Tracking Hurricanes

There are no atmospheric conditions that guarantee the formation of a hurricane, however once they are formed satellites can track the path of the hurricane, providing warning for people living in a hurricanes path.

The National Hurricane Centre in Miami (website) uses satellite images to try and forecast the path of a hurricane. There are two types of satellites used:

-Geostationary: a satellite that remains over the same spot on the earth's surface

-Polar-Orbiting: satellites that pass over the earth from pole to pole

The satellites measure visible light that is naked to the human eye and shows the formation of clouds. This method is only able to work in daylight as it measures the reflected sunlight.

Infrared meters are also used, and they measure temperature of the cloud or the earth's surface. These images are available even when there is no daylight.

Reinforced aircrafts fitted with instruments fly through and over hurricanes, and weather radars can locate storms within 200 miles of the radar station.

Formation of Hurricanes

Bangladesh Flooding: The Causes

Exclusive: KHS is throwing energy away!!

Grace and Rachel report on the shame of KHS...specialist school?...specialist in wasting energy!

Global Oil Reserves

Short video (from the lesson) on Global Oil Reserves.

Proved Oil Reserves- Definition: quantities of oil that geological and engineering information indicates with reasonable certainty can be recovered in the future from known reservoirs under existing economic and operating conditions

Song for Haiti

The REM classic 'Everybody Hurts' recorded by a range of stars to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake

It's not just the UK with lots of snow!!!

The Eastern USA has been hit with up to 2 feet (60cm) of snow, the most for decades. This has stopped all air and road transport, and brought Washington DC to a standstill.

Energy: UK 'could face power shortages'

The BBC reports (click here) that the UK could face shortages in power in the years ahead and that consumers may find the prices too expensive.

Ofgem says the the industry need £200bn of investment but believe that energy companies would need incentives to invest that kind of money.

Ofgem reports that energy companies should be required to deliver more generation capacity and gas storage. They also suggest the formation of centralised market control.

Brazil gets planning permission for 3rd biggest dam in the world!

The Brazilian government has given an environmental license for the one of the worlds biggest hydro-electric dams in the Amazon rainforest (click here for link).

The dam will be built at Belo Monte on the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon. Environmentalists fear that the dam will cause devestation to the rainforest, affecting 40,000 people through flooding, damage fish stocks and also threaten the survival of indigenous people (see photo).

The initial project has always faced stiff opposition, and was abandoned in the 1990's. The Brazilian government has said that the new plan has been modified in order to appease the environmental concerns. The winning bidder who gets permission to build the dam will have to pay millions of pounds in compensation to protect the environment.

The new dam will create enough electricity to power 23 million homes, and help meet the demand of the growing Brazilian economy. The dam will be the 3rd biggest in the world, behind the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Itaipu Dam jointly owned by Brazil and Paraguay.

The new dam will continue to cause conflicts between environmentalists and politicians, as well as provide us geographers with a nice case-study!! Naturally we hope that it doesn't go ahead...

Energy: BP profits hit by lower oil prices

The oil giant BP has reported reduced profits due to a decrease in world oil prices (click here for bbc news report).

Its replacement cost profit (see table for definitions) fell from $25.59bn in 2008 to $13.96bn in 2009.

However, the company reported that its oil and gas production increased by 4% and its reserves had grown for a 17th successive year

REPLACEMENT COST PROFIT Replacement cost profit is the reporting measure typically used by oil companies and reflects the current cost of supplies The measure strips out gains or losses related to any changes in the value of the firm's stock of fuel products