Category: Research

UW-Madison?s Clark Johnson, a geoscientist, has spent years thinking about and studying extraterrestrial life ? where we are most likely to find it and what it is probably going to look like. Don?t expect little green men.

“When I give talks,” Johnson said, “I Photoshop a dinosaur onto Mars? surface. If we saw that, there?d be no doubt about life. But it is a much more cryptic message that we?re looking for.”

Also quoted: John Valley, a UW-Madison scientist who specializes in geochemistry.

A: In 1803, British pharmacist and chemist Luke Howard devised a classification system for clouds. It has proved so successful that meteorologists have used Howard?s system ever since, with minor modifications. According to his system, clouds are given Latin names corresponding to their appearance ? layered or convective ? and their altitude. Clouds are also categorized based on whether or not they are precipitating.

A: As the remnants of Superstorm Sandy approached us on Oct. 29, people in Wisconsin observed a halo on two consecutive nights. These halos resulted from the ice clouds generated from the storm. A halo is a whitish ring that encircles but does not touch the sun or moon. It is an optical phenomenon that owes its existence to the bending of light by ice crystals, much like the ?rainbow crystals? you may hang in your windows.

A: Sort of, said Susan Nitzke, UW-Madison emeritus professor of nutritional science. But let?s start by eliminating from consideration an amino acid commonly known as tryptophan. ?Tryptophan and sleepiness probably deserves classification as an urban legend,? Nitzke said. ?It?s true that tryptophan can make a person tired if it?s ingested on its own on an empty stomach. In truth, it doesn?t happen that way for anybody ? especially on Thanksgiving.?

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are conducting groundbreaking research on ?lake mixing? as a tool to control fish species composition.Deep lakes tend to stratify into two layers, the upper layer warm and the lower layer cold. Different fish species require different water temperatures, so mixing the lake can have major implications for some sensitive fish species.

?Nothing like this has been done before,? said Jake Vander Zanden, professor of limnology and zoology at UW-Madison, referring to mixing up the lake?s temperature zones.

It has taken a nightmarish hurricane in the waning days of a bitter presidential race to do it, but the phrase ?climate change? has again made its way onto front pages. And, perhaps because of the tragic images of people struggling on the East Coast, the issue has taken on fresh urgency. Earlier this week, Gus Speth, a noted environmental lawyer and advocate and a guest speaker at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies on the UW-Madison campus, said the often-ignored topic of climate change ?is now being put forth by reality.?

Mentioned: Ken Potter, UW-Madison professor of civil and environmental engineering

Although neither candidate focused much on the subject during the 2012 election, experts say climate change is a growing threat to the nation.

A: We?re improving by leaps and bounds (in some respects), according to Christopher Velden, senior researcher at the University of Wisconsin?Madison?s Space Science and Engineering Center. ?In terms of the track of a storm ? where it?s going to go and when ? the forecast has gotten much better in the last few decades,? Velden said. That?s attributable to new hardware and software, and quality data.

A: A nor?easter is an extratropical cyclone that affects the northeastern United States and extreme eastern Canada. An extratropical cyclone is a low-pressure system that forms outside of the tropics and is usually associated with fronts, unlike a tropical cyclone. A nor?easter is named for the strong northeasterly winds that blow across this region as the path of the low pressure moves northeastward, slightly to the east of the North American coastline.

A: Colonial insects, including honeybees, bumblebees, paper wasps and yellow jackets, have one queen and many workers, said Phil Pellitteri, a distinguished faculty associate in the department of entomology at UW-Madison. ?Honeybees are the only species that overwinters as a colony; they don?t go dormant and have to generate enough heat to live, so they need a minimum population of bees and plenty of honey, their energy source.?

A: Nearly a week after Hurricane Sandy struck the Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States, the affected region is still reeling from the shock. This really was an unprecedented storm in the truest sense of that word. Among the amazing aspects of the event was the extraordinarily accurate and early forecasting of the storm. Numerical forecast models were latching on to the correct scenario, including the unusual and rapid leftward turn off the Mid-Atlantic coast, as early as five to seven days before the event (depending on the particular model in question).

Once again, as a huge storm churned across the Atlantic Ocean, UW-Madison researchers were right in the middle of it ? sort of. As Hurricane Sandy barreled its way toward the East Coast Sunday and an appointment with the history books, about 20 scientists toiled in front of computer screens on the UW-Madison campus at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. Their behind-the-scenes work ? providing startling satellite images as well as detailed analysis of what those images were telling us ? helped the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service provide forecasts that proved remarkably accurate.

?This is evidence of a revolution that?s been going on quietly here for 20 years,? said Jonathan Martin, a professor and chairman of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

With Superstorm Sandy?s effects still being seen across the east coast, the University of Wisconsin has put forth an effort to help predict Sandy?s effects as well as offer assistance to any UW students needing help in dealing with the situation.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison played a key role in helping forecasters accurately predict superstorm Sandy’s landfall in New Jersey on Monday, likely saving countless lives by providing adequate early warning.

A: The answer resides in the interaction between the giant “tectonic plates” that form Earth?s crust, said Phil Brown, a professor of geoscience at the UW-Madison. “The east coast of North (and South) America are passive plate margins, which have subdued topography on land and broad shallow continental shelves that may extend 200 miles off shore, before diving to the Atlantic abyssal plain.”

A: While a single wind turbine is unlikely to confuse a radar return signal, a wind farm, particularly one 20 square miles or larger, will pose a problem. For example, the radar returns from the weather radar in Sullivan continually measures what looks to be a rain cloud to the north. This signal is always there and is the location of a wind farm.

Freshwater fish migrate, but we do not know where and why.According to Brenda Pracheil, a University of Wisconsin-Madison post-doctorate research fellow in the Limnology Department, scientists lack comprehensive knowledge on the habits of migratory fish species.

Fracking, the controversial technology using sand and pressure to open natural gas deposits, will be the focus of a three-part forum at UW-Madison.

You could be forgiven for thinking it?s summer again on Wednesday, when temperatures are predicted to climb into the upper 70s. By Thursday night, however, Madison will be back into the fall, with overnight lows in the 30s. The 40-degree fluctuation is the result of a storm that?s going to pass well to our north, but will bring warm air up from the south before pulling down cold winds from the north as it passes through, said Jonathan Martin, a UW-Madison professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

A: Though we have been relatively dry for much of the autumn, on the weekend of Oct. 13-14 we received a soaking rain of 0.86 inches on Saturday followed by 1.74 inches on Sunday. Two aspects of this heavy rain event are noteworthy to us. First, though Madison averages an inch of rain in a single day about six times each year, the 1.74 inches that fell on Sunday was the most in a single calendar day in Madison since 3.61 inches of rain fell on July 22, 2010. That long stretch includes two full summers (2011 and 2012) in which we never received such a rain. Second, the rainy weekend was clearly in the forecast for almost seven days in advance. In other words, at the end of the prior weekend, it was clear that next weekend was going to be a washout.