Finding my way through a bramble of monitors tangled in the dense undergrowth of thorny data. Morning rounds are a forest thick with prickly questions. Perfect strangers become patients. Personalities baroque as the 50 year-old Hispanic man admitted yesterday with back pain. In prison for 19 years, (in America for 20) Arms, chest, and thick neck all Hieronymus Bosch and guitar-string calligraph...

I see trees of green, red roses too I see them bloom for me and you And I think to myself, what a wonderful world I see skies of blue and clouds of white The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night And I think to myself, what a wonderful world The colours of rainbow, so pretty in the sky Are also on the faces of people going by I see friends shakin' hands, saying, " How do you do? " They're r...

BACKGROUND The term blue skies research implies a freedom to carry out flexible, curiosity-driven research that leads to outcomes not envisaged at the outset. This research often challenges accepted thinking and introduces new fields of study. Science policy in the UK has given growing support for short-term goal-oriented scientific research projects, with pressure being applied on researchers ...

Abstract. Using the Vector LInearized Discrete Ordinate Radiative Transfer (VLIDORT) code as main driver for forward model simulations, a first-of-its-kind data assimilation scheme has been developed assimilating Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aerosol index (AI) measurements into Naval Aerosol Analysis and Predictive System (NAAPS). This study suggests that both root mean square error (RMSE)...

[1] A global estimate of the direct effects of anthropogenic aerosols on solar radiation in cloudy skies is obtained by integrating satellite and ground-based observations with models of aerosol chemistry, transport, and radiative transfer. The models adopt global distribution of aerosol optical depths (from MODIS), clouds, water vapor, ozone, and surface albedo from various satellite climatolo...

Broadband atmospheric absorption predicted by solar radiative transfer codes is underestimated in overcast conditions by 20-40 W/m 2 (even clear skies show underestimates). Clearly complex but common cloud conditions can cause a wide spread of GCM results. See article on Page 7. a new component of GAPP, a follow-on to GCIP 12

Dome C, Antarctica, (75 south, 123 east, 3250 m) is one of the coldest and driest locations on Earth, with exceptionally low winds throughout the atmosphere. It therefore has the potential to be an ideal site for astronomical observations. It is also an excellent site for the validation of satellite instruments. A Fourier transform infrared interferometer was deployed at Dome C during two austr...

The Net Surface Shortwave Radiation (NSSR) is of primary interest in climate research because it controls the total energy exchange between the atmosphere and the land/ocean surface. The conventional methods for estimating NSSR rely on broadband satellite data such as Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) wide-field-of-view planetary albedo. The spatial resolution of the current ERBE satelli...

[1] Several studies have suggested enhanced rates of warming in high-elevation regions since the latter half of the twentieth century. One of the potential reasons why enhanced rates of warming might occur at high elevations is the nonlinear relationship between downward longwave radiation (DLR) and specific humidity (q). Using ground-based observations at a high-elevation site in southwestern ...

The oxidative damage theory of aging once seemed almost proven. Yet recently the buzzards have been assembling in the blue skies above it. New challenges to the theory from work using nematode worms seem set to bring them down to peck at its bones. But is the theory really dead, or does it just need to be modified?