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State Senator Mike McGuire’s landmark legislation, SB 833, establishing statewide emergency alert protocols and regulation became law on Friday when signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown.

“Bottom line, this legislation will save lives. With the passage of SB 833, statewide emergency alert standards will be developed, training for local emergency managers will be implemented and we will be investing in a more proactive and effective mutual aid response system,” McGuire said. “The size and scope of wildland fires in California has grown exponentially over the past decade and a universal emergency alert system can’t come soon enough.”

The legislation was introduced by Sen. McGuire in partnership with Senators Bill Dodd and Jerry Hill and Assemblymembers Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, Marc Levine and Jim Wood.

The legislation, for the first time, advances statewide emergency alert standards that all of California’s 58 counties can adopt.

Statewide emergency evacuation alert protocols will be developed by a working group that will include emergency responders and public safety leaders from across the state, as well as local elected officials, disability advocates, radio and television broadcasters and representatives from the telecommunication and wireless industries.

The legislation will also advance annual training for local emergency managers on how to best utilize alert software and how to deploy alerts, and will develop procedures to send alerts via multiple communication mediums, including radio, television and electronic highway billboards.

The North Bay Firestorm destroyed over 6,000 homes, scorched more than 170,000 acres, caused billions in damage, and resulted in the death of more than 40 residents.

“The night of Oct. 8 changed the lives of North Bay residents forever, when tens of thousands of residents were caught unaware that a massive wildland fire was about to engulf their home or business, because they did not receive an emergency alert,” McGuire said. “While there are hundreds of harrowing stories of bravery that night, regrettably, thousands of residents never received a warning.”

The critical importance of creating a statewide emergency alert protocol was again recognized when some residents in Shasta County didn’t get adequate notice of evacuations during the deadly Carr fire.

SB 833 was supported by the California Professional Firefighters, California Fire Chiefs Association, Rural County Representatives of California, the League of California Cities and many others.

On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds.

Forming 50 miles above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds – PMCs.

A recent NASA long-duration balloon mission observed these clouds over the course of five days at their home in the mesosphere.

The resulting photos, which scientists have just begun to analyze, will help us better understand turbulence in the atmosphere, as well as in oceans, lakes and other planetary atmospheres, and may even improve weather forecasting.

On July 8, 2018, NASA’s PMC Turbo mission launched a giant balloon to study PMCs at a height of 50 miles above the surface.

For five days, the balloon floated through the stratosphere from its launch at Esrange, Sweden, across the Arctic to Western Nunavut, Canada.

During its flight, cameras aboard the balloon captured 6 million high-resolution images filling up 120 terabytes of data storage – most of which included a variety of PMC displays, revealing the processes leading to turbulence. Scientists are now beginning to go through the images and the first look has been promising.

“From what we’ve seen so far, we expect to have a really spectacular dataset from this mission,” said Dave Fritts, principal investigator of the PMC Turbo mission at Global Atmospheric Technologies and Sciences in Boulder, Colorado. “Our cameras were likely able to capture some really interesting events and we hope will provide new insights into these complex dynamics.”

Noctilucent clouds coalesce as ice crystals on tiny meteor remnants in the upper atmosphere. The results make brilliant blue rippling clouds that are visible just after the Sun sets in polar regions during the summer.

These clouds are affected by what’s known as atmospheric gravity waves – caused by the convecting and uplifting of air masses, such as when air is pushed up by mountain ranges. The waves play major roles in transferring energy from the lower atmosphere to the mesosphere.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to visualize the flow of energy from larger gravity waves to smaller flow instabilities and turbulence in the upper atmosphere,” Fritts said. “At these altitudes you can literally see the gravity waves breaking – like ocean waves on the beach – and cascading to turbulence.”

The PMC Turbo balloon payload was equipped with seven specially designed imaging systems to observe the clouds. Each included a high-resolution camera, a computer control and communications system, and 32 terabytes of data storage.

The seven imaging systems were arranged to create a mosaic of wide views extending one hundred miles across, with each narrow views able to image turbulence features as small as 20 yards wide.

For the first time, a lidar – or laser radar – measured the precise altitudes of the PMCs as well as the temperature fluctuations of the gravity waves above and below the PMCs.

“We know the 2D wave structure from the images, but in order to fully describe the waves we need to measure the third dimension as well,” said Bernd Kaifler, the researcher at the German Aerospace Center, in Wessling, Germany, who designed the balloon’s lidar experiment. “From the lidar measurements, we can infer the vertical structure of the waves, thus providing important data which would have not been available from the imaging experiment alone.”

Learning about the causes and effects of turbulence will help scientists understand not only the structure and variability of the upper atmosphere, but other areas as well.

Turbulence occurs in fluids across the universe and the results will help scientists better model it in all systems. Ultimately, the results will even help improve weather forecast models.

Understanding a wide range of processes in near-Earth space – including how they interact with Earth’s atmosphere and weather – is a key part of NASA’s heliophysics research, which employs a full squad of satellites and sub-orbital instruments to observe different phenomena from different perspectives.

NASA also studies noctilucent clouds with the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, or AIM, spacecraft, which launched in 2007 into a low-Earth orbit.

AIM tracks large scale features in the clouds across a global scale, but can only resolve features a couple miles across.

PMC Turbo helps fill in the details, explaining what happens at smaller scales where turbulence occurs.

The PMC Turbo payload was successfully recovered from its landing site in the Canadian Arctic and the recovered instruments are expected to contribute to future missions, including one anticipated to fly next December over Antarctica.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency’s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide.

Mara Johnson-Groh works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

WILLITS, Calif.— In an effort to help prevent wildfires and protect communities, Pacific Gas and Electric Company is joining forces with local fire safe councils to enhance the safety and preparedness of local communities.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – From Dec. 5 to 7, Kelseyville High School seniors Vanessa Gonzalez and Sayra Cacho will address hundreds of teachers attending the AVID Australia Summer Institute at Victoria University in Melbourne, Victoria.

Gonzalez and Cacho were recently named Questbridge finalists, becoming part of a highly select group of high school students across the country who have overcome many challenges to become high-achieving scholars.

“Vanessa and Sayra are outstanding students with 4.0 GPAs, ranking them in the top ten percent of their class,” said Kelseyville Unified School District Director of Student Support Services Tim Gill. “They qualify as migrant education students and were initially designated as English Learner students until they were re-designated as fluent English proficient. They are actively involved in their school and community and are well-respected by both students and staff.”

Gonzalez and Cacho credit their success to a blend of strong work ethics, supportive families and encouraging teachers.

Gonzalez was born in the United States to immigrant parents who did not finish elementary school.

Cacho came to the U.S. in second grade with almost no English language skills and parents who did not finish high school.

In both cases, the families continually encouraged their daughters to work hard in school, not to give up in the face of hardship, and to pursue their dreams.

Gonzalez and Cacho are enrolled in AVID at Kelseyville High School, a nationwide college readiness program that helps students reach their academic and personal potential.

This collaborative class provides students with academic support as well as assistance and instruction related to other college prep activities, such as signing up for standardized tests like the SAT or ACT.

Cacho explained, “AVID helps us stay on track. We help each other out.”

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. The program was originally developed in San Diego in 1980 by English teacher Mary Catherine Swanson, who challenged the belief that the low-income students being bussed to her school couldn’t achieve at similar levels to the other students.

The simple philosophy of raising expectations and giving students the support they need has proven extremely effective.

Today, AVID impacts almost 2 million students – 75 percent of whom are low-income, and 80 percent of whom are underrepresented students. Yet, they outperform their peers in crucial metrics nationwide.

Kelseyville Unified introduced AVID in 2015 for grades seventh through 10th and has since expanded the program. It is now a K-12 AVID district.

At Kelseyville High, AVID teacher Katie Daitoku inspires her students and is also inspired by them, and she names Gonzalez and Cacho among the best and brightest.

“I just love them. They are some of the hardest working students I have ever had,” Daitoku said. “Their work ethic, positive attitude and enthusiasm are amazing. It doesn’t matter what I throw at them; they can handle it. They have intrinsic motivation and incredible support from their families. They are the future of our country, which means our future is bright.”

Daitoku will accompany Gonzalez and Cacho on their trip to Australia, where the students will be featured at the general session, speaking to more than 300 Australian teachers and administrators about how AVID helped them overcome challenges to succeed in high school and prepare for college.

After the general session, they will join with AVID students from Australian schools in a student panel that meets with smaller groups of attendees where they will participate in Q & A sessions.

Gonzalez said she hopes to remind the teachers present that they are “teachers, friends, and guides” for their students.

She continued, “I’ll let them know that even though we [teens] can be difficult, to be patient with us. We count on them to motivate us to do better.”

The students will arrive in Australia Nov. 30 and return home Dec. 8. In addition to speaking at the AVID conference, the students will enjoy three days of sightseeing during which they hope to see kangaroos and penguins.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – To address this issue of staffing and response times, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with LexisNexis Solutions to provide an online reporting system.

Officials said this new system will allow the public to file reports online and print copies without waiting hours or days for a deputy to respond.

In order to provide a timely response to pressing public safety demands, without sacrificing officer safety, the sheriff’s office said the following types of reports with no identifiable suspects will only be accepted through the online reporting system: misdemeanor thefts, forgeries, lost property, vandalisms, vehicle burglaries and civil complaints.

The online reporting system can be accessed from a home computer or smartphone at http://www.lakesheriff.com/Services/report.htm.

Computer access is also available in the lobby of the sheriff’s office, 1220 Martin St. in Lakeport.

The sheriff’s office reported that it is actively recruiting for deputy sheriff and correctional officer positions. The process has been slow due to pay and benefit disparities with neighboring counties, low applicant pools and the rigorous hiring process an applicant must go through prior to being selected.

“We ask the public’s patience and understanding if you call on us for service. We remain committed to serving and protecting our community to the best of our ability with the resources we have,” the sheriff’s office said in a written statement.

Officials said the public can help by staying connected for important news and information from the Sheriff’s Office and by being aware of community developments.

“As always, we ask that you take common sense precautions to avoid becoming a victim of criminal activity,” the sheriff’s office said.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Monday, Sept. 24, contractors will begin work on a restriping project for major collectors and arterial roads throughout Clearlake.

City officials said motorists can expect intermittent delays due to the road work.

The restriping project will include centerlines, bike lanes, fog lines, left turn lanes and crosswalks, according to a city report.

The city said estimated completion date of the project is Friday, Oct. 12.
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The re-striping work will impact portions of Acacia Street, Arrowhead Road, Burns Valley Road, Rumsey Road, Olympic Drive, Lakeshore Drive, Old Highway 53, Dam Road Extension, Dam Road and Pine Street.

The Clearlake Public Works Department will notify the public via Nixle about anticipated roadwork delays so that motorists can avoid those areas.

Restriping will also be done overnight in certain areas to minimize impacts to motorists.

“This is the latest project to be funded through Measure V that will help to improve roads and road safety within the city of Clearlake,” said City Manager Greg Folsom. “In many areas of the city the fog lines and the center lines are worn out and barely visible. This project will define the roadway, bike lanes, and crosswalks and create a much safer roadway for our citizens.”