June 1-2, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 84
Honolulu, Oahu – 88
Kaneohe, Oahu – 85
Kahului, Maui – 88
Hilo, Hawaii – 85
Kailua-kona – 87
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountains…at 5 p.m. Monday evening:
Honolulu, Oahu – 86F
Hilo, Hawaii – 79
Haleakala Crater – 55 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 43 (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 Monday afternoon:
0.01 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.13 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.00 Maui
0.31 Mountain View, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map shows a 1023 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of Hawaii, with its associated ridge just to the north and northwest of Kauai. This ridge is just far enough north of us now, that trade winds have returned to the state. An approaching cold front, which won’t reach the islands, will weaken the ridge just enough that trades will back off some Wednesday…and then strengthen again 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
Visions of paradise…the Big Island
Artist Credit: Pierre Bouret
After a long spell of lighter than normal winds, the trade winds are about to encompass the entire island chain…having already arrived over the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu during the day Monday. Looking at this weather map Monday evening, we see a high pressure system to our northeast, with its associated ridge far enough north of Kauai…that light to even moderately strong trade winds have returned to most of the Hawaiian Islands. These trade winds will continue blowing through the rest of the week ahead, lasting into next week. The computer models suggest that these trade winds will become strong enough…that small craft wind advisories will be necessary in those windiest areas later in the second half of this week.
As the trade winds fill back in now, we’ll begin to see the return of a few windward biased showers going forward too. Already, some areas along the windward side of the Big Island, have started to see some showers falling. Case in point, Mountain View, on the Big Island of Hawaii, received .31" during the last 24 hours…which was the largest precipitation total in the Aloha state. The overall weather pattern will be a dry one however, so that we’ll see lots of sunshine during the days.
It’s Monday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative. Monday was a good example of what returning trade winds can do for the islands. They quickly put an end to the hazy conditions, taking the edge off the high heat of the light wind regime, bringing whatever showers that around…back over to the windward sides. Those sultry conditions that we have been putting up with lately, will soon be forgotten…as the trade winds take control through most of the upcoming summer season. ~~~ Speaking of seasons, today is the first day of our 2009 hurricane season here in the central north Pacific. The Atlantic Ocean is expecting an above active season, while here in our part of the Pacific basin, we’re looking for an average to below average number of tropical cyclones. ~~~ As we head through the last few days of this late spring season, we will generally be discussing the trade winds, more specifically…how strong they will be getting, not whether or not they will be blowing. Most days will find moderately strong trades blowing, with those windier spots around Maui and the Big Island, finding stronger gusts locally. ~~~ I’ll be back early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: The U.S. market for small wind turbines grew 78% last year, highlighting heightened interest in, demand for, and use of distributed alternative and renewable power systems. A total 17.3 megawatts worth of new small wind turbines–defined as wind turbines with generation capacities of 100 kilowatts and less–was installed in 2009, according to a report by the American Wind Energy Association released May 28.
"Consumers are looking for affordable ways to improve their energy security and reduce their personal carbon footprint," said Ron Stimmel, AWEA’s Small Wind Advocate. "Small wind technology can be an answer to that search. As government policies have caught up with consumer interest, we’re seeing people all across the U.S. take advantage of this abundant, domestic natural resource and U.S. manufacturers have been able to meet this increasing demand."
What’s even more encouraging is that U.S. manufacturers–such as Mariah Wind profiled here on 3P–accounted for about half of total worldwide small wind turbine sales. U.S. market share made up $77 million of the $156 million global total (38.7 MW), according to the AWEA.
Increased private investment has enabled manufacturers to increase production volumes and lower costs, particularly in the market’s commercial segment–systems that range between 21 and 100 kW. Residential small wind turbines–between 1 and 10 kW– remains the largest market segment was similarly driven by new investment and the subsequent realization of greater economies of scale. Rising residential electricity prices added to the impetus, according to the AWEA’s report.
Like sectors across the economy, AWEA members are looking to additional federal stimulus and renewable energy stimulus and incentives to keep the ball rolling and growing. "The U.S. wind industry is a growing bright spot in our domestic economy, and the small wind sector is no exception," said AWEA CEO Denise Bode.
"Strong federal policies like the federal investment tax credit for small wind are critical to future growth, just as adoption of a federal renewable electricity standard (RES) is essential to growth in the utility-scale market." Small wind manufacturers polled by the AWEA project a 30-fold increase in the U.S. small wind market within as little as five years, that despite a global recession. "Much of this estimated growth will be spurred by the new eight-year 30% federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) passed by Congress in October 2008 and augmented in February 2009," the AWEA report states.
Interesting2: Climate change is turning the oceans more acid in a trend that could endanger everything from clams to coral and be irreversible for thousands of years, national science academies said on Monday. Seventy academies from around the world urged governments meeting in Bonn for climate talks from June 1-12 to take more account of risks to the oceans in a new U.N. treaty for fighting global warming due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.
"To avoid substantial damage to ocean ecosystems, deep and rapid reductions of carbon dioxide emissions of at least 50 percent (below 1990 levels) by 2050, and much more thereafter, are needed," the academies said in a joint statement. The academies said rising amounts of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted mainly by human use of fossil fuels, were being absorbed by the oceans and making it harder for creatures to build protective body parts.
Interesting3: The Gulf of Mexico contains very thick and concentrated gas-hydrate-bearing reservoir rocks which have the potential to produce gas using current technology. Recent drilling by a government and industry consortium confirm that the Gulf of Mexico is the first offshore area in the United States with enough information to identify gas hydrate energy resource targets with potential for gas production.
Gas hydrate, a substance comprised of natural gas and water, is thought to exist in great abundance in nature and has the potential to be a significant new energy source to meet future energy needs. However, prior to this expedition, there was little documentation that gas hydrate occurred in resource-quality accumulations in the marine environment.
“This is an exciting discovery because for the first time in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, we were able to predict hydrate accumulations before drilling, and we discovered thick, gas hydrate-saturated sands that actually represent energy targets,” said U.S. Geological Survey Energy Program Coordinator Brenda Pierce.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) and a group of U.S. and international energy industry companies under the management of Chevron were responsible for conducting this first ever drilling project with the goal to collect geologic data on gas-hydrate-bearing sand reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We have also found gas hydrate in a range of settings, including sand reservoirs, thick sequences of fracture-filling gas hydrates in shales, and potential partially saturated gas hydrates in younger systems,” said USGS Scientist Timothy Collett. “These sites should provide a wealth of opportunities for further study and data collection that should provide significant advances in understanding the nature and development of gas hydrate systems.”
Interesting4: Densely packed wildebeests flowing over the Serengeti, bison teeming across the Northern Plains—these iconic images extend from Hollywood epics to the popular imagination. But the fact is, all of the world’s large-scale terrestrial migrations have been severely reduced and a quarter of the migrating species are suspected to no longer migrate at all because of human changes to the landscape.
A recently published research paper highlights this global change and presents the first analysis of the dwindling mass migrations. "Conservation science has done a poor job in understanding how migrations work, and as a result many migrations have gone extinct," says Grant Harris of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, first author of the paper in Endangered Species Research.
"Fencing, for example, blocks migratory routes and reduces migrant’s access to forage and water. Migrations can then stop, or be shortened, and animal numbers plummet." Migrations of large-bodied herbivores (also called ungulates) occur when animals search for higher quality or more abundant food. Ecologically, there are two primary drivers of food availability.
In temperate regions of the world, higher-quality food shifts predictably as the seasons change, and animals respond by moving along well-established routes. For savannah ecosystems, rain and fire allow higher-quality food to grow. This is a less predictable change that animals must track across expansive landscapes.
Human activity now prevents large groups of ungulates from following their food. Fencing, farming, and water restrictions have changed the landscape and over-harvesting of the animals themselves has played a role in reducing the number of migrants.
Interesting5: Large bombardments of meteoroids approximately four billion years ago could have helped to make the early Earth and Mars more habitable for life by modifying their atmospheres, suggests the results of a new study. When a meteoroid from space enters a planet’s atmosphere, extreme heat causes some of the minerals and organic matter on its outer crust to be released as water and carbon dioxide (as a meteor burning up in the atmosphere) before it breaks up and hits the ground (and becomes a meteorite).
Researchers suggest the delivery of this water could have made Earth’s and Mars’ atmospheres wetter. The release of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide could have trapped more energy from sunlight to make Earth and Mars warm enough to sustain liquid oceans.
In the new study, researchers from Imperial College London analyzed the remaining mineral and organic content of fifteen fragments of ancient meteorites that had crashed around the world to see how much water vapor and carbon dioxide they would release when subjected to very high temperatures like those that they would experience upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
The researchers used a new technique called pyrolysis-FTIR, which uses electricity to rapidly heat the fragments at a rate of 20,000 degrees Celsius per second, and they then measured the gases released. They found that on average, each meteorite was capable of releasing up to 12 percent of the object’s mass as water vapor and 6 percent of its mass as carbon dioxide when entering an atmosphere.
They concluded that contributions from individual meteorites were small and were unlikely to have a significant impact on the atmospheres of planets on their own. The researchers then analyzed data from an ancient meteor shower called the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), which occurred 4 billion years ago, where millions of rocks crashed to Earth and Mars over a period of 20 million years.
Using published models of meteoritic impact rates during the LHB, the researchers calculated that 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide and 10 billion tons of water vapor could have been delivered to the atmospheres of Earth and Mars each year. This suggests that the LHB could have delivered enough carbon dioxide and water vapor to turn the atmospheres of the two planets into warmer and wetter environments that were more habitable for life, say the researchers.
Interesting6: Boots and training shoes are not the first things that spring to mind when you think about the causes of rainforest destruction and climate change, but just because the connection isn’t obvious doesn’t mean it isn’t realm, says Greenpeace in a new report, "Slaughtering the Amazon". But it’s not only shoes.
Products as diverse as handbags and ready meals, and companies as big as Tesco, BMW, IKEA and Kraft also rely on Amazon leather. Practically all Western world consumers have some by-product of Amazon destruction in our homes somewhere, whether we like it or not.
Effectively, these brands are driving this destruction by buying beef and leather products from unscrupulous suppliers in Brazil points out the Greenpeace report. The report says the cattle industry is the single biggest cause of deforestation in the world as trees are cleared to make way for ranches.
And the Brazilian government is also fuelling the process by offering billions of dollars in loans to support the expansion of the cattle industry. President Lula de Silva has pledged to double his country’s share of the global beef market by 2018. The report contrasts these investments with Lula da Silva’s recent promise to cut deforestation by 72% by the same date and to set up an international fund for protecting the Amazon.
A new study by Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law & Policy Clinic and sponsored by Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, a Philadelphia law firm, says that green building raises a number of liability questions. What if the building set out to meet LEED certification or other government green-building standards, but falls short, for example?
What if it fails to garner expected tax breaks from the government for building green? Already, according to Robert Fox, a managing partner with the Philadelphia firm, a number of legal disputes have arisen in the area of green building. "We’re seeing the litigation starting now, and my sense is that there will be more as the government is imposing this as a requirement," he said, referring to increasing mandates or incentives by governments at all levels to encourage green building practices.
Interesting7: Some details about lightning strikes in civil aviation:
—Lightning strikes on passenger airliners occur daily, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere and the equatorial belt where massive thunderstorms are frequent throughout the year.
—Each large passenger jet — such as the Airbus A330 is struck by lightning about once every three years on average, according to international aviation incident statistics.
—Regional aircraft are hit about once a year because they cruise at much lower altitudes where there’s a greater possibility of strikes.
—With approximately 25,000 commercial jets in service with the world’s airlines, there are statistically about three dozen lightning strikes occur each day.
—The overwhelming majority of such incidents ends with no damage or only superficial damage to the airframe, such as small dents.
—Most airliners — such as the A330 — are built mainly of aluminum, which is very good at dissipating the energy contained in a lightning bolt, which can be in excess of 300,000 amps.
—Composite components on some newer models are not as good at shedding electrical energy and are particularly prone to damage from lightning strikes. —There have been only a handful of accidents in the past 50 years in which lightning may have played a contributory role.
—The deadliest occurred on Dec. 8, 1963, when lightning ignited the vapors in the fuel tanks of a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 flying over Maryland. All 81 people on board died. Immediately after, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered that all commercial airliners be equipped with electrical discharge wicks.
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