Fiber Optics In Antarctica Will Monitor Ice Sheet Melting
sciencehabit writes: Earth is rapidly being wired with fiber-optic cables — inexpensive, flexible strands of silicon dioxide that have revolutionized telecommunications. They've already crisscrossed the planet's oceans, linking every continent but one: Antarctica. Now, fiber optics has arrived at the continent, but to measure ice sheet temperatures rather than carry telecommunication signals. A team of scientists using an innovative fiber-optic cable–based technology has measured temperature changes within and below the ice over 14 months. This technology, they say, offers a powerful new tool to observe and quantify melting at the base of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
bandwidth
Nice, here I live in Seattle, just off of downtown, can't get fiber optics, but hey, whatever. fuckers.
Be seeing you...
Every scientist says it's irreversible. So what's the point if we're doomed regardless?
All I have to do is read they're laying fiber optic in such a remote place. Can't even feed the world's starving children
TFA by Carolyn Gramling is a real piece of work. It makes scary claims and then links to articles that make no such claims. I guess that is what staff editors do for us.
They're starting with an assumption then trying to prove it.
Fiber optics in Antarctica sounds extravagant and silly,
You realize that it's not being used for telecommunication, right? It's being used to measure the temperature of the ice.
Over a decade ago I submitted a project to carry data in Antarctica by a 1500km fiber for a large project. It was shut down by the Americans because according to the Antarctic Treaty you cannot leave anything in Antarctica permanently. Now the US has this project (how are they gonna get it out of the Ice ?), Ice Cube (which has thousands of detectors under km of ice) and others...
Non-Linux Penguins ?
but it is the left's investment in ongoing hysteria.
Sort of like the right's hysteria over Ebola. Less than 5K deaths on the entire planet and they panic, completely ignoring the 50K+ deaths from flu or the 30K+ roadway deaths which occur in this country every year.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
The area of the ice is irrelevant. It affects albedo, but that is insufficient to cancel out the influence of contaminants like excessive CO2. What we care about is the mass of the ice, and we covered here fairly recently how that has decreased sufficiently to measure gravitationally.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It looks like the RSS team agrees: "A similar, but stronger case can be made using surface temperature datasets, which I consider to be more reliable than satellite datasets." - http://www.remss.com/blog/recent-slowing-rise-global-temperatures
The RSS satellite temperature reconstruction is the minority report. The UAH satellite temperature reconstruction agrees largely with the surface station datasets. The contrarians want to hang their hat on the minority report. Strange that.
Jane keeps insisting that this Sky Dragon Slayer equation describes electrical heating power:
Once again, that violates conservation of energy. Draw a boundary around the heat source:
power in = electrical heating power + radiative power in from the chamber walls
power out = radiative power out from the heat source
Jane's equation wrongly cancels "radiative power in" with a nonexistent term.
No, Jane/Lonny Eachus's Slayer nonsense has been scientifically shown to violate conservation of energy. Unless, of course, Jane/Lonny can finally write down an energy conservation equation before wrongly "cancelling" terms?
It's fascinating that Jane/Lonny Eachus keeps insisting that mainstream physics is a hogwash dumbass failure. Jane/Lonny just needs to inform "dumbasses" like Prof. Brown, Dr. Joel Shore, physicists in the National Academies of Science, the American Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society, the Australian Institute of Physics, the European Physical Society, etc.
Jane/Lonny's Sky Dragon Slayer nonsense is so ridiculous that even prominent climate contrarians are rational enough to back away from the Slayers:
Once again, Jane confuses "radiant power output" with "electrical heating power". Since "electrical heating power" is zero if the chamber walls are at the same temperature as the source, Jane is simply wrong to use a "radiant power output" equation to describe "electrical heating power". As I just explained, mainstream physicists and even most climate contrarians agree that "electrical heating power" has to account for the chamber wall temperature.
If Jane tried just once to write down an energy conservation equation for a boundary around the source without wrongly "cancelling" terms, he'd realize that this Slayer nonsense is wrong.
Or maybe Jane could listen to Prof. Brian Cox. Jane/Lonny Eachus likes Prof. Brian Cox and is very bothered by the fact that Prof. Cox agrees with mainstream physics. Jane/Lonny urges Prof. Cox to take time from his obviously busy schedule to review the actual state of the science on this extremely important subject.
Jane/Lonny seems to think that physicists just need to be told the glorious Sky Dragon Slayer "truth" and then they'll happily abandon conservation of energy. Maybe Jane/Lonny Eachus could convince physicists like Prof. Cox by finally writing down an energy conservation equation for a boundary around the source without wrongly "cancelling" terms? Or maybe Jane/Lonny could just ask Prof. Cox if the required electrical heating power depends on the cooler vacuum chamber wall temperature?
I bet Jane/Lonny Eachus $100 that Prof. Cox answers "yes" to the previous question. Is Jane/Lonny Eachus chicken?
Once again, how bizarre. The whole reason Slayers deny that an enclosed source warms is because that implies greenhouse gases can't warm the surface:
If Jane is so sure that his Sky Dragon Slayer nonsense is correct, why can't he write down a simple energy conservation equation around the heated source without wrongly "cancelling" terms? Ironically, this is the very first equation needed to understand Spencer's experiment. And Jane can't even get the first equation right. Prof. Cox is right: this isn't even degree-level physics.
Jane, if you tried just once to write down an energy conservation equation for a boundary around the source without wrongly "cancelling" terms, you'd realize all this Slayer nonsense is wrong.
In other words: bok bok bok BOKKKKK. That's what I thought. Jane/Lonny Eachus is chicken.
If Jane/Lonny Eachus were a real skeptic, he'd at least consider the possibility that Jane's "radiant power output" equation doesn't describe "electrical heating power". Jane's textbooks don't say to use a "radiant power output" equation to describe "electrical heating power".
That's why Jane is too chicken to ask Prof. Cox if electrical heating power depends on the cooler vacuum chamber wall temperature. Because Jane's afraid that Prof. Cox will say yes. If not, why did Prof. Cox say all these things?
Remember,
No, I found a principle called "conservation of energy" which states that power in = power out through a boundary where nothing inside is changing.
This is a very fundamental physics principle.
In contrast, Jane found a "radiant power out" equation, and wrongly assumed that "electrical heating power = radiant power out" without even trying to write down an energy conservation equation without wrongly "cancelling" terms.
If Jane tried to write down that energy conservation equation just once, he'd realize that "radiant power out" isn't equal to "electrical heating power".
I didn't suggest that you bet Prof. Cox. I'm betting you $100 that Prof. Cox agrees that "electrical heating power" depends on the cooler vacuum chamber wall temperature.
Jane's only possible motivation to bother would be if Jane has a single shred of skepticism and curiosity, and if Jane has any respect for Prof. Cox.
The reason I suggested Jane ask Prof. Cox is because Jane simply dismisses any physicist who disagrees with him. I've repeatedly failed to convince Jane that he might want to write down an energy conservation equation to determine "electrical heating power". But Jane might listen if a physicist he respects tells him that electrical heating power depends on the cooler vacuum chamber wall temperature.
If you want me to ask him instead, then I'll send him this tweet:
@ProfBrianCox, an electrically heated plate is in a vacuum chamber with cooler walls.
Does heating power depend on the wall temperature?
Jane, it's okay if you don't want to bet money. But I'll only ask Prof. Cox that question if you promise not to start calling him a dumbshit dumbass fucking moron idiot if he says yes. That hasn't been very educational.
I'll ask Prof. Cox that question, but only if Jane promises that if Prof. Cox says "yes", Jane will at least try to write down an energy conservation equation without wrongly "cancelling" terms to determine "electrical heating power".
Deal?
Once again, I never asked you to make him a bet. I'm betting you $100 that Prof. Cox agrees that "electrical heating power" depends on the cooler vacuum chamber wall temperature.
It's bizarre that Jane now insists that this disagreement requires hundreds of lines. Just yesterday, Jane said:
This is a pretty straightforward textbook radiation problem. Jane, this is a simple yes/no question:
@ProfBrianCox, an electrically heated plate is in a vacuum chamber with cooler walls.
Does heating power depend on the wall temperature?
Jane, my answer is "yes". What's yours? What answer do you think mainstream physicists would give to this simple yes/no question?
That's because it doesn't matter whether the walls are actively cooled. Their temperature affects electrical heating power regardless.
It doesn't matter if electrical heating power is constant. Even if the source temperature is held constant rather than electrical heating power, the electrical heating power still depends on the cooler chamber wall temperature.
The dimensions and geometry also don't matter. Regardless of size or shape, electrical heating power still depends on the cooler chamber wall temperature. And that's exactly what Jane denies:
Jane got the very first equation wrong, because Jane refuses to write down an energy conservation equation for a boundary around the source without wrongly "cancelling" terms. If he tried to do this just once, he'd realize that electrical heating power depends on the cooler chamber wall temperature.
Again, I'm trying to point out that you and the other Slayers misunderstood your textbooks. Electrical heating power depends on the cooler chamber wall temperature. "Radiant power output" doesn't. Sky Dragon Slayers have confused two completely different fundamental concepts.
Jane, if you're so sure that electrical heating power doesn't depend on the cooler chamber wall temperature... why not just ask Prof. Cox if it does?
It's pretty clear that you're just scared he'll say "yes", which would mean that your entire calculation is wrong, from the very first equation.