http://www.rhci-online.net/radiogram/radiogram.htm

  https://github.com/GyanD/codexffmpeg/releases/tag/2023-03-05-git-912ac82a3c

RSID: <<2024-03-14T23:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


Welcome to program 345 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

  1:45 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:55 MFSK32: The future less skiable thanks to climate change
  7:27 MFSK64: In NYC, window heat pumps promise emissions cuts*
12:44 MFSK64: This week's images*
28:23 MFSK32: Closing announcements

* with image(s)


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on X/Twitter now: @SWRadiogram




From Phys.org:

The future is likely less skiable, thanks to climate change

by Public Library of Science
March 13, 2024

Annual snow cover days in all major skiing regions are projected
to decrease dramatically as a result of climate change, with one
in eight ski areas losing all natural snow cover this century
under high emission scenarios. These results are published in a
new study in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Veronika
Mitterwallner from the University of Bayreuth, Germany and
colleagues.

Popular skiing destinations experience the impacts of climate
change, which include reduced snowfall in regions around the
world. Despite the social, economic, and ecological significance
of the skiing industry, little research exists on how ski area
distributions are affected by climate change globally. Existing
studies are small-scale and focused on Europe, North America, and
Australia.

Mitterwallner and colleagues examined the impact of climate
change on annual natural snow cover in seven major skiing
regions: the European Alps, Andes Mountains, Appalachian
Mountains, Australian Alps, Japanese Alps, Southern Alps (located
in New Zealand), and Rocky Mountains.

The researchers identified specific skiing locations within these
seven regions using OpenStreetMap. As the largest global ski
market, the European Alps accounted for 69% of these areas. The
researchers also used the public climate database CHELSA,
enabling them to predict annual snow cover days for each ski area
for 2011–2040, 2041–2070, and 2071–2100 under low, high, and very
high carbon emissions scenarios.

Under the high emissions scenario, 13% of ski areas are predicted
to lose all natural snow cover by 2071–2100 relative to their
historic baselines; 20% will lose more than half of their snow
cover days per year. By 2071–2100, average annual snow cover days
were predicted to decline most in the Australian Alps (78%) and
Southern Alps (51%), followed by the Japanese Alps (50%), Andes
(43%), European Alps (42%), and Appalachians (37%), with the
Rocky Mountains predicted to experience the least decline at 23%
relative to historic baselines.

The researchers state that diminishing snow cover may prompt ski
resorts to move or expand into less populated areas, potentially
threatening alpine plants and animals already under
climate-induced strain. Resorts favoring faux snow may rely on
"technical snowmaking" practices like artificial snow production,
but regardless, the authors predict that the economic
profitability of ski resorts will fall globally.

The authors add, "This study demonstrates significant future
losses in natural snow cover of current ski areas worldwide,
indicating spatial shifts of ski area distributions, potentially
threatening high-elevation ecosystems."

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-future-skiable-climate.html


Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...




RSID: <<2024-03-14T23:37Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>

 

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

From AP via TechXplore:

In New York City, heat pumps that fit in apartment windows
promise big emissions cuts

by Isabella O'Malley and Ingrid Lobet
March 11, 2024

For 27 years, the heat in Regina Fred's Queens apartment building
came from a noisy steam radiator that she couldn't control and
sometimes didn't come on at all, leaving her shivering.
Sometimes, the radiators ran so hot that residents had to keep
their windows open in the middle of winter for relief.

That all changed a few months ago, when she got a window-mounted
heat pump as part of a pilot project by the New York City Housing
Authority aimed at cutting energy costs and lowering emissions.
Suddenly, all Fred has to do is touch a dial to bump her
temperature up or down, and she found herself enjoying "a very
good silence."

"They did a demonstration for me and I was thrilled," Fred said.
Now, her grown children call the heat pump "the best thing" she
has in her apartment, and her neighbors have knocked on her door
to check out the unit.

Heat pumps, a highly efficient technology that has grown in
popularity in recent years to rival gas furnaces, have mainly
been an option for owners of houses. But new designs are making
them practical for apartments, too, which often rely on
inefficient centralized steam boilers powered by oil or gas. That
represents a promising climate solution for buildings, whose
operations account for 26% of global energy-related carbon
emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.

The IEA said last year that installing heat pumps in apartment
buildings and commercial areas should "be a priority area" to
maintain the growth necessary to meet national climate pledges
worldwide. The U.S. alone has 23 million apartment units,
according to the National Multifamily Housing Council,
representing a huge sector of people who could use less energy
with heat pumps.

New York law requires buildings to make big cuts in greenhouse
gas emissions over the next decades. To comply, NYCHA is
targeting heating and cooling, the largest source of emissions
for the agency, which houses about 528,000 people across more
than 2,400 buildings—or about one in 17 New Yorkers, said Shaan
Mavani, the agency's chief asset and capital management officer.

Centralized steam boilers powered by natural gas or oil typically
provide the heat, and they are wasteful—the NYCHA's climate
mitigation roadmap calls steam heat "19th-century technology
incompatible with 21st-century needs." Mavani said between 30%
and 80% of heat is lost through old and leaky infrastructure
before it reaches apartments. And that doesn't account for the
waste when residents have to open their windows to dissipate
excess heat from a system they can't control.

Eric Wilson, a senior research engineer for the Department of
Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, led a team that
analyzed heat pump performance in various electric grid scenarios
and found even the lowest-efficiency pump would cut greenhouse
gas emissions and save on operating costs in every U.S. state.
That analysis didn't include the kind of pump being tested in
Queens because it wasn't yet on the scene, but Wilson said he
would expect similar results.

Most heat pumps require ductwork, which isn't an option for
renters in a unit they don't own. And ductless systems typically
require extensive installation that includes wiring, making a
hole in a wall and a sizeable external compressor.

Gradient and Midea, the two companies making the units in the
pilot project at Woodside House, downsized it all into something
that looks a bit like a window air conditioner but with a much
lower profile. Exterior and interior halves drape over a sill to
leave the window mostly unobscured. Gradient, one of the
companies, says its unit installs in 15 minutes and plugs into an
ordinary wall outlet.

Wilson said the interior portion of the units "take up more space
on the inside than you might be used to" but Fred called it "very
beautiful."

"Look, I even have it for decoration," she said. Her three window
units are usually topped by flowers and decorative candles. In
one room on a particularly sunny day, morning light shone on a
rose, a jar of rose petals, decorative boxes and a "LOVE" sign
atop one of them.

Z Smith, an architect at the firm Eskew Dumez Ripple who isn't
involved in the Queens project, said such retrofitting "is the
carbon-smart way to get to better comfort for occupants." That's
because one of the most effective ways to cut emissions from
buildings is to avoid putting up new ones, which result in
significant emissions due to all the new concrete, steel and
wood.

He called the low-profile heat pumps a "lightweight intervention"
because they're so easy to install.

The NYCHA will evaluate results of the pilot project, with plans
to eventually install more than 4,000 heat pumps over two years
in the Woodside development if all goes well. The authority
expects to save money on operating and maintenance costs with the
heat pumps, but is waiting to see for initial results before it
projects those savings.

Gradient was founded seven years ago in San Francisco with the
ambition to decarbonize buildings with a window unit heat pump
that can be easily installed without technicians. Part of their
goal was a solution for people just like those at Woodside, CEO
Vince Romanin said—people in older multi-family buildings with
complaints about their window ACs or aged radiators that don't
have a temperature setting.

"We think that if you're not building solutions for people who
need it most, if you're not building solutions for people who
have insufficient heating (and) cooling today, they're not really
solving climate change," Romanin said.

https://techxplore.com/news/2024-03-york-city-apartment-windows-big.html

 

Image: A Gradient brand heat pump/AC window unit ...

Sending Pic:139x199;






This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net
 

This week's images ...



Kala, a Sumatran tiger cub born on December 1, 2023, presented to
the public for the first time at Bioparco Zoo in Rome.
https://tinyurl.com/23m7cftg ...

Sending Pic:156x199C;









A neon sign in Seattle. https://tinyurl.com/2de4pj6n ...

Sending Pic:192x156C;

A fishing boat approaches the island of Petatan in the
municipality of Cojumatlan de Regules, Michoacan state, Mexico,
February 23. https://tinyurl.com/2axbjzmo ...


Sending Pic:208x135C;







Cherry blossom buds at the Tidal Basin in Washington DC reached
Stage 3, or “extension of florets,” on March 8.
https://tinyurl.com/23wbmtw7 ...

Sending Pic:208x119C;








Cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin reached Stage 4 out of 6, or
'peduncle elongation.' The peak bloom date could be among the
earliest on record. https://tinyurl.com/2c7wuqys ...

Sending Pic:205x126C;







A photo that looks like a painting: Plum trees bloom at Dumbarton
Oaks in Northwest Washington DC, March 1.
https://tinyurl.com/24c5o9pp ...

Sending Pic:139x205C;









Crocuses in bloom in Burke, Virginia, March 3.
https://tinyurl.com/2bgbdjgz ...

 u ri a÷nRa Æ^ xJe a ie tÂu .
 

[production glitch]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/YUU3RLNY2JGMBK7IYCWFDZTW3M.jpg&w=916

916  : 611 = 1,499 : 1

200 * 133 = (1,499 :1)  26000 * 3 (C;/RGB) = 79800 pixel/ms ~ 80s = 1min 20s

Sending Pic:200x133C;

Early spring blooms at the University of Kentucky Arboretum in
Lexington. https://tinyurl.com/2397ea3q ...

Sending Pic:151x200C;







Our painting of the week is "Tecumseth" (1977) by Rita Letendre
(Abenaki first nation in Canada). https://tinyurl.com/2xm2vsg5
...

Sending Pic:207x144C;








Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...


 

RSID: <<2024-03-14T23:58Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...


Shortwave Radiogram is transmitted by:

WRMI, Radio Miami International, wrmi.net

and

WINB Shortwave, winb.com


Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

Twitter: @SWRadiogram or twitter.com/swradiogram

I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next Shortwave
Radiogram.