Sky in Athens turns Red

Dust Till Dawn. Wednesday, 24 April, residents in Athens, Greece were greeted with a surreal sight: the city's blue skies and famous landmarks like the Acropolis were bathed in an ominous glow of red, yellow and orange, all due to an epic dust storm from the Sahara Desert.

Strong winds blew fine sand from the arid region to the Mediterranean area and choked up not just the skies over Athens but also other areas in Greece, according to the newspaper, prompting local officials to call this episode one of the worst dust storms since 2018.

Dramatic scenes played out that were more reminiscent of the "Dune" franchise, as people took to social media to document the orange and red skies blanketing the historic city.

🌐 External Research Links - Science, futurism, aiecolution

26.04.2024

Chinese cities are sinking into The Earth

According to the study, which was conducted by a team of over 50 Chinese scientists using radar observations and published this week in the journal Science, almost half of China's 82 major cities are experiencing rapid subsidence. Subsidence isn't just a problem in China. Countries worldwide are experiencing a concerning level of land sink, and in January, a satellite-based study revealed that US' major East Coast population centers are similarly caving into the Earth, as are gulf cities like New Orleans and Houston.

"This is a big problem," Robert Nicholls, a professor of climate adaptation at the University of East Anglia in England who wasn't involved with the study, told NPR. "The scale is large."

"Without doubt," he added, this new study "brings home that this is not a local problem. This is a national, or even international, problem."

🌐 External Research Links - Science, aiecolution

20.04.2024

Satellite Capture Extraordinary Flooding in the United Arab Emirates

A slow-moving storm system pummeled the United Arab Emirates and dropped more than a year’s worth of rain on some cities in April 2024. Heavy rain triggered flash flooding across eastern parts of the country, inundating roads and disrupting transportation. The system first hit Oman on April 14 and continued to batter the UAE through most of the day on April 16. The strong low-pressure system delivered multiple rounds of high winds and heavy rain to the northern and eastern parts of the country. Some areas remained flooded on April 20, when Landsat 9 passed over the region for the first time since the storms. 

Government Denies Dubai Flooding Was Due to Cloud-Seeding Experiments

🌐 External Research - Landsat 9, aiecolution

20.04.2024

Scientists Test Sun-Dimming Device Using Decommissioned Aircraft carrier

In an effort to halt the worst effects of climate change, scientists are experimenting with a device built atop a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay that would dim the Sun by salting the clouds.

Yes, you read that right — researchers from the University of Washington are, seeking to introduce salt to the clouds over the ocean, which would theoretically deflect the Sun's light back upwards and keep the Earth below cooler.

While it's a somewhat outlandish gambit, it's not without scientific precedent. "Solar geoengineering," as the scientists behind the concept of sun-dimming call the burgeoning approach, has for years been theorized as a way to temporarily stall climate change while humans both try to figure out how to reverse its worst effects.

In particular, the UW experiment taking place aboard the USS Hornet is looking into what is known as "marine cloud brightening," which takes a similar approach to so-called "cloud seeding" by introducing tiny aerosol particles to clouds. Instead of seeking to make it rain, as cloud seeding does, however, cloud brightening aims to reflect solar radiation outward and back up. In UW's case, they're using salt as their aerosol of choice.

And they just fired it up for the first time. Per the NYT, they activated the spraying device that would be used to salt the clouds over the Pacific Ocean to make sure it could consistently output the plume of saline spray that would, as the experiments continue, need to make it up to the clouds to work.

🌐 External Research Links - Science, aiecolution

06.04.2024

Greenland’s Largest Floating Ice Tongue Is Melting

The Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier – also known as the 79° North Glacier – on the northeast coast of Greenland flows directly into a fjord, where it forms an 80-kilometre-long tongue of floating ice. Although the tongue hasn’t lost much length during the past several decades, it has grown thinner and thinner. A team from the Alfred Wegener Institute can now tell us why.

Greenland’s massive ice sheet contains nearly 3 million cubic kilometers of water. If it were to melt completely, the global sea level would rise by more than 7 meters. Part of the ice sheet – the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream – flows into two major marine outlet glaciers on the country’s coast: the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden Glacier (or 79NG) and the Zachariae Isstrom (or ZI). Here, the two glaciers flow into the Greenland Sea, where they formed two huge floating glacier tongues 20 years ago. While the ZI glacier lost its floating tongue back in the 2010s, ice from 79NG continues to flow toward the sea through a fjord, in a swathe roughly 20 kilometers wide and 80 kilometers long.

🌐 External Research Links - Science, Greenslandnews, aiecolution..

05.04.2024

So much polar ice is melting that it’s slowing down earth’s rotation

Climate change is causing so much polar ice melt that it's slowing down Earth's rotation and — here's the kicker — it will alter how we measure time in the future.

That's the outrageous conclusion that Duncan Agnew, geophysicist and professor at University of California, San Diego, reached by analyzing data from satellite imagery, as detailed in a new study published in the journal Nature. 

Basically, as polar ice melts into the ocean, there's less mass overall at the poles and the middle of the planet becomes a little heavier, hence slowing down Earth's rotation.

And that raises a problem for the measurement of time itself. If Earth's rotation is slowing down, that means timekeepers all over the world will have to adjust. This has impacts reaching far beyond our watches. It touches the functioning of satellites, computers, financial institutions and everywhere else where every second counts.

Institutions will likely have to adjust. The global time standard, known as Coordinated Universal Time or UTC, almost matches the Earth's rotation — but because the rotation speed can be variable, this has at times necessitated timekeepers to add or subtract a leap second to the clock, Agnew explains in his paper.

🌐 External Research Links - Science, futurism, byte.

31.03.2024

Government Scientists propose plan to dry out the Stratosphere.

A group of government scientists are suggesting a strategy to literally dehydrate the stratosphere to help cool the planet — while admitting that it'd only do so much.

In a press release, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explained that the strategy, if built out, would work to a degree because water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas in our atmosphere. Drying it out, so to speak, could cool the atmosphere and counteract the harmful warming effects of carbon dioxide.

Dubbed "intentional stratospheric dehydration" or ISD, this approach, as proposed by NOAA researchers at the agency's Chemical Sciences Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, involves "seeding" the wettest parts of the stratosphere with tiny "ice nuclei" particles to increase ice formation that would then fall to the ground hail-style.

Using super high altitude aircraft, these ice particles seem to operate much like other cloud-seeding efforts, except in this case, scientists are more interested in soaking up water rather than making it rain.

🌐 External Research Links - Science, futurism, byte.

01.03.2024

Scientists Alarmed by spike in Ocean temperatures

"IT'S JUST ASTONISHING. LIKE, IT DOESN'T SEEM REAL."

As last year's record-breaking ocean temperatures refuse to slow down, warming waters around the globe continue to alarm scientists — Reports, seem just about as bewildered by the speed of the rising temperatures as the next person.

"The North Atlantic has been record-breakingly warm for almost a year now," Brian McNoldy, a senior researcher and hurricane formation expert at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, told. "It's just astonishing. Like, it doesn't seem real."

"It's quite scary, partly because I'm not hearing any scientists that have a convincing explanation of why it is we've got such a departure," added Rob Larter, a Cambridge, England-based marine geophysicist who studies arctic ice levels. "We're used to having a fairly good handle on things."

"But the impression at the moment is that things have gone further and faster than we expected,". "That's an uncomfortable place as a scientist to be."

🌐 External Research Links - Science, futurism.

29.02.2024

AI data centers need so much power they may need built-in nuclear reactors

"Data centres are power hungry things, but with AI we're moving into a new level of power requirements."

It's no secret that keeping an AI data center running requires an immense amount of power.

To meet those skyrocketing energy demands, experts are now looking for alternative sources, the BBC reports — including small nuclear reactors that could power individual data centers.

For years, scientists have been developing small modular reactors (SMR), which are scaled-down power plants that can provide power in situ and thereby dramatically reduce companies' dependence on the grid.

Despite an entire burgeoning industry dedicated to their realization, there still aren't any commercial ones in operation anywhere in the world.

🌐 External Research Links - Science, futurism

18.02.2024

the Atlantic Will “Soon” Enter Its Declining Phase

Recent research employing computational simulations predicts that the subduction zone presently beneath the Strait of Gibraltar will extend further into the Atlantic, playing a key role in the development of an Atlantic subduction system – essentially an Atlantic ring of fire. In geological timeframes, this event is anticipated to occur ‘soon’, roughly in the next 20 million years.

Oceans seem eternal to our lifespan, but they are not here for long: they are born, grow, and one day close. This process, which takes a few hundred million years, is called Wilson Cycle. The Atlantic, for example, was born when Pangea broke up, around 180 million years ago, and will one day close. And the Mediterranean is what remains from a big ocean – the Tethys– that once existed between Africa and Eurasia.

🌐 External Research Links -  Mr. Elliot Lim, CIRES, NOAA/NCEI, AI Ecolution, Science

20.02.2024

AI data centers need so much power they may need built-in nuclear reactors

"Data centres are power hungry things, but with AI we're moving into a new level of power requirements."

It's no secret that keeping an AI data center running requires an immense amount of power.

To meet those skyrocketing energy demands, experts are now looking for alternative sources, the BBC reports — including small nuclear reactors that could power individual data centers.

For years, scientists have been developing small modular reactors (SMR), which are scaled-down power plants that can provide power in situ and thereby dramatically reduce companies' dependence on the grid.

Despite an entire burgeoning industry dedicated to their realization, there still aren't any commercial ones in operation anywhere in the world.

🌐 External Research Links - Science, futurism

18.02.2024

Scientists say the Atlantic current appears to be on the verge of collapse.

"PEOPLE WOULD SEE SEVERE AND CASCADING CONSEQUENCES AROUND THE WORLD."

The Atlantic Ocean is heading towards a tipping point, researchers warn, which could staunch the flow of heat to the northern hemisphere in what could be yet another consequence of climate change.

At the precipice is the ocean's churning network of cold and hot currents called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). As detailed in a new study published in the journal Science Advances, warming temperatures and melting ice sheets could cause this circulation to shut down within a century, causing entire continents to dramatically drop in temperature.

🌐 External Research Links - AScience, Nature, futurism

15.02.2024

Hurricanes are becoming so strong that a new category is needed

Scientists propose new category 6 rating to classify ‘mega-hurricanes’, becoming more likely due to climate crisis. Hurricanes are becoming so strong due to the climate crisis that the classification of them should be expanded to include a “category 6” storm, furthering the scale from the standard 1 to 5, according to a new study.

Over the past decade, five storms would have been classed at this new category 6 strength, researchers said, which would include all hurricanes with sustained winds of 192mph / 309 kmh  or more. Such mega-hurricanes are becoming more likely due to global heating, studies have found, due to the warming of the oceans and atmosphere.

The scale classifies any hurricane with a sustained maximum wind speed of 74mph / 120 kmh or more to be a category 1 event, with the scale rising the faster the winds. Category 3 and above is considered to include major hurricanes that risk severe damage to property and life, with the strongest, category 5, including all storms that are 157mph / 253 kmh or more. 

🌐 External Research Links -  Nature

07.02.2024

Groundwater resources are declining

Groundwater resources are declining across the globe, dropping in 71% of aquifers, according to a new study in Nature. Groundwater provides drinking water to billions of people and supplies nearly half of all water used for irrigation, but excessive use has depleted this vital water resource. The findings provide the most comprehensive analysis of global groundwater levels to date. They indicate that the decline in water resources is especially widespread in dry regions with extensive croplands. The authors of the new report says the problem is increasing, with groundwater depletion speeding up in 30% of the studied aquifers in the 21st century. But the study also highlights where efforts to remedy the problem are succeeding. It focuses on policy changes and improved aquifer management.

🌐 External Research Links - Nature

01.02.2024

The moon is shrinking (very slowly)

Earth’s moon is a constant in the night sky, following predictable phases in its orbit. However, its size likely has been changing over time. A study published January 25 in the Planetary Science Journal found that the moon has shrunk more than 150 feet / 45.72 meters in circumference as its core gradually cooled over.

The fault formation caused by this continued shrinking often comes with seismic activity like moonquakes. Any locations near these moon fault zones could pose a threat to human exploration there, the same way that those living near fault lines on Earth face a greater risk of earthquakes. 

🌐 External Research Links - A

27.01.2024

How useful is the air quality index?

While the air quality index is a useful tool, it has its limitations. There’s still a greater need for robust monitoring to ensure cleaner air.

Air pollutants are categorised as primary pollutants (environmentally damaging materials produced by man-made or natural processes) and secondary pollutants (products of chemical changes of the primary pollutants). Usually colourless and odourless, air pollutants are an invisible threat which poses a grave risk to public health, our ecosystems, and the delicate equilibrium of our planet.

A way to keep track of air pollution daily is by understanding how to minimise our exposures using readings of the Air Quality Index (AQI), also sometimes referred to as Air Pollution Index (API). This is the global language used for assessing air quality conditions. It informs people how clean or polluted the air is based on a simple number from a scale of 0-500 with known impact to human health.

🌐 External Research Links -

27.01.2024

Insane satellite image reveals heat leaking from Iceland's new fissures

The centuries-old volcanic fissures opening up in Iceland, oozing out red-hot lava, have had residents on edge, and spectators elsewhere transfixed. Lava flowing from one fissure engulfed several places. The danger appears to be subsiding, with seismic activity decreasing and hazard warnings downgraded though still high.

But is still at risk of fault movements, lava flow, and more fissures erupting without warning, as of January 19 when the Icelandic Met Office issued its last update.

NASA's Landsat 9 satellite captured 🖱️ the unfolding crisis by using a thermal infrared sensor. A recently released map depicts the substantial heat emanating from the fractured land surface. The image vividly shows the massive fissures filled with intensely hot lava, a faultline that had been quiet for 800 years before this sudden spell of volcanic activity. the below-ground intrusions of magma that flowed toward and the flurry of earthquakes that prompted authorities to evacuate.

🌐 External Research Links - earthobservatory

24.01.2024

Point of No Return: 

Major Antarctic Glacier Has Gone Through an Irreversible Retreat

The Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica has experienced an irreversible retreat, crossing a tipping point in the past 80 years. The findings, which were published in the influential journal Nature Climate Change, emerged when world leaders gathered in Dubai to debate the impacts of climate change at the COP28 conference. While numerical model simulations have been used for some time to study the behavior of glaciers and ice sheets, researchers from Northumbria University and Bangor University combined these for the first time with real-world satellite observations to identify whether a tipping point has been crossed in the past. They have now been able to confirm that Pine Island Glacier underwent a rapid, unstable retreat at some point between the 1940s and 1970s, leading to an irreversible loss of ice over several decades.

Pine Island Glacier, together with its neighbor Thwaites Glacier, has been called the ‘underbelly’ of the West Antarctic ice sheet. Pine Ice Glacier is one of the fastest-flowing outlets of ice in West Antarctica and has contributed more to global mean sea-level rise in recent decades than any other Antarctic glacier.

 “Whilst the phase of retreat that we modeled may have finished, we cannot rule out similar irreversible mass loss from this part of the ice sheet in the near future and we should not risk the consequences associated with these types of retreat and mass loss.” 

🌐 External Research Links - AI ecolution, “Recent irreversible retreat phase of Pine Island Glacier” by Brad Reed, J. A. Mattias Green, Adrian Jenkins and G. Hilmar Gudmundsson, 4 December 2023, Nature Climate Change.
DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01887-y

Researchers from Northumbria University are leading major studies assessing changes in Antarctica, including TiPACCs (Tipping Points in the Antarctic Climate System).

22.01.2024

36.8 Billion Tons – Fossil CO₂ Emissions Reach Record High

The latest carbon budget report from the Global Carbon Project reveals that global CO2 emissions remain significantly higher than the reductions required to achieve our climate targets.

The time left to reach the climate goals of the Paris Agreement is running out fast. This is the conclusion of the latest Global Carbon Budget, which is published annually by the Global Carbon Project (GCP). The GCP is an association of international scientists with a large German contingent, including LMU geographers Julia Pongratz and Clemens Schwingshackl, who are part of the core writing team. According to the report, global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use will amount to 36.8 billion metric tons in 2023, a record high that exceeds the 2022 level by 1.1%.

Regionally, the trends varied greatly: Whereas fossil emissions increased in India and China (+8.2% and + 4.0%), they fell in Europe and the United States (-7.4% and -3.0%) and decreased marginally in the rest of the world (-0.4%). The authors attribute the decline in Europe to the expansion of renewables and the effects of the energy crisis. Meanwhile, they attribute the growth in China partly to delayed recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Global CO2 emissions are a long way off the reductions needed

Adding in emissions from land use, the report finds that global carbon dioxide emissions will amount to some 40.9 billion metric tons in 2023. This is a long way off the significant reductions that are needed to reach the Paris Agreement climate goals. Although the estimates for the remaining carbon budget come with substantial uncertainties, it is clear nevertheless that time is running out fast: If current levels of carbon dioxide emissions continue, the remaining carbon budget for a 50% chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C could be used up in seven years, and of limiting warming to 1.7°C in 15 years.

🌐 External Research Links - A

22.01.2024

EU and UK Face an 872 Billion Euro Battle Against Rising Waters

Sea level rises could cost the EU and UK up to 872 billion Euros by 2100, indicating a need for region-specific economic strategies.

Damage caused by sea level rises could cost the EU and UK economies up to 872 billion Euros in total by the end of the century, according to a modeling study published on January 18 in Scientific Reports. Ignasi Cortés Arbués, Theodoros Chatzivasileiadis, Tatiana Filatova, and colleagues modeled the potential economic impacts of sea level rises for 271 European regions by 2100 under a high emissions scenario (SSP5-RCP8.5) with no new coastal protection measures implemented after 2015. They combined a previously developed economic model with data on projected sea-level rise impacts, investment trends, and the distribution of economic losses caused by 155 flooding events across Europe between 1995 and 2016. They estimated potential economic losses and gains compared to a scenario with no sea level rises and 2% annual economic growth across all regions. They also modeled the impact of targeted investment in different economic sectors on regional economies following sea level rises.

🌐 External Research Links - scitechdaily

22.01.2024

Extreme cold snaps could get worse as climate warms

In fact climate instability may be disrupting the polar vortex.

Extremely cold Arctic air and severe winter weather swept southward into much of the U.S. in mid-January 2024, breaking daily low temperature records from Montana to Texas. Tens of millions of people were affected by dangerously cold temperatures, and heavy lake-effect snow and snow squalls have had severe effects across the Great Lakes and Northeast regions.

These severe cold events occur when the polar jet stream – the familiar jet stream of winter that runs along the boundary between Arctic and more temperate air – dips deeply southward, bringing the cold Arctic air to regions that don’t often experience it.

After Earth just experienced its hottest year on record, it may seem surprising to set so many cold records. But does this cold snap contradict human-caused global warming? As a atmospheric and climate scientist can tell you, absolutely and unequivocally, it does not.

So, while the world can expect fewer of these severe cold events in the future, many regions need to remain prepared for exceptional cold when it does occur. 

🌐 External Research Links - the conservation

22.01.2024

Huge Iceberg falling apart as it drifts away from Antarctica

It's one of the grand wonders of the world, and it's eroding before our eyes.

a23a, billed as the largest iceberg in existence right now, is falling apart as it slowly drifts away from antarctica towards relatively warmers waters, reports say.

Photographers on a ship run by travel company eyos captured spectacular photos of the iceberg on sunday, revealing that large waves have sculpted dramatic caverns, arches, and flying buttresses into the edges of the frozen leviathan. Its area is about 3,900 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi), which made it one of the largest icebergs in the world until it was temporarily surpassed in size by A76 and a It's a trillion tons of ice. 

"it's mind-bogglingly big," eyos videographer Richard Sidey told. "i actually don't think we can fathom just how big it is; we can only know how big it is from science. It's certainly too big to photograph. it stretches as far as you can see in both directions."

a23a had broken off antarctica's filchner-ronne ice shelf back in 1986 and then immediately became stuck in the sea floor. the first hint of movement away from its icy prison was picked up back in 2020, but it really started moving quickly late last year, with strong ocean currents and fierce winds pushing it along. In the date of this article A23a is being propelled it towards the South Atlantic along a trajectory commonly referred to as ‘iceberg alley’, because of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. 

Is the iceberg moving due to climate change? after all, the earth's southernmost continent is undergoing dramatic changes due to global warming — leading to record falls in sea ice cover and scores of dead emperor penguin chicks.

🌐 External Research Links - vorian, futurism, www

17.01.2024

Dubai Importing Glacier ICE from Greenland to serve in drinks

Thanks to climate change, and now an apparent demand for exotically sourced ice cubes, the future of our world's precious glaciers is literally on the rocks. A startup in Greenland called Arctic Ice, is making cold cash by extracting glacier ice from the country's fjords and then shipping them over 9,000 nautical miles to the United Arab Emirates, where "exclusive" bars in cities like Dubai serve the ice in drinks.

To the climate conscious, Greenland is chiefly known for its massive ice sheet, from which news of its regularly melting glaciers is an existential reminder of our rising sea levels.  

🌐 External Research Links - _byte

15.01.2024

2024 will break the extreme temperatures of 2023

The elements that conspired to make 2023 so unusually warm are likely to push the dial even further in 2024, with meteorologists already warning about extreme heat. Ocean reaches its full strength on top of warming driven by greenhouse gases.

🌐 External Research Links - www by Vorian

15.01.2024

The Connection Between CO2 and Global Warming — Understanding.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a naturally occurring greenhouse gas that plays a vital role in regulating Earth's temperature. However, human activities, such as burning fossil fuels for energy, have led to a significant increase in atmospheric CO2 levels. This increase is trapping more heat from the sun, leading to a gradual warming of Earth's climate.

The connection between CO2 emissions and global warming is well-established by scientific evidence. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading international body for the assessment of climate change, has concluded that it is extremely likely that human activities caused more than half of the observed increase in global mean surface temperature from 1951 to 2010.

The effects of global warming are already evident around the world. These include:

• Rising sea levels: As the Earth warms, glaciers and ice sheets melt, causing sea levels to rise. This threatens coastal communities and low-lying islands.

• More extreme weather events: Global warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods, and wildfires.

• Changes in plant and animal life: Global warming is disrupting ecosystems and causing some species to move to cooler areas or to die out.

To address the issue of climate change, it is essential to reduce CO2 emissions. This can be achieved by transitioning to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal power, improving energy efficiency, and adopting sustainable practices in agriculture and forestry.

Take Action to Protect Our Planet

Individuals can also play a role in reducing CO2 emissions by making changes in their daily lives. Here are some simple things you can do:

• Conserve energy: Turn off lights and electronics when not in use, and use energy-efficient appliances.

• Drive less: Walk, bike, or take public transportation whenever possible. If you must drive, carpool or use fuel-efficient vehicles.

• Eat less meat: Meat production is a major source of CO2 emissions. Consider reducing your meat consumption or switching to plant-based alternatives.

• Support sustainable businesses: Choose products and services from companies that are committed to sustainability.

Every action, no matter how small, can make a difference. By working together, we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and protect our planet for present and future generations.

Additional Resources:

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) website: https://www.ipcc.ch/

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) climate change website: https://climate.nasa.gov/

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) climate change website: https://www.epa.gov/climatechange

🌐 External Research Links - vorian research ™. Text created and written by google AI.

14.01.2024

To what extent did the COVID-19 pandemic reduce global CO2 emissions?

The Temporary Drop in Global CO2 Emissions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant decline in global CO2 emissions in 2020, with an estimated reduction of 5.4%. This marked the largest annual decline in emissions since the 1940s and was primarily driven by a sharp drop in economic activity, particularly in the transportation and energy sectors.

At the peak of the pandemic in April 2020, global CO2 emissions from sectors responsible for approximately 90% of fossil fuel emissions reached a minimal level. Aviation saw a 75% decline in emissions, surface transport experienced a 50% reduction, electricity generation fell by 15%, and industry's emissions decreased by 35%.

Despite the temporary decline, global CO2 emissions rebounded in 2021 and are expected to continue rising in the coming years unless there are significant changes in energy consumption patterns. According to researchers, world carbon dioxide emissions are projected to surpass 40 billion tons in 2023, with nearly 37 billion tons coming from fossil fuels. This represents an increase of 1.1% compared to 2022 levels and 1.5% compared to pre-pandemic levels, continuing a plateau that has persisted for the past decade.

The temporary nature of the CO2 emission decline during the pandemic highlights the ongoing challenge of reducing emissions in the long term. Addressing climate change requires a concerted effort to transition to a more sustainable energy system, one that relies less on fossil fuels and more on renewable sources such as solar, wind, and geothermal power.

🌐 External Research Links - Vorian, www, google AI

14.01.2024

Climate change behind sharp drop in snowpack since 1980s

The world hasn't been this warm in 100,000 years. Water security is only one dimension of snow loss, and scientific data from ground observations, satellites, and climate models do not agree on whether global warming is consistently chipping away at the snowpacks that accumulate in high-elevation mountains, complicating efforts to manage the water scarcity that would result for many population centers.  "We were most concerned with how warming is affecting the amount of water stored in snow. The loss of that reservoir is the most immediate and potent risk that climate change poses to society in terms of diminishing snowfall and accumulation,". "Snow is very sensitive to within-winter variations in temperature and precipitation, and the risks from snow loss are not the same in New England as in the Southwest, or for a village in the Alps as in high-mountain Asia." 

🌐 External Research Links - voian research ™ and phys.org

12.01.2024

James Hansen, a climate scientist for his 1988 Congressional testimony 

"We are not moving into a 1.5C world, we are briefly passing through it in 2024. We will pass through the 2C (3.6F) world in the 2030s unless we take purposeful actions to affect the planet’s energy balance.” 

🌐 External Research Links - vorian research ™ and earth.org

09.01.2024

War's and her cost in the climate change 

Among the world's biggest consumers of fuel, militaries account for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a actual estimate by international experts. 

U.S military emissions since the beggining of the Global War on terror in 2001 is 1.2 Biliion metric tons greenhouse gases. This is equivalent to the annual emissions at 257 Million passenger car, more than then double the current number of cars on the road in U.S. 

How much would it cost to fight climate change?

Estimates of how much money it would take to end global climate change range between $300 billion and $50 trillion over the next two decades.

🌐 External Research Links - vorian research ™, globalgiving, Watson Institute

09.01.2024

What is XAI ?

Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is a set of processes and methods that allows human users to comprehend and trust the results and output created by machine learning algorithms. Explainable AI is used to describe an AI model, its expected impact and potential biases. 

🌐 External Research Links - vorian research ™ 

08.01.2024

Do you know the cost of training one AI transformer model?

According to a University of Massachusetts Amherst study published in 2019 by Emma Strubell, Ananya Ganesh, and Andrew McCallum, the cost of training one AI transformer model with neural architecture search via a GPU results in over 626,000 lbs. of CO2 emissions. In comparison, this is the equivalent to the CO2 emissions generated during the entire life spans of five average cars, including the fuel, which is roughly 26,000 lbs. of CO2 emissions per car, per Strubell et al. 

🌐 External Research Links - vorian research ™ 

08.01.2024

Technology Is Secretly Stealing Your Time.

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier. Smartphones provide a palm-size window to the world, enabling us to do almost anything at the touch of a button. Smart homes look after themselves, and virtual meetings mean that for many, time spent commuting is a thing of the past. 

So we should have more free time. Time which is now spent sleeping, relaxing or simply doing nothing – right? 

If the idea that you have more time than ever before is making you choke on your coffee, you are not alone. There is growing evidence that while digital technology may help us to save some time, we end up using that time to do more and more things. 

Whether it was waiting for a bus, waking in the morning, or lying in bed at night, that time which would previously be "empty" was now filled with brain training apps, creating lists of things they should do or try based on their social media feed, and other life admin. It seems that quiet moments of people watching, imagining and daydreaming are now filled with tech-based tasks.

The growth in digital tasks is happening, in part, because technology appears to be changing our perception of what free time is for. For many people, it is no longer enough to simply eat dinner, watch TV or maybe do an exercise class.

Instead, in an attempt to avoid wasting time, these activities are performed while also browsing the web in search of the ingredients for a more perfect life and trying to develop a sense of achievement.

On the face of it some of these tasks may seem like examples of tech saving us time. In theory, online banking should mean I have more time because I no longer need to go to the bank in my lunch break. However, our research suggests that this is not the case. Technology is contributing to a denser form of life.

Social media may at times inspire, motivate or relax people. But our research suggests people often feel a sense of guilt, shame and regret after filling their free time with online activities. This is because they perceive online activities to be less authentic and worthwhile than real-world activities.

It seems that people still see going for a walk or actually being with friends as more valuable than being online. Maybe if we put down the phone a little more, we would have the time to actually cook those recipes we watch online.

How do we slow down and take back our time?

Reclaiming the time "saved" by technology may require a shift in the way in which we proportion time. To break free of the habit of filling time with more and more tasks, we must first accept that sometimes it is OK to do little or nothing.

In the work environment, employers and employees need to create an environment in which disconnection is the norm and not the exception. This means having realistic expectations about what can and should be achieved in a normal working day.

But developing legislation that enshrines the right to disconnect may be the only way to ensure that technology stops taking over our time. Several European countries such as France and Italy already have right to disconnect legislation.

This specifies that employees are under no obligation to be contactable outside of their working hours, and that they have the right to refuse to take digital work home with them.

It is also possible that technology itself may hold the key to reclaiming our time. Imagine if, rather than telling you to stand up and move around (yet another task), your smartwatch told you to stop working because you'd completed your contracted hours.

Maybe when technology starts to tell us to do less, we will finally regain time.

🌐 External Research Links - science alert

08.01.2024

Earth on Brink of Five Catastrophic Climate Tipping Points

It is now almost inevitable that 2023 will be the hottest year ever recorded by humans, probably the hottest in at least 125,000 years. Several temperature records have been broken, with global average temperatures in some periods well above 1.5°C. Antarctic sea ice loss is accelerating at frightening rates, along with many other indicators of rapid climate change. Does this mean that 2024 will be the year that parts of the climate reach a much more dangerous state? The climate system has many potential tipping points, such as disappearing ice sheets or dense tropical forests becoming significantly drier and more open. It would be very difficult, indeed impossible, to recover these systems once they have passed a breaking point. Having examined the scientific evidence of past and current changes, and taken into account projections from computer models, we have identified more than 25 inflection points in the Earth system.

🌐 External Research Links - scientealert

04.01.2024

Earth has just had its hottest year on record 

The Earth had its hottest year on record in 2023, according to preliminary data from the US government and other climate research bodies. Scientists across the world have been warning for months that the past year would smash previous records due to the ongoing climate crisis caused by humanity's greenhouse gas emissions.

Now, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said that it is “all but certain” that 2023 will indeed rank as the warmest year in 174 years.

We are engaged in an unprecedented experiment with our planet, There is still time to prevent devastating climate consequences, but the window of opportunity is shrinking. 

🌐 External Research Links - independent.co.uk

03.01.2024

Google fired up a experimental new geothermal plant

Google has officially fired up an advanced, first-of-its-kind geothermal project in Nevada, providing carbon-free power to its massive data centers nearby.

The plant, made in partnership with the energy firm Fervo, is part of Google's grand plan to operate entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030.

While this plant is set to provide only a modest 3.5 megawatts of energy, the true splash is the experimental techniques it uses to harness geothermal power — which, if borne out here, could be used more widely to provide climate-friendly energy across the globe.

🌐 External Research Links - futurism

01.01.2024

Gigantic Wave in Pacific Ocean 

The ocean's tallest waves are getting taller Wind-driven waves are growing fastest in the Ocean's, new study says after the gigantic Wave in Pacific Ocean Was Most Extreme 'Rogue Wave' on Record. In November of 2023, a freak wave came out of the blue, lifting a lonesome buoy off the coast of New Zeland 16.5 meters high (54.17 feet). his wave was detected using a buoy that is part of the Coastal Ocean Wave Measurement (COWM) network, which is coordinated by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand. The buoy is equipped with sensors that measure wave height, direction, and period.

The 16.5-meter rogue wave is the second-largest rogue wave ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, and it is the largest wave ever recorded in the South Pacific Ocean.

 And unless the buoy had been taken for a ride, we might never have known it even happened. 

🌐 External Research Links - sciencealert.com

25.11.2023

A23a : World's biggest iceberg on the move after 30 years 

The largest iceberg in the world is moving again after 3 decades grounded at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Antarctica. A23a, as it is called by scientists, is around 4000 km² in area and 400 meters thick. Think of an ice floe with the Portugal, Algarve area wandering through the waters...

The relocation of the A23a creates uncertainty. It is possible that it will anchor again, this time near South Georgia Island.

This situation could be problematic for Antarctic wildlife, as millions of seals, penguins and seabirds breed on the island and feed in its waters.

🌐 External Research Links - space.com

23.11.2023

World's largest supercomputer for training AI revealed

Cerebras Systems, in collaboration with G42, has revealed Condor Galaxy – a network of nine interconnected supercomputers, which together will provide up to 36 exaFLOPs for training AI. 

In recent years, and particularly the last year 2023, major strides have been achieved in artificial intelligence (AI). Large language models (LLMs) and other subsets of generative AI, for example, have reached unprecedented new heights. Leveraging advancements in machine learning and natural language processing, these programs are now creating realistic and coherent text, images, and music. Alongside this, AI is helping to accelerate research in areas such as medicine.

The progress lately has been phenomenal, prompting many in the futurist community to reconsider their predictions for a technological singularity and the likely date of its arrival. In order for such momentum to be sustained, however, AI requires exponential improvements in computer processing power.

Cerebras Systems has just unveiled a gigantic new supercomputer, designed for next-generation LLMs, which promises to significantly reduce AI model training times. The Condor Galaxy, named after a real galaxy, will combine nine supercomputers into one. The first, Condor Galaxy 1 (CG1), is being deployed this year, with additional machines following in 2024.

CG-1 will feature a massive 54 million cores, 82 terabytes (TB) of memory, and 388 Tbps of fabric bandwidth. Its AI compute will be 4 exaFLOPS, which is a shorthand way of saying four quintillion (4,000,000,000,000,000,000) calculations a second. When the final machine in the series is deployed, the Condor Galaxy will have a combined compute of 36 exaFLOPS.

🌐 External Research Links - Cerebras

Visible Naked Eye Comet: Green Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura)!

The naked-eye comet Nishimura is shining brightly now for your viewing pleasure! To find it in the sky, use stargazing apps.

🌐 External Research Links - starwalk.space

09.09.2023

Asteroid worth 700 quintillion

Asteroid 16 Psyche has enough gold to give everyone on Earth $93 billion. But it won’t remain precious if it hits the markets in large quantities. But in fact, there’s a more fundamental reason why a giant golden asteroid wouldn’t make the world fabulously rich. It’s because wealth mostly doesn’t come from big hunks of metal. It comes from the ability to create things that satisfy human desires. 

03.08.2023

A brief resume about the Voyager's "glitch's"

Here are some dates regarding notable glitches or technical incidents that occurred with Voyager 2 dont fogetting the fact of the existance of the Voyager 1:

- July 19, 1978: Voyager 2 experienced a "memory overrun" glitch that caused the spacecraft's computer to repeatedly restart. This resulted in a temporary loss of data transmission and scientific observations for a few days until engineers resolved the issue.

- August 22, 1981: Voyager 2 encountered a communication problem where the spacecraft was unable to transmit data back to Earth. Engineers traced the issue to a faulty command in the spacecraft's computer memory and were able to correct it, restoring normal communication.

- May 11, 1998: An anomaly occurred with the propulsion system, causing the spacecraft to unexpectedly shutdown its science instruments. This was caused by a glitch in the spacecraft's flight data system, but engineers quickly diagnosed the problem and restored functionality within a few days.

- January 28, 2020: Voyager 2 experienced a glitch in its data transmission system, resulting in a temporary communication loss with Earth. Mission control successfully resolved the issue, and the spacecraft resumed regular operations after a repair procedure was implemented.

- July, 28, 2023: A series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth. AS a result, Voyager 2 is currently unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth. 

The pattern by me : The two events occurred in the fourth quadrant of the ecliptic coordinate system. The ecliptic coordinate system is a system of celestial coordinates that is based on the ecliptic, the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The fourth quadrant is the quadrant that is located in the lower right-hand portion of the ecliptic.

The distance between Voyager 2 and Earth at the time of the second event was 15.2 billion miles (24.5 billion kilometers). This distance is equivalent to 12.4 light-years.

As you can see, the distance between Voyager 2 and Earth increased by about 0.6 billion miles (1 billion kilometers) between the two events. This is because Voyager 2 is continuing to travel away from Earth at a speed of about 38,000 miles per hour (61,000 kilometers per hour).

The points of the two events are also different. one event occurred when Voyager 2 was in the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles that surrounds the sun. The second event occurred when Voyager 2 was in interstellar space, the region of space beyond the heliosphere.

The difference in distance and points between the two events is important because it shows that Voyager 2 is continuing to travel through space and is getting closer to interstellar space. It also shows that the spacecraft is still functioning, even though it is nearing the end of its mission.

Despite these glitches, the Voyager 2 mission has been highly successful, with engineers on Earth capable of troubleshooting and rectifying most technical issues to ensure the spacecraft's continued operation.

🌐 External Research Links - zorie, Nasa

01.08.2023

Wormholes Could Enable Time Travel and Physicists Just Figured Out How

Shortcuts through spacetime known as wormholes aren't recognized features of the cosmos. But for the better part of a century, scientists have wondered if the weft and warp instructed by relativity prescribe ways for quantum ripples – or even entire particles – to break free of their locality.

At their most fantastic, such reconfigurations in the fabric of the Universe would allow human-sized masses to traverse light-years to cross galaxies in a heartbeat or perhaps move through time as quickly as one might move through their kitchen. On much larger scales, spacetime can shrink and expand in relation to gravity in ways that are impossible to appreciate without a whole bunch of equations to guide you. For example, cram enough mass in one place (conveniently ignoring any charge it might have, or if it spins around), spacetime will bend in ways that give it two exterior surfaces. What connects them? A wormhole, of course. 

Before you pack for a paradoxical round trip to the future and back, many obstacles could easily prevent such a loop. The late physicist Stephen Hawking certainly thought so. 

This research is available on preprint server arXiv and has been accepted to be published in Physical Review D. 

🌐 External Research Link - preprint server arXiv

17.07.2023

NASA may build more than one moon base for Artemis lunar missions

NASA may work with its international partners to establish a series of moon camps spread across the lunar surface to maximize science and exploration. The agency, Free said, is studying whether it is a better idea to have a distributed approach with multiple moon bases, including some potentially contributed by international partners like the European Space Agency, Canada or Japan, who have all signed on as Artemis program partners. 

🌐 External news Link - space

19.04.2023

Anomaly on the Lunar Orbit

Independent experiments show a large anomaly in measurements of lunar orbital evolution, with applications to cosmology and the speed of light. The Moon has long been known to be slowly drifting farther from Earth due to tidal forces. The Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment (LLRE) indicates the Moon's semimajor axis increasing at 3.82 ± .07 cm/yr, anomalously high. If the Moon were today gaining angular momentum at this rate, it would have coincided with Earth less than 2 Gyr ago. Study of tidal rhythmites indicates a rate of 2.9 ± 0.6 cm/yr. Historical eclipse observations independently measure a recession rate of 2.82 ± .08 cm/yr. Detailed numerical simulation of lunar orbital evolution predicts 2.91 cm/yr. LLRE differs from three independent experiments by over12 sigma. A cosmology where speed of light c is related to time t by GM=tc^3 has been suggested to predict the redshifts of Type Ia supernovae, and a 4.507034% proportion of baryonic matter. If c were changing in the amount predicted, lunar orbital distance would appear to increase by an additional 0.935 cm/yr. An anomaly in the lunar orbit may be precisely calculated, shedding light on puzzles of 'dark energy'. In Planck units this cosmology may be summarized as M=R=t.Lunar Recession Rate;   

🌐 External data Link - adsabs.harvard.edu

Giant spot is crossing the Sun and no need a Telescope to see it

A sunspot four times the size of Earth is lined up with the Sun right now and it's so big that an astronomer said it could be seen with the naked eye.

🌐 External News Link -Sciencealert

24.05.2023

Satellites Pose 'Unprecedented Global Threat', Scientists Warn

​"If not stopped, this craziness will become worse and worse." 

Astronomers warned allready that the light pollution created by the soaring number of satellites orbiting Earth poses an "unprecedented global threat to nature".

​The number of satellites in low Earth orbit have more than doubled since 2019, when US company SpaceX launched the first "mega-constellation," which comprise thousands of satellites.

An armada of new internet constellations are planned to launch soon, adding thousands more satellites to the already congested area fewer than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) above Earth.

​Each new satellite increases the risk that it will smash into another object orbiting Earth, creating yet more debris.

​This can create a chain reaction in which cascading collisions create ever smaller fragments of debris, further adding to the cloud of "space junk" reflecting light back to Earth.

​In a series of papers published in the journal Nature Astronomy, astronomers warned that this increasing light pollution threatens the future of their profession.

​In one paper, researchers said that for the first time they had measured how much a brighter night sky would financially and scientifically affect the work of a major observatory.

Modelling suggested that for the Vera Rubin Observatory, a giant telescope currently under construction in Chile, the darkest part of the night sky will become 7.5 percent brighter over the next decade.

That would reduce the number of stars the observatory is able to see by around 7.5 percent, study co-author John Barentine told AFP.

That would add nearly a year to the observatory's survey, costing around $21.8 million, said Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, a firm based in the US state of Arizona.

He added that there is another cost of a brighter sky that impossible to calculate: the celestial events that humanity will never get to observe.

And the increase in light pollution could be even worse than thought.

​Another Nature study used extensive modelling to suggest that current measurements of light pollution are significantly underestimating the phenomenon.

'Stop this attack'

The brightening of the night sky will not just affect professional astronomers and major observatories, the researchers warned.

Aparna Venkatesan, an astronomer at the University of San Francisco, said it also threatened "our ancient relationship with the night sky".

"Space is our shared heritage and ancestor – connecting us through science, storytelling, art, origin stories and cultural traditions – and it is now at risk," she said in a Nature comment piece.

A group of astronomers from Spain, Portugal, and Italy called for scientists to "stop this attack" on the natural night.

"The loss of the natural aspect of a pristine night sky for all the world, even on the summit of K2 or on the shore of Lake Titicaca or on Easter Island is an unprecedented global threat to nature and cultural heritage," the astronomers said in a Nature comment piece.

05.03.2023

Glaciers run out of snow in Antarctica – allready happened.

It is the second year in a row that Antarctica has had a higher than average melt. Glaciers that lose all their snow cover "can't survive", and all that affects. It warns. see the difference.

🌐 External News Link - Jornal Público (pt-PT edition)

🔗 Related article 1 2 3

30.03.2023

‘Day After Tomorrow’ disaster moment fears

The disturbing projection is related to the melting of ice caps caused by global heating.

The new scientific modelling reveals that this could slow down deep water circulation more than 40 per cent by 2050 – putting it on a path towards collapse, said Professor Matthew England, deputy director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS), at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

The team from UNSW, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Australian National University and CSIRO, Australia’s governmental scientific research agency, published the landmark study in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

“Our study shows that the melting of the ice sheets has a dramatic impact on the overturning circulation that regulates Earth’s climate,” says Dr Adele Morrison, also from ACEAS and the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.

With collapse of the deep current, oceans below 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) would stagnate and cause impacts for centuries. 

The Australian Science Media Centre evoked the sci-fi disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, which tells the fictional story of global catastrophe caused by collapse of the North Atlantic Ocean circulation. 

🔗 Related article 1 2 3

30.03.2023

Mistaken as a galaxy is actually a black hole pointed directly at Earth

This black hole is equivalent to 30 billion suns and In a distant galaxy, a supermassive black hole spewing radiation at near light speed has shifted its angle by a whopping 90 degrees to point directly toward Earth — a sharp turn that's puzzling physicists.

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the hungry black holes at the cores of many other galaxies, and they accrete matter and spew powerful jets of high-energy particles known as relativistic jets. AGN are classified according to what part of the AGN is pointed toward Earth.

PBC J2333.9-2343, a large galaxy about 4 million light-years away, was previously classified as a radio galaxy, meaning its AGN's gargantuan jets of radiation were pointed perpendicular to our line of sight. But new research published March 20 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society(opens in new tab) reclassifies the galaxy as a blazar, meaning the black hole's jets are now pointed directly at Earth. This means the galaxy's jets shifted by a "dramatic" degree, the researchers wrote in the study.

🔗 Related article 1 2

30.03.2023

Galaxy with huge black hole is on its way to Earth

A group of astronomers from different parts of the world has reclassified a galaxy called PBC J2333.9-2343, located 657 million light years from Earth. This is because they discovered that the black hole, which is located in the center, has changed direction and is now heading towards our planet. This discovery led the team to conduct extensive observations to see if it really had changed direction.

Dr. Lorena Hernandez-Garcia, who is part of the team, said that they initially studied the galaxy because of its peculiar properties. The study revealed that it has now rotated 90 degrees, pointing its center towards Earth. Consequently, the galaxy is now classified as a "blazar".

According to the Royal Astronomical Society, blazars are powerful phenomena in the Universe and considered to be highly energetic objects. The team's findings provide an opportunity for researchers to study the properties of blazars, including the impact of high-energy particles emanating from these objects.

Meanwhile, astronomers have observed that material emanating from the black hole has created two massive lobes on opposite sides of the galaxy. These lobes are easily visible with radio waves and are among its most prominent features.

Dr. Lorena Hernandez-Garcia explained that the presence of the lobes indicates that the nucleus is no longer feeding them, which implies that they are quite old.

29.03.2023

Risk of Giant Asteroids Hitting Earth Could Be Worse Than We Realized

Our planet hides its scars well. It's a shame, actually, as evidence of previous asteroid strikes might help us better plan for the next catastrophic impact.

In fact, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center chief scientist, James Garvin, thinks we might have been misreading traces of some of the more serious asteroid strikes that have occurred within the past million years.

If he's right, the odds of being hit by something nasty could be higher than current estimates predict.

🔗 Related article 1

21.03.2023

200-foot asteroid will pass Earth within the Moon’s orbit

A 200-foot asteroid discovered earlier this year will pass Earth at a distance closer than the Moon later this month. The asteroid, labeled 2023 DZ2, is set to fly by our planet on March 25. When it happens, the asteroid’s March flyby will occur at roughly half the distance the Moon orbits our planet, making for a close call, cosmically speaking. This isn’t the first asteroid that has ever come close to Earth. However, this is one of the closest asteroids that will pass by our blue marble of a planet. The asteroid 2023 DZ2 will perform its March flyby at 0.5 lunar distance from Earth’s surface. This relative closeness will let observers view the asteroid through telescopes with a larger diameter. When this 210-foot asteroid completes its March flyby of our planet, it will travel roughly 17,426 miles per hour (28,044 km/h). That number might seem significant, but it is relatively slow for an asteroid compared to other asteroids that have completed flybys of our planet. 

Much like 2023 DZ2, the full orbit for 2023DW will become clearer once astronomers have more observations of the asteroid. You’ll be able to watch the March flyby on the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP). 

20.03.2023

Huge, Growing Anomaly in Earth's Magnetic Field

A strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field is behing tracked by NASA: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa.

This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers.

The space agency's satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field strength within the anomaly, and the resulting exposure to charged particles from the Sun.

The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) – likened by NASA to a 'dent' in Earth's magnetic field, or a kind of 'pothole in space' – generally doesn't affect life on Earth, but the same can't be said for orbital spacecraft (including the International Space Station), which pass directly through the anomaly as they loop around the planet at low-Earth orbit altitudes.

During these encounters, the reduced magnetic field strength inside the anomaly means technological systems onboard satellites can short-circuit and malfunction if they become struck by high-energy protons emanating from the Sun.

24.03.2023

Discovered new asteroid could collide with Earth in 2046

Valentine’s day 2046 could have a quite the attraction, according to a risk list that is managed by the European Space Agency’s Near Earth Objects Coordination Center, (ESA NEOCC). That’s because a newly discovered asteroid has a small chance of colliding with Earth that day. The asteroid, 2023DW, has a 1-in-625 chance of impacting our planet.

While a 1-in-625 chance doesn’t seem likely, astronomers consider it a relativity high risk of impact. But there is a lot we don’t know about this newly discovered asteroid – like a more precise measurement of its size. Astronomers believe the asteroid is around the size of an Olympic pool, roughly 50 meters (164 feet) long. If an asteroid that size collided with Earth, it would cause some damage.

09.03.2023

Scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus 

that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost

Warmer temperatures in the Arctic are thawing the region’s permafrost — a frozen layer of soil beneath the ground — and potentially stirring viruses that, after lying dormant for tens of thousands of years, could endanger animal and human health.

While a pandemic unleashed by a disease from the distant past sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie, scientists warn that the risks, though low, are underappreciated. Chemical and radioactive waste that dates back to the Cold War, which has the potential to harm wildlife and disrupt ecosystems, may also be released during thaws.

“There’s a lot going on with the permafrost that is of concern, and (it) really shows why it’s super important that we keep as much of the permafrost frozen as possible,” said Kimberley Miner, a climate scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.

Permafrost covers a fifth of the Northern Hemisphere, having underpinned the Arctic tundra and boreal forests of Alaska, Canada and Russia for millennia. It serves as a kind of time capsule, preserving — in addition to ancient viruses — the mummified remains of a number of extinct animals that scientist have been able to unearth and study in recent years, including two cave lion cubs and a woolly rhino.

The reason permafrost is a good storage medium isn’t just because it’s cold; it’s an oxygen-free environment that light doesn’t penetrate. But current day Arctic temperatures are warming up to four times faster than the rest of the planet, weakening the top layer of permafrost in the region

To better understand the risks posed by frozen viruses, Jean-Michel Claverie, an Emeritus professor of medicine and genomics at the Aix-Marseille University School of Medicine in Marseille, France, has tested earth samples taken from Siberian permafrost to see whether any viral particles contained therein are still infectious. He’s in search of what he describes as “zombie viruses” — and he has found some.

Claverie studies a particular type of virus he first discovered in 2003. Known as giant viruses, they are much bigger than the typical variety and visible under a regular light microscope, rather than a more powerful electron microscope — which makes them a good model for this type of lab work. His efforts to detect viruses frozen in permafrost were partly inspired by a team of Russian scientists who in 2012 revived a wildflower from a 30,000-year-old seed tissue found in a squirrel’s burrow. (Since then, scientists have also successfully brought ancient microscopic animals back to life.)

In 2014, he managed to revive a virus he and his team isolated from the permafrost, making it infectious for the first time in 30,000 years by inserting it into cultured cells. For safety, he’d chosen to study a virus that could only target single-celled amoebas, not animals or humans.

He repeated the feat in 2015, isolating a different virus type that also targeted amoebas. And in his latest research, published February 18 in the journal Viruses, Claverie and his team isolated several strains of ancient virus from multiple samples of permafrost taken from seven different places across Siberia and showed they could each infect cultured amoeba cells, 

In the research paper, direct infection of humans with ancient pathogens released from permafrost was labeled as "currently unlikely".

 Source CNN & -  09.03.2023

Mysterious, object flying towards centre of the galaxy black hole

An object is being lurking near the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy – and scientists might finally know what it is. The object, known as X7 and stretched out near our Milky Way’s black hole, has mystified scientists for decades.

Scientists now believe that it could be a cloud of gas and dust that was thrown out when two stars collided. 

27.02.2023

Antarctic sea ice hits new record low in 2023

‘Lower sea ice extent means that ocean waves will pound the coast of the giant ice sheet, further reducing ice shelves around Antarctica’ .

Antarctic sea ice has likely shrunk to a record low, US scientists announced on Monday, raising concerns that the climate crisis is increasingly destabilising the frozen continent. The 2023 minimum is the lowest in 45 years of satellite record-keeping, according to preliminary findings from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder, published on Monday, 27. Antarctica reached its minimum extent for the year at 691,000 million square miles on 21 February, researchers said, beating the record low set in 2022 by 52,500 square miles.

27.02.2023

Part of The Sun Has Broken Off And Formed a Vortex…

What The Heck Is Going on?

For all that the Sun is a ubiquitous and vital part of our lives, a lot about it remains baffling. And now it's done something decidedly peculiar. Material from a filament of plasma erupting from the Sun's surface broke away and appeared to form a crown-like vortex over the solar north pole.Further analysis will be required to determine whether or not this is what actually occurred. 

For now, scientists are saying that they've not quite seen anything like it – and the footage itself is undoubtedly spectacular. 

25.02.2023

Rising sea levels put 900 million people in extreme danger

A tenth of the human race is at risk from rising sea levels, the head of the United Nations has warned.

“Sea-level rise is not only a threat in itself, it’s a threat-multiplier,” he added. “For the hundreds of millions of people living in small island developing states and other low-lying coastal areas around the world, sea-level rise is a torrent of trouble.

“Rising seas threaten lives and jeopardise access to water, food and healthcare. Saltwater intrusion can decimate jobs and entire economies in key industries like agriculture, fisheries, and tourism.

“It can damage or destroy vital infrastructure – including transportation systems, hospitals and schools, especially when combined with extreme weather events linked to the climate crisis.

“And rising seas threaten the very existence of some low-lying communities and even countries.”

“Under any scenario, countries like Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands are all at risk. Mega-cities on every continent will face serious impacts including Cairo, Lagos, Maputo, Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta, Mumbai, Shanghai, Copenhagen, London, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires and Santiago.

“The danger is especially acute for nearly 900 million people who live in coastal zones at low elevations – that’s 1 out of 10 people on earth. Some coastlines have already seen triple the average rate of sea level rise.”

“The impact of rising seas is already creating new sources of instability and conflict.”

Sea level rise is being driven by the melting of ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic and mountain glaciers which add water to the ocean. Scientists have determined that the ocean absorbs more than 90 per cent of the excess heat from greenhouse gases, causing water to expand as it heats up.

Sea levels have risen increasingly rapidly since about 1970 and in the past 100 years, sea levels have risen more than in any century over at least the last three millennia. The global average sea level has risen at a rate of about 4mm (0.16 inches) per year over the last decade.

With nearly half of the global population living within 97km (60 miles) of the coast, the rise in sea levels is already impacting people in many parts of the world. The frequency of coastal flooding has near doubled since the 1960s, and it will remain a hazard.

25.02.2023

ESA's NEOMIR will detect 'invisible' asteroids near the Sun

Hidden by the glare of the Sun, some asteroids that are not possible to detect and that may have collision courses with Earth. The NEOMIR mission will serve as the first alarm of rocks with sizes from 20 meters, which cannot be seen from the planet.

21.02.2023

Confirmed: the polar vortex wind has reversed. confusion begin?

At this moment we are talking about the stratospheric polar vortex and not the tropospheric one, so its consequences are not directly visible. However, as the days go by, it will spread to lower layers and could have repercussions on the troposphere and meteorological conditions on a planetary scale. The sudden stratospheric warming that has been much talked about among enthusiasts and professionals in recent weeks is now a reality and, in the last few hours, has spread throughout the stratosphere of the northern hemisphere of the stratosphere. Unlike the troposphere, the stratosphere is a layer with almost no vertical movement of air masses and no direct influence from obstacles and irregularities, both orographic and atmospheric, on the surface, which allows a simpler global prediction of the behavior of this layer. It is for this reason that current warming has been widely predicted since almost January. The event is proving to be very significant and is resulting in a reversal of the zonal westerly winds blowing around the North Pole. This vortex moved over Europe and in its place developed an opposing current, with easterly winds, over the Arctic. At the moment, this change has no direct influence on the troposphere and only affects the air masses that move above 30 km in altitude, however, forecasts suggest that in the coming days it will spread to increasingly lower layers.

18.02.2023

Unexpected asteroid hits Earth and lights up skies over France

The meteor, just one meter in diameter, had been discovered a few hours before the impact by the Hungarian observer Krisztián Sárneczky, who named it Sar2667. Upon entering Earth's atmosphere, the space rock ignited and produced flashes of light that were seen from northern France, southern Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands at around 3:50 am local time on 13.02.2023. Due to its small size, and the characteristics of the planet's protective layer, the meteor disintegrated on entry and was therefore a non-threatening astronomical event. It is not yet known whether or not any debris fell to any part of the Earth for further study. 

This object "is the seventh asteroid discovered before the impact, this time around one meter in diameter". The most recent asteroid discovered before it hit Earth, 2022 WJ1, entered the atmosphere over Canada on November 19, 2022.

Asteroid hits Earth in 2029

Unlike Asteroid 2023 BU, which was only detected a few days before Apophis asteroid when astronomers first detected it in 2005, they realized that the asteroid was 340 meters, the size of the Empire State Building and enough to cause a mass extinction event on our planet. Is dangerously approaching us and could cause a catastrophic event. To assess the risks we run, NASA is preparing a mission to directly intercept the object in space. 

Astronomers have discovered that a potentially dangerous asteroid will hit our planet within seven years and no, this is not a summary of the movie “Don't Look Up”. The object, now known as Apophis, is expected to reach Earth around April 13, 2029. It will be possible to see the asteroid in the sky as it passes through distances as close as the orbits of some of our satellites, even threatening to hit some of the instruments and cause great damage. «

To ensure the planet is not in danger, NASA scientists are planning to do a direct investigation of the asteroid, sending a mission to intercept it. The findings and initial plans have now been published in the Decadal Survey for Planetary Science and Astrobiology.

If everything goes according to plan, the mission will be able to intercept the object months before its closest approach, identifying its physical properties, internal compounds, mapping its structure and calculating the real risk of impact.

After all, if there is even a small chance that Apophis will enter a new trajectory that will cause the object to collide with Earth, it is better to find out everything we can about the object now, including how to divert it to a new trajectory.

Global warming and atmospheric circulation, a big domino effect

In the atmosphere everything is connected. Global warming is causing increasingly evident changes in the general circulation of the atmosphere, such as the expansion of Hadley cells to high latitudes and changes in the behavior of polar and subtropical jets.

The fluid nature of air; the fact that it is a continuous medium means that everything in the atmosphere is connected, so that the changes that occur in a certain area of ​​it are transmitted to the rest. Air masses are in continuous movement as a result of pressure changes that constantly occur within the atmospheric medium, dictated, in turn, by temperature differences that occur between one area and another. If the planet enters a cold phase, like a glaciation, or a warm one, like the current one, this will lead to changes in the patterns of the general circulation of the atmosphere.

Recent changes in climate are widespread, rapid and increasingly intense. The global warming in which we are immersed has no precedent in thousands of years, and its main singularity is that it has been and is being caused by our activities, making more extreme episodes such as heat waves, torrential rains, the cold states, or droughts, whose frequency and intensity are increasing.

As I said at the beginning of this text, in the atmosphere everything is connected to, so that the changes experienced in one part of the gigantic gear of the general circulation are transmitted to the rest, as well as the changes that occur simultaneously in different terrestrial regions, which end up interacting with each other. the others. If we take a leap and from the subtropical domain we go to the Arctic, there, since 1979 (the year in which satellite data from that terrestrial region began to exist), the polar ice layer has decreased in size by 40% (data provided by the IPCC) . The magnitude of global warming in this cold region of Earth is causing a weakening of the polar vortex, which in turn induces changes in the polar jet.

In the current climate picture, favorable conditions occur more frequently for an Atlantic storm linked to the polar jet to interact with the subtropical jet and acquire characteristics different from those it had originally, giving rise to more extreme episodes of rain, since its water potential precipitation increased substantially. We are beginning to see the result of this chain reaction taking place in an increasingly warmer troposphere.

Where is the Comet c/2022 e3 (ztf) in 2023 pt-pt  ?

Aqui está uma lista dos objetos do céu pelos quais o C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará. Utilize-os como ponto de guia até o cometa.

23-24 de janeiro: Edasich

Na noite de 23 para 24 de janeiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 1° de distância da estrela Edasich (magnitude de 3,3) na constelação de Dragão.

25-26 de janeiro: RR Ursae Minoris

Na noite de 25 para 26 de janeiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 1° de distância da estrela RR Ursae Minoris (HIP 73199, HR 5589) com uma magnitude de 4,7. Encontre ambos objetos na constelação de Ursa Menor.

26-28 de janeiro: Kochab

Nas noites de 26 para 27 de janeiro e de 27 para 28 de janeiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 5° da estrela Kochab (magnitude de 2,1) na constelação da Ursa Menor.

29-30 de janeiro: Polaris

Na noite de 29 para 30 de janeiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 10° de distância de Polaris (magnitude de 2) na constelação da Ursa Menor.

1-2 de fevereiro: ⭐ Cometa ZTF vai passar perto da Terra

Na noite de 1 para 2 de fevereiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará pela constelação da Girafa, que não tem estrelas mais brilhantes que a magnitude de 4. Na mesma noite, o cometa chegará mais perto da Terra e atingirá seu brilho máximo (em torno da magnitude de 5).

5-6 de fevereiro: Capella

Na noite de 5 para 6 de fevereiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 1°30' de distância da estrela Capella (magnitude de 0,1) na constelação do Cocheiro.

6-7 de fevereiro: Saclateni

Na noite de 6 para 7 de fevereiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 10' de distância da estrela Saclateni (magnitude de 3,7) na constelação do Cocheiro.

8-9 de fevereiro: Hassaleh

Na noite de 8 para 9 de fevereiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 1° de distância da estrela Hassaleh (magnitude de 2,7) na constelação do Cocheiro.

10-12 de fevereiro: Marte

De 10 para 12 de fevereiro, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) chegará muito perto de Marte, que brilhará em tons avermelhados na magnitude de 0. Ambos os objetos estarão localizados na constelação de Touro.

14-15 de fevereiro: Aldebarã, Híades

Na noite de 14 para 15 de fevereiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 1°30' de distância da estrela Aldebarã (magnitude de 0,9) na constelação de Touro. Ele também se aproximará do aglomerado estelar Híades.

21-22 de fevereiro: Tabit

Na noite de 21 para 22 de fevereiro, o cometa C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passará a 2°30' da estrela Tabit (magnitude de 3,2) na constelação de Órion.

Como ver o cometa ?

As regras de observação para cometas são geralmente as mesmas que para objetos de céu profundo: encontre os céus mais escuros e use um telescópio ou um par de binóculos para obter uma imagem melhor. Ainda assim, alguns truques tornarão mais fácil para detectar o cometa.

29.01.2023

South Pole: iceberg with 1,550 km2 break free 

A huge block of ice, larger than the islands of Madeira and São Miguel in the Azores together, broke off from Antarctica on Sunday (22) and should now begin to advance through the Wedell Sea towards the Atlantic Ocean.The iceberg, probably the largest in the world today, is about 1,550 square kilometers. Madeira extends over 801 square km on the surface and São Miguel over 744 square km (1,545.6 square km as a whole).

The new block of ice has yet to be named by the US National Ice Center, an organization that brings together three operational naval research agencies to provide analysis to the US military, allies and various other US agencies. .For now, the new iceberg still stands next to the Brunt ice shelf, at the South Pole, which has been observed for years by the British Antarctic Survey, a British research group dedicated to observing the poles for analysis in Cambridge, UK. United.According to preliminary forecasts, it is estimated that this giant block of ice will begin to be moved by currents through the Wedell Sea, in a similar route to that of iceberg A74, which was a little smaller (1,200 square kilometers) when it was separated from Antarctica in 2021 and that in June last year it will have split in two.The fault that gave rise to the separation of this new block of ice is known as Chasm-1. It was discovered in 2012 and since then changes have been observed.In 2015, these observations included the use of ice-penetrating radar technologies to obtain more realistic images of the state of the fault, which continued to grow until extending across the entire shelf in 2022, starting what glaciologists call " childbirth", which may have been accelerated by an impact on the coast of the A74.

The route of this new block of ice will be monitored over the coming weeks to anticipate possible threats, as happened in December 2020 with the A68a iceberg.

Regarded at the time as the largest in the world, the A68a separated from Antarctica in 2017, with about 4,200 square kilometers, and which in April 2021 had already fragmented into insignificant blocks, which should also happen soon with the A74.

• Astronomical events in January 2024

  • January 4: Quadrantid meteor shower peak

  • January 8: Moon near Venus

  • January 9: Moon near Mercury

  • January 11: New Moon

  • January 12: Mercury at greatest elongation west

  • January 14: Moon near Saturn

  • January 18: Moon near Jupiter

  • January 25: Full Moon

  • January 27: Mercury near Mars

• Astronomical events in February 2024

  • February 7: Moon near Venus

  • February 9: New Moon

  • February 15: Moon near Jupiter

  • February 22: Venus near Mars

  • February 24: Full Moon

• Astronomical events in March 2024

  • March 8: Moon near Mars

  • March 8: Moon near Venus

  • March 10: New Moon

  • March 13: Moon near Jupiter

  • March 20: March equinox

  • March 21: Venus near Saturn

  • March 24: Mercury at greatest elongation east

  • March 25: Full Moon, penumbral lunar eclipse

• Astronomical events in April 2024

  • April 3: Venus near Neptune

  • April 6: Moon near Mars

  • April 6: Moon near Saturn; lunar occultation of Saturn

  • April 8: Total solar eclipse

  • April 8: New Moon

  • April 10: Saturn near Mars

  • April 21: comet 12P/Pons–Brooks reaches its brightest

  • April 21: Jupiter near Uranus

  • April 22: Lyrid meteor shower peak

  • April 23: Full Moon

  • April 29: Mars near Neptune

• Astronomical events in May 2024

  • May 3: Moon near Saturn; lunar occultation of Saturn

  • May 5: Eta Aquariid meteor shower peak

  • May 5: Moon near Mars; lunar occultation of Mars

  • May 6: Moon near Mercury

  • May 8: New Moon

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• Astronomical events in June 2024

  • June 2: Moon near Mars

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  • June 6: New Moon

  • June 20: June solstice

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• Astronomical events in July 2024

  • July 1: Moon near Mars

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  • July 5: New Moon

  • July 15: Mars near Uranus

  • July 21: Full Moon

  • July 22: Mercury at greatest elongation east

  • July 24: Moon near Saturn; lunar occultation of Saturn

  • July 30: Moon near Mars

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• Astronomical events in August 2024

  • August 4: New Moon

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  • August 14: Jupiter near Mars

  • August 19: Full Moon, Blue Moon, Supermoon

  • August 21: Moon near Saturn; lunar occultation of Saturn

  • August 27: Moon near Jupiter

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• Astronomical events in September 2024

  • September 3: New Moon

  • September 5: Mercury at greatest elongation west

  • September 8: Saturn at opposition

  • September 17: Moon near Saturn; lunar occultation of Saturn

  • September 18: Full Moon, Supermoon, partial lunar eclipse

  • September 21: Neptune at opposition

  • September 22: September equinox

  • September 23: Moon near Jupiter

  • September 25: Moon near Mars

• Astronomical events in October 2024

  • October 2: Annular solar eclipse

  • October 2: New Moon

  • October 5: Moon near Venus

  • October 12: Comet C/2023 A3 reaches its brightest

  • October 14: Moon near Saturn; lunar occultation of Saturn

  • October 17: Full Moon, Supermoon

  • October 21: Moon near Jupiter

  • October 23: Moon near Mars

• Astronomical events in November 2024

  • November 1: New Moon

  • November 4: Moon near Venus

  • November 11: Moon near Saturn; lunar occultation of Saturn

  • November 15: Full Moon, Supermoon

  • November 16: Mercury at greatest elongation east

  • November 17: Leonid meteor shower peak

  • November 17: Uranus at opposition

  • November 17: Moon near Jupiter

  • November 20: Moon near Mars

• Astronomical events in December 2024

  • December 1: New Moon

  • December 4: Moon near Venus

  • December 7: Jupiter at opposition

  • December 8: Moon near Saturn; lunar occultation of Saturn

  • December 14: Geminid meteor shower peak

  • December 14: Moon near Jupiter

  • December 15: Full Moon

  • December 18: Moon near Mars; lunar occultation of Mars

  • December 21: December solstice

  • December 22: Ursid meteor shower peak

  • December 25: Mercury at greatest western elongation

  • December 30: New Moon