JISAO Lecture Series

Mark your calendars for several dates over the next few months to attend the inaugural lecture series of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO). From the lecture series webpage:

"This year’s lecture series “Climate Change: A Wake Up Call” addresses the timely and critical issue of global warming. JISAO is honored to host three speakers of national stature who will discuss the challenges and opportunities before us: King County Executive Ron Sims; Dr. Konrad Steffen, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences; and Dr. Jonathan Overpeck, director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona."

Weather Channel and Google Team Up

You can now access weather conditions through Google Maps "with one click" using a "mapplet". From the press release:

"The mapplet's weather bubbles expand with a click to display HiRAD data for the point of interest including temperature, humidity, wind speed, and UV Index along with an observation of overhead sky conditions, which is unique to the HiRAD system. Forecast links including hourly, tomorrow, and 10-day are in the expanded bubble along with a link to a video forecast for the selected location. In addition, during severe tropical weather, users will see a Hurricane Central option on the mapplet that will enable them to track an active storm on the map."

You can access the applet through the Featured Content links in the left sidebar of the Google MyMaps page.

The Weather Channel has also been selected to provide a weather data layer for Google Earth.

"Current conditions in the Google Earth weather data layer are presented in a pop up window and include temperature, humidity, wind speed, pressure and dewpoint, along with an observation of overhead sky conditions. This is presented with forecast data including a 36 hour forecast and links to hour by hour and 10 day outlooks on weather.com. Also available are radar images on the map which are provided by weather.com and Weather Services International (WSI) via a product known as NOWrad."

To try it out you'll need to download the Google Earth program. Once installed, open it and select the Weather checkbox underneath the "Layers" category on the left-hand sidebar.

Polar Science Available Online

The Libraries has a new journal available and it's online and ready for you to use.
From the Elsevier website:

"Polar Science is an international, peer-reviewed and quarterly journal. It is dedicated to provide original research articles for sciences related to the polar regions of the Earth and other planets. Polar Science has basically 12 disciplines listed below; they cover most aspects of space, earth, and life sciences. Those articles should attract interests of broad polar science communities, not limiting to interests of those who work under specific research subjects.

- space and upper atmosphere physics
- atmospheric science/climatology
- glaciology
- oceanography/sea ice studies
- geology/petrology
- solid earth geophysics/seismology
- marine earth science
- geomorphology/Cenozoic-Quaternary geology
- meteoritics
- terrestrial biology
- marine biology
- animal ecology"

You can access it through the Libraries catalog or by clicking here. (Note: you'll need to log in through the off-campus access link in the upper-right corner of that page before trying to connect to the journal.)