The King Fire was ignited on 9/13/14 in the Eldorado National Forest northeast of Pollock Pines, CA, where pine plantations lie between steep canyons. Eventhough fuel conditions were dry, environmental winds recorded at nearby weather stations were weak, thus rapid fire growth was not expected. On the 17th, the north-spreading fire reached the Rubicon canyon…
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Sunspots
Transition from umbra to penumbra shows changes in magnetic field. The interface between a sunspot’s umbra (dark center) and penumbra (lighter outer region) shows a complex structure with narrow, almost horizontal (lighter to white) filaments embedded in a background having a more vertical (darker to black) magnetic field. Farther out, extended patches of horizontal field…
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By the end of 2016, the state of Oregon had an installed wind generating power capacity of over 3 Gigawatts. Wind power, while clean and renewable, requires constant load balancing due to variable weather conditions. These conditions must be met with state of the art forecasting methods in order to maximize load balancing efficiency. New…
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