TAG, the GRC and CMU

For the last few weeks, work has been really hectic. Firstly, with a week spent at the Gordon’s Research Conference (GRC) on Biogenic Hydrocarbons and the Atmosphere, though really with a name like Gordon’s you might have expected it to be about Gin! Though there was a fair amount of drinking during the poster sessions (photo 1). The conference was in Ventura, a coastal town between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Interestingly, for all you film buffs, the hotel (photo 2) where it was based appears at the end of the movie “Little Miss Sunshine”. It was a real multidisciplinary affair with talks ranging from genetics and genetic engineering to ecology and air quality and with any conference some of the talks were engaging and inspiring and a few left you struggling to stay awake!

For the last three weeks I have been at Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania installing a version of our Thermal desorption Aerosol GC-MS/FID (TAG) instrument (photo 3), that Aerosol Dynamics Inc. sold them and training one of their graduate students. It was a challenged period with at least a years worth of ‘unforseen’ technical problems. However, even in the face of such adversity we kept our sense of humours through it (photo 5). The graduate student had the look of “what have I got myself into?” on his face for many of the days! Eventually however, after a string of very long days and plenty of elbow grease and hard work we finally began to make some head away.

CMU was formed in 1967 from the merging of the Carnegie Institute of Technology (founded in 1900 by Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie) and the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research (founded in 1913 by Andrew Mellon and his brother Richard). Andrew Carnegie was the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. He is known for having built one of the most powerful and influential corporations in United States history, and, later in his life, giving away most of his riches to fund the establishment of many libraries, schools, and universities in Scotland, America, and worldwide. Carnegie, a poor boy with fierce ambition, a pleasant personality, and devoted to both hard work and self improvement, started as a telegrapher. By the 1860s he had investments in railroads, railroad sleeping cars, as well as bridges and oil derricks, and built a fortune as a bond salesman raising money in Europe for American enterprises. Steel was where he found his fortune. In the 1870s he founded the Carnegie Steel Company, a step which cemented his name as one of the “Captains of Industry”. By the 1890s it was the largest and most profitable industrial enterprise in the world. He sold it to J.P. Morgan's US Steel in 1901 and devoted the remainder of his life to large scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, and scientific research. Recently, the university spent 1 million dollars of student tuition fees installing this biazaar sculpture (photo 4) entitled ‘walking to the sky’ – I wonder what Carnegie and the 'pair of Mellons' would have made of it?

The weather on the flight over and during the first week and the final few days was the closest I have come to real winter since leaving the UK. The weather in the mid-west is a far cry from the delights of the California. There has been plenty of snow in Pittsburgh while Berkeley was enjoying highs of 80F and during the layover in Chicago on the flight over, the plane became covered in snow and ice (photos 6 and 7), so much so that it was necessary to sprayed down the plane with anti-freeze before we could take off into a snow blizzard! During my time in Pittsburgh we experience all four seasons in about 8 days; the weather started cold and then warmed up to give one day of glorious sunshine, three of rain and cloud before the snow and freezing temperatures returned. The cold made California all the more welcoming when I finally returned yesterday.

Laters

Dave

PS. Check out my new work webpage at http://nature.berkeley.edu/~dworton

Climate Skeptics: Read on....

Since Channel 4 aired a show called "the great global warming swindle" this week, I have received numerous emails asking me to clarify the link between anthropogenic (that is man-made) activities and global warming. Fortunately, a response highlighting the flaws in the arguments put forward by the show has been posted on the RealClimate website, which I have posted below. Hopefully, this should erase any doubts you may have about human induced climate change and convince you that the only swindling going on is by the makers of this show!

On Thursday the 8th, the UK TV Channel 4 aired a programme titled "The Great Global Warming Swindle". We were hoping for important revelations and final proof that we have all been hornswoggled by the climate Illuminati, but it just repeated the usual specious claims we hear all the time. We feel swindled. Indeed we are not the only ones: Carl Wunsch (who was a surprise addition to the cast) was apparently misled into thinking this was going to be a balanced look at the issues (the producers have a history of doing this), but who found himself put into a very different context indeed.

So what did they have to say for themselves?

CO₂ doesn't match the temperature record over the 20th C. True but not relevant, because it isn't supposed to. The programme spent a long time agonising over what they presented as a sharp temperature fall for 4 decades from 1940 to 1980 (incidentally their graph looks rather odd and may have been carefully selected; on a more usual (and sourced!) plot the "4 decades of cooling" is rather less evident). They presented this as a major flaw in the theory, which is deeply deceptive, because as they and their interviewees must know, the 40-70 cooling type period is readily explained, in that the GCMs are quite happy to reproduce it, as largely caused by sulphate aerosols. See this for a wiki-pic, for example; or (all together now) the IPCC TAR SPM fig 4; or more up-to-date AR4 fig 4. So... they are lying to us by omission.

The troposphere should warm faster than the sfc, say the models and basic theory. As indeed it does - unless you're wedded to the multiply-corrected Spencer+Christy version of the MSU series. Christy (naturally enough) features in this section, though he seems to have forgotten the US CCSP report, and the executive summary which he authored says Previously reported discrepancies between the amount of warming near the surface and higher in the atmosphere have been used to challenge the reliability of climate models and the reality of human induced global warming. Specifically, surface data showed substantial global-average warming, while early versions of satellite and radiosonde data showed little or no warming above the surface. This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected. New data sets have also been developed that do not show such discrepancies. See-also previous RC posts.

Temperature leads CO₂ by 800 years in the ice cores. Not quite as true as they said, but basically correct; however they misinterpret it. The way they said this you would have thought that T and CO₂ are anti-correlated; but if you overlay the full 400/800 kyr of ice core record, you can't even see the lag because its so small. The correct interpretation of this is well known: that there is a T-CO₂ feedback: see RC again for more.

All the previous parts of the programme were leading up to "so if it isn't CO₂, what is it?" to which their answer is "solar". The section was curiously weak, and largely lead by pictures of people on beaches. It was somewhat surprising that they didn't feature Svensmark at all; other stuff we've commented on before. Note that the graph they used as "proof" of the excellent solar-T connection turns out to have some problems: see figure 1c of Damon and Laut.

Along the way the programme ticked off most of the other obligatory skeptic talking points: even down to Medieval English vineyards and that old favourite, volcanoes emitting more CO₂ than humans.

It ended with politics, with a segment blaming the lack of African development on the environmental movement. We don't want to get into the politics, but should point out what the programme didn't: that Kyoto exempts developing nations.

[Also: other discussion at InTheGreen, Stoat and The Guardian.]

Presidents Day Weekend

This weekend saw another very welcome bank holiday weekend - Presidents Day. The origins of the holiday dates back to the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill of 1968, which became effective in 1971 and celebrates both George Washingtons (February 22nd; 1st US president 1789 - 1797) and Abraham Lincolns (February 12th; 16th US president 1861 - 1865) Birthdays. Although my impression is that the day celebrates all the US presidents.

This weekend the weather was absolutely spectacular considering its February - there isn't really much of a winter in the bay area - and I promised myself that I would not do any long road trips or work the whole weekend. So early on Saturday I went with Vince, a friend from the Christmas Joshua Tree trip, to the Consumnes River Gorge to climb. The climbing here was in a spectacular setting (photo 1 - me at the start of the second pitch) with the longest routes beginning on boulders in the river and heading up a 500 foot face (photo 2 - view down from the summit). It turned into something of an 3 pitch epic requiring 6 rappels to descend (photos 3 and 4 - Vince on the penultimate and final rappels) due to the wide spacing of the fixed rappel bolts meant we had to move diagonally between two sets of fixed bolts on the face - we have been nice to have know we needed double ropes, ah well, you live and learn!

The Amgen Tour of California bike race began on Sunday with a time trial race in San Fransisco. The first of the 7 stages starting today at Sausalito and traversed ~100 miles through Marin County finishing at Santa Rosa. Myself and Tim, a friend from UC Berkeley, rode out through Marin and intersected the race about 10 miles in at the top of the hill sprint. In the shade it was pretty chilly except on the hill climbs so soaking up the sun at the top of the hill sprint turned out to be a perfect break, shame that my camera battery was dead as there were so great views both out over the Pacific Ocean and down onto the Golden Gate Bridge and San Fransisco.

Laters

Dave

DA IRY - Granter of the Wonder Tonic!

I want to share the amusing TV adverts of the Californian Milk Board, which I realise does not sound very exciting BUT they are very good!

The website is http://www.planetinneed.com and you need to navigate to TV transmissions - there are 5 episodes.

Enjoy...

Dave

Viva Las Vegas II - Multipitch Mecca

After surviving the freezing conditions of Red Rocks earlier this month, a return trip during warmer weather was necessary in order to climb some of the long multipitch routes in the canyons. This trip was smaller than the previous with just myself and one of colleagues, Laurent, partaking. With only a few weeks notice we secured cheap (~100 bucks) return flights to Vegas from San Fransisco heading out last Thursday and returning unpleasantly early on Monday morning giving us three full days of climbing.

The weather was greatly improved this time, with low temperatures higher than the warmest temperatures last time. Still we spent little time, other than sleeping, at the campsite because of the restrictions on flying with stove fuel meant we could not cook. Still good cheap food is a plenty in Vegas so starvation or poverty were not likely.

Las Vegas airport is like a zoo (a weird human zoo), huge numbers of people and a farcical number of slot machines or one arm bandits. They are often referred to as the "crack cocaine of gambling" and when you see people barely able to pull themselves away from them you begin to understand why. Apparently, there are over 50,000 slot machines in Vegas (1 for every 10 residents) and some 45 million visitors a year. A frightening number considering that Vegas is primarily selling gambling and vice - hardly a moral living. Even more frightening are the numbers of people who bring their children to Vegas on holiday - not what I would call responsible parenting.

Of course, it was the climbing at Red Rocks (photo 1) that we were here for. On the first day we climbed "Cat in the Hat" (a Red Rocks classic, photo2 Laurent at the start) on the south face of the Mescalito in Pine Creek Canyon. This climb turned in something of an epic. Starting with getting lost on the approach and almost climbing a crack on a different face that we thought was the right climb, whoops! The route had 5 pitches, 3 good long (50m) ones with good protection and fun moves and two traverse pitches, the later of which had no protection and was pretty sketchy. The views from the summit were excellent, unfortunately the light got the better of us and we had to descend quickly in order to beat the sunset. The descent was 5 double rope rappels and the rope drag at each rappel station made pulling the ropes through really hard work. We were both done in by the time we reached the base of the route and so was the sun - so we had to return to the car in the dark.

On the second day, we opted for short sport routes for a little variety and to avoid any epic rappels. We climbed at two spots - the gallery and the black corridoor, the later being a very popular summer spot due to the protection from the sun. In the evening we went boozing in Vegas - at the Mirage and the Venetian and took the time to laugh at the Venice Grand Canal (photo 6) complete with Gondolas inside the Venetian (note: the clouds painted on the ceiling)!

On the last day we climbed another multipitch route called "solar slab gully" in Oak Creek Canyon (photo 3 to the south of the Canyon) this was another 5 pitches (photo 4 - me leading pitch 2 and no I didn't place any gear on this pitch; photo 5 - me and Laurent at the top of pitch 5) which gives access to more routes higher up the face. In all you could climb around 1500 vertical feet of rock and I'm sure we'd have a go if we hadn't both got up to late and then got stuck behind some slow climbers. I very much look forward to returning later in the spring to try one of these routes in hopefully even more hospitable weather.

Laters

Dave

Viva Las Vegas I - The big freeze

Last weekend was the Martin Luther King Jr. bank holiday and to take advantage of the extra day I went climbing at Red Rocks, Nevada near Las Vegas with a few of the CHAOS crew (photo 1, left to right Kat, Meg, William and me). Red Rocks is located a few miles West of Las Vegas in Nevada some 560 miles from Berkeley - yes it was quite a drive (8 hours), done in one non-stop overnight session involving large amounts of sugary and caffeinated drinks!

Fortunately for myself and Kat we arrived the morning after the 80 mph winds at the campsite that put Meg and William's tents to the test (photo 2, tents still standing). It was freezing, almost certainly around 10F (-15 C) at night (note the snow in photos 1 and 2) and so other than sleeping we did not hang around the campsite much. The climbing here is excellent on great rock with some really fun routes. After getting over the shock of climbing in the snow on the first day, the second day we found a sunny crag in Pine Creek Canyon (photo 3) and were there until the darkness descended and the ranger arrived to throw us out of the park.

Las Vegas was just as I remembered it from my two previous visits in 1998 and 2000 - bright, lairy and very cheesey BUT all good fun. An example of the over the top nature of Vegas for those of you that haven't been yet is that each hotel has some king of gimmick with the intention of luring you to their casino to lose all your money, I mean gamble. For example, at Treasure Island two galleons battle it out four times a night with a live cast in front of the hotel and one of them sinks, Paris has its own Effiel Tower and a Volcano erupts outside the Mirage once an hour (see photo 4).

On Sunday, William wanted to climb "Fear and Loathing III" on the Wall of Confusion (photo 5). Being a 5.12a (7a+) route, he was pretty much on his own with that one, but the rest of us enjoyed watching him with awe as he powered his way through the various roofs (photo 6) to the rap station following rests at the majority of the fixed bolts.

Heading back to Red Rocks in two weeks to hopefully warmer weather and some multi-pitch climbs. Oh, and I'm flying - I am so done with the 10 hour drives...at least for this month!

Laters

Dave

Tahoe from 10,000 feet....

Following a great week climbing at Joshua Tree NP with a great crowd of people (photo 1; from left to right Vince, me, Edwin, Kat, Clement, Ian and Daniel), we (myself and various work colleagues) headed to Lake Tahoe on the Nevada border to spend new years in a ski cabin close to the Alpine Meadows ski resort. Some Lake Tahoe trivia for you:

(1) It is the largest (22 miles long and 12 miles wide) and one of the highest (6225 feet above sea level) alpine lakes in North America,
(2) It contains enough water to submerge California (total surface area of 158,869 square miles or 411,471 square km) to a depth of 14.5 inches (thats 37cm to the metrically inclined),
(3) Scenes from “The Godfather II” and “Bonanza” were shot in and around Lake Tahoe, as well as “The Bodyguard” with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston and “City of Angels” with Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage, and
(4) The water evaporating from its surface annually is equivalent to LA's (population 10.2 million) water consumption for 5 years.

The cabin was fantastic (photo 2) and the hot tub even more so! It made the perfect spot to see in the new year in style (photo 3; from left to right - me, Jay, Delphine, Dave, Fred, Colette, Elaine and Julie behind the camera). However, the highlight of the weekend for me was my first flying lesson. Julie's friend Fred, from her CalTech days, has built his own 2 seater plane (photos 4 and 5) and was kind enough to take a few of us up for a flying lesson and some airborne acrobatics; some steep banking curves pulling around 3 G's and a couple of "aileron rolls" - truly mind blowing. Its amazing how much concentration it took for me just to keep the plane flying straight and level.

The new year started with another first - snowboarding (photo 6). Its harder than it looks and I'm still hurting today - but i did manage to balance and stay on my feet (well on the green slopes at least, the steeper blues proved somewhat more challenging) and was getting into turning, which for an afternoons work was good going I reckon. Plenty of time left this year to master it once I recover from all the bumps and bruises!

Laters

Dave