[thechat] Re: the driest spot in the world

[javier velasco]

Judah McAuley wrote:

> Basic summary:
>
> There needs to be air lifting for snow to occur.  In places like Antarctica,
> there isn't enough temperature variation for air lifting to occur.  The
> moisture capacity of air also decreases as it gets colder.  So without alot
> of moisture nearby (onshore flow off the ocean) and temperature variation at
> different atmosphere levels, it makes it hard to snow when its really really
> cold.

thanks Judah...

elfur: i loved your explanation!

last night i told my wife about this conversation (for those who don't
know she IS a scientist), we even discussed the definition of a desert,
i showed her different sources we've found delaring both Atacama and
Antartica as the driest place in the world.

she insisted that the tv show we saw was very likely to be the latest
reaserch available (the host of the show was very concerned in finding
official data), and we had to know the precise source that proposed each
place to be the direst, and publish the hard facts (precipitation
measurements)

Bob: if you saw the complete show, do you know more about the guy (name,
affiliation)? i only caught it mid-way

she told me that the different declarations of each place being the
driest depends on the original source, the scientific publication that
had found the proof, so it's likely that both propositions are referring
to different reaserch papers.

we ended up sending an email to the folks at NGS, i'll let you know if
they reply :)