Former Astronaut Sally Ride died Monday after a 17 month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was the first American woman in space.
Sally’s historic flight into space captured the nation’s imagination and made her a household name. She became a symbol of the ability of women to break barriers and a hero to generations of adventurous young girls. After retiring from NASA, Sally used her high profile to champion a cause she believed in passionately—inspiring young people, especially girls, to stick with their interest in science, to become scientifically literate, and to consider pursuing careers in science and engineering.
As an educator myself, I have appreciated her efforts to make science interesting and inspiring. She was a champion of learning all we could about our planet and the universe around us. It is with sadness that I salute her.
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Yesterday, a friend sent me a link to a video which compiled footage of the night side of Earth from the International Space Station. It is about four minutes in length. It struck me with its beauty. It amazed me with the technology of traveling in orbit 5 miles per sec. Sally Ride would have loved to experience it.
As I watched the video of Earth passing rapidly below the ISS, I often noticed the thin layer of the atmosphere arcing just barely above the surface of the Earth in most of the scenes. Nearly all of our atmosphere exists within than thin shell around the Earth. It extends about 100 miles up. That is roughly 500,000 feet. The greatest part of the atmosphere is down where we live within a few tens of thousands of feet above sea level. Have you ever hiked at elevations of 15,000-20,000 feet? The weight of the air compresses the atmosphere. It causes the molecules to be closer together. We get enough oxygen molecules packed close enough together to allow us to breathe as long as we stay close to the Earth.
Let me put that in perspective that might be more concrete. Go get your 12" globe. You know, the one gathering dust in the study, or in the attic. It's the one you used in grade school to learn your geography lessons. In order to visualize how little atmosphere we have, picture a layer one third of an inch thick wrapped around that globe. That is about as thick as the end of your little finger. Or, take a hand towel and wrap it around the globe. That is all we've got. It isn't very thick or substantial, is it? And, we can't get any more of it somewhere if we spoil what we've got. |
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It is important to us all to learn more about the state our climate and the way it is changing. I am providing a link to the
NOAA Climate Services Portal. NOAA is the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The NCS Portal will be a central component of NOAA's commitment to enhancing the access to and extensibility of climate data and services, timely articles and information, education resources, and tools for engagement and decision-making.
The NOAA Climate Services Portal has focused on developing the infrastructure and capacity to showcase a wide breadth of climate information to our users. The process of adding content to this infrastructure is in its early stages and has initially focused on several datasets and products from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, Coastal Services Center, and Climate Prediction Center, among others. The initial intent is to highlight some of most popular datasets/products based on customer usage of the data. These initial datasets and products represent only a very small fraction of the climate information available across NOAA. Our longer term goal is to present a broader spectrum of climate information as the project matures.
Bookmark the site. Read some of the literature. Browse some of the charts. Study some of the images. Inform yourself. We are all riding this space ship together as we travel around the Sun.
It is our duty to take care of this planet...for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.