There's good news ahead for dark sky supporters – a real prescription for light pollution. It's called Resolution 516: Advocating and Support for Light Pollution Control Efforts and Glare Reduction for Both Public Safety and Energy Savings. What's it all about and how did it turn out? Then step inside… Where it's dark at last. Read more…
Filed under: Earth, Environment | 6 Comments »
Wednesday is Earth Day, but all week — Monday, April 20 through Saturday, April 26 — is National Dark Sky Week in America, when people are asked to dim the lights to see more stars.
If enough people participate, backyard and professional astronomers might be treated with a week of darker, starrier skies. The bigger idea is to raise awareness about sensible lighting practices, so skies might get a little bit darker all the time. And not just for astronomy buffs. Besides aesthetics, evidence is mounting that light pollution could have far-reaching effects for the environment and even public health.
Filed under: Earth, Environment, IYA 2009 | 7 Comments »
Since the 1890s, surface temperatures on Earth have risen faster in the Arctic than in other regions of the world. Usually, discussions on global warming tend to focus on greenhouse gases as the culprit for the trend. But new NASA research suggests about half the atmospheric warming measured in the Arctic is due to airborne particles called aerosols.
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Filed under: Earth Observation, Environment | 30 Comments »
The ozone layer over the far northern hemisphere -- once robust compared to the Antarctic concentrations -- would have developed a similar ozone hole by the 2020s without the Montreal Protocol. Reds represent healthy ozone concentrations; blues show depletion. Credit: NASA Goddard
Imagine the year 2065. Two-thirds of Earth's ozone is gone. The infamous ozone hole over Antarctica is a year-round fixture with a twin over the North Pole. People living in mid-latitude cities like Washington, D.C., get sunburned after five minutes. DNA-mutating UV radiation is up 650 percent, with likely harmful effects on plants, animals and human skin cancer rates.
Such is the world we would have inherited if 193 nations had not agreed to ban ozone-depleting substances, according to atmospheric chemists at NASA, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in Bilthoven. The researchers have unveiled new computer simulations this week of a worldwide disaster that humans managed to avoid.
In retrospect, the researchers say, the Montreal Protocol was a "remarkable international agreement that should be studied by those involved with global warming and the attempts to reach international agreement on that topic."
Filed under: Earth, Earth Observation, Environment, NASA | 20 Comments »
Artist's impression of the GOCE satellite. Credit: ESA
Europe's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is headed into orbit, after a successful launch at 10:21 a.m. EDT (14:21 GMT) on Tuesday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
The successful liftoff came after delays stretching back to last September, but Tuesday's launch went off without any complications.
"It was a nice liftoff," said Mission Scientist Mark Drinkwater.
Filed under: Earth Observation, Environment, Missions, Satellites | 7 Comments »
GOCE, (still) pre-launch
Europe's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) seems to be stuck on the pad.
The climate change satellite was expected to launch out of Russia at 14:21 GMT (10:21 EDT) today, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. The weather was fine and mission managers were optimistic with seconds to liftoff — and then, everything froze. With seven seconds left on the countdown clock, an unexpected hold went into place and ESA broadcasters simply stopped talking.
Update, 12:30 p.m. EDT: The ESA has announced that launch failed when the doors of the launch service tower did not open. The tower was held in position and did not move back as required for a launch. An investigation is under way, and the agency intends to try again tomorrow at the same time (15:21 CET; 14:21 GMT; 10:21 a.m. EDT).
Filed under: Earth Observation, Environment, Missions, Satellites | 6 Comments »
With less than six weeks to go, more than 500 cities around the world have officially agreed to go dark in support of global action on climate change. On March 28, 2009 at 8:30 p.m., local time, World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour — Earth Hour — to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate their commitment to finding solutions. Step inside and find out how you can become a part of this historic event… Read more…
Filed under: Earth, Environment | 76 Comments »
Responding to a deadly 1997 outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease Rift Valley fever, researchers had developed a "risk map," pictured above, using NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration measurements of sea surface temperatures, precipitation, and vegetation cover. As reported in a recent NASA-led study, the map gave public health officials in East Africa up to six weeks of warning for the 2006-2007 outbreak of the deadly Rift Valley fever in northeast Africa – enough time to lessen human impact.
On the map above, pink areas depict increased disease risk, while pale green areas reflect normal risk. Yellow dots represent reported Rift Valley fever cases in high-risk areas, while blue dots represent occurrences in non-risk areas. The researchers have detailed the map's effectiveness in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Filed under: Earth, Earth Observation, Environment, NASA | 3 Comments »
The European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite has been cleared for takeoff, following nearly a year in limbo while the mission team awaited the go-ahead from a private launch company.
Originally expected to launch in 2008, SMOS has been in storage at Thales Alenia Space's facilities in Cannes, France since last May, awaiting a launch appointment at the Russian Plesetsk Cosmodrome, north of Moscow. If all goes according to plan, the craft will now launch between July and October, the second ESA mission in a series of six designed to observe Earth from space and bolster an understanding of climate change. The first of the satellites in its new Living Planet Program, The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE), is scheduled to go up March 16.
Filed under: Astronomy, Earth, Earth Observation, Environment, Missions | 12 Comments »
UPDATE: Satellite Images from February 9 have now been added below.
As of this writing, 94 people (update 2/9/09) 135 have been killed by out-of-control bushfires in southeast Australia. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows multiple large fires (outlined in red) burning in Victoria on February 7. Huge plumes of smoke spread southeast, driven by fierce winds. Click here to see a larger version of the image, which shows a larger area, and a dust storm blowing over interior deserts to the northwest. News sources report these fires sprang up and exploded in size in just a few short hours. According to ABC News, authorities suspect arsonists are responsible for some of the fires. NASA says images captured by another satellite, the Terra MODIS sensor, just a few hours prior to this image showed no sign of these fires. Twice-daily images of southeastern Australia are available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team, and Universe Today will try to update the images when they are available. See more below.
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Filed under: Earth Observation, Environment | 45 Comments »
Little yellow ducks, the new face of the global warming fight (Wikimedia Commons)
Filed under: Environment, NASA | 14 Comments »
Chinese weather control rocket blasts off (Source: ImpactLab.com)
Filed under: China, Environment, Military | 16 Comments »
The Russian Air Force, during a mission to clear the skies of potentially rain-filled clouds, dropped a mixture of silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder in an attempt to seed the clouds. This form of climate modification is common practice in Russia, when attempting to engineer dry days on public holidays and special events in Moscow. However, during the cloud seeding operation last week, cement dropped from one of the aircraft failed to fragment when falling through the air, falling as a solid mass, crashing through the roof of a Moscow suburban home…
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Filed under: Environment | 15 Comments »
In a new report, the viability of sending solar panels into space to collect a vast quantity of uninterrupted energy has been re-investigated. Although the idea has been around since the 1970's, space solar power has always been viewed as prohibitively expensive. In the current energy climate down here on Earth with spiralling oil prices and a massive push toward green energy sources, sending massive solar arrays into geosynchronous orbit doesn't seem like such a strange (or expensive) idea. There are many obstacles in the way of this plan, but the international community is becoming more interested, and whoever is first to set up an orbital array will have a flexible and unlimited energy resource…
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Filed under: Earth, Environment, Satellites | 34 Comments »
This is one of the finest examples of satellite collaboration. Five Earth-observing orbiters, four from NASA and one from France, are working together to provide the deepest analysis of cloud cover ever carried out. The satellites orbit in a close formation, only eight minutes apart, and create what is known as the "Afternoon Constellation" (or "A-Train" for short). They are so close in fact, that they can be considered to act as one satellite, capable of carrying out a vast suite of measurements on the pollution content of clouds. This work is shedding new light on the link between clouds, pollution and rainfall, a study that could never be achieved with one satellite alone…
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Filed under: Earth Observation, Environment, Satellites | 6 Comments »
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