(Describer) Streams of light collide to create a globe filled with water. Title: Science Nation. A man wears a hardhat.
[explosion]
Going up.
(Describer) ...in a small elevator.
(male narrator)
Way up.
From this 1,000 foot tower,
University of Colorado
meteorologist David Noone
is perfectly perched.
It's a cloudy day,
and he's hoping for rain.
(Noone)
The measurements
I'm making on the tower
allow us to establish a profile
of the water vapor composition.
We're at the top of the Boulder
Atmospheric Observatory.
(narrator)
With support from
the National Science Foundation,
Noone is working to understand
how water moves around earth.
(Noone)
One aspect of understanding
the water cycle
is associated with
water resource management.
Another side is thinking about
the implications
of the water cycle on regional
and global climate.
(narrator)
Noone says water isotopes from
different parts of the globe
are like fingerprints.
Another analogy:
different colors.
(Describer) With dyed water...
If we were to have
some water here in Colorado
that was a combination
of water from the Gulf of Mexico
(Describer) Yellow.
and water from the Pacific,
(Describer) He adds blue water, making green.
we can see that our water is
some combination of these two.
This is
a climate model simulation
showing the total amount of
water vapor in the atmosphere.
(Describer) An animated map.
(narrator)
Noone uses computer models
and field observations
from around the globe
to study the chemical
composition of rain and snow.
With water isotopes,
you might say,
"What goes around comes around."
(Noone)
The ice in
the Greenland Ice Sheet
has information
about past climate
that's pertinent
to the North Atlantic,
including North America
and Europe.
This lets us understand
how the climate system behaves
in this part of the world.
(Describer) He speaks to a class.
...and come together.
Where does the water
come from?
(narrator)
These young scientists
send Noone
a steady stream
of rainwater samples.
(Noone)
We are doing
a detailed investigation
of water cycle processes
in Colorado.
Water is a big concern here.
Students help us
collect data we need.
If precipitation patterns
change,
the amount
of available water changes,
and how we distribute those
resources would also change.
(narrator)
Understanding how water cycles
through the earth
atmosphere system
can help us manage it
more effectively
and help prepare
for climate change.
Now, that's a tall order.
(Describer) A globe turns by the title.
For Science Nation,
I'm Miles O'Brien.
