March 4-5, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 72
Honolulu, Oahu – 79
Kaneohe, Oahu – 73
Kahului, Maui – 78
Hilo, Hawaii – 71
Kailua-kona – 78
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 78F
Hilo, Hawaii – 66
Haleakala Crater – 43 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 30 (near 14,000 feet on the Big Island)
Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals (inches) during the last 24 hours on each of the major islands, as of Wednesday afternoon:
1.42 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.13 Manoa Valley, Oahu
0.16 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
1.29 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.52 Piihonua, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a strong 1033 millibar high pressure system located far to the north of the islands. This high pressure system will keep our trade winds still locally gusty Thursday, gradually lighter Friday.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around the state during the day and night. This next image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible image. This next image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean. Finally, here’s a looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is the Haleakala Crater, which is near 10,000 feet in elevation. These two webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two! Plus, during the nights and early mornings you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise too…depending upon weather conditions.
Aloha Paragraphs
Despite the fact that we’ve moved through the strongest part of wind event…the trade winds will still be moderately strong and gusty into Thursday. Looking at this latest weather map, we find the same old 1035 millibar high pressure system, in the area north-northwest of Hawaii Wednesday night. The winds being generated by this high pressure systrem, will keep a few of the wind related NWS advisories in place for the time being. These include the small craft wind advisories active across all of Hawaii’s coasts and channel waters, along with a high surf advisory for surf breaking along our east facing beaches…in addition to a marine weather statement for surges in the Hilo and Kahului harbors.
Partly to mostly cloudy skies, both at the surface, and aloft, will remain in place over the next several days. As the winds have turned more easterly now, they will begin to bring more shower bearing clouds our way with time. An area of low pressure aloft, which will edge closer to the islands by Friday…will bring an increase in windward showers. The leeward sides will remain generally dry, but may end up seeing a few showers towards the weekend. The time frame between Friday into the upcoming weekend, may have some generous showers falling, with even the chance of a random thunderstorm.
We’re now through the windiest part of the strong and gusty trade wind regime, which lasted for well over a week…although there will continue to be 30+ mph trade winds in gusts into Thursday. The winds are generally the lightest during the morning hours, which increase during the late morning through early evening hours. The following numbers represented the strongest gusts (mph) on each of the islands at around 8pm Wednesday evening:
Kauai: 21
Oahu: 27
Molokai: 27
Maui: 25
Kahoolawe: 32
Lanai: 24
Big Island: 27
As you notice in the list of strongest gusts around the state this Wednesday evening, they are less intense than they have been lately…although at times still gusting over 30 mph locally. As the high pressure system to our north gradually loses more strength over the next couple of days, we should begin to see somewhat lighter trade winds blowing as we move into the upcoming weekend. The trade winds will remain active well into next week however, although gradually winding down into the moderately strong realms as we go forward.
High and middle level clouds continue to stream across island skies, greatly limiting our famous Hawaiian sunshine. If you have a chance to check out this looping satellite image, you’ll see that we still have lots of those persistent clouds moving overhead, which will keep us quite cloudy for the time being. Those icy clouds, are being carried along in the 70+ mph subtropical jet stream winds. At the same time, coming in on the trade winds, from the opposite direction, we have lower level clouds…which are carrying light passing showers to the windward sides.
~~~ I’m about ready to leave Kihei, Maui, taking the drive upcountry to Kula. As has been the case for lots of days now, it is totally cloudy out there. I don’t think there was any sunshine today here on Maui, or maybe a few stray rays around this morning, but they were quickly eliminated by the increasing afternoon clouds. This canopy of clouds sure did a good job of keeping our daytime heating to a minimum. This is quite clear by checking out the warmest sea level temperatures around today, none of which attained 80F degrees. The warmest was the big city of Honolulu, on Oahu…which attained 79 degrees. We’re starting to get too used to this cloudy and cooler than normal weather reality, at least many folks are, I’m sure! It looks like we may have to wait until Friday before the high and middle level clouds slide eastward, away from us. I have to point out however, that’s about the time that we’ll see the cold air arriving at high level of our atmosphere, associated with a new trough of low pressure. This trough could easily trigger heavier showers, although most of them will occur over and around the windward sides…and perhaps over the upslope areas in Kona during the afternoons as well. Ok, I’m out of here, but will be back very early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Imagine a solar panel as affordable as a fancy new bicycle. A panel designed so simply that you can install one (or more) yourself, just outside your windows, in the course of an afternoon. That’s the concept behind Oakland, Calif.-based Veranda Solar, a start-up founded last year by Capra J’neva and Emilie Fetscher, recent graduates of the product design program at Stanford University. J’neva and Fetscher dreamed up attractive, flower-shaped solar panels as part of their master’s project at the design school. "We created a starter solar system that expands as your budget does," J’neva says.
Their plan is to sell Veranda panels at roughly $600 each later this year, provided it raises more funding. The panels snap together, so people will be able to buy just one to start and add more later on if they like. The solar inverter, which converts the direct current (DC) electricity from the panels to alternating current (AC) electricity that can be used in the electric grid, plugs right into a wall socket.
One of the biggest problems with solar panels is the high cost. Before rebates, the price can easily exceed $30,000 to outfit a residential roof. J’neva began asking who really wanted to have solar power and realized it was the 20-something generation–people who typically have smaller budgets but aspire to live greener lifestyles. Most of the interested customers she knows over 30 are looking to spend $2,400 to $4,000 on panels; folks in their twenties will spend much less.
Interesting2: President Barack Obama plans to change how government contracts are awarded and who can earn them, a move his aides say would save taxpayers about $40 billion a year by making the process more competitive. Obama will sign a presidential memo Wednesday that changes government contracting procedures, an administration official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the decision before it was announced.
Obama’s directive would order Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to work with Cabinet and agency officials to draft new contracting rules by the end of September. Those new rules, officials said, would make it more difficult for contractors to bilk taxpayers and make around $500 billion in federal contracts each year more accessible to independent contractors.
During last week’s White House meetings on the nation’s financial future, lawmakers and officials bluntly told top Obama aides that government contracts needed to be handled in a better way. The president’s own fleet of Marine One helicopters became an illustration of out-of-control spending. U.S. Sen. John McCain, Obama’s Republican rival during last year’s presidential election, dryly told Obama, "Your helicopter is now going to cost as much as Air Force One."
Interesting3: Artificial light affects us in subtle ways. At its best, ambient lighting can relax, soothe or excite, but used poorly it can drain us of energy and disrupt sleep. What if lighting could adapt automatically to meet our individual needs? The result, say a team of European researchers, would be an improvement in the general well-being of anybody who spends long periods in artificially lit buildings, particularly the elderly and the infirm, but also factory and office workers.
“Studies have shown that the quality and type of lighting can have a significant impact on our health and comfort,” explains Edith Maier, a researcher at Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences (FHV) in Austria. Maier coordinated the EU-funded Aladin project which brought together academic and industrial partners from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Romania to develop an innovative ambient lighting system that adapts intelligently to individual needs and wishes.
The system uses information from biosensors worn by the occupants of a room or building to determine what users are doing and then changes the lighting accordingly. The researchers’ goal is to use the technology to improve the wellbeing of the elderly, people suffering from age-related illnesses and people with reduced mobility, many of whom spend a lot of time confined indoors.
“Poor lighting can accentuate existing vision problems and reading difficulties among the elderly, it can cause depression and disrupt sleep cycles,” Maier says. “By automatically adapting the lighting in a room to what people are doing, many of these psychological and physiological problems can be reduced.”
Interesting4: The first virtual reality headset that can stimulate all five senses has been developed. What was it really like to live in Ancient Egypt? What did the streets there actually look, sound and smell like? For decades, Virtual Reality has held out the hope that, one day, we might be able visit all kinds of places and periods as ‘virtual’ tourists. To date, though, Virtual Reality devices have not been able to stimulate simultaneously all five senses with a high degree of realism. Scientists from the Universities of York and Warwick now believe they have been able to pinpoint the necessary expertise to make this possible, in a project called ‘Towards Real Virtuality’.
‘Real Virtuality’ is a term coined by the project team to highlight their aim of providing a ‘real’ experience in which all senses are stimulated in such a way that the user has a fully immersive perceptual experience, during which s/he cannot tell whether or not it is real. Teams at York and Warwick now aim to link up with experts at the Universities of Bangor, Bradford and Brighton to develop the ‘Virtual Cocoon’ – a new Real Virtuality device that can stimulate all five senses much more realistically than any other current or prospective device. For the user the ‘Virtual Cocoon’ will consist of a headset incorporating specially developed electronics and computing capabilities. It could help unlock the full potential benefits of Real Virtuality in fields such as education, business and environmental protection.
Interesting5: Following trends is a lifesaving instinct, at least for birds, and provides clues that can be applied across the animal kingdom. New research from Université de Montréal published in Biology Letters, shows that Herring and Ring-billed gulls not only watch their neighbors – they mimic their behavior to assure their survival. Contrary to previous beliefs, this study suggests that animals don’t necessarily act independently and that they cue on reactions from other members of their group.
"This is the first study to report how gulls copy the vigilance and awareness of other gulls during rest periods," says Guy Beauchamp, who authored the study and is a statistician in the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. "When their immediate neighbors were alert, the gulls we observed were more aware and rested less. In contrast, when the neighbors were relaxed, so were the subjects."
This behavioral mimicry may be advantageous when a predator is close. "If the surrounding group is agitated and ready to take flight, it may be beneficial to be similarly alert," says Dr. Beauchamp. "You don’t want to be the last gull standing when a predator approaches."
How does this relate to humans?
Dr. Beauchamp spent the last two summers tracking and studying gull behavior in the Bay of Fundy. He compared the activity of gulls that were sleeping relative to the alertness of their neighbors. "Gulls sleep with one eye open and constantly scan the group. Based on my observations, we know now that they are judging the level of vigilance of their peers to mimic it. This adds a new complexity to understanding animal behavior."
Dr. Beauchamp suggests this behavior can be extrapolated into human and other mammal populations. "The theory of a collective group awareness can be applied across the animal kingdom. Although humans don’t worry about predators, they do pay attention to the behavior of their peers. For example, they assess the value of others based on their social or physical interactions – they are looking at an individual’s strengths. The animals who pay attention are the ones who gain."
Interesting6: Drinking at least three cups of green or black tea a day can significantly reduce the risk of stroke, a new UCLA study has found. And the more you drink, the better your odds of staving off a stroke. The UCLA researchers conducted an evidence-based review of all human observational studies on stroke and tea consumption found in the PubMed and Web of Science archives. They found nine studies describing 4,378 strokes among nearly 195,000 individuals, according to lead author Lenore Arab, a professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"What we saw was that there was a consistency of effect of appreciable magnitude," said Arab, who is also a professor of biological chemistry. "By drinking three cups of tea a day, the risk of a stroke was reduced by 21 percent. It didn’t matter if it was green or black tea." And extrapolating from the data, the effect appears to be linear, Arab said. For instance, if one drinks three cups a day, the risk falls by 21 percent; follow that with another three cups and the risk drops another 21 percent.
This effect was found in tea made from the plant Camellia sinensis, not from herbal teas. There are very few known ways to reduce the risk of stroke, Arab said. And developing medications for stroke victims is particularly challenging, given that the drug has to get to the stroke-damaged site quickly because damage occurs so fast. Arab said that by the time a stroke victim gets medical care, it’s nearly too late to impede the damage.
Interesting7: Helicopters today are considered a loud, bumpy and inefficient mode for day-to-day domestic travel—best reserved for medical emergencies, traffic reporting and hovering over celebrity weddings. But NASA research into rotor blades made with shape-changing materials could change that view. Twenty years from now, large rotorcraft could be making short hops between cities such as New York and Washington, carrying as many as 100 passengers at a time in comfort and safety. Routine transportation by rotorcraft could help ease air traffic congestion around the nation’s airports. But noise and vibration must be reduced significantly before the public can embrace the idea.
"Today’s limitations preclude us from having such an airplane," said William Warmbrodt, chief of the Aeromechanics Branch at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, "so NASA is reaching beyond today’s technology for the future." The solution could lie in rotor blades made with piezoelectric materials that flex when subjected to electrical fields, not unlike the way human muscles work when stimulated by a current of electricity sent from the brain. Helicopter rotors rely on passive designs, such as the blade shape, to optimize the efficiency of the system. In contrast, an airplane’s wing has evolved to include flaps, slats and even the ability to change its shape in flight. NASA researchers and others are attempting to incorporate the same characteristics and capabilities in a helicopter blade.
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