June 4, 2011
Good Morning,
A bizarre study finds that airport locations have their own
whether circumstances, to a very limited extent, due to the
taking off and landing of airplanes. Check out the details
to this weird occurrence in the first article.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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Aircraft can cause airport rain, snow BOULDER, Colo. - Areas near airports can experience an increase in rain and snow when aircraft take off and land under certain atmospheric conditions, U.S. researchers say. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research say the small but measurable increase is the result of a phenomenon called hole punch when planes fly through certain mid-level clouds, forcing nearby air to rapidly expand and cool. This causes water droplets in the atmosphere to freeze to ice and then turn to snow as they fall toward the ground, leaving behind gaps in the clouds, an NCAR release said Thursday. The researchers used satellite images and weather computer models to examine this type of inadvertent cloud seeding near six commercial airports: London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Charles De Gaulle (Paris), Seattle-Tacoma, O'Hare (Chicago), and Yellowknife (Northwest Territories, Canada), as well as Byrd Station in Antarctica. Depending on the airport and type of plane, they found, the right atmospheric conditions typically exist up to 6 percent of the time. "It appears to be a rather widespread effect for aircraft to inadvertently cause some measurable amount of rain or snow as they fly through certain clouds," NCAR scientist Andrew Heymsfield said. "This is not necessarily enough precipitation to affect global climate, but it is noticeable around major airports in the midlatitudes."
Study: Rare earth elements can be recycledWASHINGTON - Recycling of rare earth elements could ease global concerns about a reliable supply of the substances now mined mostly in China, researchers say. Writing in the journal Environment Science & Technology, scientists say the dozen or so rare earth elements, or REEs, have unique physical and chemical properties making them essential for defense applications, computers, cellphones, electric vehicles, batteries, appliances, fertilizers, liquid crystal displays and other products. But having only one major source supply, China, is a worry, they say. "Since 1990, China has played a dominant role in REE mining production; other countries are almost completely dependent on imports from China with respect to rare earth resources," the researchers wrote. Researchers say a "recycle and reuse" strategy could lessen that dependence. They say they've done the first-ever analysis of the amount of REEs available in in-use products in the United States, Japan and China, the major users of the materials. They found nearly 99,000 tons REEs were included in products manufactured in 2007. This "invisible" stock, equivalent to more than 10 years of mining production, "suggests that REE recycling may have the potential to offset a significant part of REE virgin extraction in the future ... and minimize the environmental challenges present in REE mining and processing," the researchers said.
NASA puts space probe into lunar orbitBERKELEY, Calif. - NASA says the first of two spacecraft that will study the moon is safely in its lunar orbit after successful maneuvers guided by flight engineers in California. At 10:40 a.m. EDT Monday, controllers at the University of California, Berkeley, issued commands for the ARTEMIS P1 spacecraft to begin its move into orbit around the moon, a NASA release said. The Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun space probe arrived in orbit at 12:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday. Engineers say they will move the second spacecraft, ARTEMIS P2, into position July 17. ARTEMIS is the first mission ever to orbit at the moon's Lagrangian points -- points on either side of the moon where the moon and Earth's gravity balance perfectly. The ARTEMIS mission uses two of the five spacecraft from another NASA constellation of satellites called THEMIS that were launched in 2007 and successfully completed their mission of studying the sun in 2010. The ARTEMIS mission allowed two of the in-orbit spacecraft to be re-purposed to extend their usefulness, NASA said.
Calif. college goes 'grid positive'OROVILLE, Calif. - A California community college says it is the first in the country to go "grid positive," generating more electricity from its solar arrays than it consumes.Butte College, located 75 miles from Sacramento, said it will see significant benefits from its solar arrays, estimating savings between $50 million and $75 million over 15 years. The savings will come from eliminating it electricity bill, getting paid for excess electricity production delivered back to the grid, and avoiding future electricity rate increases, a college release said Wednesday. "Butte College has had a longstanding commitment to sustainability," Diana Van Der Ploeg, Butte College's president, said. "Achieving grid-positive status marks the culmination of years of effort to build Butte College's supply of solar power and to improve energy efficiency on campus." The school now has a total of 25,000 solar panels generating more than 6.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power nearly 1,000 average-sized homes. "Future generations are counting on us to address the profound challenge of global warming, and we know that our future prosperity will hinge on America's ability to be a leader in the clean energy economy," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. "Butte College's accomplishments in renewable energy and sustainability help show the way toward building a stronger economy while preserving the planet."
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