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Click to load Weather & Meteorology Videos into the video player above. NOAA US National Weather Service local forecasts: World Weather Radar ImagesWetter.com German weather radar covers most of Europe.The World Meteorological Organization provides forecasts online at WorldWeather.org and also has a list of member country weather service links. IBM into weather control? Intellicast has merged with The Weather Underground-- and both are owned by The Weather Channel -- now owned by Internatonal Business Machines. Weather Satellite ImageryThe Near-Real-Time Satellite Images and Data site at NASA's MSFC provides near-real-time images and data from the GOES 8, 9, and 10 weather satellites, including animated composites of worldwide cloud movement, and from recent observations of the Earth's aurora, and the sun, planets, and cosmos.National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) RAP Real-Time Images provides access to real-time satellite imagery from many sources. The CIMSS Satellite Blog has pictures of wildfires, tornadoes, etc. from space, from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, U. of Wisconsin. Remote Sensing Systems provides near real time sea surface temperatures (with a database going back 17 years) and other NRT satellite data. NASA's Earth Observatory is loaded with images of weather from space. Other Weather WebsitesNWS Aviation Weather CenterUS National Hurricane Center Hurricane City has radio feeds and weather advisories for affected atlantic coast cities. Tornado Project The Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University includes annual tropical storm season forecasts from a team led by Willian Gray. NOAA El Nino Research explores a disruption of the relationship between the ocean and the atmosphere in the tropical pacific which affects weather around the world. JPL El Niņo/La Niņa Watch provides satellite views from NASA and Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Meteorology TutorialsNOAA US National Weather Service search for weather information:sci.geo.meteorology Newsgroup FAQs The Weather World 2010 Meteorology Guide is a primer about all kinds of weather, from the University of Illinois. UCAR About Rainbows PSC Cloud Boutique is a gallery of cloud photographs and information from Plymouth State College in New Hampshire. Weatherwise.org provides articles from recent back issues of WeatherWise, "The Magazine About the Weather". The NWS provides an annotated list of Weather Software (commercial) with links to download locations. Space Weather, Solar WeatherSpaceWeather.com covers weather events in the earth's magnetic field and solar radiation space environment.Space Weather Impacts on Climate is a primer from NOAA. Michigan Tech has a good list of links to all kinds of data about and photos of the Aurora Borealis. Weather Stations, Meteorology ShopsWeather Shop sells weather instruments from Davis, Texas Weather, and others, plus weather software. |
Professional Weather WebsitesEarth by Cameron Beccario is an excellent interactive 3-D world which displays near real time data on global winds, ocean currents, temperatures, and more.NWS Storm Prediction Center US National Snow and Ice Data Center The US Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology & Oceanography Ctr presents hard weather data covering the entire globe, including, of course, the oceans. Upper Air Maps, Soundings & Profiles from the University of Wyoming Dept. of Atmospheric Science. American Meteorological Society The National Weather Association site includes the NWA Journal of Operational Meteorology, with full-text papers online. EJOM Archive National Weather ServiceClimate |
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TIME Magazine, February 6, 1950, p. 44: SCIENCE: Better Rainmaking The art of rainmaking got a bad setback more than a year ago when the Air Force and the Weather Bureau spewed quantites of dry ice into juicy Ohio clouds and produced hardly any rain (TIME, Dec. 6, 1948). But Nobel Prize winner Irving Langmuir, leading backer of scientific rainmaking, is notably hard to discourage. Last week he told a Manhattan meeting of the American Meteorological Society and the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences about more successful experiments in New Mexico. Rainmaking, Dr. Langmuir explained, is not a matter of dumping dry ice into any likely-looking cloud. It works only when conditions are absolutely right. Even then the job can be botched by using too much dry ice. An overdose may turn the cloud into ice particles so small that they never fall as rain. The New Mexico experiments were done by Project Cirrus (sponsored by the Army Signal Corps and the Office of Naval Research in consultation with General Electric Research Laboratory), and the experimenters tried a more subtle method. Reluctant Clouds. In arid regions like New Mexico, Langmuir explained, big cumulus clouds often rise high in the air without dropping any rain. In such cases, the air does not contain enough natural nuclei (suitable dust particles) for moisture to condense upon. The warm air from over a sun-heated plain boils upward vigorously, but the moisture in it does not condense until the cold upper levels are reached. Then it condenses suddenly into very small ice particles that drift off at about 35,000 feet, leaving the ground dry, its inhabitants disappointed. The way to milk rain from these reluctant clouds, said Langmuir, is to seed the air with particles of silver iodide, on which moisture condenses easily. When enough nuclei are present, snowflakes form on them at a comparatively low level. This condensation releases heat, which makes the air rise faster. The resulting turbulence tears the snowflakes apart. The fragments grow into larger flakes, releasing still more heat. The meteorological "chain reaction" turns the cloud into a violent thunderstorm that dashes torrents of rain on the ground below. Chain Reaction. Last July 21, said Langmuir, the Albuquerque weather forecast predicted no substantial amounts of rain. But at 5:30 a.m. Project Cirrus' ground generator (a gadget for releasing silver iodide smoke) started a day-long run. About 8:30 a.m. a big cloud formed down wind from the generator. At 9:57, a chain reaction started inside it, filling the cloud with raindrops that showed on a radar screen. Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and heavy rain fell over a large area. Later thunderstorms near by watered other parts of New Mexico. Only 300 grams (about 2/3 lb.) of silver iodide were used on that day, and Dr. Langmuir offered elaborate mathematical proof that this small amount brought down 320 billion gallons of rain, enough to fill all of New York City's resevoirs. He thinks that the iodide particles, drifting eastward, caused a long streak of rain through southern Colorado and Kansas. "It is very important," he concluded, "that regular tests on certain selected days of each week be carried out throughout the year using amounts of seeding agents just sufficient to obtain conclusive statistical data as to their effectiveness in producing rain." The Weather Bureau, which has tried silver iodide on its own, is still skeptical. But Bureau Chief Dr. F. W. Reichelderfer agreed with Langmuir that careful tests should be made and the results scrutinized by disinterested scientists. |