admin

At’ta boy, Boaty

First of all – it’s good to be back. I apologize for the lengthy dry spell in my blogs, but it could not be helped (see blog post “Sorry-but there was an accident”, 6/29). I am glad to be back. And I am very glad that you are back reading my articles. I hope that my recovery will soon allow me to get back out to experience the joy of long hikes in the woods.

Recently, there have been numerous articles regrading Boaty McBoatface, and I want to salute the vessel, the drone, the scientists, and the findings.

First the vessel. You may remember in 2016 there was a public request by a British government bureau, the British Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), to submit names for a new scientific vessel. The vessel was a 425 foot (129 meter), $300 million ocean-going ice breaker and research vessel dedicated to the study of the oceans of the Antarctic regions.

I need to mention the importance of the protein provided by the oceans to the world’s population. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in 2014 “ten percent of the world’s population depends on fisheries for their livelihoods, and 4.3 billion people are reliant on fish for 15 percent of their animal protein intake.” [1] The oceans are an important resource and must be studied and protected.

The name for the vessel that the majority of people, those who visited the NERC website, recommended was Boaty McBoatface. I believe the world agreed it was a very funny, but a rather silly, name for a vessel of its size and importance.

The vessel, due to its expense and significance, was eventually named Royal Research Ship (RRS) David Attenborough after the famed broadcaster and natural historian. This name had also scored highly on the NERC website. But what then to do with that great and popular name of Boaty? The scientific community decided to use the name for a new and important drone vehicle. The new drone was planned for exploration of the oceans and specifically to collect data related to the temperature regions/levels of the ocean water surrounding Antarctica.

The new Boaty McBoatface submersible, is a research drone which can be launched and recovered from a larger research vessel. The submersible drone is a Autosub Long Range (ALR). Boaty McBoatface is the first of its class and is designated ALR-1. According to the NERC, the ALR submersibles can be at sea for weeks to months. This length of time and data gathering capability is far longer than research drones that are currently utilized by the NERC. Other autonomous vehicles of the Boaty class are planned for development, construction, and use for research of the Southern Ocean and perhaps others of the world’s seven seas.

ALR Boaty McBoatface, has been in the news recently for its data collection during its first scientific voyage. The data provides information regarding the effect of increasingly stronger winds on the rise of ocean surface water temperatures. This is one of the many feed-back loops related to global warming. According to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) [2], ALR-1 (Boaty), traveled 112 miles on its first voyage. Its path took it through high walled underwater valleys of the Orkney Passage in the depths of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. The vessel measured temperature, salinity (saltiness), as well as the turbulence at different depths.

The findings of Boaty’s maiden voyage reveal how increasingly stronger winds on the surface of the Southern Ocean create turbulence deep under the surface. This turbulence results in a mixing of the warm water at the middle levels with the colder waters from the depths of the Southern Ocean. This mixing causes the temperature of the waters in the lower level to warm and move upward through the water column. This can be a significant factor in rising sea levels. As the warmer water raises the overall ocean temperature, the water tends to expand due to the warming and thus causes the sea level to rise. If the deep-water warming contributes to a warming of the ocean’s surface waters this may increase the rate of evaporation from the surface into the atmosphere which can contribute to more rain and snow inland and greater strength to ocean storms.

According to the PNAS article, the significance of the findings of this previously undocumented mixing mechanism of the overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean is a better understanding that the deep-ocean waters are rapidly laundered through intensified near-boundary turbulence and boundary–interior exchange. As the conditions triggering this mechanism are common to other branches of the overturning circulation, the findings highlight a requirement for representing the newly-understood circulation in computer models of the overturning in the Southern Ocean and its effect of rising ocean water temperatures.

Congratulations to Boaty and the entire research team.

The artwork for this blog post is based on Figure 2 of the PNAS article (graph (D) showing the potential vorticity in red and blue and the neutral density of the deep water shown by the black contour lines). The image of the ALR-1 is taken from the internet.

[1] http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/248479/icode/, Oceans crucial for our climate, food and nutrition

[2] Rapid mixing and exchange of deep-ocean waters in an abyssal boundary current, PNAS first published June 18, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904087116

Sorry – but there was an accident.

I have been away for a while, and I apologize for the lapse. However, I was in a car accident. As a result of my injuries, I have not been able to prepare articles for my blog. But now I’m back, and I am looking forward to writing and sharing posts on science and on being out of doors.

My recovery is progressing well, and I am often outside walking in the neighborhood or sitting in my yard enjoying the birds and the breezes.

Thank you for returning to Stonefig and checking for new articles. I intend to post a new article in the next day or so, and hopefully will be posting two or three articles a week as I had done before.

Enjoy being outside. And enjoy reading on the current trends in science.

Be careful on the road. I am fortunate and thankful that my town has excellent paramedics who were able to respond quickly and for the policeman who was first on the scene and performed life-saving CPR.

First Ever @ M87

There were people sitting on chairs on a stage. They were all introduced, including Dr. Shep Doeleman, the Director of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project. There was applause, and then there was silence as everyone in the room sat up to listen closely and to see the picture they all hoped to see. The presentation was succinct, but everyone whether in the room or watching remotely from their offices or homes was waiting for the anticipated announcement. These included scientists, post-docs, students, managers, politician, reporters, and other interested people watching and listening. These other interested people were called the “black-hole enthusiasts”. The work was described, including the development of a Very Long Baseline Interferometer the size of the earth with multiple sites at locations around the globe. Not all of the sites were able to view the target location at the same time, but this supported obtaining good data since as the world turned other sites/telescopes were able to view the target location in space. High levels of collaborative processes were required for the EHT team to be successful.

The target was in galaxy M87, also known as Virgo-Alpha. It is the largest galaxy in the Virgo cluster. At the heart of the galaxy is a super-massive black hole. The international team was seeking to “image”, to create a picture, of the event horizon of the black hole in M87.

The room was quiet. Dr. Doeleman turned toward the screen and pressed the button on his control. For a moment there was total silence followed by the soft clicks of cameras in the room. Then applause. It did not carry on for wave after wave, but it was solid and positive and excited. The applause stopped as everyone in the room leaned forward to see the image. Everyone quieted down as if there were a sound to be heard. Every ear strained; every eye refused to blink.

The image on the screen clearly showed the edge of the event horizon inside of which not even light can escape. Dr. Doeleman stressed that it was the work of numerous nations, their agencies, and their early-career and senior scientists that made possible the development of the pictures. The pictures were created from more than 5-petabytes of information. It was the hard work of all these people that enabled the image seen today to be extracted from the mass of data.

Enthusiasts at home leaned closer to their computer screen and rose on the edge of their chairs. The room was full of virtual attendees who wanted to be part of this announcement of what is truly scientific history.

The picture showed (“north” being up in the picture) a glowing mass of light, the swirl of particles around the heart of galaxy M87 before they cascade across the event horizon into the darkness. The colors in the maelstrom indicated the speed of photon emissions from the accretion flow toward the event horizon. There was a distinct rise in color as the relative speed of the light flowing towards the observing telescopes in 1-mm wavelength increased on the south edge of the ring. And there in the center, the darkness of no light escaping, the back hole. And between the two the crisp edge of the event horizon.

The first-of-its-kind image and the science and math behind it and the cooperation behind it all, leads us to a transformation of our understanding of black holes.

Congratulations to the entire team and all those who supported and continue to support them.

The image of the black hole is based on the image provided by the NSF-EHT. The map of Virgo is based on a map provided by IAU and Sky and Telescope.

The announcement and press briefing can be viewed at https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/blackholes/ .

Mars InSight H-P cubed

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Then – no further.

One of the dedicated science instruments on the Mars InSight lander has had to pause during its deployment. The instrument is officially known as the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe, which according to the Launch Press Kit is abbreviated HP3 (pronounced “H-P cubed”). Its mission is to take the temperature of Mars. It will determine the amount of heat that is escaping from the interior of the planet. Knowing this heat flow will help us better understand the evolution of the Martian interior – and the rate at which Mar’s internal core energy is diminishing.

The instrument includes a probe that is being hammered into the Martian soil to a depth between ten and sixteen feet (3 – 5 meters). But the probe, which is called the “Mole” by NASA, has met significant resistance at a much shallower depth. NASA is trying to determine if the resistance is coming from a rock or a gravel layer. Then they will need to decide how best to get beyond the obstacle. Can it be penetrated, or will another method be necessary?

As a gardener, or I should say as the shovel-man for a gardener, I know what it is to hit a resistive object while digging a hole. For me the resistance is often a stone of small to moderate size or perhaps a root of a nearby tree. Sometimes I can remove the impediment, but sometimes I must shift the location of the hole. Removing the impediment is not an option on Mars. There is no gardener on Mars that can kneel and sweep out the rubble with their gloved hand. *

The Mole is about 16 inches long and approximately an inch in circumference. The exterior of the Mole is aluminum. It is attached to a flexible tether that carries information to the instrument package that is attached to the deck of the lander. The hammer that provides the driving force is built into the Mole. There is no outside hammer at the surface level to drive the Mole into the soil. This means that there is no device, like the claw on the back of a hammer, that can extract the Mole so it can be placed in a different location.

Going back to my gardening efforts, I have often driven spikes for mats or pegs for garden borders into the ground. I have also driven steel rods to a depth or 18 to 24 inches to support a structure or a wall. In these cases, if I hit a rock or a root that I cannot penetrate I may be able to slightly reorient the item and try to slide past the obstacle. But that may not to be an option for the Mole on Mars. For clarity, I will have to ask NASA.

The Mole’s internal hammer was designed to enable the tip of the Mole to penetrate objects up to a certain hardness. This can be understood from the description of the operation in the mission Launch Press Kit which describes the process. The information in these documents states that it is expected that the hammer will be dropped between 5,000 and 20,000 times to penetrate the soil to its planned depth. The number of hammer blows required depends on the density and hardness of the soil matrix.

Currently the Mole has met an object of significant hardness. The hammer not only has to overcome the hardness of the material it has to penetrate, but it also has to overcome the friction of the sides of the Mole as it is driven through the obstacle plus the added friction of the flexible tether as it is dragged down the Mole’s hole.

NASA will determine the best course of action to allow the Mole to penetrate beyond its current depth. On March 21, the NASA Mission page stated that many ideas are being considered to free the Mole from the obstacle, and that the ideas will require “at least several more weeks of careful analysis.”

Stay tuned. Perhaps we will be able to slide past the obstacle and reach the appropriate depth.

Information for this article is taken form the NASA Mars InSight Launch Press Kit. The documents may be found at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/insight/ .

Picture based on NASA map in Launch Press Kit.

*I always wear gloves because there can be glass from an old bottle or a rusted nail dropped during construction.

Three Haiku

Blushing red cardinal

In flight through the cherry tree.

Pink petals falling.

Pink swirl of blossoms.

Petals fallen in the dust,

Are now wind-lifted.

Life above the wind.

Three days of blossoming glory,

Snow melts on the ground.

Doggie, Doggie

Not everything outside is pleasant. Some of the unpleasant things are just nature’s way, like mosquitoes, angry wasps, and poison ivy. These can be often be avoided by an informed hiker who watches where they step and is careful in what they do.

But some unpleasantness on the trail is – well – caused by our fellow hikers.

It’s all about sharing the trail.

Today it often seems that sharing the trail is not just with fellow hikers but with their dogs as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs. I have lived with several at different times. They were a wonderful addition to my life, and I miss them. They were a delight. And I hope when they met other people at home, or on the trail, or at the beach, or in the neighborhood that they (and I ) were courteous to my neighbors and to their dogs and other pets.

Today however there seem to be more dogs than ever. You see them with their owners in stores (including food stores which I think in most areas is against local ordnances), you see them in restaurants, and in the neighborhoods. Thankfully, the days of letting dogs run loose is far behind us. Most often when I see a dog it is on a leash as most should be when out in public. The leash enables better control and can keep the dog safe.

In order to be courteous, the first of the two major things for a dog and owner is to know where they are allowed and where they are not allowed. If you are not sure, ask. Ask the store manager if you can bring your dog inside. Ask the restaurant owner if you can have your dog with you at the table. And read the signs in public parks.

The second major thing is to make sure your dog is trained in how to act around other people and their pets. This is huge! No one wants a dog to jump on them – even in a friendly manner. No one wants their dog to be attacked or otherwise intimidated by another dog. And dogs like to be trained. It gives them a sense of pride. And its not hard. It takes a certain level of commitment by the owner to ensure their dog knows not to pull on the lease, and knows how to sit and stay, and how to be quiet.

In my walks and hikes I have seen extremely bad examples of dogs with absolutely no training who are basically wild and often aggressive. And I have often seen dogs that are exceptionally well trained and basically are at peace with their surroundings. In these later cases the dog, and the owner, and I are all glad to share the trail.

One last thing, and this is totally to the owners. Sure, you dog has to “go”. We all get that. And thank you to the vast percentage of folks who clean up after their dogs. But after you have cleaned it up – PLEASE take it with you. Most National Parks no longer have trash receptacles. You are expected to take your waste with you when you go. And this includes those little plastic bags of dog waste. No one is going to come behind you and pick it up. Please put it in your car and take it home and dispose of it there. No one wants to have to start a nice walk in the woods with the sight of waste bags all around the trail head.

Pick it up. Pack it out. Share the trail.

Grand Canyon – Sweet

So I asked my question.

“I was here 50 years ago. How much has the Canyon eroded since I was here last?”

I was standing at the edge of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I was talking to a park ranger who looked like she would appreciate my curiosity – and also looked like she would know the answer.

She answered, “The Canyon erodes about the thickness of a piece of paper each year.”

“So,” I said, “that’s 50 sheets of paper, a tenth of a ream, about three-quarters of an inch. I thought I saw the difference.”

And yes, I did see a difference. Not when I peer over the edge and look outwards towards where I can see the Colorado River, but when I look around. There are more people at the Canyon then there had been in November of 1973. The Park is more modern. The trails look better than they had 50 years ago. But the trail down into the Canyon looked just as challenging.

In both my visits to the South Rim, 50 years ago and now, there was snow on the ground. The snow adds to the beauty of the Canyon, as the rocks and trees and shadow are accentuated by the stark white of the snow. But caution is necessary as the trails can be icy and slippery. But with snow or sun caution is always necessary as with the added erosion of the past 50 years its a long way down – plus a bit.

During this visit I would not hike the South Kaibab trail; I would do my hiking on the rim trail. But in 1973 I wanted to see how far down I could get before I had to come back up at day’s end. I started early in the morning with a light pack that I bought the day before in which I had an extra pair of gloves, some sardines and crackers, and something to drink. I don’t think they sold water in bottles back then. I was layered against the cold and had on my sea-duty rain jacket with a hood. It was heavy over my denim jacket, but it would certainly keep me dry. I also had on my woolen watch cap.

I had my copper bound walking stick and was ready to begin my descent. It was cold and clear, and I was the only person on the trail. It was great. The views of the Canyon opening to me were exhilarating. I could look back millions of years as I passed the rock face of the trail wall. I took time to think of all the history that had passed in the first few yards, and then I was well down into the prehistory of the Earth.

It was the uplift of the Colorado Plateau that allowed the marvel of the Grand Canyon to become. About 70 million years ago tectonic forces lifted an area that is now within Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. As mountains formed and snows and rains fell the nascent Colorado River began its journey off the Colorado Plateau down to the Gulf of California. The River began to cut its way through the uplifted plateau as it sought to reach sea level. As it picked up sediments from its sources it flowed across the uplifted plateau like liquid sandpaper. The rushing River gouged and polished its way down to its present level. As the River grew so did the feeder streams that flowed into it; each cutting its own side canyon. The Canyon sides collapsed as the River cut deeper. This collapse created the width of the current Canyon. Rain and freezing water and trees and wind worked their own patterns of erosion on the Canyon walls, dislodging rocks that would tumble down towards the River below.

And here was another difference. As I hiked down in 1973 I kept an eye on the weather at the Canyon rim. I could l see clouds gathering and knew that it was snowing at the top. After reaching Skeleton Point and eating my sardines and crackers, I knew it was time to turn back in order to get out of the Canyon before the weather worsened. I was trudging up the last half mile in snow, leaving my footprints behind me. The wind was blowing the snow, and I had my hood up. Then I heard something. It sounded like the thumping of distant thunder. I put my hood back so I could hear better. There was a rumble and rattle of above me. I looked up and saw a good size rock rolling down the Canyon side in my direction. I took several steps backwards and watched as the rock landed on the trail where I had been standing and bounded further down and out of sight in the direction of the River.

I had witnessed the process of the Canyon. Things change. That rock is now in a different place and the level of the Canyon floor is now lower. And I can tell the difference.

Permian Basin Texas

There are plenty of sights to see on the road through Texas. The country is starkly beautiful. It’s early Spring and some color is beginning to come to the grasses that line the roads and cover the fields. But one thing that I thought I would see, cattle, well I don’t see too many. But what I do see in the area around Midland Texas are pumps. I am driving through the area of the Permian Basin. Rank upon rank of oil pumps as far into the distance as I can see. If I use Google Earth I can see the area is covered with white specks. Each speck is an area around a pump or derrick where the grass has been beaten down and trucks are parked and various pieces of support equipment lay about. One thing of note is there are a lot of pickup trucks on the road and most are towing an open bed trailer. And they are all in a hurry. They are not being driven unsafely, just in a hurry. Out here time is truly money. it’s the ranks of pumps that draws my attention. As I drive down Interstate I-10 most of the pumps are nodding up and down driven by a massive cam and engine. Each one pulling crude oil out of the ground.

The Permian Basin contains more crude oil than any other location within the United States and is one of the great oil resources of the world.

Like it or not oil and gas extraction is part of our world. It drives industry. It enables us to get around. And this will continue until a different economically dependable energy source is developed. What is the good of extracting and burning the essence of years that passed millions of years ago? The resources that lie in the Permian Basin under Texas and New Mexico were lain in that place during the Permian age. This age preceded the time of the dinosaurs, and ended approximately 250 million years ago. Its end came with in a mass extinction of more than 90% of the species on earth. Then as the continents separated, the remnants of the age were overlain by the sediments of the following eras and were compressed onto the hydrocarbon slurry that is drilled for today.

That drilling provides jobs in Texas. The taxes derived from those jobs built the road I drove down. But the economic reach of the oil extracted from the Permian Basin extends well beyond to local area. It enables many American to drive and to produce and to build. It enables us to create and to sell. But this comes at a substantial price. The burning of the refined extract causes pollution in our neighborhoods and smog in our cities. It pollutes the air and dumps chemicals into the atmosphere. These chemicals included CO2 and other “greenhouse gases” which are causing global warming and causing the acidification of the oceans.

But today I see work and prosperity. I see people going to their jobs, being proud of the work they are doing, and doing good work. But beyond here, the same companies that are operating the wells and refining the oil into the world’s fuel, are also working on what may be “a different economically dependable energy source”, which may power people’s jobs and give them economic independence, and provide them with food, shelter, heathy lives, and pride in their existence.

All 8 Billion of us!

Bent Tree

A snow knee? No, I don’t think so.

When I see a snow knee I know it is the result of massive snows bending a tree over. It is also on a down-hill slope. The tree has been bent by the weight of winter snows in the mountains pushing down, laterally, on its trunk. The tree is generally straight above the knee, as in the Spring it shakes off the snows and grows true. But the knee remains, a tell-tale bend in the tree that shows its survival of passing winters.

This was different. The tree had a bend, but it was lateral to the slope, not down-hill. And here in the rolling hills of Virginia we have not had the amounts of snow generally associated with the snow-kneed trees of the Rocky Mountains of the western United States. Something else had bent this tree.

It was clear what had happened. I could see that the tree had been bent over early in its life. Some other tree or a large limb had fallen and caught the little tree and forced it down to the ground. But the smaller tree’s thin trunk had been flexible, and it did not split. The little tree was pushed done, nearly to the ground, under the weight of it fallen sister.

All signs of the other tree are gone, but the bent tree tells the story of the fall, the crushing blow, and the aftermath.

Sometime in the past, disease or a windstorm caused a tree to fall in these woods. It was likely a large tree, not huge, but about 10 inches in circumference. Or it was a limb that was downed by the same causes. It fell from a tree that may still stands in the forest. When it – tree or branch – fell, it hit the little tree. It bent the smaller tree over and pinned it to the ground. And there they lay. The smaller tree would never be able to right itself due to the weight of the large tree/branch.

But the smaller tree did not give in. Its root structure had not been torn out of the ground and was still intact. The smaller tree was still viable could grow even under the weight of the tree/branch that had crushed it. The top of the smaller tree which lay pressed to the ground died and fell away. Today there is a scar of healed wood that surrounds the rotted spot now so close to the ground. The scar is partially covered by a round, rolled callus of wound-wood. This callus is the tree’s natural response to the injury. The callus seals off the damaged area and protects it from infection.

Today the larger tree/branch is gone. But the smaller tree still lives. It is twisted to be sure, yet even in its captive state, it threw off a new branch that reaches vertically up from its twisted trunk and each year leafs and blossoms with some of the prettiest flowers in the forest. It is a dogwood. Its dense wood helped it survive the blow. Its resilience helped it to live and to grow. And its nature gives flowers and brightness to this patch of the deep woods.

Now it is Winter. In the Spring the tree will again show its toughness and determination, and it will flower.

(*Just_a_Note) – Wallace Broecker

News sources around the world have reported the death of Wallace Broecker. As a climate scientist, he penned an article that was published in the journal Science in 1975. This article was among the early warning calls of the effect of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to cause a rise in the global mean temperature. Dr. Broecker titled the article “Are we on the brink of a pronounced Global Warming”. Through his article, and many others that followed, the term “global warming” has come into common use and is readily understood by all to imply a continuing rise in the global temperature to the point that it has a detrimental effect on the oceans, wildlife, agriculture, and human society.

As Broecker stated in his 1975 article, “… the exponential rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide content will tend to become a significant factor and by early in the next century [the ‘next century’ started in 2000] will have driven the mean planetary temperature beyond the limits experienced during the last 1000 years.”

Further in the article Broecker predicted, “As the CO2 effect will dominate, the uncertainty … lies mainly in the estimates of future chemical fuel use and the magnitude of the warming per unit of excess atmospheric CO2.” When any of us is outside we can see and often smell the exhaust of the continuing use, and increased use, of fossil (chemical) fuels by the world’s expanding population.

So when in his article Broecker asks, “Are we in for a climate surprise?”, the answer is both yes and no. Yes, it is happening, CO2 continues to clog our atmosphere. But no, in 2019 it is not a surprise.

The 1975 article may be found at – https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu//files/2009/10/broeckerglobalwarming75.pdf

The picture is taken from the 1975 article.