Author Archives: gymnosperm

Shiprock

Posted on April 26, 2016 by gymnosperm

This picture was taken in September 1979. There is a print of it in my office, faded a bit. When I wax geological, the sheer improbability of this mineralogically unusual salient weighs heavily. High in Magnesium, Potassium and Sodium; low … Continue reading →

Posted in Geological Evolution of the Western United States, Geology | Tagged | Leave a comment

What is Waiting in the Wings?

Posted on April 12, 2016 by gymnosperm

We recently finished a series of posts on the 2 good greenhouse gas in which we established that all the “earthlight”, the long wave spectra emitted at the temperature of the planet surface is extinguished within about 100 meters of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Greenhouse Spectra, Radiance | Tagged | 10 Comments

The 2 Good Greenhouse Gas III (Looking Up)

Posted on April 10, 2016 by gymnosperm

We have been looking down so far. What happens when you stand on the ground and point a spectrometer up? Interesting things.   In the CO2 bands around wave number 667 a spectrometer pointed up from the ground sees radiation at … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, climate sensitivity, Greenhouse Spectra, Optical Material Properties, Spectra | Tagged | 11 Comments

CO2

Posted on March 12, 2016 by gymnosperm

This is just a bit of fun attempting to graphically represent the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere at 400 ppmv. The area of the square is set to 1. The problem becomes how to show an invisible molecule with … Continue reading →

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The 2 Good Greenhouse Gas II

Posted on January 17, 2016 by gymnosperm

When show a Carbonist that there is no evidence of CO2 causing significant “global” warming at any scale from deep time to the last 35 years as we did in the last post, they usually look at you funny and say, … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Optical Material Properties, Photon, Physics, Radiance, Spectra | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Quick and Dirty Irradiance to Radiance

Posted on January 6, 2016 by gymnosperm

Couldn’t believe it when it turned into a huge mathematical cluster to convert units of irradiance or spectral irradiance as used in models to radiance as used in measurements. Rather than get into the intricacies of spherical harmonics, figuring steradians, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Radiance | Tagged | 1 Comment

Quantum Dot

Posted on January 4, 2016 by gymnosperm

Twinkle, twinkle quantum dot, What is true and what is not? Is all Isaac, Albert, and Niels sought, Summarized inside you, dot? Should I believe, or should I not, A computer from your wiles be wrought? Should you shed more light … Continue reading →

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The 2 Good Greenhouse Gas

Posted on January 3, 2016 by gymnosperm

Anyone with a big picture perspective can see that there is no correlation between CO2 and temperature at any scale except the clear dependence of CO2 on temperature in the ice cores; and temperature control of the variation of CO2 … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate | Tagged | 3 Comments

Much Ado About Noses II

Posted on January 1, 2016 by gymnosperm

We left off the nose theme with the quandary that the surface temperatures as measured about the height of the human nose in places humans frequent on the planet differs significantly in trend from measurements by satellite of various levels of … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Energy of Photons, Photon, Spectra | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Earth is Falling! – Land Subsidence and Water Management in California

Posted on December 28, 2015 by gymnosperm

Still a good amount of sanity in academia if you know where to look. A link referenced in the post ( Land Subsidence from Groundwater Use in California )is well worth the read if you live in California. Source: The Earth … Continue reading →

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