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posted by janrinok on Monday June 11 2018, @04:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the anthropogenic-lost-records dept.

Science Alert has a story about a long running Lunar temperature measurement that apparently was lost and forgotten for decades.

Between 1971 and 1977, Apollo scientists conducting experiments on the Moon discovered that the surface of our li'l satellite buddy got mysteriously warmer. But the data from 1974 onwards went missing, and the strange warming phenomenon remained an enigma. The experiment was called the heat flow experiment, and it was designed to determine the rate at which the interior of the Moon loses heat.

Astronauts with Apollo 15 and 17 drilled holes into the lunar surface, up to depths of 2.3 metres, and probes measured the temperature at several depths in the holes.

These were long-term experiments, left in place after the astronauts departed, and transmitting data back to Earth.

The measurements revealed that the temperature of the moon at all measured depths got warmer from the date the experiment started in 1971 all the way till measurements ended in 1977.
That's a relatively short period of time on a planetary time frame. A rate of warming that rapid would have the moon surface incandescent well before we were began squabbling over who got to live in the best caves.

Various theories were put forth, but in the end people pretty much agreed it must be our fault.

In typical NASA fashion, the data was archived on tape, filed in the tape vault, and promptly forgotten, lost, moved, etc. Decades later, someone went looking for it. Some 440 tapes were found, (less than 10%) badly degraded over time. Some were recovered, Logs (written ones on that old unreliable medium: Paper) were found and when combined these sources recovered significant portions of the long lost data.

After 8 years of analysis, the data showed that the warming continued, all the way through until the end of observations in 1977. It also showed that, closer to the surface, the warming was more pronounced; and the warmth reached the shallower depths sooner, suggesting that the warming was occurring from the surface down, rather than radiating out from the Moon's interior.

So were the astronauts doing that? The researchers believe that their movements were disturbing the dirt on the lunar surface.

"Recently acquired images of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera over the two landing sites show that the regolith on the paths of the astronauts turned darker, lowering the albedo," they wrote in their paper.

"We suggest that, as a result of the astronauts' activities, solar heat intake by the regolith increased slightly on average, and that resulted in the observed warming."

In other words, when they stomped about and drove lunar rovers all over the landing sites, the Apollo astronauts overturned the topsoil, exposing darker regolith underneath. Darker surfaces don't reflect as much light; instead, they absorb it.

So this darker lunar surface at the Apollo sites absorbed more of the Sun's heat, raising the Moon's surface temperature by a few degrees.


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  • (Score: 1, Troll) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday June 11 2018, @06:12PM (5 children)

    that's already a problem in the low-lying islands just off the coast of Louisiana.

    Also some of the Pacific atolls.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Monday June 11 2018, @08:34PM (4 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 11 2018, @08:34PM (#691591) Journal

    [sea rise is] already a problem in the low-lying islands just off the coast of Louisiana.

    There is something of a problem here in Southeast North Carolina too; we've lost a couple houses off the North end of one of the sea islands in Brunswick County (Ocean Isle Beach) to sea erosion (or sea level rise, take your pick).

    As opposed to the alarmist cataclysmic prediction quoted by Gore himself ten years ago that the seas would have risen 20 feet [scienceline.org] by now, obliterating the entirety of the sea islands and a good chunk of the mainland.

    But Four peer-reviewed studies found no observable sea level effect from man-made global warming [cnsnews.com] a few years ago, and coastline just isn't disappearing all over the world as predicted.

    The difference between warming + which is bad + small problems in reality, and the fantasyland of warming + zomg!end of the world! global catastrophe, is marked and striking.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 11 2018, @08:47PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 11 2018, @08:47PM (#691597)

      When I was in grade school, we used to get these 'papers' called Weekly Reader (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weekly_Reader). I think it was supposed to teach us something.

      Anyway, I remember one story was about coastal erosion and how South Carolina was going to be gone by sometime in the 80's. I remember it vividly because it always worried me and I thought about it whenever I visited the beach in CA. This was before global warming when we were worried about the next ice age (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_861us8D9M).

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:49AM

        by frojack (1554) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:49AM (#691735) Journal

        Then you grew up and realized that the beach in CA was not in South Carolina, so problem solved.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @08:11AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @08:11AM (#691825)

      I'm sure glad I can read for myself.. and I'm disappointed in you.

      Your link says the Al Gore's 20' statement had no timeline... and others were speaking in centuries... yet you say "by now"

      Your sea-level link is deceptive too.
      They quote:
      “We expected that the coast would start to retreat due to sea level rise, but the most surprising thing is that the coasts are growing all over the world,” study co-author Fedor Baart told the BBC.

      and yet going to the BBC story shows the effects of warming and human terraforming:

      "The researchers said Dubai's coast had been significantly extended, with the creation of new islands to house luxury resorts.

      "China has also reconstructed their whole coast from the Yellow Sea all the way down to Hong Kong," sid Dr Baart. "

      "The largest increase in water has been on the Tibetan Plateau, while the Aral Sea has been the biggest conversion of water to land."

      "The team found that vast areas that were once land are now submerged beneath water, with the largest change occurring in the Tibetan Plateau, where melting glaciers are creating huge new lakes."

      "An increase in the number of dams was also boosting water cover, and using the satellite data, the team was able to detect previously unreported constructions."

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @09:08AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @09:08AM (#691838)

        Your link says the Al Gore's 20' statement had no timeline... and others were speaking in centuries... yet you say "by now"

        When I was a kid, they said "by 2010". But I think that was only six feet, not 20.

        Now they all pick dates at least a hundred years out, bringing climate science into the "not falsifiable in our lifetime" category.