Weather forecasters earn their living—and sometimes the ire of television viewers—by predicting rain or shine over a few days. Climate scientists predict weather patterns on a scale of decades. In a role that's akin to astronomers' observing the cosmos, climatologists observe weather-related phenomena such as temperature, wind, humidity, and cloud cover to predict climate in the future. To help improve their understanding of these phenomena, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., has built a mobile observatory packed with sophisticated atmospheric measurement equipment that can be located anywhere in the world.

In February, engineers at the laboratory delivered the unit to its first site, Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco, where it will monitor radiative energy and the impact of clouds. The movable lab is part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement, or ARM, program, set up in 1989 to improve global climate models. The ARM project has permanent observatories in Oklahoma, on the North Slope of Alaska, and in the tropical western Pacific near northeastern Australia.

The ARM Mobile facility, filled with atmospheric measuring equipment, is stationed for nine months in Point Reyes, near San Francisco.

Each site has monitoring equipment, including cloud radar, shortwave spectrometers, ceilometers, atmospheric emitted radiance interferometers, and microwave radiometers. The idea is to measure everything in the column overhead and put it in the models, according to Tom Ackerman, chief scientist for the ARM program at the Pacific Northwest lab.

Ackerman's group decided to build a mobile facility to sample the atmosphere out of reach of the permanent sites. The portable unit is equipped with the same essential suite of instruments as the permanent observation sites.

The most expensive equipment is millimeter wavelength radar, which maps the interior of clouds. It was built especially for the mobile observatory. A group at the NASA Goddard Space Center was enlisted to build a light detection and ranging device in which a pulsed laser, together with a telescope and electronics, delivers a detailed profile of clouds. The instruments in the mobile unit are designed to withstand temperature extremes from -40 to 120°F.

The portable unit is largely self-functioning. One trained technician is required for troubleshooting and emergencies, and three or four local people can perform routine functions, such as the launching of weather balloons.

Following nine months of service in Port Reyes, the observatory will be disassembled and shipped to sub-Saharan Africa, in time for the monsoon season in Niger.

In a $10 million cooperative program funded by General Motors Corp., Sandia National Laboratories will work with GM's Advanced Hydrogen Storage Program in developing metal hydride H₂ tanks. A goal of the four-year program is the development of pre-prototype tanks with capacities that match the range of those in today's gasoline-fueled vehicles, with similar refilling characteristics. That remains a challenge even for today's liquid and compressed hydrogen tanks.

In the first of the project's two phases, scientists and engineers will analyze various storage tank designs and components that are based around sodium aluminum hydride, aka sodium alanate. Researchers will investigate the thermal and mechanical properties of the designs. They will also develop controls for transferring and storing hydrogen, and methods for managing heat—a major need, according to Chris Moen, manager of engineering science and technologies at Sandia. In the first phase, researchers will evaluate different tank shapes, too.

Following a successful first phase, investigators will evaluate the best of the designs and put together a system—or, enough of a system—to demonstrate safe, effective hydrogen storage, Moen said.

Metal hydrides are formed by combining metal alloys and hydrogen. When heated, they release hydrogen. Dealing with that heat remains an "engineering challenge," Moen said.

An Australian company specializing in distributed power generation is planning to explore the use of a heavy-duty natural gas engine in large mining vehicles. Energy Developments Ltd., headquartered at Eight Mile Plains in Queensland, Australia, and Westport Innovations Inc., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, said they will "co-operatively explore business opportunities for Westport's proprietary high-pressure direct injection natural gas technology in off-road engine applications in Australia." They said they are looking at engines for mining trucks.

Energy Developments already has connections with mining companies. It operates electric power plants that burn coal seam methane, landfill gas, and similar fuels to serve mining sites and remote towns off the national grid in Australia. It also has projects in several European countries, in Taiwan, and in the United States.

According to Westport, approximately 95 percent of the diesel fuel consumed in a diesel engine is replaced with natural gas in its high-pressure direct injection engine. The company estimates that a typical mine truck with one of the natural gas engines could achieve emission reductions of approximately 14 tons of nitrogen oxides, 650 kilograms of particulate matter, and 950 tons of greenhouse gases per year.

Australia has large reserves of natural gas, and using gas as a transportation fuel would result in cash savings as well as reduced exhaust emissions, the companies said.

Westport Innovations develops technologies that allow engines to operate on natural gas, hydrogen, and hydrogen-enriched natural gas. It has development programs with a number of auto manufacturers.

Wind power accounts for more than a quarter of the electricity consumed in northern sections of Germany. But RE Power of Hamburg thinks that wind can get bigger still. In February, the company inaugurated a mammoth 5 MW turbine designed for offshore wind farms.

The turbine (shown here under construction) sports 200-foot-long blades mounted on a 400-foot tower. The machine is so large that the nacelle containing the turbine and other machinery is topped with a helicopter landing pad. RE Power expects that such turbines can generate as much as 17 GWh a year.

The John Deere tractor assembly plant in Waterloo, Iowa, will begin filling the fuel tanks of the products that it
ships with a 2 percent biodiesel blend starting this month.

The ASME B46 Committee on Classification and Designation of Surface Qualities will meet in Chicago on April 22, beginning at 8 a.m. with a review of International Standards activities. Guest speaker is Peter Joshua, president of Solarius Development Inc., who will discuss confocal microscopes and the measurement of surface texture.

Lockheed Martin has delivered an advanced Global Positioning System satellite to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Scheduled for a May launch, the satellite is the first of eight from the company that will provide significantly improved navigation information.

MSC.Software Corp. of Santa Ana., Calif., has released MSC.Fatigue 2005, to help engineers evaluate durability and damage tolerance of components and systems.

Alias of Toronto has upgraded its Maya software package, which allows engineers as well as those in the gaming and film industries to create animated details from large datasets.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has agreed to permit the city of Compton to pump 2,289 acre-feet of water into a local aquifer.

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