The
Secret Greenhouse Gas
29.8.06
GWA Science Correspondent
It’s
not as sexy or scary as the greenhouse gases we read about every
day in the papers such as carbon dioxide, methane or nitrous oxide.
Barely a day passes without some pronouncement on what has to
be done to reduce these products which we are all producing in
too great an abundance for our future well-being. But what about
poor old water vapour? Why is it being ignored? Read
more
Trade
Winds Weakening
6th July 2006
By GWA Correspondent
In the harbour, in the island, in the Spanish Seas,
Are the tiny white houses and the orange trees,
And day-long, night-long, the cool and pleasant breeze
Of the steady Trade Winds blowing.
John
Masefield’s poem from his Sea Ballads was written over a
hundred years ago, but the steady reliable trade winds to which
he referred are weakening according to a recent study released
in the 4th May issue of Nature read
more
Tracking
the Jet Stream
16th June 2006
Donald Burfitt-Dons
Whether
flying as a passenger or a pilot you always know when you’ve
jumped on board the Jet-Stream. The ride can be exhilarating and
also cut watchfulls of minutes off your flight. The telltale signs
are a rumbling tremor in the fuselage, punctuated by sudden bursts
of wave like turbulence which might concern the pilot enough to
put on the seat belt sign. Of course it’s a lot easier to
pick up in the cockpit. The pilot has only to look at his navigation
system and check the wind strength and O.A.T.(outside air temperature)
read more .
What's
Happening to our Tropopause ?
15th May 2006
Donald Burfitt-Dons
First
of all what is the tropopause? Well, it’s the dividing line
between the troposphere, which is the lowest layer in the atmosphere
and significantly the part where all the weather activity takes
place, and the stable layer above called the stratosphere Read
more
Contrails
and Why They Matter:
13th April 2006
Donald Burfitt-Dons, GWA
The
amount of sunlight reaching the earth’s surface has been
steadily reducing since the sixties at 1.4% per decade. It is
a widely accepted assumption that the greenhouse gases such as
CO2 and methane, which we are releasing into the atmosphere, are
causing this Read more
