22 October 2022

Pittsburgh skies put on a show in mid October.

On the 15th feathery contrails were pushed by high winds at 30,000 feet. We could not see them at dawn because of the lumpy clouds.

The next day the wind dropped, a temperature inversion set in, and rotten-egg smog gathered in the Monongahela Valley, below.

Temperature inversions are typical in October and November when warm air above traps cold air at the ground, filling the valleys with haze or fog. In Pittsburgh the pollution from US Steel Clairton Coke Works is also trapped, intensifying the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the Monongahela Valley.

Weather or not, US Steel Clairton always emits these pollutants. The 16th’s stinky haze capped more than ten days of unusually terrible air pollution from USS Clairton(*). Here’s how bad it was: How Bad has Air Quality Been? H2S Was Below PA Standard For Only 3 Hours This Week. (Note: H2S level is supposed to be below the standard to keep our air clean.)

The air smelled better October 17-20 including on this beautiful morning of October 20.

Yesterday’s pollution was pretty bad. Hoping for better air.

(*) US Steel’s Clairton Coke Works is the largest coking facility in the U.S., baking coal to make coke for steel production. Coking removes coal’s impurities by turning them into gases including stinky hydrogen sulfide (H2S). In March 2022 Allegheny County Health Department reported that “Based on all available data and resources, H2S exceedances that occurred at the Liberty site during the period of Jan. 1, 2020, through March 1, 2022, can be attributed entirely to emissions originating at US Steel’s Clairton coking facility.”

(photos by Kate St. John)

13 October 2022

Today is Thursday, Thor’s Day, or Jove’s Day. We’ll celebrate with some quick facts about Jupiter.

The Romans named the fifth day of the week dies Jovis (“Jove‘s Day”) after the planet Jupiter. In Germanic mythology, Jupiter is equated to Thor, whence the English name Thursday for the Roman dies Jovis.

— From Wikipedia: Jupiter

Jupiter was big in the news last month when on 27 September 2022 the planet was at its closest, brightest and best in 70 years. On that date the Earth flew between Jupiter and the Sun, putting Jupiter in opposition and in bright sunlight as it rose at sunset.

Three days later it rose after sunset so the sky was dark showing off Jupiter’s four largest moons, the ones first seen by Galileo in 1610.

Modern day space probes and telescopes can see the Galilean moons in full color. The image caption on the photo below explains: From left to right in order of increasing distance from Jupiter, Io is closest, followed by Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Timelapse photography allows us to see the Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter as NASA’s Juno spacecraft approaches. These are only four of the 80 known satellites of Jupiter, most of which are less than 10km (6.2 miles) in diameter. 80 moons!

Moons Io and Europa have sparked a lot of interest.

• Io has more than 400 active volcanoes as well as splendid dunes that were documented last April.
• Europa is icy with water underneath, hence one of most promising places in the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life.

And finally, Thursday is a good day to feel jovial. According to Wikipedia, the older adjectival form jovial, employed by astrologers in the Middle Ages, has come to mean “happy” or “merry”, moods ascribed to Jupiter’s astrological influence.

Happy Thursday!

(images from Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)