Vaisala has launched its patented lightning product to detect which cloud-to-ground strokes are most likely to cause damage.

It uses Vaisala’s National Lightning Detection Network and Global Lightning Dataset GLD360 combined with both Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites to deliver information identifying strokes with continuing current and an estimate of their duration.

Vaisala says the primary benefits of its product are faster identification and inspection of likely damaged areas, warning alerts that infrastructure may be damaged, early intervention to prevent more damage, and cost reduction by prioritizing post-storm inspections.

Dr Ryan Said, lightning senior scientist at Vaisala, said, “Our patented new offering significantly advances lightning detection by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of inspection operations and identifying where organizations should focus their oftentimes limited resources, whether it’s damage to infrastructure or wildfire-start locations.”

Continue reading Vaisala launches lightning service at Meteorological Technology International.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide recorded at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii peaked at 417.1ppm in May – the highest monthly reading ever.

Scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego said this year’s peak was 2.4ppm higher than the 2019 peak in May last year.

They also explained that the sharp economic slowdown caused by Covid-19 has not affected CO2 levels in the same way that pollution levels have reduced because the drop isn’t large enough to stand out from natural CO2 variability.

Ralph Keeling, a geochemist who runs the Scripps Oceanography program at Mauna Loa, said, “The build-up of CO2 is a bit like trash in a landfill.

Continue reading Carbon dioxide continues to rise at Meteorological Technology International.

NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission has entered its construction and testing phase.

PACE will monitor the ocean and atmosphere when it launches in 2023, combining science and engineering advances and building off of historical ocean color sensors. It will capture fine details about plankton species, beneficial phytoplankton communities that fuel fisheries, and harmful algal blooms that poison animals and humans.

Ivona Cetinic, PACE’s project science lead for biogeochemistry, said, “With PACE we can study the role that phytoplankton play, and how different types determine the path carbon will take when it enters the ocean.”

PACE will carry two polarimeters to measure how molecules and particles in the atmosphere change the oscillation of light waves passing through them.

Continue reading NASA PACE mission goes into testing phase at Meteorological Technology International.

Leosphere has launched a lidar that mounts to wind turbines to measure wind conditions.

WindCube Nacelle has a range of 700m, can be fitted to any wind turbine, and is the only lidar to provide rapid data that meets power performance testing (PPT) requirements of the largest wind turbines.

It can be mounted temporarily or fully integrated into the nacelle to help operators and OEMs to assess turbine performance.

Alexandre Sauvage, CEO of Leosphere, said WindCube Nacelle can be used for both onshore and offshore wind turbines.

He said, “As turbines continue to grow taller, performance testing and verification becomes increasingly important as underperformance equates to reduced power output and significant lost revenue.”

Continue reading Leosphere launches WindCube Nacelle at Meteorological Technology International.

Scientists at the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) have proposed building an aerodrome at the Davis research station in Antarctica.

The proposal to provide year-round access between Hobart, Tasmania, and East Antarctica is subject to environmental and other government approvals.

AAD hosted webinar workshops in Australia’s scientific community and issues discussed included higher resolution models for weather forecasts and climate projections, more detailed understanding of the southern hemisphere’s climate, oceanographic sampling devices on seabirds and seals, and monitoring marine resources across all seasons.

Dr Dirk Welsford, acting chief scientist of AAD, said that scientists wanted shorter but more frequent trips.

Continue reading AAD looks into Antarctic aerodrome at Meteorological Technology International.

The bushfires in Australia that started last year sent smoke and aerosols higher into the atmosphere than Earth-observing instruments had ever recorded.

The fires burned millions of acres of land in New South Wales and Victoria, and now the fires have been extinguished, NASA is still monitoring the effects.

Between November 2019 and January 2020, the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrument mounted on the International Space Station monitored rising stratospheric aerosols above Australia.

In November, SAGE III saw more aerosol in the upper part of the troposphere but by January, they reached the stratosphere due to pyrocumulonimbus storms.

Continue reading Bushfires send aerosols to record heights at Meteorological Technology International.

Southern and southwestern Australia can expect longer, more intense droughts due to a lack of rainfall, according to Australian scientists.

Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes studied rainfall-based drought using the latest generation of climate models.

They found that the duration of droughts was closely aligned to changes in the average rainfall, but the intensity was much more closely connected to the combination of average rainfall and variability.

It was also found that agricultural and forested regions in the Amazon, Mediterranean and southern Africa can expect more frequent and intense droughts.

Continue reading Australian droughts to become more intense at Meteorological Technology International.

The Arctic is at risk of zombie fires following an unusually warm spring, according to scientists from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).

As the boreal fire season gets underway, scientists are monitoring the Arctic Circle with satellites, who have noted warm and dry conditions combined with record temperatures in Europe for March and April.

CAMS scientists are looking at Arctic fires with data from the Global Fire Assimilation System, using satellite-based sensors to provide daily estimates and information about fire intensity.

Signs that zombie fires may have reignited is a concern as last year’s wildfires were severe, emitting 50 megatons of carbon dioxide in June alone.

Continue reading Warm spring puts Arctic at risk of ‘zombie’ fires at Meteorological Technology International.

Record levels of greenhouse gases continue to trap heat in the atmosphere, according to NOAA’s annual analysis.

The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index tracks greenhouse gases being added to the atmosphere then calculates the heat being added to Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.

NOAA reports that the warming influence of the gases combined trapped the same amount of heat as an atmosphere instead containing CO2  at 500ppm.

The index is based on hundreds of air samples collected from sites in NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network.

Each sample is analyzed at NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

Continue reading Greenhouse gases keep trapping heat at Meteorological Technology International.

Experts from Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences in the US are using artificial intelligence and satellite data to predict wildfires across their western states.

The team, who specialize in hydrology, remote sensing and environmental engineering, have developed a deep-learning model to map fuel moisture levels across states from Colorado, Montana, Texas and Wyoming to the Pacific coast.

The model, which is said to require further testing, looks for forest dryness unfolding pixel by pixel, revealing areas that are at greatest risk for catching fire. Indeed, lead author Krishna Rao, a PhD student in the Earth system science, says the system uses a recurrent neural network, an artificial intelligence system that learns to recognize patterns in vast mountains of data.

Continue reading AI to predict wildfires at Meteorological Technology International.