9/11 Families NYCCAN Ballot Initiative an opportunity for VFP

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9/11 Families NYCCAN Ballot Initiative an opportunity for PEACE and PROSECUTION of Bush/Cheney et al

Support the Troops:

Let VFP use the NYCCAN demand for a 9/11 investigation as the opportunity for Peace and Justice that it is.

Over 50,000 voters in New York City have signed a petition to investigate the biggest unsolved crime of mass murder in American History. New York City voters know that only a valid criminal investigation will hold accountable those who are culpable in the massive failures to defend the citizens of the United States on 9/11/2001.

A successful ballot initiative could ultimately force mainstream media to finally acknowledge hard evidence that demolishes the governmen'ts official story of the events of 9/11.

Go to the site and support NYCCAN.org like a soldier's life depends on it!

If you live in NYC -- or know someone who does -- get the petition signed to ensure the initiative gets on the ballot.

Go to the Site: http://nyccan.org/

Dear Friends! On Wednesday, June 24, 2009, we filed the petition with 52,000 signatures! 9/11 Family Members Maureen Hunt and Manny Badillo, and First Responders Charlie Giles of the Feal Good Foundation and Bill Gleason of the World Trade Center Rescuers Foundation, arrived at the City Clerk’s office to deliver the petition and speak in behalf of all the proud and concerned citizens who deserve an unbiased, nonpolitical investigation of the tragedy that has affected us so deeply. Thank you for getting us this far! City Council now has until August 24 to approve the placement of the referendum on the November 3 ballot. As hundreds more family members, first responders and survivors join our campaign and lobby their council members to support the petition, our chances grow. In the unlikely event City Council does not approve the placement of the referendum on the ballot, we will be prepared to deliver an additional 30,000 signatures on August 24 to guarantee it gets on the ballot. Already we have 8,000 of the additional 30,000! Now more than ever is the moment to stand up for what we believe in and convert to reality what we have been working towards for so long. This is how you can help: DONATE IF YOU CAN. We need money to pay our amazing petitioners who are now collecting 4,000 to 5,000 signatures per week. We need money to pay a legal team. We need money to launch a full-scale PR campaign once the referendum is on the ballot. Go to http://NYCCAN.org/donate.php right now! TELL FAMILY MEMBERS, FIRST RESPONDERS and SURVIVORS. We have a Statement of Support at NYCCAN.ORG that every family member, first responder, and survivor is welcome to sign. We have already accumulated over 60 signatories in the last week - THANK YOU to those of you who joined us in calling for a new, impartial investigation. Now our goal is to reach 1,000 signatories by September 11, 2009. If you know someone who was directly affected and wants accountability, send them to NYCCAN.ORG. The more New York-based family members, first responders and survivors who sign on, the more City Council will hear from the constituents it simply can’t ignore. TELL YOUR FRIENDS. Nothing works like word of mouth. Forward this email far and wide. While there is little room for celebration, we deserve to be proud of how far we have gotten and where we are going. Over eighteen months of hard work and selfless dedication from hundreds of individuals, and the generosity and faith shown by thousands of you across the globe, have gotten us here. And now it comes down to the next four months. Thank you for standing with us. Sincerely, Ted Walter P.S. We will soon have photos and video of the petition filing up on the website. Be sure to check back! Thinkers think and talkers talk. Patriots ACT.

Executive Council Donna Marsh O'Connor Bob McIlvaine Jean Canavan Edith Beaujon Janette MacKinlay William Rodriguez Ted Walter Executive Director Frank Morales Treasurer NYCCAN.org info@nyccan.org 1173A Second Ave Suite 155 New York, New York 10065

BREAKING: NYCCAN Files Petition for 9/11 Investigation

Dear Friends! On Wednesday, June 24, 2009, we filed the petition with 52,000 signatures! 9/11 Family Members Maureen Hunt and Manny Badillo, and First Responders Charlie Giles of the Feal Good Foundation and Bill Gleason of the World Trade Center Rescuers Foundation, arrived at the City Clerk’s office to deliver the petition and speak in behalf of all the proud and concerned citizens who deserve an unbiased, nonpolitical investigation of the tragedy that has affected us so deeply. Thank you for getting us this far! City Council now has until August 24 to approve the placement of the referendum on the November 3 ballot. As hundreds more family members, first responders and survivors join our campaign and lobby their council members to support the petition, our chances grow. In the unlikely event City Council does not approve the placement of the referendum on the ballot, we will be prepared to deliver an additional 30,000 signatures on August 24 to guarantee it gets on the ballot. Already we have 8,000 of the additional 30,000! Now more than ever is the moment to stand up for what we believe in and convert to reality what we have been working towards for so long. This is how you can help: DONATE IF YOU CAN. We need money to pay our amazing petitioners who are now collecting 4,000 to 5,000 signatures per week. We need money to pay a legal team. We need money to launch a full-scale PR campaign once the referendum is on the ballot. Go to http://NYCCAN.org/donate.php right now! TELL FAMILY MEMBERS, FIRST RESPONDERS and SURVIVORS. We have a Statement of Support at NYCCAN.ORG that every family member, first responder, and survivor is welcome to sign. We have already accumulated over 60 signatories in the last week - THANK YOU to those of you who joined us in calling for a new, impartial investigation. Now our goal is to reach 1,000 signatories by September 11, 2009. If you know someone who was directly affected and wants accountability, send them to NYCCAN.ORG. The more New York-based family members, first responders and survivors who sign on, the more City Council will hear from the constituents it simply can’t ignore. TELL YOUR FRIENDS. Nothing works like word of mouth. Forward this email far and wide. While there is little room for celebration, we deserve to be proud of how far we have gotten and where we are going. Over eighteen months of hard work and selfless dedication from hundreds of individuals, and the generosity and faith shown by thousands of you across the globe, have gotten us here. And now it comes down to the next four months. Thank you for standing with us. Sincerely, Ted Walter P.S. We will soon have photos and video of the petition filing up on the website. Be sure to check back! Thinkers think and talkers talk. Patriots ACT.

Lawyers for 9/11 Families Show Evidence of Saudi Terrorist Financing

June 24, 2009 Documents Back Saudi Link to Extremists By ERIC LICHTBLAU WASHINGTON — Documents gathered by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims provide new evidence of extensive financial support for Al Qaeda and other extremist groups by members of the Saudi royal family, but the material may never find its way into court because of legal and diplomatic obstacles. The case has put the Obama administration in the middle of a political and legal dispute, with the Justice Department siding with the Saudis in court last month in seeking to kill further legal action. Adding to the intrigue, classified American intelligence documents related to Saudi finances were leaked anonymously to lawyers for the families. The Justice Department had the lawyers’ copies destroyed and now wants to prevent a judge from even looking at the material. The Saudis and their defenders in Washington have long denied links to terrorists, and they have mounted an aggressive and, so far, successful campaign to beat back the allegations in federal court based on a claim of sovereign immunity. Allegations of Saudi links to terrorism have been the subject of years of government investigations and furious debate. Critics have said that some members of the Saudi ruling class pay off terrorist groups in part to keep them from being more active in their own country. But the thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents compiled by lawyers for the Sept. 11 families and their insurers represented an unusually detailed look at some of the evidence. Internal Treasury Department documents obtained by the lawyers under the Freedom of Information Act, for instance, said that a prominent Saudi charity, the International Islamic Relief Organization, heavily supported by members of the Saudi royal family, showed “support for terrorist organizations” at least through 2006. A self-described Qaeda operative in Bosnia said in an interview with lawyers in the lawsuit that another charity largely controlled by members of the royal family, the Saudi High Commission for Aid to Bosnia, provided money and supplies to the terrorist group in the 1990s and hired militant operatives like himself. Another witness in Afghanistan said in a sworn statement that in 1998 he had witnessed an emissary for a leading Saudi prince, Turki al-Faisal, hand a check for one billion Saudi riyals (now worth about $267 million) to a top Taliban leader. And a confidential German intelligence report gave a line-by-line description of tens of millions of dollars in bank transfers, with dates and dollar amounts, made in the early 1990s by Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz and other members of the Saudi royal family to another charity that was suspected of financing militants’ activities in Pakistan and Bosnia. The new documents, provided to The New York Times by the lawyers, are among several hundred thousand pages of investigative material obtained by the Sept. 11 families and their insurers as part of a long-running civil lawsuit seeking to hold Saudi Arabia and its royal family liable for financing Al Qaeda. Only a fraction of the documents have been entered into the court record, and much of the new material is unknown even to the Saudi lawyers in the case. The documents provide no smoking gun connecting the royal family to the events of Sept. 11, 2001. And the broader links rely at times on a circumstantial, connect-the-dots approach to tie together Saudi princes, Middle Eastern charities, suspicious transactions and terrorist groups. Saudi lawyers and supporters say that the links are flimsy and exploit stereotypes about terrorism, and that the country is being sued because it has deep pockets and was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers. “In looking at all the evidence the families brought together, I have not seen one iota of evidence that Saudi Arabia had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks,” Michael Kellogg, a Washington lawyer representing Prince Muhammad al-Faisal al-Saud in the lawsuit, said in an interview. He and other defense lawyers said that rather than supporting Al Qaeda, the Saudis were sworn enemies of its leader, Osama bin Laden, who was exiled from Saudi Arabia, his native country, in 1996. “It’s an absolute tragedy what happened to them, and I understand their anger,” Mr. Kellogg said of the victims’ families. “They want to find those responsible, but I think they’ve been disserved by their lawyers by bringing claims without any merit against the wrong people.” The Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment. Two federal judges and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals have already ruled against the 7,630 people represented in the lawsuit, made up of survivors of the attacks and family members of those killed, throwing out the suit on the ground that the families cannot bring legal action in the United States against a sovereign nation and its leaders. The Supreme Court is expected to decide this week whether to hear an appeal, but the families’ prospects dimmed last month when the Justice Department sided with the Saudis in their immunity claim and urged the court not to consider the appeal. The Justice Department said a 1976 law on sovereign immunity protected the Saudis from liability and noted that “potentially significant foreign relations consequences” would arise if such suits were allowed to proceed. “Cases like this put the U.S. government in an extremely difficult position when it has to make legal arguments, even when they are the better view of the law, that run counter to those of terrorist victims,” said John Bellinger, a former State Department lawyer who was involved in the Saudi litigation. Senior Obama administration officials held a private meeting on Monday with 9/11 family members to speak about progress in cracking down on terrorist financing. Administration officials at the meeting largely sidestepped questions about the lawsuit, according to participants. But the official who helped lead the meeting, Stuart A. Levey, the under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, has been outspoken in his criticism of wealthy Saudis, saying they have helped to finance terrorism. Even if the 9/11 families were to get their trial in the lawsuit, they might have difficulty getting some of their new material into evidence. Some would most likely be challenged on grounds it was irrelevant or uncorroborated hearsay, or that it related to Saudis who were clearly covered by sovereign immunity. And if the families were to clear those hurdles, two intriguing pieces of evidence in the Saudi puzzle might still remain off limits. One is a 28-page, classified section of the 2003 joint Congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks. The secret section is believed to discuss intelligence on Saudi financial links to two hijackers, and the Saudis themselves urged at the time that it be made public. President George W. Bush declined to do so. Kristen Breitweiser, an advocate for Sept. 11 families, whose husband was killed in the World Trade Center, said in an interview that during a White House meeting in February between President Obama and victims’ families, the president told her that he was willing to make the pages public. But she said she had not heard from the White House since then. The other evidence that may not be admissible consists of classified documents leaked to one of the law firms representing the families, Motley Rice of South Carolina, which is headed by Ronald Motley, a well-known trial lawyer who won lucrative lawsuits involving asbestos and tobacco. Lawyers for the firm say someone anonymously slipped them 55 documents that contained classified government material relating to the Saudi lawsuit. Though she declined to describe the records, Jodi Flowers, a lawyer for Motley Rice, said she was pushing to have them placed in the court file. “We wouldn’t be fighting this hard, and we wouldn’t have turned the material over to the judge, if we didn’t think it was really important to the case,” she said.

D.C. Crash Kills General Who Scrambled Jets on 9/11

D.C. Crash Kills General Who Scrambled Jets on 9/11

Ryan Flinn and Todd Shields Ryan Flinn And Todd Shields – Wed Jun 24, 11:40 am ET

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- David F. Wherley Jr., the head of the Washington National Guard who scrambled jets over the city during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was among those killed in the worst commuter train crash in the city’s history, officials said.

Wherley’s wife, Ann, was also among the nine people killed when a train plowed into the rear of a stopped train during rush hour on June 22, Quintin Peterson, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department, said in a telephone interview. Both were 62 and lived in southeast Washington.

Wherley was commander of the 113th Fighter Wing at Andrews Air Force base in Maryland during the September 2001 terrorist attacks and sent up aircraft with orders to protect the White House and the Capitol, according to the 9/11 Commission report.

He commanded the District of Columbia National Guard from 2003 to 2008, the unit said in a statement.

“I had the opportunity to work with him as he commanded the troops here in D.C. and as he sent them off to war,” Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said at a news conference yesterday. “He was as fine a public servant and as dedicated to the United States of America and everything that is great about this country as anyone I have ever met.”

The operator of the train, Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Virginia, was also killed, according to Angela Gates, a spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

Others Who Died

The others who died were Mary Doolittle, 59, of northwest Washington; Veronica Dubose, 29, of northwest Washington; Ana Fernandez, 40, of Hyattsville, Maryland; Dennis Hawkins, 64, of southeast Washington; Lavonda King, 23, of northeast Washington and Cameron Williams, 37, whose address wasn’t available, Peterson said.

Wherley established the D.C. National Guard’s Youth Challenge program, according to the guard’s statement. The residential program offers academic instruction, physical training and discipline to young people including high school dropouts, according to its Web site.

“General Wherley was not only the quintessential citizen soldier -- he also made valuable contributions to our community,” said Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, according to the guard’s statement. Landrieu said the Youth Challenge program “has changed the lives of thousands of at-risk children in D.C. and around the country.”

Wherley flew T-38 training jets and F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom combat jets during a military career that began in 1969, according to the guard’s statement. It said he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Fordham University in New York City in 1969, and a master’s in business administration from the University of Maryland in 1977.

The Wherleys left a son, David, who is a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army Golden Knights, a daughter, Betsy, and one grandchild, according to the guard.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net or Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net

Democrats Sell Out On Healthcare

Democrats Sell Out on National Health Care A national health care plan of any meaningful kind is doomed. There are many reasons why it doesn’t have a chance. Democrats, even with their overwhelming majority in Congress, show us once more that they don’t have the courage to lead. It is as if they have already forgotten about their years of irrelevance that were brought on by their own terminal timidity. They really are such an easy target for Republicans because even as creepy as Republicans look today, they at least stand for something. Americans respect that. It’s not only cowardice that will doom national health care. Seventy-two percent of Americans want meaningful healthcare reform. The bad news is that organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the pharmaceutical industry, and the insurance industry, want to maintain business as usual because for them, our dysfunctional system is a cash cow. Drug companies showed a profit of 80 billion dollars last year while the health care industry collected 13 billion in profits. Life is good, and they are spreading all those billions around to the Democrats – the same way they did for the Republicans. For every one member of congress, there are four health care lobbyists. Where money and politics is involved, a donkey looks exactly like an elephant. Max Baucus is the head donkey with his hand out this time around. He is a Democrat senator from Montana who is supposed to help lead the reform legislation. It would be difficult to find a senator in Washington who is more beholding to drug companies, and insurance companies. Those groups adore Baucus to the tune of almost 4 million dollars in campaign contributions. So here’s how Baucus repays the favor: He works to derail real healthcare reform, the kind that three quarters of Americans want. He helps negotiate a “deal” with the drug companies where those companies promise to lower drug costs so older Americans can afford the medicines that keep them alive. The trade-off is that government is not permitted to limit costs like they could under a national health care system. In other words, there will be no cost oversight … business as usual. But the Baucus scam doesn’t end there. Baucus wants to protect the profits of the people who own him by passing on reform costs to families that receive health insurance benefits from their employers. The value of health benefit plans that cover hospitalization, drugs, vision and dental care would be taxed. Baucus is no doubt certain that his plan would be difficult to sell. But that’s the point. The people who paid him 4 million dollars don’t want reform of any kind. To them, it’s better to kill reform completely. So here’s the fallout: The United States remains the only industrialized country in the world without a universal health care system. - 46 million Americans remain uninsured; - 20 thousand people continue to die each year because they are uninsured; - Elderly Americans continue to make the choice of whether they should eat or buy medicine; - Health care costs continue to bankrupt American families. But there will be some justice. Democrats will lose in midterm elections because voters will remember that they are nothing more than Bill-Clinton-gutless moderates. For the video, click here.

Posted in: Political Commentary Tags: max baucus, healthcare, reform, insurance industry, pharmaceutical, profit, chamber of commerce, mike papantonio, pap attack, ring of fire, air america radio, golefttv

Bangsters Are Runnung the United States

You'll never hear this explained on the financial news channels. Here's how the bailouts really work. So far, $11 to $12 trillion has been committed with no end in sight - and, very often, the details and terms are not subject to public oversight. The difference between the Bush and Obama administrations on this issue is Zero. Interview with Rolling Stones political correspondent, Matt Taibbi on "Ring of Fire" Radio hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr http://ringoffireradio.com/blogengine/ ============================================ ============================================

Global dimming and brightening: A review

Global dimming and brightening: A review

Martin Wild: Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

There is increasing evidence that the amount of solar radiation incident at the Earth's surface is not stable over the years but undergoes significant decadal variations. Here I review the evidence for these changes, their magnitude, their possible causes, their representation in climate models, and their potential implications for climate change. The various studies analyzing long-term records of surface radiation measurements suggest a widespread decrease in surface solar radiation between the 1950s and 1980s ("global dimming"), with a partial recovery more recently at many locations ("brightening"). There are also some indications for an "early brightening" in the first part of the 20th century. These variations are in line with independent long-term observations of sunshine duration, diurnal temperature range, pan evaporation, and, more recently, satellite-derived estimates, which add credibility to the existence of these changes and their larger-scale significance. Current climate models, in general, tend to simulate these decadal variations to a much lesser degree. The origins of these variations are internal to the Earth's atmosphere and not externally forced by the Sun. Variations are not only found under cloudy but also under cloud-free atmospheres, indicative of an anthropogenic contribution through changes in aerosol emissions governed by economic developments and air pollution regulations. The relative importance of aerosols, clouds, and aerosol-cloud interactions may differ depending on region and pollution level. Highlighted are further potential implications of dimming and brightening for climate change, which may affect global warming, the components and intensity of the hydrological cycle, the carbon cycle, and the cryosphere among other climate elements.

Received 14 November 2008; accepted 10 March 2009; published 27 June 2009.

Citation: Wild, M. (2009), Global dimming and brightening: A review, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D00D16, doi:10.1029/2008JD011470.

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2008JD011470.shtml

Impact of geoengineered aerosols on the troposphere and stratosphere

Impact of geoengineered aerosols on the troposphere and stratosphere

Published 27 June 2009. Simone Tilmes Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA Rolando R. Garcia Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA Douglas E. Kinnison Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA Andrew Gettelman Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA Philip J. Rasch Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA

A coupled chemistry climate model, the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model was used to perform a transient climate simulation to quantify the impact of geoengineered aerosols on atmospheric processes. In contrast to previous model studies, the impact on stratospheric chemistry, including heterogeneous chemistry in the polar regions, is considered in this simulation. In the geoengineering simulation, a constant stratospheric distribution of volcanic-sized, liquid sulfate aerosols is imposed in the period 2020–2050, corresponding to an injection of 2 Tg S/a. The aerosol cools the troposphere compared to a baseline simulation. Assuming an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change A1B emission scenario, global warming is delayed by about 40 years in the troposphere with respect to the baseline scenario. Large local changes of precipitation and temperatures may occur as a result of geoengineering. Comparison with simulations carried out with the Community Atmosphere Model indicates the importance of stratospheric processes for estimating the impact of stratospheric aerosols on the Earth's climate. Changes in stratospheric dynamics and chemistry, especially faster heterogeneous reactions, reduce the recovery of the ozone layer in middle and high latitudes for the Southern Hemisphere. In the geoengineering case, the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole is delayed by about 30 years on the basis of this model simulation. For the Northern Hemisphere, a onefold to twofold increase of the chemical ozone depletion occurs owing to a simulated stronger polar vortex and colder temperatures compared to the baseline simulation, in agreement with observational estimates. Received 5 November 2008; accepted 15 April 2009; published 27 June 2009.

Citation: Tilmes, S., R. R. Garcia, D. E. Kinnison, A. Gettelman, and P. J. Rasch (2009), Impact of geoengineered aerosols on the troposphere and stratosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D12305, doi:10.1029/2008JD011420.

Government Employee talks about CHEMTRAILS

Government Employee talks about CHEMTRAILS Friday, June 26, 2009 Ex-Government Employee talks about CHEMTRAILS A.C. Griffith Source: Disclose.tv Link here Parts 1 though 5 Ex-Government Employee talks about CHEMTRAILS 1/5 Video Ex-Government Employee talks about CHEMTRAILS 2/5 Video Ex-Government Employee talks about CHEMTRAILS 3/5 Video Ex-Government Employee talks about CHEMTRAILS 4/5 Video Ex-Government Employee talks about CHEMTRAILS 5/5 Video

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Last edited by ricklbert; Today at 12:33 AM.

Effect of aerosol on trade cumulus cloud morphology

Effect of aerosol on trade cumulus cloud morphology

Effect of aerosol on trade cumulus cloud morphology

Hongli Jiang

Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Graham Feingold

Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Ilan Koren

Department of Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel

Large-eddy simulations of trade wind cumulus clouds are conducted for clean and polluted aerosol conditions and at a number of different grid sizes to explore (1) the microphysical and morphological responses of fields of cumulus to aerosol perturbations and (2) the robustness of these responses to resolution. Cloud size distributions are shown to be well approximated by a negative power law function indicating that as resolution increases, more and more small clouds are resolved. Cloud fraction in the highest-resolution simulations is 30% higher than in the coarse-resolution simulations. Polluted cloud populations contain higher numbers of smaller clouds than clean cloud populations. Their frequency of convection is higher and lifetimes are shorter. The polluted clouds also tend to have higher cloud-averaged liquid water contents. It is hypothesized that these responses are a result of a chain reaction set off by stronger evaporation at cloud edges in the case of polluted clouds. In all cases, the smallest clouds either dominate or contribute significantly to cloud fraction and cloud reflectance, in accord with recent satellite studies. The response of cloud fraction and liquid water path to aerosol changes is shown to be strongly dependent on the definition of what constitutes a “cloud,” suggesting that caution be exercised before parameterizing these responses.

Received 13 January 2009; accepted 13 April 2009; published 13 June 2009.

Citation: Jiang, H., G. Feingold, and I. Koren (2009), Effect of aerosol on trade cumulus cloud morphology, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D11209, doi:10.1029/2009JD011750.

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2009/2009JD011750.shtml