KenMankoff

Pine Island Glacier Publication TimeMap

In which I present a rough geo-spatial-temporal map of Pine Island Glacier (PIG) publications.

Geo-spatial-temporal time-map of Pine Island Glacier (PIG) publications

More »

Building a Software/Hardware Environment for Research

Sometimes I get asked what software/hardware systems I recommend for research. Below is my standard advice. I am a scientific programmer and student and my day-to-day tasks involve research, data analysis,  scientific programming, and writing. Data sets might include satellite images, model output, GPS, seismic, and a variety of other data. Data domains are ocean, atmosphere, and/or ice. I travel a lot, either from home to the office or to the field (which might mean months on a boat with no internet connection). Therefore I try to have a setup that supports high performance computing (HPC) on a laptop.

More »

Olde Tyme Snow Motor

I’d like to ride one of these on my next trip to Antarctica.

Warning: Horse beating around 3:30 into the film.

Missing NYC

Mini-Tsunami

Small tsunami wave train rolling into Natural Bridge(s) State Park, Santa Cruz, CA

Edit: Apparently these waves were not related to the tsunami. There was a big storm off the coast…

GISTEMP.StationData

NASA GISS has recently announced another year of the surface temperature trends. Last year, 2009, tied for the 2nd warmest year on record, and the past decade (January 2000 to December 2009) was the warmest on record.

I took the time this weekend to re-create a Google Earth layer showing these data. This visualization allows you to see a broad geospatial overview, and then select any particular location and see both long-term trends and even the data point for each individual month.

Download (330K)

GISTEMP.StationData

GISTEMP.StationData

Storms in Santa Cruz

Starting yesterday, and continuing through the week, and possibly through much of next week, Santa Cruz is experiencing some extreme weather. NOAA warns of the following:

High Surf Warning
Wind Advisory
High Wind Watch
Coastal Flood Watch
Hazardous Weather Outlook

Where, for example, High Wind Watch means winds 25-40 mph with gusts up to 60. Almost all week long.

I could not sleep in the storm last night. Perhaps because the thunder was so loud and so close that car alarms went off. And the windows rattled a lot.

It might also have to do with Antarctic boats. I’ve spent more than 3 months of the past year on a boat, and the last few storms I’ve been through like this made me nauseous, but also rocked me to sleep. I missed the rocking last night, which is good, since I’m in a house and not a boat.

Webcam and webcam.

More Photos from Antarctica (LMG09-09)

I’ve finally gotten around to uploading some photos from the latest trip to Antarctica. We sailed on the Laurence M. Gould through the Drake Passage and the Bellingshausen Sea, then along the Antarctic Peninsula to Palmer Station. We saw a lot of ice and some wildlife.

If you want to read about the trip you can do so here or by clicking on the LMG09-09 tag to the right.

If you were on the ship here is a GPX file so you can geotag your own photos.

Phosphorescing Sea Ice

This footage was shot by Harriet Mankoff on September 22nd 2009 in the Drake Passage near 60 degrees South. It shows what I have labeled “phosphorescing sea ice” due to the white flashes at the wave crests. The sea is covered by pancake ice and slush. At the wave crest the slush builds up enough that the water drains out of the slush and it looks brighter. The reverse happens in some of the troughs.

An Interview

I was in an interview last month highlighting some of the work done by The Climate Project. Watch below.