#atmospheric physics

[studentystuff]

Exam time again. Physics be physicsing

[eka-mark]

MAVEN Maps Winds in the Martian Upper Atmosphere

By Tamsyn Brann

Researchers have created the first map of wind circulation in the upper atmosphere of a planet besides Earth, using data from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft that were collected during the last two years. ... MAVEN, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission, recently celebrated the five-year anniversary of its entrance into orbit around Mars on September 21. The primary scientific goal of the mission is to study what is left of Mars’ atmosphere to determine how, in the distant past, an ocean-covered and potentially habitable Mars became the dry and desolate place it is today.

...

This discovery was the first detection of topography-induced gravity wave ripples in the thermosphere of any planet, even Earth. ... This research was funded by the MAVEN mission. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, and NASA Goddard manages the MAVEN project. NASA is exploring our Solar System and beyond, uncovering worlds, stars, and cosmic mysteries near and far with our powerful fleet of space and ground-based missions.

[quasarlasar]

If hurricanes could swim would they swim like...

A Frisbee?

That dolphinfish chased after it, but was very disappointed to find the weird spinning thingy was just water somehow swimming in water.

Or like a propeller?

Oceanic puffer is very dizzy now.

Frisbee is probably the logical extension of the usual horizontal movement of a hurricane, but I think propeller looks a lot funnier. Of course this is assuming the hurricane is shrunken down so it can fit in the ocean! Neither a vertical or horizontal orientation allows the average hurricane to fit underwater...

Though, if we are taking the propeller thing seriously, then perhaps the hurricane’s inflow should face in the direction of movement, while the outflow faces away, so it also benefits from a jet propulsion like mechanism. If we assume these are northern hemisphere hurricanes, then we should flip them over...

“YOU TOUCH CAMILLE AGAIN AND I WILL DECOUPLE YOU!!!” *shred* *tear*

Okay that last one is a drawing of the miniature form of the Labor Day Hurricane chasing after the miniature form of the 1900 storm. 

...And yeah if you read the whole “Harvey Diaries” story, you’d know 1900 is a little weird in that he can bleed when his clouds are sheared off. But don’t feel too sorry for him because he is so mean and cruel that even other hurricanes think he’s a bit much. So he probably deserves it. 

In any case, sorry for not posting much at all lately. I’ve been busy working on research in preparation for an important academic conference. 

So...expect me to disappear for extended periods of time often. But at least you now know the answers to the most important meteorological question of all time...

[quasarlasar]

So... I’m going to do the whole “disappear into the mountains” thing I did last January. Which means no new digital art for a while.

I’m probably better at writing than art, so I have taken the opportunity provided by Tumblr’s content-filtering algorithm needlessly eating five of my comics whole* to get back into writing. Problem is that the sorts of things I write are generally way too long to be effectively posted in blog format.

Also Tumblr is weird about posting Microsoft Word excerpts as you can see above.

So...uh...yeah...I have been writing a story that involves among other things, historical hurricanes that have been summoned back from the afterlife and are ridden by people. 

No, I have no clue what sort of audience would go for this. But if you’re already following me...you probably don’t really care.

*Don’t draw space scenes with magenta nebulae. The algorithm really doesn’t know what to do with those, apparently.

[quasarlasar]

HURRICANE ICE FEATHERS

The airborne successor to the “fault toe beans” comic. I got the idea for this when I looked over the ocean and saw some cirrus clouds that looked a lot like feathers.

For this comic I didn’t even bother drawing Carla in her miniature form. Instead I decided to try drawing her at full size, and zoom in to the scale of a human. It’s hard to tell*, but this is supposed to be Melissa sitting on top of Hurricane Carla’s eyewall, with Carla’s eye to the upper right. Streaming cirrus clouds flow radially outward from Carla’s center above the tops of her eyewall cumulonimbi, and Melissa basically reaches out and grabs some of the cirrus.

As to how Melissa is able to sit on a cloud in the thin upper atmosphere in a t-shirt and not fall, freeze, or suffocate?

...uhhhmmmhhmm magic. 

...

No, but seriously, I’ve been spending most of my creative time writing the story of how Melissa comes to learn how to use weather magic to partner with hurricane avatars and fight for the balance between people and the planet. 

Most of my writing is too long to really be effectively posted on Tumblr. The Harvey Diaries were an exception.

*I have no idea what the cloud tops of a hurricane would look like from the perspective of a human sitting on them, because this is an impossible point of view in real life. It is possible that the scales of the irregularities in the cloud top surface are much larger than a human, in which case the cloud surface under Melissa would just be a flat blank white. But this would be boring, so I just looked at some high-resolution satellite images and drew in the weird textures you can see on satellite. 

[quasarlasar]

AIN’T NO PARTY LIKE A HURRICANE PARTY

Way back in June someone anonymously asked for some more hurricane content. I stated I’d find some inspiration after I’ve spent time in Houston/Galveston again.

Well...I know it’s several months late, but here we go.

So what does a hurricane at a party even do? Drink too much, stagger around the coast and then flood the yard with his business? Listen to the chants of “Raise the roof! Raise the roof!” and respond by actually lifting the roof off the house? 

I don’t really know. I just wanted to draw a hurricane in a party hat.

[quasarlasar]

10 Reasons it Would Suck to Keep a Hurricane As a Pet

1. Where will you keep it?

I suppose you could just rope off the Bay of Campeche...with ridges.

2. How will you feed it?

Their diet may be 100% warm seawater, but DAMN do these guys need a lot of it. Like just ten hours without 200 feet deep oceans of it and they drop dead. Remember folks, a hungry cane is not a happy cane.

3. House-training a hurricane is hard.

Forget litter box litter, you need sand bags.

4. Heating costs

What are you going to do about upwelling, huh? I guess you could stick a ton of aquarium heaters on the seafloor.

5. Beach parties are sooooo out.

At least you can now carry the beach with you when you go for walks inland.

6. Toys

“Fetch the oil rig!” gets tiring after a while.

7. You can’t have a multi-hurricane household.

Aww, you think they look so cute doing the Fujiwhara together? Wait until your Category 5 shreds your new tropical storm with its outflow and eats its remnant moisture for breakfast.

8. NOAA does not do house calls.

Who do you contact if your hurricane gets sick? “Hi...is this the NHC? My Bob just swallowed a ton of dry air and I think he needs his stomach pumped.”

9. You can’t name it.

I mean, I suppose Alicia is a nice name, but what if you want to call your new pet Azriel the Angel of Destruction? You’ll need to take that one up with the World Meteorological Organization.

10. It might kill you or someone you know.

I know you say your typhoon is a really friendly guy, and it couldn’t have been him, but I saw it throw a tree into my house while it was off leash. 

EDIT: Apparently after writing this, Tumblr recommends “water-based introspection” as a tag to follow. LOL

[quasarlasar]

The End is In Sight

At last the sun has returned.

Of course for many the ordeal has only just begun.

But at least no storm lasts forever.

The winds will shift, the clouds will part, and sunlight will shine on you again.

As they always say...

This, too, shall pass.