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Found 10 results

  1. Hello everybody! I'm a new member of the netweather forum; interested in a number of, perhaps, niche metrological effects, as part of a project with my son who is studying engineering. The viewing site is an Etang in Southern France (a sea water lake). Depending upon the forecaster, for the 3 experiments, visibility was stated as being 15km or 35km. The first trip went well, and we witnessed reflection in what we believe to be, a temperature layer in the atmosphere. We called this image 'The Floating House' If you draw a horizontal line through the windows, you will see that the lower half is a reflection of the upper half. However, our scope was not excellent. Consequently, the scope was improved. The second trip also went well, with greatly improved images. This one is the Petanque Club (note - the obstacles beneath the club are mussel posts in the etang) Here it is from google-earth: Geodetic surveying methodology tells us that refraction occurs according primarily to temperature gradient. We judged that the mural of the tree was stretched, and of course we have the appearance of the houses towering above the club house (around 1km distant), which we believe are also slightly stretched. While this seems to merely confirm geodetic methodology ... we had gained a great subject for further studies during Uni holidays ... and what a great subject for 'father & son' common endeavour (rather than being a freebie hotel hahaha!) ... and there was the unanswered question concerning temperature layer reflection. You can imagine the pleasure to be gained from working together, rather than drifting apart... So I bit the bullet, and redesigned the scope, in preparation for the next holiday, bumping it up to 90mm, damping the resonance, and adding baffles and flocking (to control stray light). What a job ... but it was a succesful build. Only that the holidays were upon us ... so options for the 3rd trip were limited (lots of bad weather predicted). Saturday 29th was forecast to be variable cloud cover (cloud and sun), but with a rising temperature gradient from around 10 deg climbing to 15 deg, with visibility listed as 15km or 35km depending upon the forecaster. ... that was the same prediction as the two previous visits. We figured that the light might not be great, but hey ... we'd see what we would see ... and with more than double the scope light aperture, we should be fine. We arose at 4.45am, to get to the site in time for first light and sunrise, hoping to capture the images of the buildings stretching upwards, as the temperature increased. Ha! We may as well have stayed in bed. There was a band of white cloud (from the ground up), above which could be seen blue sky (when the higher clouds broke). Sorry ... I should have photographed the sky. I didn't think to do this, until we got back, when I began thinking about weather forecasting. I don't know whether this was haze or an inversion. Either way, we could not gain focus ... it was all a shimmering blur. We stuck it out till 1.00pm and then chucked in the towel. Here are the 3 weather pages from DarkSky.net Dark Sky - Friday, Nov 1st, 2019 DARKSKY.NET Dark Sky - Sunday, Dec 29th, 2019 DARKSKY.NET Dark Sky - Saturday, Feb 29th, 2020 DARKSKY.NET The problem is the visibility forecast. It seems to be meaningless (and other sites had visibilty at 35km!). Is there any way to predict good visibilty? ... because, we need to set off in the dark ... and it is a major event, pulling everything together ... and the next day must be written off to physical recovery (wiped out ) We could really benefit from some advice
  2. Found this on someone else's website : Every time we go out we see it, we breathe it That is how we know it goes on. Far across the distance And spaces it's drifted And we know the haze will go on Near, far, wherever we are We can see that the haze just goes on Once more we close all our doors But it still seeps inside And it's useless to have aircon. Asthma comes just one time And lasts for a lifetime And never lets go till we're gone The haze should blow to Java SBY & Jusuf Kalla Then they'll know just what's going on ... It's here, that's just what we fear And we know that the haze will go on It'll stay forever this way till the northeast monsoon comes till then, it'll go on and on. Mood : amused
  3. Satellite pictures yesterday clearly showed the haze wafting in from Kalimantan. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ChannelNewsAsia has devoted an entire section to the haze. One viewer sent in this rather nice photo of the moon : The haze gave last night's moon an atmospheric orange cast as seen here beside one of the office buildings in the CBD. – Photo from Stuart Clyne Meanwhile, the problems looks no closer to being solved. Bother these politicians. The Straits Times Oct 17, 2006 Indonesians close ranks By Indonesia Bureau Chief, Azhar Ghani JAKARTA - AS EXTERNAL pressure mounts on Indonesia to deal with the haze caused by land-clearing fires, local critics appear to have closed ranks behind the flag. Observers say the turning point seems to have been President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's apology last Wednesday to Singapore and Malaysia for the recurring problem. Many critics have now fallen back on nationalist arguments, alleging that countries complaining about the haze have also been found wanting when it comes to cross-border issues. The local media, which had earlier lambasted the government for not doing enough to stop the haze from spreading, has shifted its focus to how Jakarta is doing its best to solve the problem. Observers also note how major dailies are persisting in apportioning some of the blame to Malaysia - allegedly a big buyer of illegal timber from Indonesia - even though State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar has said that most of the culprits are suspected to be Indonesians. While there is little new about accusations against Malaysia, Singapore is also now in the dock. Editorials in two dailies say that Singapore expects Indonesia to act fast when something affects the Republic adversely, but dithers when the positions are reversed. Last Thursday, business daily Bisnis Indonesia's editorial dwelt on the letter that Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had sent Dr Yudhoyono to express his disappointment over the issue. Mr Lee had said that Indonesia's handling of the haze problem could have an effect on investor confidence in the country and on Asean's credibility. While the editorial acknowledged that Indonesia was in the wrong and suggested that help from others should be accepted, it also said Mr Lee was effectively dictating what Indonesia should be doing. It added that Singapore was not ready to sign an extradition treaty with Indonesia and that the Republic also harboured suspects in corruption cases wanted by Jakarta. Indonesia has, for nearly a decade, been seeking an extradition treaty with Singapore. The prevailing view in Indonesia is that corrupt businessmen and politicians usually hide - and park their assets - in Singapore. Sunday's editorial in the daily Koran Tempo took a similar line, and suggested that there was nothing wrong in linking the two issues. It said: 'If Singapore says it had no intention of inviting rich Indonesians, especially those with ill-gotten gains, to its shores, we can also say that we did not intend to send the haze there. Blame it on the wind. Yes, this may be childish diplomacy, but who knows, it might just work.' And Sunday also saw Vice-President Jusuf Kalla saying that countries complaining about the haze should think about the oxygen that Indonesia's forests produce. International relations analyst Bantarto Bandoro felt that Jakarta's defensive posture was understandable but said that it did not mean the real problem had been forgotten. He said: 'Indonesians will not lose sight of the real issue and won't hold back if they still see that the government has not done much to improve a situation that has made Indonesia look bad.''
  4. Honestly, I don't know if the haze should be blamed for this ...
  5. This is what the sun looked like outside my window this morning, through the haze : The haze is still dominating the news ... lots of articles every day, radio DJ keeps giving a PSI update every 20 minutes, & there are colourful new graphics as well. Guess our Director-General is having sleepless nights - D said he came over to the operations office at least 10 times the other day, no surprise what with the Perm Sec, Minister & people from MEWR all bugging him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 15, 2006 Air quality back to unhealthy level By Nur Dianah Suhaimi & Tracy Sua THICK haze shrouded the island for the second Saturday running yesterday, leaving many residents frustrated at yet another spoiled weekend. Yesterday morning the haze hovered around the moderate range, but from midday onwards conditions steadily deteriorated as southeasterly winds drove smoke from Kalimantan over Singapore, sending the PSI level soaring to a high of 116 at 10pm. A reading above 100 is considered unhealthy. And with the wind direction not forecast to change for at least the next 24 hours, weathermen said the haze is likely to stay in the unhealthy range for much of today as well. The smoky air affected several outdoor events yesterday evening. At Tampines East Community Club last night, a joint Mid-Autumn, Deepavali and Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration had to be cut short because of the worsening conditions. In Kaki Bukit, a Chinese opera performance was moved indoors to the community centre. For some Singaporeans, it could mean another weekend cooped up at home. IT consultant Nora Juradi said: 'The haze was so bad last weekend that I didn't even leave my house to buy food for breaking fast. I called for home delivery.' The 30-year-old said she would consider having another meal delivered to her doorstep today. An outing to Geylang Serai last night was ruined for Mr Richard Lim and his family. They started making their way home after just half an hour there because the bad air quality was starting to affect them. 'The haze is giving me a running nose,' said Mr Lim, 42, a sales manager. Engineer Henry Neo, 31, was upset that the haze wrecked his weekend plans. 'I was supposed to go house hunting tomorrow but it looks like I have to put it off. The haze problem has been around for many years and to us it is a helpless situation. I think only international pressure will help to solve this problem,' he added. Despite the bad air quality, people were eating and drinking outdoors in Orchard Road. The Hari Raya bazaar in Geylang Serai was teeming with shoppers. Secretary Madam Linda Ramly, 29, who was spotted outside the Orchard Road MRT station with her nine-month-old son in a pram, said: 'Life has to go on. It is not something that we can do anything about unless you choose not to go outdoors.' Five clinics around the island told The Sunday Times they had not seen any increase in patients with haze-related ailments so far. At government level, fresh attempts to tackle the root causes of the problem are under way. Yesterday, the Minister for Environment and Water Resources, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, said a special ministerial steering committee would be finalised at the Asean environment ministers meeting in Cebu next month to push for a solution to the problem. 'Having this steering committee will help us impress upon the various affected countries and our partners to do a bit more. We have put in place a lot of programmes...but Indonesia has also admitted that the measures so far have been inadequate.'
  6. Oct 12, 2006 Wind shifts make predictions hard: NEA Weather forecast is tricky in the tropics where patterns are weak By Arti Mulchand WHY is the crystal ball so hazy, one might ask. It would be better if the weatherman could say in advance if haze levels were going to go up or down. But the fact is that the light and constantly changing winds, characteristic at this time of the year, make it hard to predict what will happen, said the National Environment Agency (NEA). The region is experiencing the tail end of the south-west monsoon, and will soon enter the 'inter-monsoon' season, so the winds are weak - five knots or less, compared to the usual 10 to 15 knots - and variable. 'Even a change in 20 degrees in the wind direction could make a huge difference in terms of which part of South-east Asia would be affected,'' said Mr Lam Keng Gaik, NEA's chief meteorologist. The winds are expected to continue shifting until later this month. That could also explain why some of NEA's predictions have not always been spot-on. On Friday, for instance, NEA had said the Pollution Standards Index (PSI) was unlikely to go beyond 100. The next day, it hit 150. The wind is one of two key factors that determine how clear the skies will be. The other is the hot spots at the source - south Sumatra, Jambi and the Riau Islands. In any case, weather predictions are 'never 100 per cent' accurate, Mr Lam said. On average, weather conditions in the tropics can be 'meaningfully predicted' - which means with 70 to 80 per cent accuracy - for one to three days. Forecasting is usually based on a combination of observation - looking at the actual burning and weather systems that are building - and predictions made by forecasters and computer 'models'. For wind direction, for instance, these 'models' work by taking a snapshot of current airflow around the world to project what could happen the next day or the day after - based on the state of the atmosphere and taking into account the amount of energy. Another problem is that slight changes in weak winds are picked up less easily than big ones, so errors could result. And while technological advances have made predictions more reliable and accurate than they were, say, 10 years ago, being in the tropics presents challenges, said the NEA. 'The weather systems in the tropics are weaker and smaller. The winds, for example, are generally lighter, and the thunderstorms are smaller in size, and small changes could slip through the observation net. 'That is why reliability of predictions is reduced to two to three days, not a week like in colder latitudes,'' Mr Lam explained. There is also currently a 'weak' El Nino effect, he said. El Nino is the weather phenomenon that sparked the 1997 haze, and could cause dry weather in Sumatra and Borneo. According to Associate Professor David Higgins, from the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore, that could mean less rain than usual. Most haze watchers are banking on the anticipated wet weather to help extinguish some of the fires. Drier conditions could also spark natural forest fires, warned Dr Rajashekar Bala, an air quality specialist from NUS' Faculty of Engineering. The widespread occurrence of peat in parts of Indonesia, including south Sumatra and Kalimantan, makes the situation worse since peat easily catches fire. Yesterday, satellite images detected 183 hot spots in Jambi and South Sumatra, and 637 in Borneo. The 24-hour PSI stayed in the moderate range, at 71. While it cleared up slightly in the morning, it deteriorated again in the afternoon when the prevailing winds changed from south-easterly to south-westerly. Rain over Sumatra yesterday morning also helped extinguish some of the fires, it added. Still, the NEA said the dense smoke which remains over central and south Sumatra, together with winds that are not in Singapore's favour, will mean hazy conditions are likely to continue today.
  7. "Sun Sad" by Mike Muk The smoke haze is back in Singapore. It made front page news in the local newspapers & was reported in Channel News Asia as well. Quite a number of people also sent hazy photos to the Stomp website. The National Environment Agency (of which Met Services Division is a part) has also posted a haze update on its website. For the haze to be such a newsworthy item actually speaks well for our usual air quality - in some large cities, smog prevails every day & such atmospheric conditions are the norm, & would not cause even the slightest of hiccups in the local news.
  8. The smoke haze in southern Kalimantan is looking bad. The people there must be almost suffocating. If winds in the area remain easterly/southeasterly, it's going to drift over to Singapore ... :lol:
  9. A tsunami hit Java in Indonesia on 17 July. (See article). I am on leave so I wasn't in the office that day, but I knew there had been a large earthquake because my mobile phone received at least 20 SMSes, including 2 tsunami alerts. (D is involved in running our seismic system, & since he doesn't have a mobile phone he uses mine to test the system). Since the 26 Dec 2004 tsunami, attempts are being made to set up a warning system for our region. Singapore itself isn't in an earthquake zone, but we are part of the warning network because we have several seismic sensors set up around the island. D called from the office the following day, so I asked if there was a lot of concern about the tsunami, but he said no, now it's haze that they're worried about ... visibility in Penang & Sitiawan had fallen to 2km. The Southwest monsoon is dry season for Indonesia because the ITCZ lies far to the north. Indonesia consists of huge tracts of rainforest, & a lot of illegal burning is carried out to clear the jungle for farming/logging. Smoke from the fires often drifts over to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, enveloping them in choking haze. Sometimes visibility is only a few hundred metres & one can't really see the sun. Because of that, our office is always monitoring the rainfall in the region as well as satellite pictures for signs of forest fires in Indonesia. A recent satellite picture : Wheeee ... look at all that smoke. Some of those smoke patches look bigger than Singapore. Right now winds are blowing it to the northwest, but once the winds change to southwesterlies, all that smoke is going to drift over to Singapore. There's very little that we can do about it; it's up to the Indonesian govt to crack down on the big plantation owners who are responsible for most of the burning. * On another note, while surfing the net, I found this silly spoof at this site. It just cracked me up. HAZE IN THE WIND (Sing to the tune of CANDLE IN THE WIND by Elton John) BY THE ASTHMATICS Goodbye clear blue sky Though we never see you anymore We hope you've not forgotten to come back to Singapore* The fires won't stop burning And no matter how hard we try It seems we're edging closer towards one thousand PSI And it seems to me you lived your life like a candle in the wind Never staying a moment longer when the haze set in And your memory will always haunt us when the CD sirens wail Your candles burned out long before our lungs completely fail .... * Choose your country Mood : Tickled
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