Author Archives: gymnosperm

Modtran, Up and Down

Posted on August 21, 2016 by gymnosperm

We have explored up and down looking spectrometers in prior posts. In all cases the up looking instruments have been on the ground. A fun thing about the Modtran program is that you can look both up and down from any … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate | 2 Comments

Carbon Pricks

Posted on August 4, 2016 by gymnosperm

It is not well-known that there was once there was a job title “Prick”. It was back during the witch crazes and Inquisition that racked Europe during the 13th to 16th centuries. Many forces combined in this human aberration that … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Behavior, Anthropology | Leave a comment

Food Stamp Cowboys

Posted on April 27, 2016 by gymnosperm

Sad but true. The food stamp cowboy is a close relative of the OSHA cowboy: A food stamp cowboy would actually need all the protections afforded by OSHA. A real cowboy would not. A cowboy fills a niche. Ironworkers are cowboys … Continue reading →

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The Religious Left

Posted on April 27, 2016 by gymnosperm

I have never been a fan of the religious right. These folks seemed always against the Theory of Evolution, women’s rights, and generally in favor of literal interpretations of the Bible. Doesn’t work for me. Now comes an insidious religious … Continue reading →

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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