Great Lakes Freezing

Lake Superior Ice Caves - Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.  Image Credit - CBS News

The Great Lakes are covered in more ice now than at any time since the mid-1990s.  See the linked NOAA article for details.

One interesting note...Lake Ontario has the lowest surface % covered by ice.  That's due its relatively low surface area to volume ratio.

NOAA Climate - Great Lakes

The Giant Keck Telescopes - How Does One Clean Them?

Here's a link to an informative article and video on some very delicate maintenance to be performed on the mighty Keck Telescopes.
Keck Telescopes - Maintenance Video

The Ugly Side of Coal Use

Image credit - Wikipedia

We generate a lot of electricity by burning coal here in the United States.  Estimates range from 37% to as much as 50%.  The numbers have changed recently due to the huge amount of fracked natural gas being produced.

Despite the ugly side of coal, one cannot ignore that it is an abundant domestic energy source that provides a lot of economic activity in the United States.

Here's an update on a coal ash spill that occurred a few years ago as well as a very recent one.

Scientific American - Coal Ash Article and Video

Here's a link to a Sierra Club article on coal ash.
http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/coalash/map.aspx

MODIS - Behind the Scenes

Images credit - NASA.

MODIS...you've probably never heard of these instruments before.  Yet, they are two of NASA's workhorse satellite sensors.  They ride aboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

By the way...who says NASA is dead? NASA is alive and well.

Accuweather.com has an excellent description of their capabilities here:Accuweather - MODIS Article

Here's the link to NASA's homepage for it: NASA - MODIS Homepage  Great stuff here.

Severe Drought in California

Current US Drought Monitor.  Courtesy of NOAA, USDA, et. al.
US Drought Monitor Homepage

California and several other western states are facing dire water situations with this increasing drought.  Two articles from the NY Times highlight the difficulties.

This first article appeared in yesterday's Sunday Times.  NY Times - Current Drought

There is evidence that California's climate has been relatively wet for some time.  This second article appeared in 1994 in the Times.  NY Times - Ancient Megadroughts