Recent ucsc_astro_rw items

Climate Action in Higher Education: Roadmap

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The climate crisis and its attendant difficulties present more challenges than any single government, institution or individual can fix. From one perspective, universities and campus-community members have responded actively, creating new schools and centers, refocusing research, and doing their best to tackle the challenges of a warming world. More practically, however, current efforts are often a siloed mosaic of individual strategies. Time is of the essence – we must face the reality of almost certainly exceeding a 1.5° global temperature rise and potentially a 2.0° rise, if not more. This paper is a call for a more comprehensive, strategic, and coordinated response to the threat of climate change. This white paper presents a bird's-eye view of how a campus’s many components – administrators, faculty, staff, students, academic departments, interdisciplinary groups, operations units, and outreach services – can work together. Compiling the perspectives of United States and Canadian...

Seeing and Site Testing: Records of Astronomical Site Testing and Seeing

Mon, 4 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Seeing and Site Testing: Records of Astronomical Site Testing and Seeing

Ancient Calendrical Observing Sites in California's Mojave Desert and Sierra Nevada

Thu, 5 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Ancient Calendrical Observing Sites in California's Mojave Desert and Sierra Nevada

ANCIENT CALENDRICAL OBSERVING SITES IN CALIFORNIA’S MOJAVE DESERT AND SIERRA NEVADA, 2nd Edition April 2013

Tue, 7 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

ANCIENT CALENDRICAL OBSERVING SITES IN CALIFORNIA’S MOJAVE DESERT AND SIERRA NEVADA, 2nd Edition April 2013

ANCIENT CALENDRICAL OBSERVING SITES IN CALIFORNIA’S MOJAVE DESERT AND SIERRA NEVADA

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Preface (Abstracts for Parts One and Two follow)

The two reports contained in this volume constitute a record of the writer’s studies from 1988–2008 of petroglyphs, pictographs and features at sites that appear to have been used by the Indians for astronomical observations. These sites are located:

(1) In the Providence Mountains in the Mojave Desert of southern California, discussed in Part One of this volume.

(2) On the Middle Fork of the American River in the Sierra Nevada of north-central California, discussed in Part Two.

The identification and study of sites used by the Indians for astronomical observations is of importance for two reasons. First, if we can identify the astronomical phenomena or events that were being observed, we may gain some insight into the astronomical knowledge of the users of the sites, and into their astronomically related ceremonies and practices. In some instances, we may also be able to establish the time periods in...

Significant Changes to Twentieth-Century Temperature and Precipitation in the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe: The Possible Anthropogenic Effect

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

A study of the weather records from six stations in the Sierra Nevada at and near Lake Tahoe, plus one station in the Diablo range of central California, reveals the following:

1. Since 1915, the date of the first major autumnal snowstorm has become progressively later at Tahoe City by 0.24 days/year (d/yr).

2. The change in the snowfall date results from an increase in the air temperature (T) at Tahoe City between 1909 and 2004, during the months of Septemberthrough December, of T′max = +0.011 °C/yr, T′min = +0.020 °C/yr, T′mean = +0.016 °C/yr. These values agree substantially with those published by Coats et al. (2006).

3. On average, the other five stations show a much smaller increase, amounting toT′max = +0.001 °C/yr, T′min = +0.012 °C/yr, T′mean = +0.007 °C/yr. Thismean value agrees well with the increase of T′mean = +0.007 – +0.008 °C/yr for the North American continent due to global warming (Jones and Moberg, 2003; Karoly et al., 2003).

4. The...