«One of our tasks is to
determine the
exact sequence of steps for breaking apart water and CO2 into atoms and piecing them back together to form ethanol and oxygen,» says William Goddard (PhD» 65), the Charles and Mary Ferkel Professor of Chemistry,
Materials Science, and Applied Physics, who led the Caltech team.
These stem from a diversity of site - specific conditions, including, but not limited to: local vegetation; presence of building structures and contributions made by such structures involving energy use, heating and air conditioning, etc; exposure to winds, the wind velocities
determined by climatic factors and also whether certain wind directions are more favored than others by terrain or the presence or absence thereof to bodies of water; proximity to grass, asphalt, concrete or other
material surfaces; the physical conditions of the CRS itself which include: the
exact location of the temperature sensors within it, the degree of unimpeded flow of external air through the CRS, the character of the paint used; the
exact height of the instrument above the external surface (noting that when the ground is covered by 3 feet of snow, the temperature instrument is about 60 % closer to, or less than 2 feet, above an excellent radiating surface, much closer than it would be under snow - free conditions).
The
exact cause of the Kalamazoo River oil spill has yet to be
determined; investigations are being conducted by both the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous
Materials Safety Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.