May 19-20, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 81
Honolulu, Oahu – 85
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Kahului, Maui – 81
Hilo, Hawaii – 81
Kailua-kona – 84
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon:
Kailua-kona – 83F
Princeville, Kauai – 75
Haleakala Crater – 45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 41 (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 Tuesday afternoon:
0.12 Kokee, Kauai
0.02 Makua Ridge, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.26 West Wailuaiki, Maui
1.78 Kapapala Ranch, Big Island
Marine Environment – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map shows a low pressure system to the north of the state, with associated weak cold fronts in our general area. This same weather map shows a strong high pressure system far to the northwest, with another high pressure cell far to the northeast. The low is located in an area, which is acting like a blocking force…not allowing the normal trade winds to blow across our tropical latitudes. Winds will be light and variable Wednesday through Thursday.
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
Dolphin in Hawaiian waters…doing its thing!
The cold front that brought showers to the islands recently has stalled just to the east of the Big Island Tuesday…with a new weaker cold front edging into the state over Kauai and perhaps Oahu. The so called "parent low pressure system", for these frontal cloud bands…remains just to the north of our islands. We can use this weather map, to see this low and its associated dissipating cold fronts. Winds will turn light and variable in direction Wednesday into Thursday, right on into the weekend. Light and variable winds are famous for hot and muggy weather…along with localized haze. The computer models don’t show returning trade winds until late this weekend, or early next week.
The old cold front is east and northeast of the Big Island, with the newest, or latest, having migrated over Kauai, which may make it to Oahu Tuesday night…before falling apart. Using this satellite image, we can see that the residual clouds along and behind the first front, are stretched back over the Big Island’s windward side. We can see from this looping radar image, that there are a few showers around the Big Island, with a couple of very minor ones around Kauai and Oahu. As the light and variable winds arrive soon, we’ll see afternoon clouds dropping a few showers…typically over the interior upcountry areas. When the trade winds return late this week, or early next week, we should see a few windward biased showers returning then.
The main weather story here in the islands Tuesday night, continues to be the low pressure system to the north of the islands. Here’s a link to check out this counterclockwise rotating low pressure cell. This late season low will remain in place for another day or two, eventually opening up into a trough…which then dips down over the islands. This in turn will move us into a convective weather pattern, with light and variable winds. This time of year, with light winds and a sun that is pretty much directly overhead, we will find sultry conditions. This muggy reality will start off with clear skies in the morning, giving way to cloudiness during the afternoons, with localized showers over the islands.
It’s early Tuesday evening as I begin writing this last section of today’s weather narrative. Skies, which started of quite cloudy in the morning, cleared back very nicely during the afternoon hours…at least in most places around the Aloha state. Looking out the window here in Kihei, Maui, it’s generally clear in all directions. The bulk of the Haleakala Crater is nearly cloud free, while the West Maui Mountains are uncharacteristically clear as well. The breezes, which were a little gusty from the north earlier, have backed off too. The haze is all gone, at least for the time being. As we move into the expected light and variable conditions coming up, we may see some localized haze develop, but for now…we can enjoy really clear skies for a change! ~~~ I’m about ready to get into my car for the drive back home to Kula. I’m looking forward to being home, and enjoying what looks like perfect weather up there. I’ll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Three-dimensional viewing has not yet made it in a big way onto our television and cinema screens. According to European researchers, the story of 3-D TV is set to be quite different with mobile devices, as the right standards and technology fall into place. Simulating the third dimension is something of a Holy Grail for cinema and television.
The key advantage of 3-D film over the conventional two dimensions is the illusion of depth and the sense of ‘body’ the viewer experiences – as if the action is leaping out of the screen rather than occurring within it. Despite the images it evokes of high-tech wizardry, rudimentary 3-D technologies have been around practically since the dawn of filmmaking.
The first ever attempt came in 1890, when the British film pioneer William Friese-Greene invented a process in which two films were projected side by side on screen, and the viewer looked through a stereoscope to converge the two images. We’ve come a long way since this bulky and impractical solution, yet 3-D film and television is still some way from becoming an everyday reality, partly due to cost.
But that looks set to change, and mobile devices – with simpler and hence cheaper 3-D technology – could well lead the charge. “The mobile market has always been much more dynamic and receptive to new technologies than the television market, as the whole idea of mobility is based on dynamism,” explains Atanas Gotchev, the scientific coordinator of the EU-funded Mobile3DTV project.
Interesting2: A new sponge-like material that is black, brittle and freeze-dried (just like the ice cream astronauts eat) can pull off some pretty impressive feats. Designed by Northwestern University chemists, it can remove mercury from polluted water, easily separate hydrogen from other gases and, perhaps most impressive of all, is a more effective catalyst than the one currently used to pull sulfur out of crude oil.
Hydrodesulfurization might be a mouthful, but it is also a widely used catalytic chemical process that removes sulfur from natural gas and refined petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel and jet fuels. Without the process, which is highly optimized, we’d be burning sulfur, which contributes to acid rain. Scientists have tried to improve hydrodesulfurization, or HDS, but have made no progress.
Many consider it an optimized process. The Northwestern researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at Western Washington University, report that their material is twice as active as the conventional catalyst used in HDS while at the same time being made of the same parts.
The material, cobalt-molybdenum-sulfur, is a new class of chalcogels, a family of material discovered only a few years ago at Northwestern. (Chalcogels are random networks of metal-sulfur atoms with very high surface areas.) The new chalcogel is made from common elements, is stable when exposed to air or water and can be used as a powder. Details of the cobalt-molybdenum-sulfur chalcogel and its properties will be published online May 17 by the journal Nature Chemistry.
Interesting3: If you think having loads of money, fetching looks, or the admiration of many will improve your life — think again. A new study by three University of Rochester researchers demonstrates that progress on these fronts can actually make a person less happy. "People understand that it’s important to pursue goals in their lives and they believe that attaining these goals will have positive consequences.
This study shows that this is not true for all goals," says author Edward Deci, professor of psychology and the Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences at the University. "Even though our culture puts a strong emphasis on attaining wealth and fame, pursuing these goals does not contribute to having a satisfying life.
The things that make your life happy are growing as an individual, having loving relationships, and contributing to your community," Deci says. The research paper, to be published in the June issue of the Journal of Research in Personality, tracked 147 alumni from two universities during their second year after graduation.
Using in-depth psychological surveys, the researchers assessed participants in key areas, including satisfaction with life, self-esteem, anxiety, physical signs of stress, and the experience of positive and negative emotions. Aspirations were identified as either "intrinsic" or "extrinsic" by asking participants how much they valued having "deep, enduring relationships" and helping "others improve their lives" (intrinsic goals) versus being "a wealthy person" and achieving "the look I’ve been after" (extrinsic goals).
Respondents also reported the degree to which they had attained these goals. To track progress, the survey was administered twice, once a year after graduation and again 12 months later. This post-graduation period was selected because it is typically a critical developmental juncture for young adults, explains lead author Christopher Niemiec, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University.
"During this formative period, graduates are no longer in the home or at the university. For the first time, they are in a position to determine for themselves how they want their lives to proceed." As with earlier research, the study confirmed that the more committed an individual is to a goal, the greater the likelihood of success.
But unlike previous findings, this analysis showed that getting what one wants is not always salubrious. "There is a strong tradition in psychology that says if you value goals and attain them, wellness will follow," says Niemiec. "But these earlier studies did not consider the content of the goals."
What’s "striking and paradoxical" about this research, he says, is that it shows that reaching materialistic and image-related milestones actually contributes to ill-being; despite their accomplishments, individuals experience more negative emotions like shame and anger and more physical symptoms of anxiety such as headaches, stomach aches, and loss of energy.
By contrast, individuals who value personal growth, close relationships, community involvement, and physical health are more satisfied as they meet success in those areas. They experience a deeper sense of well-being, more positive feelings toward themselves, richer connections with others, and fewer physical signs of stress.
Interesting4: Scientists have found a 47-million-year-old human ancestor. Discovered in Messel Pit, Germany, the fossil, described as Darwinius masillae, is 20 times older than most fossils that explain human evolution. Known as “Ida,” the fossil is a transitional species – it shows characteristics from the very primitive non-human evolutionary line (prosimians, such as lemurs), but is more related to the human evolutionary line (anthropoids, such as monkeys, apes and humans).
At 95% complete, the fossil provides the most complete understanding of the paleobiology of any Eocene primate so far discovered. The scientists’ findings are published in PLoS One, the open-access, peer-reviewed journal from the Public Library of Science.
For the past two years, an international team of scientists, led by world-renowned Norwegian fossil scientist Dr Jørn Hurum, University of Oslo Natural History Museum, has secretly conducted a detailed forensic analysis of the extraordinary fossil, studying the data to decode humankind’s ancient origins. At 95% complete, Ida is set to revolutionize our understanding of primate evolution.
"This is the first link to all humans … truly a fossil that links world heritage," said Dr. Hurum. "It’s really a kind of Rosetta Stone," commented study co-author Professor Philip Gingerich, of the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan. The fossil was apparently discovered in 1983 by private collectors who split and eventually sold two parts of the skeleton on separate plates: the lesser part was restored and, in the process, partly fabricated to make it look more complete.
This part was eventually purchased for a private museum in Wyoming, and then described by one of the authors (Jens L. Franzen) who recognized the fabrication. The more complete part has just come to light, and it now belongs to the Natural History Museum of the University of Oslo (Norway). The PLoS ONE paper describes the study that resulted from finally having access to the complete fossil specimen.
Interesting5: Global warming may include some periods of local cooling, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Results from satellite and ground-based sensor data show that sweltering summers can, paradoxically, lead to the temporary formation of a cooling haze in the southeastern United States.
The study, to be published the week of May 18 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that when manmade pollutants mix with the natural compounds emitted from forests and vegetation during the hot summer months, they form secondary aerosols that reflect light from the sun.
Such aerosols may also contribute to the formation of clouds, which also reflect sunlight. The results of this study suggest that climate models need to better account for the effects of organic aerosols, the authors said.
Interesting6: Chilean scientists are investigating three mysterious ecological disasters that have caused the deaths of hundreds of penguins, millions of sardines and about 2,000 baby flamingos in the past few months. The events started to unfold in March, when the remains of about 1,200 penguins were found on a remote beach in southern Chile.
Then came the sardines — tons of them — dead and washed up on a nearby stretch of coastline. The stench forced nearby schools to close, and the army was called in to shovel piles of rotting fish off the sand.
Farther north, thousands of rare Andean flamingos abandoned their nests on a salt lake in the Atacama Desert. The eggs failed to hatch and, over a period of three months, all 2,000 chicks died. The extent of the damage was discovered in April, during an inspection.
Interesting7: Bird watchers are migrating thousands of miles to Florida for a chance to see an Asian bird that has shown up in a Jacksonville park. Volunteers doing a census in Huguenot Memorial Park spotted the greater sand plover last week, The Orlando Sentinel reports. The species breeds in Turkey and central Asia and winters on Mediterranean and Indian Ocean beaches.
A greater sand plover was spotted in California in 2001, the first time it was reported in the Americas. Reports of the Florida bird have lured birdwatchers from distances almost as great as the one it traveled. "We have seen an influx of bird-watchers from as far as California," said Ben Pennymon, a spokesman for Jacksonville.
Pennymon said the bird has kept to a section of the park where off-road vehicles are banned from the beach. "It is a really big deal, especially because the first sighting in California, the bird was in its dull winter plumage, but this bird is in its beautiful breeding plumage," said Wes Biggs of Orlando, who has already made the pilgrimage to Jacksonville.
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