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- Written by: NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
By identifying clouds in data collected by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the public can increase scientists’ understanding of the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
NASA scientists hope to solve a fundamental mystery about Mars’ atmosphere, and you can help. They’ve organized a project called Cloudspotting on Mars that invites the public to identify Martian clouds using the citizen science platform Zooniverse.
The information may help researchers figure out why the planet’s atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s even though ample evidence suggests the planet used to have a much thicker atmosphere.
The air pressure is so low that liquid water simply vaporizes from the planet’s surface into the atmosphere. But billions of years ago, lakes and rivers covered Mars, suggesting the atmosphere must have been thicker then.
How did Mars lose its atmosphere over time? One theory suggests different mechanisms could be lofting water high into the atmosphere, where solar radiation breaks those water molecules down into hydrogen and oxygen (water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom). Hydrogen is light enough that it could then drift off into space.
Like Earth, Mars has clouds made of water ice. But unlike Earth, it also has clouds made of carbon dioxide (think: dry ice), which form when it gets cold enough for the Martian atmosphere to freeze locally.
By understanding where and how these clouds appear, scientists hope to better understand the structure of Mars’ middle atmosphere, which is about 30 to 50 miles (50 to 80 kilometers) in altitude.
“We want to learn what triggers the formation of clouds – especially water ice clouds, which could teach us how high water vapor gets in the atmosphere – and during which seasons,” said Marek Slipski, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
That’s where Cloudspotting on Mars comes in.
The project revolves around a 16-year record of data from the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, which has been studying the Red Planet since 2006. The spacecraft’s Mars Climate Sounder instrument studies the atmosphere in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.
In measurements taken by the instrument as MRO orbits Mars, clouds appear as arches. The team needs help sifting through that data on Zooniverse, marking the arches so that the scientists can more efficiently study where in the atmosphere they occur.
“We now have over 16 years of data for us to search through, which is very valuable – it lets us see how temperatures and clouds change over different seasons and from year to year,” said Armin Kleinboehl, Mars Climate Sounder’s deputy principal investigator at JPL. “But it’s a lot of data for a small team to look through.”
While scientists have experimented with algorithms to identify the arches in Mars Climate Sounder data, it’s much easier for humans to spot them by eye. But Kleinboehl said the Cloudspotting project may also help train better algorithms that could do this work in the future. In addition, the project includes occasional webinars in which participants can hear from scientists about how the data will be used.
Cloudspotting on Mars is the first planetary science project to be funded by NASA’s Citizen Science Seed Funding program. The project is conducted in collaboration with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. For more NASA citizen science opportunities, go to science.nasa.gov/citizenscience.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission – as well as the Mars Climate Sounder instrument – for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office posted the final results on its website on Thursday.
The posting signals the official canvass period has ended. Next the canvass results will go to the Board of Supervisors for final approval.
Primaries tend to have lower turnout. The final canvass showed that overall turnout was 36%. For comparison, the final turnout for the June 2018 primary was 43.1%.
Several incumbents were returned to office in uncontested races. Those included Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg, District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier, District 3 Supervisor Eddie “EJ” Crandell and Sheriff Brian Martin.
Jenavive Herrington ran for her first term as county clerk-auditor unopposed. She will succeed Cathy Saderlund.
For the Middletown Unified School District Board seat, which is a partial term that will be back on the ballot later this year, Charise Reynolds won with 1,128 votes to 915 cast for Bryan Pullman, a margin of 55.21% to 44.79%.
In the assessor-recorder race, incumbent Richard Ford was elected to a third term with 63.84% of the vote or 7,766 ballots compared to challenger Hannah Faith Lee’s 36.16% or 4,398 ballots.
The district attorney’s contest margin changed little. Incumbent Susan Krones won a second term with 7,661 ballots cast in her favor compared with 4,953 votes for challenger Anthony Farrington, a former four-term county supervisor. Krones won the race by a 60.73% to 39.27% margin.
For treasurer-tax collector, with incumbent Barbara Ringen set to retire at year’s end, the field was open, with Patrick Sullivan, the county’s tax administrator, winning the race with a 60.82% to 39.18% margin over Paul Flores, a former county employee and a treasury and cash analyst. Sullivan received 7,197 votes to 4,636 cast for Flores.
In state and federal races for candidates representing Lake County, incumbents also won handily.
The California Secretary of State’s Office reported that Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, received 68.5% of the vote compared to the 31.5% received by Republican challenger Bryan Pritchard.
Democrat Mike McGuire, Lake County’s representative in the state Senate, received 75.8% of the vote over his Republican challenger, Gene Yoon of Cobb, who received 24.2% of the vote.
In the race for the newly drawn District 4 seat in Congress, incumbent Congressman Mike Thompson led the field with 66.9% of the vote, with Republican Matt Brock finishing second with 15.8%.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
On Thursday, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) introduced the Protecting Access to Contraception Act of 2022, legislation to codify the right of Americans to access contraception.
This follows Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion stating that the court should reconsider substantive due process precedents, including Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 court decision recognizing the constitutional right of married adults to access contraception without government restriction.
“Last month, the Supreme Court released a decision that gutted Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that provided the right to an abortion. In Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion, he opened the door to going after other fundamental rights that Americans have enjoyed for decades, including the right to contraception,” said Thompson. “I believe that everyone, regardless of the state in which they live, should have access to safe, effective, affordable and accessible methods of family planning and contraception. That’s why today, with my colleague Rep. Jayapal, I introduced legislation preventing states or localities from prohibiting or restricting the sale, purchase, possession, transportation, or use of contraception to ensure that further rights are not eroded by this extreme Supreme Court.”
"When it comes to our reproductive freedom, it is clear that this right-wing, extremist Supreme Court will not stop at stripping us of our right to safe and legal abortion. It is incumbent on us to ensure that our right to reproductive health care remains protected," said Jayapal. "Access to contraception is crucial to limiting unintended pregnancies. We are already seeing efforts by state and local governments to take away access to contraception methods. With this bill, we will guarantee that anyone who wants access to contraceptive care can be able to get it without state or local officials weighing in on their bodies and their reproductive choices."
Griswold recognized a constitutional right to privacy regarding reproductive decisions. Before the decision, 32 women were dying for every 100,000 live births in the United States. Today, the rate is less than half of that.
Access to contraception helps people live healthier lives, and often is used for something other than pregnancy prevention.
A study from the Guttmacher Institute showed that women use contraception to better achieve their life goals.
Specifically, the Protecting Access to Contraception Act of 2022 would forbid state or local governments from prohibiting or otherwise restricting the possession, sale, purchase, transportation or use of any contraceptive that relates to interstate commerce.
The bill allows for a private right-of-action for individuals harmed by violations of this law and authorizes the Department of Justice to bring civil action to remedy any violation of the bill.
Lastly, the legislation provides a broad definition of contraceptive, crafted to cover birth control medication, IUDs, condoms, and emergency contraception, as well as other relevant FDA-approved products, devices, or medications.
Congressman Thompson is a co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act which would reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization by codifying Roe v. Wade.
Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The National Weather Service said temperatures are anticipated to rise beginning on Sunday, with Monday to be the hottest across Lake and Mendocino counties.
Daytime temperatures on Friday and Saturday are forecast to be in the low to mid 80s, with nighttime temperatures in the high 50s.
On Sunday, temperatures will top out in the mid 90s, and on Monday could exceed 100 degrees, the forecast said.
Conditions will start to cool slightly on Tuesday, with temperatures dropping into the mid 90s and then the high 80s on Wednesday and Thursday.
Nighttime temperatures from Sunday through Thursday will range from the high 60s to low 60s, the forecast said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at