| |
|
Friday, November 2, 2007
|
|
Here's an update on the CloudSat project from Colorado State University. From the article:
As Tropical Storm Noel churns off Florida's east coast, NASA and university scientists have announced they have developed a promising new technique for estimating the intensity of tropical cyclones from space. The method could one day supplement existing techniques, assist in designing future tropical cyclone satellite observing systems, and improve disaster preparedness and recovery efforts.
The technique uses NASA satellite data, including simultaneous, accurate measurements of cloud-top temperatures from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Aqua satellite, and cloud-top height and cloud profiling information from NASA's CloudSat satellite. Both satellites fly in formation as part of NASA's "A-Train" of Earth-observing satellites. This new technique was developed by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Scientists commonly use measurements of a tropical cyclone's maximum sustained winds to define their intensity and gauge their destructive potential. Maximum sustained winds are defined as the one-minute average wind speed at an altitude of 10 meters (33 feet).
The framework used by the team to estimate tropical cyclone intensity was developed by co-author Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleague Valerie Wong. It requires cloud profiling information from over or near a storm's eye. Of the more than 150 tropical cyclones that CloudSat flew over during its first six months after launch in April 2006, nine of the storm overpasses met this criterion.
Emanuel and Wong's framework measures the intensity of tropical cyclones in relation to the total energy contained in both their eyewalls and the surrounding environment outside the storms, as well as other measurements. By coupling measurements of temperatures and cloud top heights from a storm's eyewall out to its outer regions with an estimated difference in temperature between the sea surface and the storm's cloud tops, a storm's intensity can be estimated.
"Our study represents a unique and first-of-a-kind test of a hurricane intensity theory that had not been verified against real-world data, one that relies on actual satellite data," said lead study author Zhengzhao "Johnny" Luo, now with the City College of New York. "While our analysis is not yet mature enough for this technique to be used operationally, we plan to further refine it as more tropical cyclone data become available."[...]
CloudSat Principal Investigator and study co-author Graeme Stephens of Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., said the latest results show the value of being able to look inside storms to reveal their inner structure. This information is unique to CloudSat. "Current hurricane intensity estimating techniques are generally effective but have higher wind speed errors than scientists would like," he said. "This new technique may reduce those error rates."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"colorado water"
7:42:23 AM 
|
|
Here's an update on oil shale development from The Summit Daily News "reg". From the article:
What better evidence of the daunting challenge that oil shale presents: Shell Frontier Oil & Gas, seen as the leader in the quest to free millions of barrels of oil in massive rock formations in a three-state area, doesn't expect to start commercial production any time soon...
And yet in July, Shell withdrew a state mining permit to start work on a federal research and development lease granted by the Bureau of Land Management. "There were a myriad of factors," Shell spokesman Tracy Boyd said. One was ongoing research and testing. The results could change what Shell will ask for in its permits for work on three 160-acre parcels of federal land approved by the BLM for demonstration projects.
What isn't changing, Boyd said during a recent tour of Shell's research site, is the company's belief that the oil shale formations under western Colorado, eastern Utah and southwest Wyoming could help meet the nation's growing demand for energy. "We (the industry) have this huge resource sitting here in the United States of unconventional oil in oil shale that is awaiting for someone to crack the technical nut," Boyd said. Shell may apply for permits again in a year or so, he added. The company hopes to make a decision about commercial production within the next decade...
Significant commercial production could be 10 to 20 years away, [Jeremy Boak, project manager at the Colorado Energy Research Institute based at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden] said. But if the economic, technical and environmental issues can be resolved, he said, oil shale could help bridge the gap until renewable or alternative energy becomes more common. Oil prices hovering above $90 a barrel could make the attempt all the more enticing. About half the oil shale underlying the region is in the Piceance Basin of northwest Colorado. That's where it's the "deepest, thickest, richest," Boyd said: 2,000 feet down to the base of the oil shale formation.
Besides Shell, Chevron USA and Midland, Texas-based EGL Resources Inc. received 10-year federal research and development leases in the basin last year. Early this year, the Interior Department approved a 10-year lease for Alabama-based Oil Shale Exploration Co. for the only oil-shale experiment on federal land in Utah...
By year's end, the BLM is expected to release a draft environmental review of commercial oil shale development. The analysis is meant to provide a framework; more detailed reviews would be done as specific projects are proposed...
Some politicians are urging caution. A measure by Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., in the House version of the 2008 Interior Department's appropriations bill would prohibit using federal funds to prepare final regulations for a commercial oil shale leasing program or conduct commercial lease sales. Udall has said he wants to make sure oil shale is developed responsibly to avoid another economic bust...
Environmentalists worry that an oil shale boom could strain area water supplies and increase air pollution if more coal-fired power plants are built to power operations. Lestz of Chevron said he believes the technology wasn't adequate to mine oil shale in the 1970s and 1980s and doesn't know if it is yet. "There's no certainty that we will be successful," he said. Chevron is working with the University of Utah and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on its in situ process. Lestz said Chevron has spent a lot of time in the lab on the fundamentals and plans to drill on its research parcel by the end of the year to get material for further study...
At the Shell Mahogany research site, a web of gleaming silver pipes roughly the size of a football field attests to the years the company has spent on research. A coolant circulates through the pipes to freeze groundwater to form a wall designed to prevent water from flowing into the production area. Underground heaters eventually will be inserted inside the freeze wall to slowly cook the rock to at least 650 degrees Fahrenheit to free the oil. Building the wall will take another year. Boyd said tests at a smaller site recovered 62 percent of the hydrocarbons, better than the 25 percent to 30 percent recovery rate for conventional oil and gas. He said the oil produced is high-quality transportation fuel. Shell intends to move carefully to make sure it can produce the oil in economically and environmentally sound ways, Boyd said. "We're committed to making sure that we don't hurry up and get to the point of production without fully assessing and making sure that we're in balance," he said.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"2008 pres"
7:10:01 AM
|
|
Here's The Denver Post coverage of the U.S. House vote on H.R. 2262, the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007. From the article:
"The Western landscape has changed, and so should the law that governs how it's used," said Jane Danowitz, director of the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining.
The measure, which passed 244-166, still needs approval from the Senate, where it faces stronger opposition. And the White House threatened a veto, saying that putting royalties on existing mining operations would invite lawsuits. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a gold miner's son and longtime supporter of the industry, said Wednesday that the House bill "won't stand over here."[...]
The Colorado House delegation voted along party lines Thursday, with Democrats all co-sponsoring and supporting the bill and Republicans opposing its passage.
"While mining brought many benefits to our state, it has also left us with too many abandoned mines. Some of them are mere open pits that endanger hunters, hikers or other visitors," said Democratic Rep. Mark Udall of Eldorado Springs, who helped push the legislation through the House Natural Resources Committee. But another member of the committee, Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican, said the legislation would cost high-paying jobs in Colorado and increase the nation's dependence on imported minerals, a contention backed by many in the mining industry. "This bill would discourage metal investment throughout Colorado and the Western United States, and our nation really can't afford that because we are already dependent on foreign sources for many minerals important to our national security," said Stuart Sanderson, president of the Colorado Mining Association. Some Republicans also circulated a letter contending the bill could limit domestic availability of minerals critical to the U.S. military, such as magnesium, which is used to make airplanes and missiles. Environmentalists argued, however, that the bill's changes were long overdue and would help protect the nation's drinking-water supplies, wildlife habitat and recreational areas.
According to a recent report from the Environmental Working Group, active mining claims in Colorado more than tripled from 2003 to 2007; the 239 percent surge was the biggest jump in the Rocky Mountain West...
The House bill also would put new environmental controls on hard-rock mining, set up a cleanup fund for abandoned mines and permanently ban cheap sales of public lands for mining. Environmentalists say that there are more than 500,000 abandoned hard-rock mines in the U.S. and that cleaning them up would cost between $32 billion and $72 billion. In Colorado, there are about 23,000 abandoned mines, according to the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. The legislation would direct 70 percent of royalties collected under the bill to a cleanup fund, while the other 30 percent would go to a community-impact fund. Under an amendment by Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., that was agreed to Thursday, 50 percent of the money in the cleanup fund would be sent back to states where it's generated, while the other half would be distributed by the Interior Department secretary.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here.
"2008 pres"
6:42:22 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:39:45 PM.
|
|
|
