GAC-2012

I still like the name Gaagii. Hmph. Anyways, this is a pretty succinct explanation of the Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012. From Artful Dodger on the post Record dominoes 9: PIOMAS sea ice volume at Nevin's Arctic Sea Ice Blog:

GAC-2012 was NOT a tropical cyclone, it was a cold-core (extra-tropical) cyclone. Certainly it was very large, powerful and long-lived, with exceptionally low central pressure and strong winds but none-the-less, not a tropical cyclone.

All cyclones are heat difference engines, propelling moist air into a rotating vortex which transfers heat from the warm side to the cold side. With GAC-2012, the warm side was the airmass over Siberia, and the cold side was the pack ice in the Central Arctic Basin.

The jetstream added further rotation to the gathering depression, reinforced by the Coriolis effect. Voilà, a massive storm was the result, one even more powerful than hurricane Issac which just devastated Louisiana (964 mb vs 970 mb central pressure).

Note that a cold-core cyclone is the WORSE possible scenario for sea ice survival, since it moves heat from the South over the continent into the midst of the pack ice. And scientific studies show these storms are getting more frequent and more powerful since 2007.

But remember this take-away point (when engaging deniers): the loss of sea ice caused this storm, NOT the other way around. This cyclone simply could not have occurred without vast areas of melt-out in the Arctic ocean, and the vast snow cover retreat in Siberia.

When these conditions reoccur, it will happen again. The next big Summer cyclone could finish the Arctic sea ice.

"Shaken AND stirred, with crushed ice."

Here's a visual that puts the current ice volume in context. n Click on the image to see the whole graph if it's cut off.

bioponics

I've been reading about this lately. As with the bees, I think it's something I won't be able to get really going on until we either get a piece of property or if the guy across the street buys the property that the golem is sitting on, and lets me do it there.

So, this will be a new tag. I have a picture in my mind of what I want to do -- start small and all that. It's a biological system, some have called it a "living machine" -- I don't like the "machine" part.

It works like this: we would grow duckweed and algae to feed the fish. We can eat the duckweed and algae, too; it's very nutrient rich. The fish pee and poop goes to the plants -- there is a fungus that's introduced to the plant growing medium which breaks down the fish waste into usable plant food. The water, now cleaned of waste, is returned to the fish.



( overview of my idea )