Exoplanet news

Exoplanets are planets around other stars. NASA has just announced the probable discovery of another 1000 or so exoplanets. Five or so may even be like the Earth but we will not know much about them for a few years yet. Why is this important? Finding other Earth-like planets is likely to change our view of the universe. Until recently many felt that our planet was unique - now it seems that it may be far from that. From Scientific American:

"A newfound planetary system has six worlds, five of which rank among the smallest known, and the list of unconfirmed candidates has swelled to four figures"

"...it will be a few years yet before Kepler is able to identify a true Earth analogue—a small planet on a one-Earth-year orbit around a sunlike star."

Link
"Astronomers have identified some 54 new planets where conditions may be suitable for life." - BBC

Intertropical Convergence Zone again

For this month there has been a large low pressure region stationary over the Amazon which seems to have prevented the ITCZ from moving south since all easterly winds are being forced to go northwards around the depression. Just my guess as to what is happening...

Reviewing 200 years

Commenting on a BBC 4 minutes video presentation by Hans Rosling, Aaron Saenz writes:

"Rosling’s review of the past 200 years leaves me rather optimistic about the years ahead. As he has outlined elsewhere, there are serious problems facing us in regards to exponential population growth and global health. Yet there are also solutions to humanity’s grand challenges of poverty, health, energy, etc."

A short but impressive and thought-provoking presentation - well worth watching.

Direct link to video here.

The new Google Earth Engine

Google now has an important new online service for those working in the environmental field.

"Google Earth Engine is a new technology platform that puts an unprecedented amount of satellite imagery and data—current and historical—online for the first time. It enables global-scale monitoring and measurement of changes in the earth’s environment."

"For the least developed nations, Google Earth Engine will provide critical access to terabytes of data, a growing set of analytical tools and our high-performance processing capabilities. We believe Google Earth Engine will bring transparency and more certainty to global efforts to stop deforestation."

It does have data for Guyana for those who know how to interpret this.

Intertropical Convergence Zone in November

With the weather starting to get wetter a check on the position of the ICTZ shows that it is moving south and is now close to Guyana - see the map.
Once again the green dots show the apparent position of the ICTZ.
And again the picture is from the BBC web site today.