Saturday, August 29, 2009

You've got to be impressed with the technology

Scientists use data from satellites to observe conditions on the BOTTOM of the ocean:

New Look At Gravity Data Sheds Light On Ocean And Climate

"A discovery about the moon made in the 1960s is helping researchers unlock secrets about Earth's ocean today. By applying a method of calculating gravity that was first developed for the moon to data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, known as Grace, JPL researchers have found a way to measure the pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

Just as knowing atmospheric pressure allows meteorologists to predict winds and weather patterns, measurements of ocean bottom pressure provide oceanographers with fundamental information about currents and global ocean circulation. They also hold clues to questions about sea level and climate."


GRACE is an incredibly interesting mission; and it keeps discovering new things about what humans are doing to the planet:

India's Groundwater Disappearing at Alarming Rate

And some of the things that GRACE is discovering are things that we don't want to admit are happening -- but we need to, and own up to what's going to happen to us (collectively) if we keep doing them.

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