Saturday, April 9, 2016

Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 56

Fig. 1 (not to scale) click to enlarge
It has been a while since I have had to rebel against official intransigence.

This post is formulated as a "lead and polynya" hypothesis against the intractable government officials whom Dr. Mitrovica went to see in Scandinavia.

I specifically mean those officials who did not believe the discussion he conducted with them about the ice sheet gravity of Antarctica, or that Antarctic ice sheet melt would impact sea level at their shores far away from Antarctica (see yesterday's video).

Yesterday's post also mentioned polynyas on Antarctic ice shelves (see this for a description and discussion of "polynyas" and "leads").

Fig. 2 (not to scale) click to enlarge
The graphic at Fig. 1 depicts an ice shelf before cracks appear in it (cracks due to reasons explained in yesterday's post).

Moving along, Fig. 2 shows the same situation after cracks form in the ice shelf which then develop leads (linear cracks) and/or polynyas (roundish holes).

What is specifically depicted and inferred in the two graphic portrays is a situation where there should be no water on top of the ice sheet because the ice shelf surface is above sea level.

Since water does not naturally flow upward above sea level, my hypothesis is that polynyas and/or leads form in some cases because the ice sheet gravity pulls the water into its sphere of influence.

Fig. 3
By "its sphere of influence", I mean the triangle formed by the gravity line, the surface of the ice shelf, and the edge of the land mass the ice sheet rests upon (the upper left triangular shaped section of the drawings in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2).

As pointed out yesterday, some of these polynyas stick around for years, so, in cases where there is no apparent reason for them to reach that high above sea level, it can be considered yet another proof of concept as to the reality of ice sheet gravitational influence.
Fig. 4

On another front, I am progressing along with the module that calculates sea level change fingerprints.

Today I will show some graphs made with "csv files" generated by the module.

What remains to be coded, because the quantities of contribution will change, is the portrayal of that dynamic change in the amount of future contribution by Antarctica.

Fig. 5
Currently, Greenland contributes more, in terms of displacement and ghost-water, but that will change in time because Antarctica will become the greater contributor to sea level change sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Anyway, today's graphs are composed from the data of a list of PSMSL tide gauge stations.

Zone AH.SE.NE contains the following PSMSL tide gauge stations: 
#1230 DIGBY, #1158 YARMOUTH, #1259 BOUTILIER POINT, #96 HALIFAX, #1654 TRENTON, #1153 CAPE MAY, #180 ATLANTIC CITY,
Fig. 6 high SLR projection
#366 SANDY HOOK, #12 NEW YORK THE BATTERY, #1637 BERGEN POINT STATEN IS, #519 MONTAUK, #875 PLUM ISLAND, #848 PORT JEFFERSON, #362 WILLETS POINT, #856 NEW ROCHELLE, #1068 BRIDGEPORT, #429 NEW LONDON, #430 PROVIDENCE STATE PIER, #351 NEWPORT, #776 BUZZARDS BAY, #367 WOODS HOLE OCEAN INST, #1111 NANTUCKET ISLAND, #775 SANDWICH MARINA CAPE COD CANAL ENTRANCE, #235 BOSTON, #288 SEAVEY ISLAND, #183 PORTLAND MAINE, #1279 ROCKLAND, #525 BAR HARBOR FRENCHMAN BAY ME, #1524 CUTLER II, #1081 CUTLER, #332 EASTPORT.
(East Coast, US and CA). The station number (#nnn) precedes the station name (in caps).

The graphs at Fig. 3 (line format) and Fig. 4 (panel format) show that Zone's geophysical components of sea level rise in two format types.

Note that the degree of sea level change depicted is based on the projected IPCC global mean average high and low for that area as shown in Fig. 5 (the history | future divide is the year 2015) as marked in the Hansen et al. projection Fig. 6 (A Paper From Hansen et al. Is Now Open For Discussion, 2, 3).

Have a nice weekend.

LOUDER THAN WORDS
(by Todd Henry)

"When people don’t express themselves, they die one piece at a time.—​­Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak

Your work tells tales. It speaks about you, your values, your hopes, your ambitions, and ultimately what you deem worthy of your energy and attention. It reveals, intentionally or not, what you really think about the world around you. Ultimately, your body of work—​­which is any place you create value, whether through your job, your relationships, or any other way you spend your time and energy—is​­ a standing testament to your existence on this speck of rock orbiting the sun.

Here’s a question worth pondering: While your work speaks about you, does it really speak for you? Does it represent you well? Does it reflect the authentic you? (Or, in your busyness, have you even recently considered who the authentic you might be?) The key to making your work resonate is to uncover, develop, and then bravely use your authentic voice.

What does this mean? When you are pouring yourself into your work and bringing your unique perspective and skills to the table, then you are adding value that only you are capable of contributing. However, many people operate in “default mode,” and they ignore their hunches, their deeper intuition, and their unique vision, and instead settle into the fold. Over time, they become more of a reflection of everyone around them—​­or a faded photocopy of a photocopy—​­than an original source of ideas, energy, and life. Instead of doing the difficult work necessary to weave their influences together into something fresh and original, they settle for recycling the scraps in exchange for a quick return on their effort. In the end, they fall short of making a unique contribution that’s reflective of what they truly care about, and because of a lack of individuality and passion, their work is less likely to resonate with their audience.

However, brilliant contributors commit to the process of developing an authentic voice through trial and error, by paying attention to how they respond to the work of peers, heroes, and even their antagonists, by playing with ideas, by cultivating a sharp vision for their work, and ultimately by honing their skills so that they have the ability to bring that vision to the world. If you examine the most contributive, impactful, and ultimately influential people throughout history, the one thing that clearly sets them apart is their unique voice. They had developed a personal expression that distanced them from their peers and put them in a field of their own. Their body of work speaks loudly about who they are and what they value. Louder, even, than their words." (First Two Chapters)


2 comments:

  1. Polynyas and leads are mini ghost-water.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Ocean Tide Influences on the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets" (Reviews of Geophysics, PDF).

    ReplyDelete