From our Wired Science blog:
"Beginning tomorrow, a UC-San Diego professor will be sending unmanned aerial vehicles into the pollution clouds emanating from the city to measure the impacts of the government's industrial shutdowns and traffic bans on the region surrounding Beijing.
"We have a huge and unprecedented opportunity to observe a large reduction in everyday emissions from a region that's very industrially active," said atmospheric scientist V. Ram Ramanathan, who also works with the Scripps Oceanographic Institution.
While it does not appear that Beijing's plan has reduced particulate matter levels to World Health Organization recommended levels, the attempts still represent a large and unique science experiment. Chinese officials say they've reduced industrial activity by as much as 30 percent, although questions persist about the effectiveness of the shutdowns. Independent and government monitoring station data have been mixed since the program was instituted.
But for Ramanthan, the Olympic shutdowns still provide a "once-in-a-lifetime" look at how a large atmospheric region responds to a rapid drop in particulate matter emissions.
Ramanathan has been a leader in the use of UAVs and environmental sensors to measure black carbon, aka soot, levels. His previous work, presented at this year's AAAS conference, has attempted to provide evidence that black carbon is a major contributor to global warming.
"By determining the effects of soot reductions during the Olympics on atmospheric heating, we can gain much needed insights into the magnitude of future global warming," Ramanathan said.
His project, termed CAPMEX, is being conducted in cojunction with Seoul National University and is backed by the National Science Foundation. The UAVs will fly out of the South Korean island of Cheju. Located about 725 miles southeast of Beijing, Cheju lies in the projected path of pollution plumes called atmospheric brown clouds.
The UAVs come loaded with a package of new micro- and nano-sensors that will gather important data about the interactions between various pollutants, the sun's energy, and natural meteorological conditions, said Jay Fein, the NSF program director for climate dynamics."
If you must know how the "UAV" shot was announced, just watch the segment. Someone with the money & the space is probably going to reenact it someday in real life.
Yes, those fireworks were CGI, but I think one of the announcers on the NBC broadcast said so, or at least alluded to that fact -- I remember hearing something to that effect while I was watching the broadcast.
The official Chinese news agency is now admitting the fireworks display was a CGI video which took more than a year to create.
Yes, there was a spectacular real fireworks display performed simultaneously, but even the people in the stadium watched the CGI version on the jumbotrons.
The official line is that it would not have been safe for a helicopter pilot to fly within the massive display, and that the skyline was not "clear" enough to allow a real "live" event.
[notice they don't mention "smog"]
Since the official Chinese network is the only one allowed in China, even networks like ABC and NBC rebroadcast the CGI version unknowingly.
Come to think of it, would someone who left Beijing saying China's pollution control efforts had no effect, ever be allowed back in Beijing? How might that affect the results of the pollution study?
An announcer in China would never be allowed to say it was animated. There were some notes on runryder about cam copters being used in the olympics, but this was indeed CGI. You can tell by comparing the frame rates and smoke trails. Makes you wonder what else was CGI.
CGI and telecinied.
Real & full 59.94 field/sec interlaced.
There would never be a crowd of people taking pictures at the communist party headquarters.
Comments
the "UAV" shot from heroine worshipper on Vimeo.
Yes, there was a spectacular real fireworks display performed simultaneously, but even the people in the stadium watched the CGI version on the jumbotrons.
The official line is that it would not have been safe for a helicopter pilot to fly within the massive display, and that the skyline was not "clear" enough to allow a real "live" event.
[notice they don't mention "smog"]
Since the official Chinese network is the only one allowed in China, even networks like ABC and NBC rebroadcast the CGI version unknowingly.
CGI and telecinied.
Real & full 59.94 field/sec interlaced.
There would never be a crowd of people taking pictures at the communist party headquarters.
Didn't they say that whole fly in part was computer graphics?