INSTRUCTIONS
Read through the abstracts and take note of the topics and central research questions. Then scroll down and click on the links for each artist. Review the artworks and descriptions.
- Which art projects match with the scientific abstracts?
- How did the artists engage with the scientific information? Is their interpretation illustrative, data visualization, or conceptual?
- How does the artwork make you feel? What insights do you gain?
- Who may be the target audience for this work?
ABSTRACTS
Observational determination of albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea ice
Kristina Pistone, Ian Eisenman and V. Ramanathan, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014, Vol. 111, No. 9, https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1318201111
Abstract
The decline of Arctic sea ice has been documented in over 30 y of satellite passive microwave observations. The resulting darkening of the Arctic and its amplification of global warming was hypothesized almost 50 y ago but has yet to be verified with direct observations. This study uses satellite radiation budget measurements along with satellite microwave sea ice data to document the Arctic-wide decrease in planetary albedo and its amplifying effect on the warming. The analysis reveals a striking relationship between planetary albedo and sea ice cover, quantities inferred from two independent satellite instruments. We find that the Arctic planetary albedo has decreased from 0.52 to 0.48 between 1979 and 2011, corresponding to an additional 6.4 ± 0.9 W/m2 of solar energy input into the Arctic Ocean region since 1979. Averaged over the globe, this albedo decrease corresponds to a forcing that is 25% as large as that due to the change in CO2 during this period, considerably larger than expectations from models and other less direct recent estimates. Changes in cloudiness appear to play a negligible role in observed Arctic darkening, thus reducing the possibility of Arctic cloud albedo feedbacks mitigating future Arctic warming.
Origins of the Ambient Solar Wind: Implications for Space Weather
Steven R. Cranmer, Sarah E. Gibson & Pete Riley, Space Science Reviews, 2017, Volume 212, 1345–1384, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11214-017-0416-y
Abstract
The Sun’s outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal heating and the acceleration of the ambient solar wind. We also discuss where the community stands in its ability to forecast how variations in the solar wind (i.e., fast and slow wind streams) impact the Earth. Although the last few decades have seen significant progress in observations and modeling, we still do not have a complete understanding of the relevant physical processes, nor do we have a quantitatively precise census of which coronal structures contribute to specific types of solar wind. Fast streams are known to be connected to the central regions of large coronal holes. Slow streams, however, appear to come from a wide range of sources, including streamers, pseudostreamers, coronal loops, active regions, and coronal hole boundaries. Complicating our understanding even more is the fact that processes such as turbulence, stream-stream interactions, and Coulomb collisions can make it difficult to unambiguously map a parcel measured at 1 AU back down to its coronal source. We also review recent progress—in theoretical modeling, observational data analysis, and forecasting techniques that sit at the interface between data and theory—that gives us hope that the above problems are indeed solvable.
Mutants highlight the modular control of butterfly eyespot patterns
Antónia Monteiro, Joop Prijs, Minka Bax, Thomas Hakkaart, and Paul M. Brakefield, Evolution & Development, 2003, 5:2, 180–187, https://doi.org/10.1046/J.1525-142X.2003.03029.X
Abstract
The eyespots on butterfly wings are thought to be serially homologous pattern elements. Yet eyespots differ greatly in number, shape, color, and size, within and among species. To what extent do these serially homologues have separate developmental identities, upon which selection acts to create diversity? We examined x-ray–induced mutations for the eyespots of the nymphalid butterfly Bicyclus anynana that highlight the modular control of these serially homologous wing pattern elements. These mutations reduce or eliminate individual eyespots, or groups of eyespots, with no further effect on the wing color pattern. The collection of mutants highlights a greater potential developmental repertoire than that observed across the genus Bicyclus. We studied in detail one such mutation, of codominant effect, that causes the elimination of two adjacent eyespots on the ventral hindwing. By analyzing the expression of genes known to be involved in eyespot formation, we found an alteration in the differentiation of the “organizing” cells at the eyespot’s center. No such cells differentiate in the wing subdivisions lacking the two eyespots in the mutants. We propose several developmental models, based on wing compartmentalization in Drosophila, that provide the first framework for thinking about the molecular evolution of butterfly wing pattern modularity.
A possibly universal red chromophore for modeling color variations on Jupiter
L. A. Sromovsky , K. H. Baines, P. M. Fry, & R. W. Carlson, Icarus 291 (2017) 232-244, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.02779
Abstract
A new laboratory-generated chemical compound made from photodissociated ammonia (NH3) molecules reacting with acetylene (C2H2) was suggested as a possible coloring agent for Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) by Carlson et al. (2016, Icarus 274, 106-115). Baines et al. (2016, Icarus, submitted) showed that the GRS spectrum measured by the visual channels of the Cassini VIMS instrument in 2000 could be accurately fit by a cloud model in which the chromophore appeared as a physically thin layer of small particles immediately above the main cloud layer of the GRS. Here we show that the same chromophore and same layer location can also provide close matches to the short wave spectra of many other cloud features on Jupiter, suggesting this material may be a nearly universal chromophore that could explain the various degrees of red coloration on Jupiter. This is a robust conclusion, even for 12% changes in VIMS calibration and large uncertainties in the refractive index of the main cloud layer due to uncertain fractions of NH4SH and NH3 in its cloud particles. The chromophore layer can account for color variations among north and south equatorial belts, equatorial zone, and the Great Red Spot, by varying particle size from 0.12 µm to 0.29 µm and 1-µm optical depth from 0.06 to 0.76. The total mass of the chromophore layer is much less variable, ranging from 18 to 30 µg/cm2 , except in the equatorial zone, where it is only 10-13 µg/cm2 . We also found a depression of the ammonia volume mixing ratio in the two belt regions, which averaged 0.4-0.5 ×10−4 immediately below the ammonia condensation level, while the other regions averaged twice that value.
ARTISTS
Lamie L. Molaro
Molaro’s artistic work explores scientific data and ideas. Her art includes small-scale paper sculptures as well as larger installation pieces. Molano also works as a planetary scientist specialized in the observation of surfaces of other planets and works on space missions with NASA.
Adrien Segal
Sculpture is an aesthetic language Adrien Segal uses to bridge the gap between reason and emotion. Drawing from history, culture, landscape, emotion, and perception, her artwork synthesizes information into knowledge through an intently emotive human experience.
Laurent Grasso
Incorporating imagery culled from the cinema and art history, Grasso works in video, sculpture, painting, and drawing to recreate phenomena – both human and natural – that set up surreal and ambiguous juxtapositions of time and space.
https://www.skny.com/artists/laurent-grasso
https://solarwind.fr/
Marta de Menezes
Marta de Menezes has worked in the intersection of art and biology since the late 90s, in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and Portugal, exploring the conceptual and aesthetic opportunities offered by biological sciences for visual representation in the arts.