From USA Today, we get a teachable moment.

The headline reads “Weekend snow sets stage for polar vortex’s icy return”

"Snow is forecast to spread across the nation's northern tier this weekend and as far east as Maine by Monday, setting the stage for another blast of bitterly cold air next week that could send temperatures plunging as far south as Atlanta.

As serious winter weather settles in, the anticipation of harsh cold marks the reappearance of the Polar Vortex, like the one that infamously slammed the U.S. in January 2014.

The Polar Vortex is a large area of cold air high up in the atmosphere that normally lives over the poles but can dip down into North America from time to time thanks to a meandering jet stream."

Here is living proof that SCOTUS got it wrong in Massachusetts v. EPA and that what you think you know about Global Climate Change is wrong. The dominant greenhouse gas is water vapor, not CO2.

Here is a graph showing the relative atmospheric transmission of various gases. You will see water transmits much less radiation than CO2 over the whole spectrum and this is particularly true the shorter the wavelength (i.e. the further left on the graph). Shorter wavelengths have more energy. Also, note that while the concentration of CO2 is about 400 part per million, on average water is about 1% or 10,000 ppm. There is vastly more water vapor than CO2 in the atmosphere.

What happens in a polar vortex is that because the days are short the air temperature drops and the water precipitates out as snow. With very little water vapor left, despite a full 400 ppm of CO2, the greenhouse effect drops dramatically and the Earth radiates heat 24 hours a day out into deep space. The air gets cold. Note that the CO2 is unable to retain the heat. Its contribution to the greenhouse effect is small by comparison.

The snow on the ground compounds the effect by reflecting the sunlight back out before it warms the ground. Temperatures plummet. The air gets so cold we consider it to be like that at the North Pole, it is polar.

Another example of this is in South America. The tropical Amazon rain forest is hot. The prevailing winds from the east blow the air up to and over the Andes mountains. As the air rises, it cools and precipitates out the water vapor as rain (in the rain forest). To the west, on the leeward side of the Andes, nighttime temperatures get cold.

Look up the climate of the Atacama Desert. Should NASA know these facts? One would think so since they use the area "to test instruments for future Mars missions."

NASA is going to face a choice, tell the truth about the hype of AGW, or see your funding for Mars exploration cut out. Elections have consequences.