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Get access to our School's on-line weather station data here
and technical details
of how we built it
Getting things in context:
 Over millions of years our rainforests evolved to play an important part in regulating our world's temperatures and climate, finally establishing an ecosystem in which we (amongst the world's youngest species) could emerge and survive. As we destroy our rainforests, pollute our environment and pretend we can take charge of creation, we place our human future at risk.
 Our planet is a complex system (which to us humans may look chaotic) where everything is inter-dependent and interacts with everything else, including our solar system, the galaxies and all the phenomena it is part of. That is what our ancestors teach us about whakapapa (our connections with everything else and our respect for older species).
Nothing stands still. Our place is in a constant state of change where even small seemingly unimportant events can disturb the balance of life in massive ways which we cannot easily explain even by the best of western science and powerful computer modeling. Our world has billions of years of history measured in ages where large cyclic temperature changes took place and dominant species were routinely replaced.
 It would be very cheeky of us to think that by putting up a weather station at our kura we could prove whether serious climate change was happening today or not. If we could, it would likely be a last ditch call to man the lifeboats. It would be almost impossible for our school working alone to find a single simple or even a complicated way to influence it. (We refer to the Cynefin Framework video on U-tube which, though coming from an organisational perspective, can help us put our understanding of today's diverse climate change thinking into perceptive)
 Our aim is to take an indigenous science perspective which has for eternity gathered and passed on wisdom based on the observation of nature and its processes, in the form of oral stories, places and history. We use all the technology we can find to enhance our ancestors traditional observation processes, including such things as the data collected by NASA satellites and other established scientific reasearch. With the weather station we continue to look closely for lessons in the world around us, using today's technology to enhance and consolidate this wisdom and learn more about the patterns in our planet's complex systems. This we share and research on the web with all others who share our core values - We have a saying at our school. "We have no room around here for matapiko (stingy) gatekeepers" - those who hold all their information in their own back pocket and don't share it or test it against other minds and experiences.
TEMPERATURE: (normally shown on graphs as red - bold for outside temperature)
This measures how much heat energy something has. Something with a higher temperature tends to lose its heat energy to things with lower temperature in three main ways (that we understand at present, but also magnetic fields also transfer energy(heat) - see electric toothbrush picture below)
(a) Conduction - when we touch something cold, heat is transferred from our hand to it
(b) Convection - when a gas or fluid passes by something - eg hot air rises to the top of a room
(c) Radiation - when heat is transferred through space - we feel a fire's warmth across a room
note: a dull black object transmits / absorbs heat radiation best - shiny white things reflect it
We measure a number of different temperatures:
 (1) TEMP - Outside air temperature (shaded in a white ventilated box 1200mm above ground level)
(2) Soil - Soil temperature 300mm below ground - it remains much more stable
(3) Black plate temp - heats up in the sun and gets colder than outside temp on clear frosty nights
(4) Classroom 1 temperature - allows us to see when heaters are left on after school
(5) eg Classroom 2 temperature - a portable sensor we can use for experiments
(6) eg Ponga Whare) temperature - another portable sensor (coming)
(7) Pole top Temperature - measured by the anemometer
(8)
Wind Chill Temperature - We calculate this from the anemometer pole top outside temperature and wind speed This indicates the extra risk we face from hypothermia in high winds particularly if we are wet
Frost: Caused by surface heat radiatd out into space on clear nights
 Getting the weather station taught us much about frost. Its readings showed us that the ground surface where the frost formed was losing its heat somehow, whilst the ground temperature 300 mm down was higher than zero and the pole top temperature was higher as well (have you seen horticulturists using helicopters to force warm air down to stop frost damage. We got the answer to this when we found some amateur weather station operators used what was called a "black body sensor in a jam jar" to measure night time cloud levels. From this we conclude that on a clear night the earth's surface radiates its heat out to cold space in all directions. When clouds or mist are present this radiated heat is reflected back. We therefore built a black body sensor for our station. (One of our local people who works a lot in the bush suggested that the nursery trees in the forest do this too - the underside of Ferns are silver! That is getting us thinking about suitable shade houses for winter crops). It reminds us that our old people knew something as we hear stories about them growing kumara and other food crops on the forest floor.
HUMIDITY: (Normally shown on graphs as blue - bold for outside humidity)
 This measures how much moisture (dampness) the air holds. As the temperature of air rises it can hold more water vapour. When it holds the maximum it can for that temperature it is said to have reached its "saturation" point . Our humidity sensors actually measure "relative humidity" which is a percentage of saturation ( eg 60% means the air is holding 60% of the total amount of water it could hold at the current temperature). This means that when the temperature rises (eg when the sun come out) the humidity goes down.
If we are all sealed inside a room (or a car) breathing out moisture (and particularly if we are wet) we find the air beside the windows reaches saturation point and starts condensing out as water - fogging things up. On miserable damp days, if we get some colder air from outside and heat it up (as do our classroom heat pumps) we can lower the humidity and so increase the comfort of our room.
The people of Te Urewera are referred to as the "Children of the Mist". Our rainforest traps a lot of moisture in the air around it, so when the temperature goes down at night our ancestor Hine Pukohurangi (The Mist Maiden) comes out to embrace our Maunga (Mountains) and valleys. That brings us to "The Dew Point", another temperature that our weather station calculates for us from the humidity and temperature readings. It tells how far the temperature must fall until the air is saturated and cannot hold any more vapour, so it starts condensing out as a fine mist that hangs around until the morning sun warms it up again. In that way, we are daily reminded that our ancestress Hine Pukohurangi is yet another kaitiaki that that protects us by regulating out of control surface freezing.
We measure four different Relative Humidity readings:
(1) HUMIDITY - Outside air humidity (shaded in a ventilated white box 1200mm above ground)
(2) Classroom 1 humidity - allows us to see when heaters are left on after school
(3) eg Classroom 2 humidity - a portable sensor we can use for experiments
(4)
eg Ponga Whare humidity - another portable sensor (coming)
(4) Dew Point Temperature - The temperature at which dew forms - calculated from above
RAINFALL (normally shown on graphs as light green)
Rain, hail and snow and snow works in a similar way to above. Clouds coming in from the across the sea arrive carrying a lot of moisture. When they hit the cold air above our forest clad mountains the water condenses out and falls as rain. If it freezes in the clouds it falls as snow, if the rain freezes on the way down, it falls onto us as hail.
We measure and accumulate data for this
RAIN / 1Hh - rain for last hour included in retained statistics and graphs
Rain / 24 hr - rainfall readings for the last hour
Historical rainfall records by month, year etc
On our weather page we point to the Metview 7 day rain forecast map. Be sure to check this if you want to go tramping in our area.
BAROMETRIC PRESSURE: (normally shown on graphs boldly in dark green)
As air gets warmer by getting heat from the sun, from the warmer ground or wherever other means, it expands in volume so it tends to rise. This means that the air pressure around the globe varies. It is measured as maximum at sea level reducing as our altitude increases and tending to zero at the outer edge of our earth's atmosphere.
The Barometric Pressure is actually the weight of the column of air above it divided by the area of the bottom of the column eg it has a unit of Kilograms per square metre or equivalent.
Our weather station adjusts the actual pressure measured at the altitude the station is at to an equivalent sea level reading so different results from different places and altitudes can be compared.
Generally speaking, if the barometric pressure is rising, then we probably have good sunny weather with clear skies coming. If it is falling, we can normally expect lots of clouds and rain.
WIND: (normally shown purple on graphs)
  If the barometric pressure is high at one place the air will tend to flow to other places where the pressure is lower. We experience this as wind. The Metrological Service publish a weather map where the lines "Isobars" join points where the pressure is the same. Where the isobay lines are close together, we can expect a lot of air movement, winds and storms.
In high pressure regions the wind tends to rotate clockwise in the Southern hemisphere and anti clockwise in the Northern hemisphere. We have anticyclones where the pressure is low that bring bad weather whereas in the northern hemisphere we hear about cyclones bringing storms and tornados.
Check how a weather map can show us how storms arise in the metservice videoclip
The Anemometer (Wind guage) is on the poletop 9 metres high and measures:
(1) hourly wind velocity
(2) wind gust velocity
(3) Wind direction
UV RADIATION: (normally shown bold yellow/gold on graphs)
Our weather station measures Ultraviolet levels using a sensor on the top of our pole to try to reduce its measurements being effected by ground level morning mist.
The UV Index tells us when the risk of skin cancer is highest, warning us to shield and protect ourselves from the sun. On the positive side it also is a source of Vitamen D
A Question our observations are asking us?
We are trying to understand what we observed on 5th and 6th of Sept 2009 (See example b below). Two cloudless days where we might have expected our black plate absorber and our UV detector to show a similar curve with both peaking at midday when the sun was highest. Instead, one day had a high UV peak around 10 am and the next had a high peak 3 pm. We are often reminded that "you can get sunburnt even when the sun is shaded by cloud". We wonder if this is due to the ozone hole ozone hole which rotates daily in a irregular fashion over Antarctica and is worst after the Polar winter. If our theory is right, then these peaks may be the UV that is coming through this hole when it lines up with the polar lights (Aurora) that are formed when solar winds interact with the earth's magnetic field high above the south pole. While UV from the Sun comes from the North, UV if it came through the oxone hole would come from the South direction. We could confirm this by watching how it was effected by clouds in either the North or the South, or by physically shading our UV detector from the North Sun.
For more science about this, see GLOBAL TEMPERATURE BALANCE MECHANISMS below.
BLACK PLATE ABSORBTION AND RADIATION (Something special we measure)
 
We have built our own black plate sensor to try to learn about the level of radiation we get from the sun by day and what happens to it. This causes the temperature of the plate (which we measure and compare with the ambient air temperature) to rise , partuicularly if there are no clouds in the way. This you can see in the following daily reading graph. We found this on an amature weather guru discussion group where they called this sensor a "Black plate in a jam jar sensor " or "A night-time cloud detector"
What really surprised us was that the black plate temperature fell below ambient air temperature on clear cloudless and cold nights (often before a frost the next morning). We concluded that our plate was radiating its energy out towards the coldness of space.
A matt black surface is a good absorber and radiator - we already understand that from the difference between wearing a black or white shirt on a sunny day. Our sensor is like a little glasshouse which traps the sun's energy within it. That helps us understand the greenhouse house effect which happens in our earth's atmosphere, keeping the sun's warmth in like a blanket or greenhouse. That also happens in our homes if we design them right. See healthy homes design / retrofit study by Otago University Physics Department
The outgoing radiation temperature drop is probably smaller than it should be because it is in the infrared part of the spectrum and the glass and plastic coke bottle bottom we used to double insulate the sensor (so it does not lose too much heat energy by conduction or convection), is not good at passing infrared radiation. Here is more information on the the properties of glass as used for designing windows in buildings.
SOME EXAMPLE DAYS:
(a) Cold frosty cloudless winter day
(b) Evening after a brilliantly clear still day -
- note how fast the air temperature (RED) drops as soon as the sun goes down. The back plate is radiating over that time
Questions this poses: Is that energy lost by GROUND IR radiation into space or plant leaf transpiration? Is it from the farming area around the station in the valley most of which is lower than the school site or is it cold air that falls into the valey from the surrounding forested mountain tops?
c) Daytime UV peaks at different times - also the difference between frosty and snowy morning
 
Notice that for the frosty morning the wind (PURPLE) was very low whereas the snowing evening had plenty of wind and high gusts
Notice that for both seemingly clear days ( eg smooth black plate temperature rise to peak and fall) the UV peak did not match this and was very different for two adjacent days.
Questions this poses .. Is that UV coming from the sun in the North or through the ozone hole in the South?
GLOBAL TEMPERATURE BALANCE MECHANISMS (we are trying to relate our observations to these)
from http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oceanography-book/Images/greenhouseeffect.jpg
For some great student and teacher resources and more detail on this see Windows to the Universe site
... particularly see page on Global Warming, Clouds and Aibedo - Feedback loops and reflect on questions it raises
(a) Energy flow from the Sun that is absorbed by our Earth: - Global Heating and Energy Cycles
The FusedWeb information on our Sun tells us that the Sun has a very high core temperature of around 15,000,000 Degrees Centigrade which reduces as we move outwards to the photosphere which is the zone from which the sunlight we see is emitted, at around 6,000,000 Degrees Centigrade. This surface temperature can change widely due to surface storms, turbulence and sunspot action which seems to exhibit an approximately 11 year sunspot cycle.
This website also tells us about the massive magnetic fields that our sun has around it. It's solar storms boil off protons and electrons that reach the earth as "solar winds"at velocities of 500 km/s. Microvaves ovens also transfer heat energy to cook food.. maybe we can think of our earth as being within the sun's "Microvave Oven".
(Check out the NASA site about the Sun's magnetic field and also a report on the magnetic portals called Flux transfer events FTE that open between the sun and earth on an approximately eight minute cycle). That tells us that our earth really does lives within the sun's solar system
 On 3rd August 2010 the sun sent a lot of solar wind particles toward earth. Unfortunately the weather was very overcast when it reached us on 4/5th August so we were not able to see if it caused any change to the UV radiation readings at our place. However we did access HAARP Magnetometer readings from Alaska to see the resultant magnetic field blips.
The Sun's magnetic fields (particularly in times of sunspots) react and interfere with the earth's magnetic field.  This may be another form of energy input to earth. (We already know from our electric toothbrushes that changing magnetic fields can also transfer energy. We see how an electromagnet in the base transfers energy to charge the the battery without any physical connection). In our industry (eg aluminium production) we use this effect for induction heating. Induction heating is also used in some stove cook tops. If our earth sits within in a changing magnetic field then perhaps that may cause heat to be generated in its molten magnetic core with result that it could even be getting hotter rather than cooling down as we might think? If it was, we might expect the expect earth's core to expand within the earth's crust with resutant plate movement (earthquakes) and volcanic activity.
Visit the Earth's Magnetic Field Wiki and a video on "Tracking changes in the Earth's Magnetic Field" and a British Geological Survey Overview of the Earth's Magnetic Field) These shows that our earth has a daily magnetic cycle which is perhaps what the ozone hole movements show us. These ozone hole measurements suggest that the earth's magnetic field may be rotating relative to the earth, in which case it could be acting like the rotating magnetic field in an induction motor. If its tuning faster than the earth's rotation will tend to speed up theearths rotation speed , makiong our days shorter. If its turning slower it will tend to slow down the earth's rotation.
Measurement of our day length shows that there are have both yearly day length variation cycles (likely due to seasonal ice cap, sea and core movements) cycles and longer cycles that seem to be around 15 years at present. (More infor about rotations and orbits - also dig deeper into this science site including the Neverlost page on Polynesian Navigation which relied on observation , observation and more observation of stars, clouds, weather, waves, birds and all of nature to learn the patterns that they embrace)
The sun though very hot relative to earth's temperature, is however a small diameter radiator that only fills a small area of our earth's sky. In addition, its narrow rays reach us at a variable angle to the earth's surface so not all of it is absorbed. We can see this by the way our black plate (at our side of the earth) changes over the day in our daily heating cycle caused by the earth's rotating around its own axis. More still, as a result of our earth's orbit around the sun, the sun's angle is higher in summer and lower in winter. We see this annual cycle showing in the maximum, average and minimum temperature our black body sensor reaches each day over the whole year.
In addition there are some longer timescale changes in climate that arise because of the earth's orbit cycles that include (a) Precession—the orientation of Earth's axis of rotation, (b) Eccentricity—the shape of Earth's orbit around the sun and (c) Obliquity—the angle between Earth's axis and a line perpendicular to the orbital plane. You can see these graphically here. The time for each of these cycles are different ranging between 22,000 and 96,000 years
If we begin to understand the impact of our sun on our earth, perhaps we need to remind ourselves that that our solar system is but a tiny item in the much wider universe that makes up Ranginui (Sky and Heavens). Everything is connected by whakapapa like a family and inter-dependent.
(b) Energy flows from Earth into space - Global Cooling Mechanisms
We understand from the diagram above that if energy is not reflected or radiated back out into space to balance what is coming in from the sun, our world would get hotter and hotter. The effect of the greenhouse efect is to reduce this outgoing energy flow, so to help maintain our climate on earth we need to try to reduce greenhouse gas emmissions and the wasteful consumption of resources that create them.
That is all good, but we think the world may be more complex than that and that there may be other things like cutting down rainforests that may be equally important. We are particularly interested in how the rainforest ecosystem (and the cloud systems that are part of it) help earth radiate and reflect its excess heat energy outward to space, We we see evidence of this process on frosty morniings. We think that school science and engineering programmes have taught the world well about the incoming radiation we get from the Sun that we feel every day, and we are pretty clear about the reflection of the suns narrow beam that we see when we play with mirrors outside. However the concept of outgoing radiation from 3-dimensional bodies that flows in all directions to others with a lower temperatures is harder to get our scientific heads around.
The Earth's temperature is typically between minus 30 to plus 30 Degrees Centigrade and at very worst the temperature of space will probably be at absolute zero ( minus 273 degrees Celsius), so unlike the sun, the outgoing temperature difference is small. However, we wonder if maybe every tiny part of the surface of all objects on earth could be radiating its heat out to every part of space it can see that is above the earth's horizon. This we guess will happen 24 hours - day and night. We see this energy loss (cooling) as frost in the morning after clear cold nights. We wonder if a three dimensional forest cut down to make farmland for food or bio fuels production increases or decreases the heat energy our earth is able to radiate to cool itself. We hope to find this out somehow by some local climate experiments and observations around our rainforest Whirinaki: Te Pua o Tane .
Many support our theory that rainforests are important for global cooling and temperature regulation:
Our good friend and Whirinaki Rainforest patron Prof David Bellamy tells us that old growth forests with all their diversity help regulate the natural cycles of our world. We hope we can one day learn and demonstrate what he means by that. That matches what our ancestors tell us that Tane - god of the forests is the kaitaiki (guardian enabler and provider) of all life.
Also a blog by Folke Gunther (Sweden) "What are rainforests Good for" includes a NOAA- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map of the world using satellite data that shows all that the cool spots are not just at the poles but include rainforest areas near the equator). Find out about the AVHRR - Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer in satellites orbiting above the atmosphere that collect this data. Also see the NASA Rainforests at the Crossroad page that explains remote sensing by satellites 700km up
For a more academic investigation of rainforest effects on temperature see Eric Schneider and James Kay "Life is a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics". In this they quote:
" The thermodynamic principle which governs the behaviour of systems is that, as they are moved away from equilibrium [balance] , they will utilise all avenues available to counter the applied gradients; as the gradients increase , so does the system's ability to oppose further movement from equilibrium ....
We suggest that life exists on earth as another means of dissipating the solar induced [thermodynamic] gradient ....
Much of this dissipation is accomplished by the plant kingdom ( Less than 1% of it through photosynthesis, with most of the dissipation occurring through evapouration and transpiration ....
Although each tree species has its own genetically endowed form, the energy capturing aspect of an isolated tree leads to its magnificent symetry, Canopies of plants of many species arrange themselves into leaf index assemblies to optimise energy capture and degradation.
Tropical rain forests produce a prodigious [very large] amount of water vapour via this process, and convective induced cooling produces high clouds which tend to reinforce the cooling of the rain forests. The coupled rainforest cloud system lowers the earth to space gradient even more than the forest alone ...
Interestingly enough, the tropical rain forests with their coupled cloud system, with the sun directly overhead, have the same surface temperture [as measured by satelites above the atmosphere] as Canada in the winter"
(c) The importance of rainforest transpiration and evaporation - Driving the water / weather cycle
Eric Schneider reminds us (See his book summary "Into the Cool" and video on energy capture and forests) that whilst we rightly value a tree for its abilty to absorb CO2, the transpiration value of a tree is at least 100 times more important than its carbon storage value.
. . A typical tree is pumping around 60 litres of water from its roots per day that it transpires (swets out) as vapour to the atmosphere, cooling the leaves in the process to stop them overheating and drying out. One litre of water converted to vapour requires an energy input of 332,000 Joules. (one joule per second equals an energy flow of one watt). The latent heat of evapouration in the tree, therfore produces around 60 litresper day x 332,000 joules per litre / 24 x 60 x 60 seconds per day = 230 watts of local cooling effect. If that tree covers say 10 square metres of the earth's surface that means its cooling value is around 23 watts per square metre.
That moisture given off raises the humidity of the local atmosphere so that when the temperature falls below the dew point it condenses as clouds, mist, dew, frost snow or rain to give that energy out again to suppress overcooling and support life in the region around it, growing even more plants, trees and all the diverse species that grow around them. We call that the water cycle.
(d) The Water Cycle - The rainfoest makes up the world's biggest (and by far the smartest) heat pump.
 It requires heat energy to be added ( eg a pot on the stove) to move water water from the solid state (ice) into the liquid state and also from liquid to the gas state (that evaporation is how our body cools itself by perspiration / sweat). In the water cycle the evaporation from the forest cools the local area then the water vapour is moved by the wind, diffusion and convection upwards and outwards. At higher altitudes in the atmosphere water molecules radiate their heat out to space ( just like our black plate does on clear nights) so that they get cold and turn back into water globules (clouds) or may lose even more heat and turn the into the solid state. (snow or hale).
We think heat pumps that move heat from inside a room to the outside (or vice versa when on reverse cycle) are new inventions (watch a video to see how they work) , but really nature has been doing this for ages, using sun's energy to drive the water cycle; taking heat by evapouration and transpiration in rainforests on the earth's surface and "pumping" it upwards by diffusion where its heat is radiated out into space causing it to cool condense and return to earth. That makes us wonder if perhaps nature's heat pump may have a reverse cycle like our school one has too, pumping heat from the sun in the upper atmosphere to turn clouds back into gas and returning it to warm other parts of the earth's surface?
By Googleing Rainforest Heat Pump we found an Article 13/3/10 on The Real Value of the Amazon Rainforest by Peter Bunyard, Science Editor of the Ecologist and of Science in Society which is based on the research on Biotic Regulation by Prof. Victor G. Gorshkov and Dr. Anastassia M. Makarieva in Russia.
It also highlights some of the thinking and warnings of Viktor Schaumberger 80 years ago and other reserachers
In a news release A NASA Space Sluth Hunts the Trail of Earth's water we have more satellite collected information that confirms the value of rainforests in driving the water cycle and cooling our earth.
(e) Do 3-D surfaces and structures effect energy absorption, reflection, radiation, conduction and convection?
There are many parts / levels that relate to this question, all of which in nature are reconnected in complex inter-dependent ways.
Blackbody Radiation Theory
We do know that matt (rough) black surfaces are better absorbers and radiators than shiny ones. That is why we are more likely to get burnt by a shiny stainless steel dish that holds its heat after being taken out of the oven, rather than a matt black enamel one where the handle and rim cool more quickly.
We are trying to learn much more about energy transfer by radiation. That gets us thinking about the characteristics of what physicists call a "Blackbody"; an idealistic object that is exceptionally good at absorbing or emitting electromagnetic radiation. It reflects almost nothing.
We understand that matt black enamel paint gets towards this state. Under a microscope its surface is seen to be very irregular.
We found C G Abbott of the Smithsonian Institute gave a presentation on "Terrestrial Temperature and Atmospheric Absorption" to the Academy in 1917
This might with other information above might support the theory that a rainforest and the rain clouds coupled to it are likely to behave more like a back body than most other terrains on earth.
Cloud structures (photo from South Island NZ by Merrick Davies).
 We have found out about some new cloud formations called Asperatus which have very lumpy, wavelike surfaces that were reported from all around the world in 2009. Very dark and black but they disappear without fuss. Read the Telegraph science story in which Professor Hardaker CEO of the Metrological Society said: "Clouds are very important in the Earth's climate as depending where they are in the atmosphere they will either reflect heat or absorb and trap heat. We are only just starting to understand that role."
NZ Weather forecaster Bob McDavitt in his Blog with photos states " Another good example is when moist air blows over a range of mountains and makes a system of mountain wave clouds. In New Zealand this often happens, and people in Canterbury call the mountain wave clouds “the northwest arch”
Our Questions: Is this nature responding to imbalances, by emerging in new shapes and forms that seems to replicate familiar patterns in nature. Is the view from the top similar and do they form at night to increase outward radiation when is not overbalanced by the sun? If so, are they another of nature's cyclic accumulator of water and energy that the sun evaporates and spreads to other place in its own good time?
Rainforest geography ( Pictures from Whirinaki Rainforest, New Zealand and Frazer's Hill KL Malaysia)
 
The geographical terrain rainforests grow on are often mountainous and eroded by streams because of the rain they attract. They have very ragged 3-D surfaces which is further accentuated by the shape of trees that make up the canopy, which increases the area and surfaces (on many planes) that are able to radiate their energy out to space and the horizon in all directions
Our observations suggest that the mist that often forms in early morning is a regulator that tends to prevent overcooling by radiation (frost) and thus damage of forest species.
The Rainforest ecosystem is far more than just the terrain and the vegetation on the ground; it includes all the coupled clouds above and even more magic underground!
Rainforest canopy (photo Malaysian Rainforest, Kuala Lumpur)
A close up view of a rainforest canopy from above shows it to be a very irregular surface, made up with a rich diversity of species, forms and colours.
If all the species were behaving like a blackbody they would reflect no colour from sunlight and appear as black. However if we look at the same trees from afar as shown in the pictures above above, it appears as very dark and blue.
There is more information and class learning resources in the Rainbird Rain Forest Teaching Curriculum which covers Rainforests and Weather, Light in the Rainforest, Ecology and Diversity, The Rainforest as an Economical Resource.
Tree and leaf structures (photo: ferns in Frazers Hill Malaysia)
 
Plants have very diffent forms, colours and leaf structures, depending on the role they have evolved to fill in nature. Some have wide solar facing leaves, others have dangling thin ones that are closely coupled by convection to the surrounding air. We think we have noticed that some fern leaves appear shiny when reflecting sunlight in some directions, but appear quite matt and dark when viewed in the shade or from other angles.
We have made connections with Ille Gebeshuber a physicist doing research work in the Frazer's Hill Rainforest site in Malaysia, seen here with one on the world's most powerful electron microscopes that can see down to atomic levels. Her and others work with biomimicry will likely help us better understand the role rain forests (and in particular the leaves of its trees) play in both absorbing , reflecting, radiating conducting and convecting energy, to help balance our world.
There are some brand new discoveries from the Carnegie Institute's Department of Global Ecology (published July 12 2010) Plant 'breathing' mechanism discovered
Molecular structures (viewing nature at a nano-technology level)
 Different molecules (eg Greenhouse gasses) absorb, reflect and radiate energi in different ways depending on the wavelengths involved
See the Wiki on Properties of Water The most abundant compound on the earth's surface.
(f) Some others things about our forest that we are looking at in Whirinaki
In Whirinaki during winter we observe that frost occurs mainly on grassy frost flats, and on the branches of deciduous trees (often adjacent to streams running in valleys) where there is little chance for cold air to be dissipated by convection (air movement) or conduction of heat from the the ground (which is pumice and a good insulator). By comparison we less frequently see it on the native rainforest forest canopy treetops. We have some loose evidence (which we will confirm next winter) that frost is seen on the ground under some tree species but not others.
In the book Whirinaki- To Save a Forest there is a diagram that helps explain the species movement in our forest and how new growth happens in the ecosystem it nurtures under its canopy.
We are trying to understand how this might help us with our community garden
At a deeper level we also are interested in what Paul Stamet tells us about the Mycorrhyzal fungi (Mycelium) that supports rainforest life underground but is invisible to the naked eye
The Rainforest Alliance Website tells us that the world is cutting down around 13 Million Hectares per year (An area the size of the state of Louisianna, or half the area of New Zealand) and this contributes about 20% of the world's CO2 emissions. It's no wonder things are running out of control .. and that has not even considered the transpiration and outgoing radiation cooling value discussed above.
(g) The Delicate and Complex Living World Energy Balancing Act
Amidst all the other cycles effecting conditions on earth for life, including , geo movements, water, nutrients, oxygen, nitrogen, CO2, growth, greenhouse gases, ozone depletion, and adaptive interdependent species, we can be sure that the situation is complex.
From a traditional thermodynamics perspective, when the energy coming in is equal to that going out, we can think simplistically and remind ourselves that conditions may for a short while look stable. Our real world is much more complex than that with physical, chemical, biological (and even spiritual components). It's equilibrium (balance) is always changing.
 The difficulty we face is that the temperature of our planet and its climate is determined more by the difference between what is coming in and what is leaving, something we observe in our daily and seasonal cycles. For example if the average energy coming in from the sun was say 300 watts per square metre and what was leaving as radiation etc was say 300 watts per square metre, then a small (1%) change in the energy the sun was emitting, or a 1% restriction in the energy the earth could radiate or reflect back out to space as a result of greenhouse gas or cloud filtering / reflection ) may result in net temperature change effects on earth over time.
We have been told by a retired professor of engineering that the energy radiated by a hot body is proportional to the 4th power of its absolute temperature and that that means a small 1/4 % rise or fall in the sun's radiant temperature could result in a 1% rise or fall in the energy it radiates to earth. Conversely as a result of this, a 1/4 % rise in the earth's absolute temperature (around 293 degrees absolute = approx 0.75 degrees centigrade change), could result in a 1% increase in earth's outward outward radiated energy. (i.e. what we might see our black plate ( or our forest maybe) transmtting outwards on a clear cloudless night)
What no-one really understands yet is the wide range of highly inter-dependent natural regulating mechanisms that continually evolve in our universe in response to this. Our experiments with our energy capture box (photo) may help us understand just a little of this and also as a bonus help us make our houses more energy efficient
This complexity of course must not stop us from continuing to work with Papatuanuku and Ranginui and (our Mother Earth and Sky Father and Tane Mahuta the forest that separated them to make a space for life See origins story) to help the long proven natural kaitiaki processes that they give us; playing our part by doing things that help them keep all in balance. The wisdom our ancestors have passed down to us in challenging stories are our guide, as is the modern scientific emphasis on Biomimicry. If we refuse to do this, the universe will find its own ways to deal to a selfish species prone to comforting itself in the short term by domination and polution; destroying the Mauri (Lifeforce) in the diversity of everything else around us that sustains life.
(h) THE MULTI TRILLION DOLLAR QUESTION??
What is the value of the ecosystem services that rainforests and trees provide to support life on our planet??
Today we tend to assign our rainforests an economic value based on the following simplistic criteria:
- What is its carbon sink capacity which we can multiply by the current carbon market CO2 price? (That tends to artificially value it more for growing young trees that absorb more carbon, yet this represents a small amount of energy a forest captures from the sun - most of it driving the transpiration / iinfrared radiation processes)
- What is the value of the timber we could obtain by chopping it down? ( That tends to ignore the cost in CO2 and greenhouse gasses released back into the atmosphere when it is cut down)
- What is the value of farming and other activity that this land could otherwise be used for? ( that tends to ignore the relative impact of the CO2 emmissions generated by these other activities)
That simplistic criteria does not take into account it's true value including such things as:
- The rainforest is more than just a collection of trees and plant species - it is a complex living ecosystem that includes all the clouds, gasses and air above it plus all the recycling species and fungi networks that convert / move nutrients in the earth (Papuanuku) below it
- Its contribution as a global cooling mechanism - dispatching infrared radiation in all directions out into space 24hrs per day /7 days per week ( see above)
- The heat pump effect which converts water to vapour (evapo-transpiration) taking in energy to cool things near the surface, then at higher altitudes losing that enregy as Infrared radiation out to space causing it to cool and condense.
- Its importance in the water transpiration cycle - constantly purifying and supplying clean water - keeping the rain coming to prevent earth turning into a dessert
- filtering runoff into streams from farming and related activity
- Its contribution to the oxygen cycle - converting the oxygen we need for human life
- Holding water - so that we don't get downstream flooding or raising sea levels
- Stabilising topsoil - so that we do not get erosion particularly on mountain slopes
- Supporting a rich diversity of life - capable of evolving to combat external threats like climate change
- As a source of medicinal knowledge to enhance human life
- As a complex inter-dependent place we as a species can learn from (biomimicry)
- As a place of peace and recreation where we can relax and recharge ourselves
- .......
TEV report on Rainforest Ecosystem Services Value (TEV) What are Rainforests worth? - Mandar Trivedi and others
2008 (note that does not include global cooling value except via CO2)
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Report for Business - Executive Summary 2010
Rainforests worth $1.1 trillion for carbon alone in "Coalition" nations
Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com -
November 29, 2005
See what the Institute of Science in Society says about all this in "Why Gaia Needs Rainforests"
The Prince's Rainforest Site "Working to make the forests worth more alive than dead" connect on facebook
To do our part for all our futures, our iwi, Ngati Whare is pioneering a big project to restore native forest on previously milled land that is being returned under treaty settlements.
If you have suggestions, knowledge, questions or feedback about this project, please email us
OTHER RESOURCES:
NIWA Educational information
Monitoring Rainforest Ecology using a Wireless Sensor System. Springbrook, South East Queensland, Australia
Rainbird Rainforest Teaching Curriculum grades 9-12 - Some great class resources here
NASA Rainforests at the Crossroad site that explain remote sensing by satelites with excercises that use that data.
Hope for the Rainforests - a science based, general introduction to the rain forests of the world and threats they face.
Climate Change - Resources for educators and teachers from the US Global Change Research Project
Cycles of the Earth and Atmosphere - a resource fot teachers and schools
Details of our weatherstation Project
How we have configured the Weather Station software we use
Thanks to Werner Krenn and the team for developing and sharing the PC-Wetterstation software we use
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