids with CO2 threats of death.
Are you willing to be placed in front of a firing squad for delaying the actions to avert a crisis if it turns up?
"I need proof before I condemn my own children to the greenhouse gas ovens of climate change crisis hell."
Here you go:
http://www.ipcc.ch
There is obviously a lot of valuable information from the GRACE satellites that continues to change over time. How much longer are the GRACE satellites expected to last? Are there any plans for replacements once they die?
CO2 levels parallel average global temperatures, in looking at the geological record, correct? That gives much credence to CO2 as a mechanism for current climate change.
What increased C02 in ancient times? It is also my understanding that volcanic action produced CO2 which raised temps, Correct? Also, at other epochs, certain orbital factors cooked CO2 out of oceans. In this latter case, I would expect CO2 levels to lag temps (and then force greater changes) and in the former (volcanic) case CO2 levels would precede temp rise. Correct?
Here is a related question: If the former case, volcanoes produced CO2 and that raised temps, that same rise should also cood CO2 out of the oceans, which would produce an even greater rise in temps. What could reverse this trend?
We'll never get manned space travel back with attitudes like yours.
And yes, I feel that earth observation satellites are just an expensive way of masturbating.
We'll never get manned space travel back with attitudes like yours.
Maybe so. I favor NASA's science mission over manned exploration. Both would be nice, but if it has to be one, I vote for science.
And yes, I feel that earth observation satellites are just an expensive way of masturbating.
Clearly you see no value in geoscience. I think that point of view is ridiculous.
Oh, I see value in earth observation. I just think that this should be secondary to NASA getting a man back into space.