Blog

To do solar forecasting well requires the ability to model the impacts of clouds. Different cloud types impact the amount of energy produced by a solar farm in significant ways...whether it's a haze in the sky, fog near the ground, or thick cumulus clouds that cause dark shadows and block more solar radiation, to name a few. Thus a skilled solar forecast should consider solar irradiance and transfer.

Just returned from presenting at the Water in the Gas Phase meeting of the Royal Society. In discussion on Water Vapour Continuum in the Earth’s Atmosphere, my remarks focused on "Determination of water vapour continuum absorption coefficients from recent observations." The scientific meeting occurred 13 - 14 June 2011 at The Kavli Royal Society International Centre in Chicheley, England. To see the meeting program, please cut and paste this link into your browser:

"Insurance companies depend on weather forecasts to be ready to help their policy holders...and even grocery stocking depends on good forecasts," according to AER's Paul Walsh.

AER adds capacity to help utilities and their solar and wind O&M service providers improve forecasts of renewable energy production and demand. Scott McClintock joins as director of relationship management serving utilities and renewable energy companies.

Ammonia is a trace gas that contributes to pollution. Much of the ammonia in the U.S. comes from livestock waste and fertilizer. It’s an integral part of the nitrogen cycle; but excess ammonia is associated with algae blooms and ammonia reacts with sulfate and nitric acid in the atmosphere to form fine particulate matter, a pollutant linked to respiratory ailments.

Andy Revkin highlights AER's winter season forecast skill plus the research behind the prediction in the post "The Far North and Wintry Weather" on his DotEarth blog for the New York Times today.

If not for a fortuitous alignment of the earth’s electromagnetic field, the sun's Valentine’s Day “gift” could have wreaked havoc on power and communications infrastructure. The geomagnetic storms that resulted were strong enough for electrical power lines to experience voltage alarms. The potential effects of space weather events are beginning to raise alarms in the re/insurance, energy, utility, communications and aviation industries.

We would like to meet with you while you’re at the European Geosciences Union (EDU) General Assembly 2011; please contact us. AER is contributing 9 presentations focused on these areas; see details on these presentations and speakers.

Insurers investigating questionable hail claims will learn insights from State Farm and AER on March 21, at the Insurance Fraud Management Conference. New weather analytics technology combined with policy locations provide faster, more accurate assessments of whether a hail storm damage claim should be approved or requires additional investigation.

Increasing demand for energy in the summer will continue to outpace the growth of winter energy use. In results presented by AER today at the Second AMS Conference on Weather, Climate, and the New Economy, the analysis of primary energy consumption in the US over the last 38 years shows the peak in summer energy demand has grown steadily since the 1970's, and is now nearly comparable to the peak energy demand in winter.