Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Center for Ocean Solutions

The Center for Ocean Solutions (COS) "works to solve the major problems facing the ocean." COS was founded by three partners with similar commitments: the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. On the homepage, visitors can browse through a Featured News area and also look over video clips which explore topics like "Can Coral Reefs Survive the 21st Century?" Moving on, the materials on the site are divided into six sections, including Research Libraries, Publications, and Videos & Podcasts. Scholars and marine scientists should look over the Publications area to see a list of recent publications by COS researchers and affiliates arranged by topic. Finally, the podcasts are quite good, and they include discussions of dropping ocean oxygen levels and climate change adaptation.
http://centerforoceansolutions.org/
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/

Monday, September 10, 2012

Edgar: Climate Change Impact on the Distribution of Australian Bird Species

Developed by a team at JCU's eResearch Centre, Edgar is a website where visitors can explore the future impact of climate change on Australian birds. Edgar shows locations where a bird species has been observed and uses this information to calculate and display how well the climate across Australia suits that species. Edgar can also show an animation of how the suitable climate for a species may change into the future. 
Birdwatchers and other experts can improve the accuracy of Edgar's projections by classifying observations. 
http://spatialecology.jcu.edu.au/Edgar/

Monday, September 3, 2012

Earth Science World Image Bank

Provided by the American Geological Institute (AGI), the Earth Science World Image bank website contains over 6,000 images related to the geophysical sciences for use by educators, the public, and the geoscience community. The photos are contained within a few dozen categories, which include coal, weather, volcanoes and paleontology. Visitors can also use the Browse Images link to move around the collection. Each image includes a brief description, along with related information, such as the photographer. Users will find that the archive is updated frequently and return visits will be obligatory.

http://www.earthscienceworld.org/imagebank/index.html

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/

Google Sky

Google  has teamed up with astronomers at some of the largest observatories in the world to bring you a new view of the sky. Using Google Maps this tool provides an exciting way to browse and explore the universe. You can find the positions of the planets and constellations on the sky and even watch the birth of distant galaxies as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. The imagery for Google Sky comes from some of the largest ground and space-based astronomical surveys.
The visible data comes from a combination of surveys: the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Digital Sky Survey Consortium,  NASA and ESA's Hubble Space Telescope. Details about these observatories can be found on the Partners page. 
If you are interested in what's happening on the sky tonight or over the next few months then check out the podcasts from Earth and Sky or search for the position of your favorite planet.