{"id":1512,"date":"2026-08-24T21:19:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T04:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/richardson-lab.nau.edu\/?p=1512"},"modified":"2026-08-25T05:28:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:28:53","slug":"things-to-do-on-a-long-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardson-lab.nau.edu\/?p=1512","title":{"rendered":"Passing the time on a long drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s 698 miles (1123 km) from Carmel Valley, CA, to Flagstaff, and it’s a drive that Andrew and George Koch have done more than a few times for their redwoods projects; west of Carmel Valley in the Santa Lucia Preserve lie some fog-shrouded canyons where redwoods grow at the southern end of their range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlights of the drive back to Flagstaff include the larger-than-life cutout figures<\/a> near Salinas by local artist John Cerney , lunch at Taco Bros in Bakersfield, the Railroad Loop (not visible from the highway) at Tehachapi Pass, beautiful Barstow, the vast expanse of the Mojave Desert, the crossing of the Colorado River at Needles, CA\u2014Topock, AZ, and the slow climb back up to the Colorado Plateau around Kingman .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a recent trip back from Santa Lucia Preserve, topics of discussion included: (1) what is the impact of a large solar farm on net radiation and partitioning the surface energy balance? (2) how does a wind farm affect local climate? (3) how is heat from a data center dissipated, and could it be used for domestic heating? and, driving through Barstow, (4) how hot will it be at the low point on the drive, crossing the Colorado River at an elevation of 429 ft (129 m)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question 4, in particular, led to some passenger-seat science! South of Mojave National Preserve, I-40 reaches a maximum elevation of about 3300 ft (1000 m) before dropping down to the Colorado. Using the ambient temperature sensor in George’s Ford Maverick (reporting integer values in \u00b0F) and the My Altitude app on Andrew’s iPhone, data on air temperature and elevation were recorded every 200 ft from just over 2500 ft down to about 500 ft, and then entered into Gemini for analysis and plotting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The calculated lapse rate of 0.95 \u00b1 0.14 \u00b0C per 100 m compares quite favorably with textbook values for the dry adiabatic lapse rate, typically accepted as 0.98 \u00b0C per 100 m elevation. The temperature crossing the Colorado? 117 \u00b0F, or 47 \u00b0C. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bored on your next long drive? Think science! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
AI-generated plot of elevation (ft above sea level) and temperature (\u00b0F) data recorded on the I-40 descent to the Colorado River. The analysis was speedily completed within minutes of crossing the River. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s 698 miles (1123 km) from Carmel Valley, CA, to Flagstaff, and it’s a drive that Andrew and George Koch have done more than a few times for their redwoods projects; west of Carmel Valley in the Santa Lucia Preserve lie some fog-shrouded canyons where redwoods grow at the southern end of their range. Highlights … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Passing the time on a long drive”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPassing the time on a long drive - The Richardson Lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/richardson-lab.nau.edu\/?p=1512\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Passing the time on a long drive - The Richardson Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s 698 miles (1123 km) from Carmel Valley, CA, to Flagstaff, and it’s a drive that Andrew and George Koch have done more than a few times for their redwoods projects; west of Carmel Valley in the Santa Lucia Preserve lie some fog-shrouded canyons where redwoods grow at the southern end of their range. 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