Dan’s Wild Wild Science Journal

A 2 km hole in the ice at the South Pole.

I promised in an earlier post that I would post some more video of  my tour of Ice Cube the neutrino telescope being constructed at the South Pole.

So here it is, thanks to my Mac and iMovie. Excuse my camera work. I may work in TV, but I’m a meteorologist not a photojournalist. Fortunately, I was given a very short course by professionals and a really great camera that was kind to novices.

You can watch the embedded video below. If you are an educator and would like to have an HD version just email me.

I am a proud member of the International Association of Broadcast Meteorologists. Many of us who do weather on TV and radio realise that we may very well be the only person of science the average person sees each day. Those of us in the IABM take that responsibility very seriously. We strive to give accurate information on not only weather but on science in general.

Paul Gross of the IABM and the chair of the AMS Station Science Committee has an excellent editorial in the most recent issue of the IABM journal UP FRONT. (Full disclosure- Paul is a friend, and I am a member of the committee)

Here is a well reasoned and fact based look at the issue. I deserved wider dissemination than just us TV science types.

Click image for full pdf.

I have my own little mention in the UP FRONT. It is a summary of my trip to Antarctica. You can read it below.

Click to read. TV types- you should consider applying for membership in the IABM.

Two very notable publications in the clmate science world as we head into the first weekend of meteorological spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. One is a surprise to just about every climate researcher and not in a good way. The other may surprise some in the public but is not at all surprising to those who follow the real science closely.

The big surprise first.

Methane is being released in huge quantities from the rapidly warming Arctic Ocean off of Siberia. Click image to read the NSF press release.

A major finding is being announced in Science regarding methane and permafrost. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has more than doubled since pre-industrial times. It is approximately 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Researchers have long worried that as the Earth heats up, permafrost holding methane will melt and methane will be released in great quantities. Until now, the main source of worry was wetlands in the High Arctic. Some recent research has even indicated that the possibilities of deep ocean “methane hydrates” becoming a major source of sudden methane were not that likely.

Unfortunately the real world has a different surprise. A University of Alaska research team has found that the methane beneath the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is being released in huge quantities. Indications are that the amount of methane being released is comparable to what is being released over the entire rest of the World’s oceans.

The second publication confirms something that I have mentioned several times over the past year or so here. Which is simply this: The real science published in peer reviewed journals continues to indicate that the change in Earth’s climate system is worse than the IPCC report of 2007.

In almost every area, the changes are happening faster than predicted. From sea level rise to greenhouse gas levels to the melting of arctic sea ice. A few years ago there was still questions about how Antarctica was reacting compared to the rest of the planet.

No more. The melt is on.

Dr. Peter Stott and colleagues at the UK Met. office have published a review of 110 papers in research journals published since the last IPCC report.

The evidence that humans are affecting earth’s climate is no longer unequivocal. It is OVERWHELMING.

The BBC has a good summary with more info. Click the image to read it.

Some real science from the National Academies. Click to read it. It is a very good summary of what is currently known about climate change.

Compare this with the ridiculous claims of fraud by extremist political blogs. The main claim being over a mistake in the non peer reviewed part of the IPCC report that anyone who knew much about climate science thought was a typo! I can’t write a blog post here without typos let alone 3,000 pages.

It is very telling that the two blogs feeding most of the skeptics are written by people who have NO background in science. One is a political spinner for Senator Laughing Stock (who wants to arrest Dr. Michael Mann). The other is TV weatherman who never bothered to study atmospheric physics.

As the title of this post says: Scientific facts live independent of public opinion. I’m a firm believer that the truth wins out in the end.

It always has.

Ann Posegate of the National Env. Education Foundation and I made a joint application to the NSF to visit the science bases in Antarctica. Ann also writes for the wildly popular Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post. Click this image to see her posts about our trip!

We have finished airing, on WHNT- TV, the 4 part series on Antarctica. All 4 parts are available to watch on this post but the movies are small. Ann Posegate and I actually shot in HD and in coming weeks I will edit some of the HD video together and put it online.

We have just skimmed some of the science and for my fellow nerds, we have some beautiful pictures and interviews to tell and show.

Here is Part One covering the trip to McMurdo, the largest science base in Antarctica.

Sign at Amundsen- Scott Station at the South Pole.

Part three for TV is below:

Another video from Ann of the Penguins is here.

Ice crystals in the air produce a beautiful sky at the South Pole. It's unlike anything I have ever seen. Ann Posegate's image.

Part 4 covers the trip to the South Pole itself.

It is an amazing place and I am so very lucky to have had the opportunity to stand at the very bottom of the world.

It’s hard to know for sure but estmates are that only around 4-6 thousand people in all of human history have stood at the South Pole. After Amundsen and Scott made it in 1911, there was no one else until 1952!

About 45 people will winter over at the Pole this winter. The last flight out has already left. I would give anything to have the opportunity to visit  again someday. Some of the most important science in the World is being conducted there and on the polar ice cap.

Part 4:

You can see all of the posts I have written about Antarctica HERE.

Ann’s blog with video and pictures is HERE.

Vince's Cross at Hut Point near McMurdo Base in Antarctica. The cost of science can be very high indeed.

We shot our video in high definition, and we’ll put some clips up soon of the interviews with scientists and of the incredible scenery.

Ann and I both put a very high priority on sharing our story with students. We are already working on material for teachers and we will gladly answer any questions!

The National Science Foundation selected us to share the story of those who travel far away from their families to a harsh environment to do science.

They do it for the same reason that humans have always done it.

Curiosity about this small fragment of sand on the shore of an unfathomably vast universe that we call home.

Here is Part two of the 4 part series we are airing of the trip to Antarctica Ann Posegate and I made in early January. I will be posting some higher resolution videos of specific events and places soon!