#3 (this is not a freewrite) Survey of Current Topics in Your Field

Greenhouse Gases/Global Warming – A Global Issue

Atmospheric scientists, Climatologists, Geologists, and pretty much any anyone linking their jobs to environmental science are racing to looking for clues and answers to understand what is really going on with planet Earth. There is an increasing concern with global warming and the consequences we may face with it. The main concern with global warming is that it is undergoing a greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbon that linger high up in the atmosphere cause this effect. The problem with these gases is that it causes the atmosphere to heat up. Atmospheric scientist measure these particles in the atmosphere in parts per million and determine how dense they are in the atmosphere. Climatologist studies the climate changes and extreme weather that it is causing. For example, warmer waters of the Gulf in which the ocean temperature was slightly higher than usual spawned Katrina, a category 5 hurricane. This small change in temperature was responsible for an extreme weather and other regions will experience their weather to the extreme.

In our day-to-day life, we may not think twice about rain or thunderstorms because it is part of natural process that mankind experience for several millennia. However, when we have a warmer Earth, we would be experiencing severe weathers that affect millions or even billions of people across the world. The variation of extreme weathers such as tornados, snowstorms, hurricanes, and even droughts will be even more severe that it can affect not only our lives but our economy as well. For example, during February 5th through 10th the Mid-Atlantic region had experienced almost back-to-back snowstorms that disrupts our lives and possibly hurt our incomes by not being able to go to work. It is so important to understand weather, that even politicians and businesses are willing to spend billions upon billions of dollars to understand or even avoid them.

Sea Ice (Melting or Increasing) – Cryosphere in Danger?

Sea Ice – Is it melting? Or is it Increasing? For many years, scientists had been telling everyone that sea ices are melting or decreasing at an alarming rate. It is a cause for concern because the melting of the sea ice, glaciers, ice shelves, or icebergs is a strong indicator that the Earth is warming up. What happens if all the sea ice, glaciers, ice shelves and icebergs melts or disappears? It is an important question that has all scientists scratching their heads for answers. It is speculative to say that sea level will rise and cause worldwide catastrophe among coastal inlands and other low-lying surfaces. Another speculation is that the melting of glaciers, ice shelves, and ice sheets will stop the thermohaline circulation (an oceanic current that acts as a warm-cold conveyor belt bring warmer waters from the equator to the north, thus keeping northern hemisphere from freezing up). If the thermohaline circulation halts that may bring the northern hemisphere into an ice age. This disruption of thermohaline circulation would be caused from the melting of freshwater pouring into the ocean in which would cause a change in ocean salinity.

Scientific communities such as NASA, NSF (National Science Foundation), and NSIDC (National Snow and Ice Data Center) are closely monitoring the levels of sea ice via satellites, ice cores, etc. It is still mysterious to them and any answers are pure theories. One can hope that we will understand the Earth’s Crysophere – the frozen environments of our planet – before it is too late.

Weather Forecasting – Meteorology

For some, a typical morning consist of having breakfast, getting ready for school/work and turning on the news or weather channel to see what the weather is like for the day. After seeing what the weather is like one would grab an umbrella because it may rain later or grab a coat because it is cold. Meteorology is a relatively new field that has been studied extensively for at least a hundred years. In the past few decades, there has been a great stride in technological advances in predicting weather by using radars, satellites, and other devices that measures current or future weather. They monitor the air temperature, humidity, type and amount of cloudiness, type and amount of precipitation, air pressure, and the speed and direction of the wind. It is said that climate is what you expect and weather is what you get.

Meteorologist otherwise known as weatherman is responsible for studying the atmosphere and the conditions of the atmosphere at a given time and place. It is their job to predict the weather as accurately as possible for the next minute, the next hour, next day or even next week. Everyone relies on this forecast to do his or her jobs. It is very much part of the economy as it is environmental. For example, the aviation industry relies heavily on weather and the atmosphere to fly its cargo and passengers safely. Still, meteorology is not 100% accurate but as technology becomes more advance, the accuracy of weather forecasting will increase. Because it is very much involved with our day-to-day lives, the field of meteorology is expected to grow faster than average for the next decade.