The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
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UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
03-01-2023
ZO ERG IS HET ZOGEFFECT: WINDPARKEN OP ZEE VERANDEREN HET WEER TOT 150 KILOMETER VERDEROP
ZO ERG IS HET ZOGEFFECT: WINDPARKEN OP ZEE VERANDEREN HET WEER TOT 150 KILOMETER VERDEROP
Jeannette Kras
Je verwacht het misschien niet direct, maar windmolens hebben invloed op het weer in hun
Het is niet zo dat een groot windpark op zee klimaatverandering veroorzaakt. Het effect op het weer is plaatselijk, maar kan de lucht tot wel 200 meter hoogte beïnvloeden. Als de omstandigheden gunstig zijn, kunnen windmolenparken tot 150 kilometer verderop zorgen voor een afname van de windkracht.
Luchtlagen mixen De draaiende rotorbladen van een windturbine zetten de bewegingsenergie van de wind om in elektriciteit. Achter een windpark is er zodoende minder wind. Door het mixen van luchtlagen en de turbulentie die hierbij komt kijken, mengen vocht en warmte in de lucht beter. Dat kan – zeker bij de stabiele atmosfeer in het voorjaar en de vroege zomer, wanneer de zee kouder is dan de lucht erboven – zorgen voor aanzienlijke zogeffecten in de windschaduw van het windpark. De windturbines transporteren koudere en vochtigere lucht naar hogere luchtlagen, waardoor de kans op mist mogelijk afneemt en er meer kans is op laaghangende bewolking, al is er meer onderzoek nodig om deze weerseffecten met zekerheid te kunnen vaststellen.
Tien keer zoveel windparken in 2050 Op de hele Noordzee stond in 2020 ongeveer 19 gigawatt aan geïnstalleerd windturbinevermogen. In 2050 zal er naar verwachting tien keer zoveel windenergie worden opgewekt. Het geïnstalleerd vermogen is de hoeveelheid energie die windturbines kunnen produceren als ze altijd aan zouden staan en geen last zouden hebben van externe factoren. In werkelijkheid is de opbrengst lager, vanwege onder andere die zogeffecten, maar ook doordat windturbines soms stilstaan voor onderhoud.
Onderzoeker Peter Baas van de TU Delft (Whiffle) legt aan Scientias.nl uit hoe groot de zogeffecten kunnen zijn. “We onderzoeken met het WINS50-project het verschil tussen het geïnstalleerd vermogen en de werkelijke opbrengst van windturbines en windparken. De invloed van zogeffecten – dit is het effect waarbij de turbines van een windpark in elkaars windschaduw staan – hangt van veel factoren af. Zo spelen de afstand tussen de turbines, de hoeveelheid turbines in het park en het type windturbine allemaal een rol. Een recente studie met het atmosferische hogeresolutiemodel van Whiffle laat zien dat voor grote toekomstige windparken, waarbij het geïnstalleerd vermogen meerdere gigawatts bedraagt, de zogverliezen kunnen oplopen tot 15 procent of soms nog meer.”
Formatie op zee Een windpark is een obstakel waar de wind omheen en overheen wil. Het is dus interessant om te kijken wat de beste opstelling is voor een windpark en hoe windparken ten opzichte van elkaar kunnen worden geplaatst. “De formatie van de turbines in een windmolenpark speelt een belangrijke rol. Er wordt bij de aanleg van windparken dan ook uitgebreid naar gekeken om de opbrengst te optimaliseren. Zo kun je bij veel windparken zien dat de turbines in de richting van de meest voorkomende windrichting verder uit elkaar staan dan in de richting die daar loodrecht op staat”, zegt Baas.
Foto: Chesster RPK
Gebouwen in een stad kunnen ook effect hebben op de wind, maar dat is van een heel andere aard, legt de wetenschapper uit. “In een stad wordt de wind afgeremd door de gebouwen zelf. In een windpark wordt wind niet zozeer afgeremd door de turbines zelf maar door de energie die ze aan de wind onttrekken. Ook wordt de lucht direct beïnvloed tot hoogtes van 200 meter, terwijl in de meeste steden de gebouwen zich alleen laag bij de grond bevinden. Dus in een stad zit de afremming meest aan de grond, bij een windpark met name ter hoogte van de turbines. Zeker de toekomstige windparken zijn veel uitgestrekter qua oppervlakte dan een Nederlandse stad. Het effect van windparken op weer en wind is dus veel groter dan dat van een stad”, zegt Baas.
Negatief effect op opbrengst Het zal in de komende decennia steeds drukker worden in de Noordzee. Windparken zullen steeds vaker in elkaars schaduw staan. Het is daarom belangrijk om in te schatten hoeveel invloed dit soort effecten hebben op de opbrengst. Hoeveel groter zijn de zogeffecten in zo’n toekomstig scenario? “Ook dit is een van de vragen waar we in het WINS50-project aandacht aan besteden. Met het atmosfeermodel van Whiffle hebben we een pilotstudie uitgevoerd die laat zien dat omliggende windparken een significant negatief effect op de opbrengst van een windpark kunnen hebben”, aldus Baas.
Onderhoud en vogeltrek “Ook modelsimulaties die met het KNMI-weermodel zijn gedaan binnen het WINS50-project laten duidelijk zien dat zogeffecten van het ene park de wind bij een ander park kunnen beïnvloeden. We zien dat dit steeds belangrijker wordt omdat er zowel op de Noordzee als op andere locaties steeds grotere clusters van windparken ontstaan. Juist daar kunnen wij heel goed modelberekeningen op uitvoeren. Ook wordt bij de bouw van windparken rekening gehouden met trekroutes van vogels en vleermuizen. Windturbines staan niet alleen stil door onderhoud, maar moeten soms ook uitgezet worden vanwege de vogeltrek.”
Het verkleinen van opbrengstverlies, kan dan ook op allerlei manieren, legt Baas uit. “Ook oplossingen in de windturbine zelf spelen een rol. Zo kan ‘wake steering’, het sturen van de zogeffecten, mogelijk een positieve bijdrage leveren.” Hoeveel invloed dit allemaal heeft, is nog niet helemaal helder. “Er is nog veel onduidelijk als het gaat om de invloed van grootschalige uitbreiding van windparken op zee op de energieproductie en het weer. Binnen ons project proberen wij effecten in kaart te brengen en onzekerheden te verkleinen. Op die manier willen wij een bijdrage leveren aan de transitie naar hernieuwbare energie.”
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
Story by Molly Glick
This past year, long-form Horizons stories delved into the technologies that could dictate our future, including everything from cancer-destroying bacteriato a satellite-flinging launch station. Inverse’s in-depth reporting spanned forward-looking fields like artificial intelligence, renewable energy, robotics, and private space travel.
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
As 2022 comes to a close, a few stories stand out as the wildest, most inspiring breakthroughs. Here’s our list of the best Horizons stories of the year.
Space companies finally reckoned with their junk
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
As the private space race heats up, entrepreneurs are beginning to tackle the elephant in the room: the massive amounts of waste they leave behind in the final frontier. In recent years, space magnates have decided to incorporate reusable components into their rockets, though it isn’t entirely out of environmental concern — they also want to reduce operating costs. Here’s how space companies are going green-ish.
A glimpse of the 21st-century gold rush
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
As global demand for electric vehicles surges, it has become clear that we’re going to need tons of lithium for lithium-ion batteries. The sought-after metal is usually sourced from mines in Latin America, Australia, and China, but the world’s supply is limited — hence the recent sky-high lithium prices that are driving up the cost of EVs. But a solution to this dilemma could lie in a salt lake in California’s desert, where the lithium leftovers from geothermal plants may help satiate our appetite for EVs. Read the story here.
This classic sci-fi franchise is using AI to resurrect dead characters
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
Star Wars fans may have noticed that the resurrected young Luke Skywalker sounded a bit strange in The Mandalorianand The Book of Boba Fett. While some media outlets claimed that the CGI character had a completely synthesized voice, the production process wasn’t quite so simple. It was, in fact, based on Mark Hamill’s voice: A Ukrainian tech company fed an AI old audio recordings. This type of technology could change the film industry forever.
Getting to know 2022’s meme king
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
If you spent any time on Twitter over the past year, you likely encountered mind-bending memes that feel like screenshots from a fever dream — take, for example, images of Yoda robbing a liquor store, Guy Fieri giving a TED talk, or an octopus assembling Ikea furniture. We can thank machine-learning engineer Boris Dayma for democratizing the meme-making AI platform, DALL-E Mini. Here’s how (and why) he did it.
Robots could rival human chefs
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
Automatons have gotten pretty good at preparing food, whether it be flipping burgers or assembling pizzas. But scientists have long struggled to give them a crucial culinary ability: taste. This past spring, a team from the University of Cambridge laid out a technique to help bots assess a key dish characteristic. But can human chefs ever really be replaced? Dig in here.
When we’ll get headache-free EV road trips
Space junk, robot chefs, Star Wars clones: The 6 best innovation stories of 2022
Thanks to today’s wide selection of electric vehicles, cross-country road trips need no longer entail carbon-spewing cars. But treks in a Tesla or Nissan Leaf still aren’t as convenient as voyages done in gas-powered vehicles. EV chargers aren’t as ubiquitous as gas pumps, and it still takes a while to juice up an electric car. But the eco-friendly driving experience could eventually get a lot easier. Here’s when to expect an easier ride.
The tiniest possum in the world—once thought extinct—was discovered alive on an Australian island
The tiniest possum in the world—once thought extinct—was discovered alive on an Australian island
This amazing creature was considered extinct. However, it was discovered to exist in Australia.
When Kangaroo Island caught fire, many animals died. Back then, it was believed that many animal species had disappeared, but it seems that everything is not so bad.
Over 20 species were still found alive. Among them is this incredible creature.
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Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife is credited with discovering this creature
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The director of Exceptional Kangaroo Island, Craig Wickham, told Nevsveek that many animals were found after the disaster. This required many cameras with powerful sensors.
This possum is hard to spot, but it is truly an amazing creature.
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Fauna ecologist Pat Hodgens said there was always hope they would find the creature
When these worms begin consuming everything in their path, gigantic piers, ships, and fairy bridges are all endangered. And if this worm is starving and there is only a tiny snail around, all that will be left of it will be the shell. Why are grotesque beings so vital to our world? Where did the iron snail originate? Why did Darwin chop up worms? How did snails acquire long-range weaponry like harpoons? Let’s find out.
WETENSCHAPPERS VINDEN MYSTERIEUZE 'BLAUWE SMURRIE' OP DE BODEM VAN DE OCEAAN EN HEBBEN GEEN IDEE WAT HET IS
WETENSCHAPPERS VINDEN MYSTERIEUZE 'BLAUWE SMURRIE' OP DE BODEM VAN DE OCEAAN EN HEBBEN GEEN IDEE WAT HET IS
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Ideeën? Iemand?
Wetenschappers spotten de mysterieuze ‘blauwe smurrie’ tijdens een expeditie naar de Mid-Atlantische Rug; een grotendeels onder water gelegen bergketen in de Atlantische Oceaan. Onder meer met behulp van onderwaterrobots werd het gebied rondom deze keten – en het leven dat daar te vinden is – nader in kaart gebracht. Voorafgaand aan de expeditie verwachtten onderzoekers daarbij onder meer op diepzeekoraal en sponzen te stuitten, maar verrassingen waren zeker niet uitgesloten.
Blauwe smurrie En zo’n verrassing heeft zich nu dus aangediend in de vorm van wat de onderzoekers zelf ‘blauwe smurrie’ noemen. De ‘smurrie’ is op verschillende plekken voor de kust van de Amerikaanse Maagdeneilanden – op enkele honderden meters diepte – aangetroffen. En onderzoekers hebben geen idee wat het is.
Het zou een zacht koraal kunnen zijn, merkt één van de onderzoekers in bovenstaande video op. Maar, zo benadrukt een ander, we weten het nog niet. Het zou bijvoorbeeld ook een soort spons kunnen zijn. Of een soort manteldier. “Ik denk dat het een mysterie blijft, tot we het kunnen bemonsteren,” stelt één van de onderzoekers. Of tot een deskundige het op basis van de vrij scherpe beelden kan identificeren.
Gaten Het is zeker niet het eerste mysterie dat de expeditie naar Mid-Atlantische Rug voortbrengt. Zo stuitten onderzoekers eerder al op tamelijk mysterieuze gaten in de zeebodem waarvan nog altijd onbekend is hoe ze tot stand komen.
De nog altijd onverklaarbare gaten in de zeebodem die onderzoekers eerder aantroffen.
Afbeelding: NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022.
En ook kwamen wetenschappers tijdens de expeditie een zeer zeldzame vergadering van zee-egels tegen. Onderzoekers zijn er nog maar zelden getuige van geweest dat zee-egels het gezellig maken samen. Maar wat de ontmoeting nog bijzonderder maakte, is dat alle verzamelde zee-egels zichzelf een ‘hoedje’ van puin hadden aangemeten. Waarom de zee-egels elkaar ontmoetten en waarom ze daarbij allemaal een hoedje op hadden, is nog altijd onduidelijk.
Eerder stuitten de onderzoekers tijdens de expeditie ook al op een zeldzame vergadering van zee-egels, waarbij alle verzamelde zee-egels ook nog eens een mysterieus ‘hoedje’ droegen.
Afbeeldingen: NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022.
Zoveel onbekend De mysterieuze ontdekkingen op de bodem van de oceaan geven wel aan hoe belangrijk het is dat er meer onderzoek naar onze oceanen wordt gedaan. De oceaanbodem is nog tamelijk onontgonnen terrein; hoewel de oceaan zo’n 70 procent van het aardoppervlak bestrijkt, is slechts 20 procent van de wereldwijde zeebodem tot op heden in kaart gebracht. En ook de organismen die op de bodem en in de (dieper gelegen) wateren leven, hebben nog behoorlijk wat geheimen voor ons.
Langste bergketen Dat geldt zeker ook voor het gebied waar de beelden van de blauwe smurrie en mysterieuze gaten zijn gemaakt; de Mid-Atlantische Rug is met een lengte van 16.000 kilometer de langste bergketen op aarde, maar deze onder water gelegen berg en omgeving zijn nog nauwelijks bestudeerd. Wetenschappers probeerden daar recent daar tijdens een serie expedities – die samen aangeduid worden als ‘Voyage to the Ridge 2022‘ verandering in te brengen. Vanaf het onderzoeksschip Okeanos Explorer werd de Mid-Atlantische Rug en omgeving met sonarapparatuur in kaart gebracht, terwijl onderwaterrobots een inkijkje gaven in wat er allemaal in het gebied leeft. Want pas als we dat weten, kunnen we de ecosystemen gaan monitoren en eventueel ingrijpen als een ecosysteem – bijvoorbeeld door inmenging van mensen – in de knel dreigt te komen.
Eerder deze maand kwam de laatste van de serie expedities naar de Mid-Atlantische Rug ten einde. De komende tijd zal de sonardata gebruikt worden om de – nog altijd flinke – gaten in onze kaarten van de wereldwijde zeebodem te helpen opvullen. De onderzoekers leveren zo een bijdrage aan Seabed 2030: een project dat erop gericht is om de complete zeebodem tegen 2030 in kaart te hebben gebracht. Daarnaast zullen ook de door onderwaterrobots gemaakte beelden ongetwijfeld verder worden uitgeplozen. Of het tot identificatie van de nu nog mysterieuze blauwe smurrie zal leiden, is afwachten. Vaststaat dat de data leidend zal zijn voor het plannen van nieuwe expedities naar de bodem van de oceaan. Want wat alle vergaarde gegevens vooral laten zien, is dat er nog heel veel is wat we niet weten of in ieder geval slecht begrijpen.
After eating, a female gloomy octopus (left) tosses away empty shells. This requires an unusual position of the tube-shaped structure called the siphon, suggesting that the throw is deliberate.
Credit: P. Godfrey-Smith et al./PLOS ONE (CC BY 4.0)
For the first time, octopuses have been spotted throwing things — at each other1.
Octopuses are known for their solitary nature, but in Jervis Bay, Australia, the gloomy octopus (Octopus tetricus) lives at very high densities. A team of cephalopod researchers decided to film the creatures with underwater cameras to see whether — and how — they interact.
Once the researchers pulled the cameras out of the water, they sat down to watch more than 20 hours of footage. “I call it octopus TV,” laughs co-author David Scheel, a behavioural ecologist at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage. One behaviour stood out: instances in which the eight-limbed creatures gathered shells, silt or algae with their arms — and then hurled them away, propelling them with water jetted from their siphon. And although some of the time it seemed that they were just throwing away debris or food leftovers, it did sometimes appear that they were throwing things at each other.
The team found clues that the octopuses were deliberately targeting one another. Throws that made contact with another octopus were relatively strong and often occurred when the thrower was displaying a uniform dark or medium body colour. Another clue: sometimes the octopuses on the receiving end ducked. Throws that made octo-contact were also more likely to be accomplished with a specific set of arms, and the projectile was more likely to be silt.
A gloomy octopus throws silt at another octopus as it approaches. For hitting fellow octopuses, silt is the projectile of choice.
Credit: P. Godfrey-Smith et al./PLOS ONE (CC BY 4.0)
“We weren’t able to try and assess what the reasons might be,” Scheel cautions. But throwing, he says, “might help these animals deal with the fact that there are so many octopuses around”. In other words, it is probably social.
Tamar Gutnick, an octopus neurobiologist at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, says the work opens a new door for inquiries into the social lives of these famously clever animals. “The environment for these specific octopuses is such that they have this interaction between individuals,” she says. “It’s communication, in a way.”
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03592-w
References
Godfrey-Smith, P., Scheel, D., Chancellor, S., Linquist, S. & Lawrence, M. PLoS ONE17, e0276482 (2022).
You Can Help Measure Light Pollution with Your Phone
You Can Help Measure Light Pollution with Your Phone
There’s no question that light pollution is a growing problem. Thankfully many scientists and advocates are working for change. And you can be a part of that change with a simple app that you can download to catalog the street lights in your neighborhood.
The continued expansion of street lights, traffic lights, security lights, and home lighting across the globe has a variety of disastrous consequences. For one, increased light pollution reduces our access to the night sky. We simply don’t get to see the same stars and constellations that our ancestors did, and we can potentially lose that rich cultural heritage.
In addition, the increased use of lights at night by humans also disrupts many biological processes. For example, animals that rely on night vision can have their rhythms disrupted. Or certain blooms that only happen in periods of strong moonlight can be reduced due to human interference.
While many satellites can map out the total amount of light pollution in a given area on the globe, they have one major weakness. Satellites have difficulty measuring the amount of blue versus red light, because the blue light more easily scatters in the atmosphere. Different satellites and different measuring techniques can give wildly different estimates for the amount of blue light pollution, differing by as much as 200%.
Measuring the color of the light is important because not every biological process is sensitive to the all colors of light equally. For example, one species of nocturnal animal may be absolutely fine with redder colored night lighting, but be completely disrupted by blueish hues.
To tackle this, a team of astronomers have proposed a new citizen science project. The project consists of an app that you can download onto your smartphone. You then simply take pictures of any of the light sources that you see. The app then measures the spectrum of that light and estimates the amount of different colors. For example, common street lights usually use sodium, which gives them an orange hue, while home security lights and headlights tend to be bluer.
The app will then upload the information to a database tagged with your location and correlate that information with light pollution maps given by satellites. This way, the astronomers hope to correct and calibrate the information provided by the satellites so that we have a more accurate measurement of the color spectrum of our light pollution.
The team of astronomers have already completed a pilot program to demonstrate that their app pipeline and data acquisition and calibration steps all work correctly. They are now advocating to roll out the app worldwide to engage more citizen scientists. If you’d like to participate, you can check out this link.
Earth's methane 'super-emitters' REVEALED: NASA identifies more than 50 regions in Central Asia, the Middle East and US pumping out unprecedented levels of the greenhouse gas
Earth's methane 'super-emitters' REVEALED: NASA identifies more than 50 regions in Central Asia, the Middle East and US pumping out unprecedented levels of the greenhouse gas
NASA's 'EMIT' spectrometer is intended to measure solar energy reflected by airborne dust particles on Earth
However, scientists have discovered it is also capable of detecting large plumes of methane gas
So far it has picked up over 50 'super-emitter' regions, including oil and gas infrastructure in Turkmenistan
Other culprits are a waste-processing complex south of Tehran in Iran, and an oilfield in New Mexico, USA
It is hoped the knowledge will be able to inform operators of these facilities to act to reduce their emissions
An orbital NASA instrument has identified more than 50 'super-emitter' regions worldwide that are pumping out unprecedented levels of methane.
The top culprits include Turkmenistan, which produces plumes that stretch more than 20 miles (32 km) wide, Iran and New Mexico, USA.
Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation, or 'EMIT', is a spaceborne spectrometer that measures solar energy reflected from Earth in hundreds of wavelengths of light from the visible to the infrared range.
Its purpose is mainly to advance studies of airborne dust and its effects on climate change, but NASA scientists have discovered it can also detect areas where significant amounts of methane are being produced.
The newly measured methane hotspots - some previously known and others just discovered - include sprawling oil and gas facilities and large landfills.
'Some of the (methane) plumes EMIT detected are among the largest ever seen - unlike anything that has ever been observed from space,' said Andrew Thorpe, a NASA research technologist leading the methane studies.
'What we've found in a just a short time already exceeds our expectations.'
NASA's EMIT mission detected a methane plume 2 miles (3 km) long southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is much more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide
A methane plume at least 3 miles (4.8 km) long billows into the atmosphere south of Tehran, Iran. The plume, detected by NASA's EMIT mission, comes from a major landfill, where methane is a byproduct of decomposition
East of Hazar, Turkmenistan - a port city on the Caspian Sea - 12 plumes of methane stream westward. The plumes were detected by NASA's EMIT mission and some of them stretch for more than 20 miles (32 km)
THE EMIT MISSION
Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation, or 'EMIT', is a spectrometer onboard the International Space Station that measures solar energy reflected from Earth in hundreds of wavelengths of light.
Its primary duty is to collect information about the mineral composition of dust blown into the atmosphere from Earth's deserts and other arid regions in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Australia.
It does this by measuring the wavelengths of light reflected from the surface soil, as darker-colour dust tends to absorb more of the sun's rays, while lighter-colour dust reflects more of them, thus cooling the area around it.
This investigation will help scientists determine whether airborne dust in different parts of the world is likely to contribute to climate change.
Methane is is a potent greenhouse gas that can trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere.
During the day, the sun shines through the atmosphere and warms the planet's surface, while at night, it cools down again, releasing heat back into the air.
However, greenhouse gases can trap some of this hot air, which results in the warming of the planet.
Methane has more than 80 times the heat-trapping potency of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere.
While this does decrease over time as it breaks down, it means emissions have a more immediate impact on planetary warming.
The EMIT imaging spectrometer was launched and docked onto the International Space Station in July this year, and now circles the Earth once every 90 minutes some 250 miles (420 km) above us.
Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), it is able to scan vast tracts of the planet dozens of miles across while also focusing in on areas as small as a football pitch.
Its primary duty is to collect information about the mineral composition of dust blown into the atmosphere from Earth's deserts and other arid regions in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Australia.
It does this by measuring the wavelengths of light reflected from the surface soil. Darker dust tends to absorb more of the sun's rays, while lighter dust reflects more of them, thus cooling the area around it.
This investigation will help scientists determine whether airborne dust in different parts of the world is likely to contribute to climate change.
However, while verifying the accuracy of the imaging spectrometer's mineral data, scientists found that it could also pinpoint emissions of methane.
This will provide them with the locations of facilities, equipment, and infrastructure that produce the gas at high rates - known as 'super-emitters' - so authorities can quickly act to limit emissions.
'We have been eager to see how EMIT's mineral data will improve climate modelling,' said Kate Calvin, NASA's chief scientist and senior climate adviser.
'This additional methane-detecting capability offers a remarkable opportunity to measure and monitor greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.'
The cube (left) shows methane plumes (purple, orange, yellow) over Turkmenistan. The rainbow colours are the spectral fingerprints from corresponding spots in the front image. The blue line in the graph (right) shows the methane fingerprint EMIT detected; the red line is the expected fingerprint based on an atmospheric simulation
Earth Surface Mineral Dust Investigation, or 'EMIT' (pictured), is a spaceborne spectrometer that measures solar energy reflected from Earth in hundreds of wavelengths of light from the visible to the infrared range
The EMIT imaging spectrometer was launched and docked onto the International Space Station (pictured) in July this year, and now circles the Earth once every 90 minutes some 250 miles (420 km) above us. Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, USA, it is able to scan vast tracts of the planet dozens of miles across while also focusing in on areas as small as a football pitch
Levels of methane in the atmosphere are growing 'dangerously fast', scientists warn
Levels of methane found in the atmosphere are 'growing dangerously fast', scientists have warned, and it could be global warming causing the rapid increase.
A report, published in Nature, was compiled by an international team that examines data gathered by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration throughout 2021.
Researchers found that methane in the atmosphere had raced past 1,900 parts per billion, which is triple levels found before the industrial revolution.
This 'grim new milestone' could be linked to global warming causing a rise in wetland areas, which then produce higher levels of methane, the team said.
So far, EMIT has identified more than 50 super-emitters in Central Asia, the Middle East and the Southwestern United States.
Examples of newly imaged methane super-emitters showcased by JPL include a cluster of 12 plumes from oil and gas infrastructure east of the Caspian Sea port city of Hazar in Turkmenistan.
Scientists estimate these plumes collectively spew methane at a rate of 111,000 pounds (50,400 kilograms) per hour, rivalling the peak flow of 110,000 pounds (50,000 kilograms) per hour of the 2015 Aliso Canyon gas field blowout.
Another other large emitter is the Permian Basin oilfield in New Mexico - one of the largest oilfields in the world - which generated a plume about two miles (3.3 km) long.
The third culprit revealed by NASA is a waste-processing complex south of Tehran, Iran, which emits a plume at least three miles (4.8 km) long. Methane is a byproduct of decomposition, and landfills can be a major source.
Scientists estimate flow rates of about 40,300 pounds (18,300 kilograms) per hour at the Permian site and 18,700 pounds (8,500 kilograms) per hour at the Iran site.
JPL officials said neither were previously known to scientists.
'These results are exceptional, and they demonstrate the value of pairing global-scale perspective with the resolution required to identify methane point sources, down to the facility scale,' said David Thompson, EMIT's instrument scientist and a senior research scientist at JPL.
'It's a unique capability that will raise the bar on efforts to attribute methane sources and mitigate emissions from human activities.'
Robert Green, EMIT's principal investigator at JPL, said: 'As it continues to survey the planet, EMIT will observe places in which no one thought to look for greenhouse-gas emitters before, and it will find plumes that no one expects.'
NASA says that EMITcould potentially find hundreds of previously unknown methane super-emitters before its year-long mission ends.
'Reining in methane emissions is key to limiting global warming,' said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
'This exciting new development will not only help researchers better pinpoint where methane leaks are coming from, but also provide insight on how they can be addressed – quickly.
'The International Space Station and NASA's more than two dozen satellites and instruments in space have long been invaluable in determining changes to the Earth's climate.
'EMIT is proving to be a critical tool in our toolbox to measure this potent greenhouse gas – and stop it at the source.'
While the UK and US are only just out of the 'pandemic phase' for Covid-19, scientists are already looking ahead to the next global health crisis – and say it could be sparked by a microbe locked in a Tibetan glacier.
Researchers from Lanzhou University studied 21 glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and found evidence of 968 microbes, most of which have never been seen before.
Worryingly, the team also identified more than 25 million protein-coding genes, including some that might influence the ability to cause disease.
'Ice-entrapped modern and ancient pathogenic microbes could lead to local epidemics and even pandemics,' the researchers wrote in their study, published in Nature Biotechnology.
Researchers from Lanzhou University studied 21 glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and found evidence of 968 microbes, most of which have never been seen before
The researchers sequenced 883 bacterial genomes from cultivated glacier bacteria and 85 metagenomes from 21 Tibetan glaciers covering diverse habitats, including snow (bottom left map), ice (top left map) and cryoconite (top right map)
The Tibetan Plateau
The Tibetan Plateau is a key source of water for some of the world's largest rivers, which means any dangerous microbes could quickly reach a large number of people.
'The Tibetan Plateau, which is known as the water tower of Asia, is the source of several of the world's largest rivers, including the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Ganges River and Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra River),' the researchers explained.
'The release of potentially hazardous bacteria could affect the two most populated countries in the world: China and India.'
In the study, the team gathered bacteria and microscopic life forms called archaea from 21 glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, from 2016-2020.
Using genetic sequencing, the researchers uncovered evidence of 968 microbial species.
Some of the microbes are common, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is found in soil and water.
However, the vast majority (82 per cent) were found to bear little genetic similarity to microbes found in other environments.
Eleven per cent of species were only found in one glacier, while 10 per cent were located in almost all the glaciers studied.
The team also uncovered more than 25 million protein-coding genes – including some that might influence the ability to cause disease.
'Here we present the first, to our knowledge, dedicated genome and gene catalogue for glacier ecosystems, comprising 3,241 genomes and metagenome-assembled genomes and 25 million non-redundant proteins from 85 Tibetan glacier metagenomes and 883 cultivated isolates,' the researchers wrote.
The findings suggest that many microbes have evolved to withstand extreme conditions, according to the team.
'The surfaces of glaciers support a diverse array of life, including bacteria, algae, archaea, fungi, and other microeukaryotes,' they explained.
'Microorganisms have demonstrated the ability to adapt to these extreme conditions and contribute to vital ecological processes.
Some of the microbes are common, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is found in soil and water. However, the vast majority (82 per cent) were found to bear little genetic similarity to microbes found in other environments
'Glacier ice can also act as a record of microorganisms from the past, with ancient (more than 10,000 years old) airborne microorganisms being successfully revived.
'Therefore, the glacial microbiome also constitutes an invaluable chronology of microbial life on our planet.'
The Tibetan Plateau is a key source of water for some of the world's largest rivers, which means any dangerous microbes could quickly reach a large number of people if released.
'The Tibetan Plateau, which is known as the water tower of Asia, is the source of several of the world's largest rivers, including the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Ganges River and Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra River),' the researchers explained.
'The release of potentially hazardous bacteria could affect the two most populated countries in the world: China and India.'
Worryingly, a 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that up to two-thirds of the Tibetan Plateau's remaining glaciers are on track to disappear by the end of the century.
It is expected a third of the ice will be lost in that time - even if global warming is limited 2.7F (1.5C) above pre-industrial levels.
The team hopes the project, which they're calling the 'Tibetan Glacier Genome and Gene' (TG2G) catalogue, will be useful for researchers in the future.
'The TG2G catalog offers a database and a platform for archiving, analysis and comparison of glacier microbiomes at the genome and gene levels. It is particularly timely as the glacier ecosystem is threatened by global warming, and glaciers are retreating at an unprecedented rate,' they concluded.
'We envisage that the catalog will form the basis of a comprehensive global repository for glacial microbiome data.'
A virus particle, or virion, is made up of three parts: a set of genetic instructions, either DNA or RNA; coat of protein that surrounds the DNA or RNA to protect it; a lipid membrane, which surrounds the protein coat.
Unlike human cells or bacteria, viruses don't contain the chemical machinery, called enzymes, needed to carry out the chemical reactions to divide and spread.
They carry only one or two enzymes that decode their genetic instructions, and need a host cell, like bacteria, a plant or animal, in which to live and make more viruses.
When a virus infects a living cell, it hijacks and reprograms the cell to turn it into a virus-producing factory.
Proteins on the virus interact with specific receptors on the target cell.
The virus then inserts its genetic code into the target cell, while the cell's own DNA is degraded.
The target cell is then 'hijacked', it begins using the virus' genetic code as a blueprint to produce more viruses.
The cell eventually bursts open to release the new, intact viruses that then infect other cells and begin the process again.
Once free from the host cell, the new viruses can attack other cells.
Because one virus can reproduce thousands of new viruses, viral infections can spread quickly throughout the body.
Glaciers that are melting amid rising global temperatures could be the cause of the next deathly pandemic, a new study claims.
Scientists investigated how climate change may affect the risk of 'spillover' – a virus jumping to another species – by examining samples from Lake Hazen in the Arctic.
They found that the chance of a spillover event increases with the melting of glaciers, as the meltwater can transport pathogens to new hosts.
Killer viruses that have been frozen in glaciers for hundreds of years could reawaken as temperatures rise and the ice melts and flows to new locations.
Viruses need hosts like humans, animals, plants or fungi to replicate and spread, and occasionally they can jump to a new one that lacks immunity, as seen during the Covid pandemic.
A warming climate could bring viruses in the Arctic into contact with new environments and hosts, increasing the risk of this 'viral spillover', the experts warn.
Researchers in Canada wanted to investigate how climate change might affect the risk of 'viral spillover' by examining samples from the Arctic landscape of Lake Hazen. The experts are pictured at Lake Hazen drilling holes to collect sediment
Lake Hazen, seen from above in this NASA image, is the largest High Arctic freshwater lake in the world
WHAT IS A VIRAL SPILLOVER?
A 'spillover' event describes a virus's jump from one species to another.
An example is the spillover of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, from a bat or pangolin to a human.
A spillover contrasts with a 'spillback' - a virus going from humans back into wild animals.
The new study was led by researchers at Department of Biology, University of Ottawa in Canada and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
'Spillover risk increases with runoff from glacier melt, a proxy for climate change,' say the researchers in their paper.
'Should climate change also shift species range of potential viral vectors and reservoirs northwards, the High Arctic could become fertile ground for emerging pandemics.'
In the past years, many viruses such as Influenza A, Ebola and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid) spilled over to humans and caused 'significant diseases', the study says.
Evidence already suggests SARS-CoV-2 originated in horseshoe bats, although it's likely the virus passed to humans through pangolins, a scaly mammal often confused for a reptile.
Likewise, it's thought the lethal outbreak of the Ebola virus in Western Africa between 2013 and 2016 stemmed from bats.
The researchers focused their study on soil and lake sediments from Lake Hazen, the largest High Arctic freshwater lake in the world.
The team sampled soil that becomes a riverbed for melted glacier water in the summer, as well as the lakebed itself, which required clearing snow and drilling through more than six feet of ice.
They used ropes and a snowmobile to lift the lake sediment through almost 980 feet (300 metres) of water, and samples were then sequenced for DNA and RNA, the genetic blueprints and messengers of life.
'This enabled us to know what viruses are in a given environment, and what potential hosts are also present,' said study leader Stephane Aris-Brosou, an associate professor in the University of Ottawa.
In the past years, many viruses such as Influenza A, Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, spilled over to humans and caused 'significant diseases', the study says. Pictured is a rendering of SARS-CoV-2
WHAT IS GLACIAL RUNOFF?
Glaciers are slowly moving rivers of ice, formed by the accumulation and compaction of snow on mountains or near the poles.
Glacier runoff means all melt and rain water that runs off the glacierized area without refreezing.
Global warming is expected to increase runoff at Lake Hazen in the Arctic, researchers say.
But to find out how likely they were to jump hosts, the team needed to examine the equivalent of each virus and host's family tree.
'Basically what we tried to do is measure how similar these [family] trees are,' said study author Audree Lemieux.
Similar genealogies suggest a virus has evolved along with its host, but differences suggest spillover, and if a virus has jumped hosts once, it is more likely to do so again.
The analysis found pronounced differences between viruses and hosts in the lake bed, which is directly correlated to the risk of spillover.
The difference was less stark in the riverbeds, which the researchers theorise is because water erodes the topsoil, removing organisms and limiting interactions between viruses and potential new hosts.
Those instead wash into the lake, which has seen 'dramatic change' in recent years, as increased water from melting glaciers deposits more sediment.
'That's going to bring together hosts and viruses that would not normally encounter each other,' Lemieux said.
Also, animals and protists were found to be the most susceptible to spillovers, while plants and fungi showed a lower susceptibility to spillovers.
The experts stress that they are neither forecasting an actual spillover nor a pandemic, and that the likelihood of such an event 'remains very low'.
They also warn more work is needed to clarify how big the difference between viruses and hosts needs to be to create serious spillover risk.
Animals and protists are the most susceptible to spillover, while plants and fungi showed a lower susceptibility to spillovers
But they argue that warming weather could increase risks further if new potential hosts move into previously inhospitable regions.
'It could be anything from ticks to mosquitoes to certain animals, to bacteria and viruses themselves,' said Lemieux.
'It's really unpredictable... and the effect of spillover itself is very unpredictable, it can range from benign to an actual pandemic.'
The team now wants more research and surveillance work in the Arctic region to 'mitigate the impact of spillovers' on humans and other species.
'Obviously we've seen in the past two years what the effects of spillover can be,' said Lemieux.
HUMANS HAVE HAVE GIVEN WILD ANIMALS DISEASES NEARLY 100 TIMES IN A REVERSAL OF THE ANIMAL-TO-HUMAN TRANSMISSION OF KILLER DISEASES LIKE COVID AND EBOLA
It's widely believed that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, was spread from wild animals to humans.
But a 2022 study claims that humans might give viruses to animals more often than previously understood.
Researchers reviewed published evidence of human-to-wildlife transmission events, with a focus on how such events could threaten animal and human health.
They found a total of 97 examples of human-to-wildlife transmissions involving a wide range of pathogens, from M. tuberculosis, measles, influenzas and hepatitis B.
These pathogens likely spread from humans to wild animals in multiple ways, such as wild animals' contact with human sewage.
Affected animals range from the Asian elephant, European hedgehog, rhesus monkey, gibbon, giant panda, harbor seal and many more.
The study refers to 'spillovers' (a virus's jump from another species) and a spillback (a virus going from humans back into wild animals).
Death is all around us, but most of us are so focused on our own little worlds that we can’t even see it. There have been other mass extinctions throughout history, but the one that is happening right now is much different from all those that have come before. That is because it is happening very gradually. Over the past 50 years, billions of creatures have been wiped off the face of our planet, but it didn’t happen all at once. It has been a slow, steady process, and the mainstream media hardly ever talks about it. So most people don’t pay any attention to this crisis, even though it truly is an existential threat to our existence.
If all other creatures were suddenly eliminated, humanity would not survive for very long at all.
But for some reason we don’t seem to understand this.
Even though we are at the top of the food chain, we can’t afford to ignore what is going on below us. And right now what is happening to much of the food chain is absolutely horrific.
The Living Planet Index tracks the populations of 32,000 different species, and we are being told that those 32,000 different populations have declined by an average of 69 percent since 1970…
The Living Planet Index (LPI)—which tracks populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians—reveals an average 69% decrease in monitored wildlife populations since 1970. The 2022 LPI analyzed almost 32,000 species populations. It provides the most comprehensive measure of how they are responding to pressures in their environment.
69 percent!
If that doesn’t meet the definition of “mass extinction”, what does?
We have been entrusted with the care of this planet, and just about everything on it is dying. In fact, at this point countless species of plants and animals are literally “on the verge of extinction”…
In Africa, two thirds of animal populations have been lost. In Europe, there has been an animal population decline of 18 percent. In Asia, the damage is 55 percent, and in North America, animal populations have fallen by 20 percent. The greatest losses are occurring in Latin America and throughout the Caribbean; animal populations have plummeted by 94% in these areas. Millions of species of plants and animals are now on the verge of extinction.
Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International, said the entire organization is “extremely worried” by the new data. The data shows “a devastating fall in wildlife populations, in particular in tropical regions that are home to some of the most biodiverse landscapes in the world,” he said. This includes warm water coral reefs, which have been cut in half over the past 50 years.
Why aren’t more people concerned about this?
If we stay on the path that we are currently on, it is just a matter of time before most species are gone.
Do you think that we will be able to survive once there are thousands of giant gaps in the food chain?
Of course not.
The clock is ticking for humanity, and most people are in a deep state of sleep.
Speaking of sleep, I remember often waking up to the sound of birds when I was very young.
But now in many communities around America the birds are missing. In fact, a report that was recently released found that birds are being wiped out in the United States at a rate that is absolutely staggering…
The Rufous Hummingbird, Greater Sage-Grouse, Pinyon Jay, and 67 other birds in the United States are teetering on the edge of disaster, having lost at least half of their populations in the past 50 years. A report released today by North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) calls these birds “Tipping Point” species, on track to lose another 50 percent of their populations in the same time frame if conservation efforts do not improve.
Given enough time, eventually they will all be gone.
What would we do then?
We have also just learned that the crab population in Alaska has suffered a decline that is truly catastrophic…
According to an annual survey of the Bering Sea floor carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, estimates for the crustaceans’ total numbers fell to about 1.9 billion in 2022, down from 11.7 billion in 2018, or a reduction of about 84 percent.
For the first time ever, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the Bering Sea snow crab season will remain closed for 2022-23, saying in a statement efforts must turn to “conservation and rebuilding given the condition of the stock.”
There are countless other examples just like this.
But very few people seem to care.
Meanwhile, our scientists continue to conduct experiments which could ultimately result in even more mass extinctions. In fact, just this week it was being reported that taxpayer-funded researchers at Boston University have created a hybrid COVID virus that has “an 80 percent lethality rate”…
A senior US health official today admitted that controversial Covid manipulation research carried out in a laboratory in Boston was not authorized — despite being funded by taxpayer money.
DailyMail.com exclusively revealed yesterday that a team from Boston University had developed a hybrid Covid virus — combining the Omicron and original Wuhan strains — which had an 80 percent lethality rate.
Public records indicate it was partly paid for using a grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the federal government’s main research agencies.
Only people that are completely and utterly insane would purposely create something like this.
What if it gets out somehow?
What will they do then?
The stupidity that we are witnessing is off the charts.
But unless the mainstream media makes a really big deal out of this, most of the population is simply not going to care.
And that is because most of the population does not even bother to think for themselves any longer.
Humanity just keeps making self-destructive decision after self-destructive decision, and the global elite seem quite satisfied with how things are going.
Thanks to them, we live on a dirty, filthy poisoned planet, and the clock just keeps on ticking.
***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***
About the Author:
My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending digital copies as gifts through Amazon to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.
Meet The F-111 Aardvark: The US Plane Built To Kill Everything (Pictures)
Meet The F-111 Aardvark: The US Plane Built To Kill Everything (Pictures)
The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark Was a True Multirole Combat Aircraft – Developed to meet a bold United States Department of Defense (DoD) edict that called for a multi-role aircraft that could meet all future tactical needs of all U.S. military services, the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark proved to be a major success, albeit with a rocky start. Production variants of the F-111 had it serve in roles that included ground attack/interdiction; strategic bombing, with nuclear weapons; reconnaissance; and electronic warfare. It was a long-range, all-weather strike aircraft that was capable of navigating at low levels to destroy targets deep in enemy territory.
Multi-role Aircraft
It was truly a cutting-edge multi-role aircraft, including being the first production variable-geometry wing aircraft as well as to feature terrain-following radar for low-level, high-speed flight.
It also pioneered the use of after-burning turbofan engines.
The F-111 Aardvark had been originally conceived in early 1960 to combine the United States requirement for a fighter-bomber with United States Navy’s need for an air-superiority fighter. While the Navy subsequently canceled its program, the Air Force forged ahead.
The F-111 was a major step forward, but it required a new engine, wings and radar to enable it to complete its mission of dropping 8,000 pounds of bombs on a target 1,500 miles away – without refueling.
It was the first aircraft to utilize an afterburning turbofan engine, which provided it the power to fly supersonically to Europe without tankers. The F-111 set a record for the longest low-level supersonic flight (172 miles at less than 1,000 feet altitude) on November 9, 1966.
The F-111 as A Bomber
The F-111 entered service with the U.S. Air Force in 1967, and it was primarily employed as a bomber.
Yet, it could fly like no other bomber of the era – low to the ground to avoid detection until the bombs were delivered, but then up to altitude at supersonic speed to make its return flight home.
It featured a swept wing – one that could be changed in flight – and could vary between sixteen and 72.5 degrees, with side-by-side seating for a pilot and weapons systems officer.
The F-111’s wings were straight for take-offs, landings, or slow-speed flight; but by sweeping its wings rearward, it could exceed twice the speed of sound (Mach 2).
The advanced avionics allowed for night/all-weather flight close to the ground. The aircraft’s radar system could enable the F-111 to fly at just 200 feet off the ground in changing terrain without pilot intervention. The system allowed the pilot to shift the aircraft while radar-controlled the altitude.
The avionics also helped locate and bomb targets at night and in bad weather, while the F-111 was also able to take off and land on runways as short as 3,000 feet.
During the Vietnam War, the Aardvark offered twice the range of the F-4 Phantom yet could carry two and a half times the weapons load.
Improved Version
The F-111F variant was also equipped with an all-weather AN/AVQ-26 Pave Tack infrared targeting designator/reader carried in a pod-mounted turret under the fuselage.
The aircraft could track and designate ground targets for laser, infrared and electro-optical bombs.
Eighteen aircraft were employed, along with four EF-111A Raven electronic warfare variants, during the April 14, 1986, “ Operation El Dorado Canyon” airstrikes on Libya. Taking off from Royal Air Force Lakenheath and Royal Air Force Upper Heyford in the United Kingdom and flying round-trip to Libya – a distance of 6,400 miles and spanning 13 hours – it was the longest fighter combat mission in history.
The F-111s faced a 3,500-mile flight with four aerial refuelings each way due to flight restrictions. As the aircraft approached Libya, two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, the USS Coral Sea (CV-43) and the USS America (CV-66), launched fourteen A-6E strike aircraft and twelve F/A-18 and A-7 strike support aircraft. Although the mission was deemed a success, it was not without controversy. The U.S. Navy later claimed that the entire operation could have been accomplished using Navy assets. In addition, one F-111 was lost over Libya and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Just five years later, the F-111F proved to be one of the most effective Allied aircraft in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, where it flew more than 2,400 sorties against Iraqi strategic sites, vehicle formations and hardened bunkers.
In total, 566 F-111s of all series were built; 106 of them were production F-111Fs. The United States Air Force retired the last F-111F in 1996 when it was replaced by the F-15E Strike Eagle for medium-range precision strike missions, while the supersonic bomber role was assumed by the B-1B Lancer.
Now a Senior Editor for 1945, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He regularly writes about military hardware, and is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes.
Time is “elastic”: Why time passes faster atop a mountain than at sea level
Time is “elastic”: Why time passes faster atop a mountain than at sea level
Since Einstein presented his general theory of relativity, we’ve known that gravity has the ability to warp space and time. Even at low levels, this “time dilation” effect occurs. We experience distortions in how we see time outside of physics, sometimes to startling extents.
Place one clock on top of a mountain. Put another one on the seashore. You’ll notice that each clock displays a different time. Why? Time slows down as you come closer to Earth because, as Einstein proposed in his general theory of relativity, the gravity of a big mass, such as the Earth, warps space and time around it.
This “time dilation” effect was first observed on a cosmic scale, such as when a star passes close to a black hole. The same effect was discovered on a much smaller scale in 2010, when researchers used two incredibly precise atomic clocks, one 33 cm higher than the other. Time went slower as the clock got closer to Earth.
The differences were minor, but the implications were meaningful: absolute time does not exist. Time moves slightly differently for each clock in the world and for everyone of us. But, even if time moves at varying speeds around the cosmos, time still moves in some objective sense, right? Maybe not.
Carlo Rovelli, an Italian theoretical physicist, suggests in his book “The Order of Time” that our perception of time — our sensation that time is always moving ahead — could be a highly subjective illusion. After all, when you examine reality on the smallest scale (at least using quantum gravity equations), time vanishes.
“If I observe the microscopic state of things,” writes Rovelli, “then the difference between the past and future vanishes … in the elementary grammar of things, there is no distinction between ’cause’ and ‘effect.’”
So, what causes us to perceive time as moving forward? Rovelli observes that, whereas time disappears on extremely small scale, we clearly see events occurring sequentially in reality. To put it another way, we see entropy: as order changing into disorder; an egg cracking and getting scrambled.
According to Rovelli, the second law of thermodynamics, which stipulates that heat always moves from hot to cold, describes important features of time. This is only one method. For example, an ice cube never melts into a hot cup of tea. A comparable process, according to Rovelli, could explain why we can only perceive the past and not the future.
“Any time the future is definitely distinguishable from the past, there is something like heat involved,” Rovelli wrote for the Financial Times. “Thermodynamics traces the direction of time to something called the ‘low entropy of the past’, a still mysterious phenomenon on which discussions rage.”
He continues: “Entropy growth orients time and permits the existence of traces of the past, and these permit the possibility of memories, which hold together our sense of identity. I suspect that what we call the “flowing” of time has to be understood by studying the structure of our brain rather than by studying physics: evolution has shaped our brain into a machine that feeds off memory in order to anticipate the future. This is what we are listening to when we listen to the passing of time. Understanding the “flowing” of time is therefore something that may pertain to neuroscience more than to fundamental physics. Searching for the explanation of the feeling of flow in physics might be a mistake.”
Scientists are still learning a lot about how we perceive time and why it behaves differently depending on the scale. However, outside of the realm of physics, our individual perspective of time is surprisingly elastic.
On a mountain, time moves differently than on a beach. However, you do not need to travel far to encounter strange distortions in your perspective of time. For example, at moments of life-or-death fear, your brain would release massive amounts of adrenaline, which would speed up your internal clock, causing you to view the outer world as moving slowly.
Another common distortion occurs when we direct our attention in specific directions.
“If you’re thinking about how time is currently passing by, the biggest factor influencing your time perception is attention,” Aaron Sackett, associate professor of marketing at the University of St. Thomas, told Gizmodo. “The more attention you give to the passage of time, the slower it tends to go. As you become distracted from time’s passing—perhaps by something interesting happening nearby, or a good daydreaming session—you’re more likely to lose track of time, giving you the feeling that it’s slipping by more quickly than before. “Time flies when you’re having fun,” they say, but really, it’s more like “time flies when you’re thinking about other things.” That’s why time will also often fly by when you’re definitely not having fun—like when you’re having a heated argument or are terrified about an upcoming presentation.”
Psychedelic drugs are one of the most mysterious ways for humans to experience time-perception distortions. Rovelli detailed an LSD experiment in an interview with The Guardian.
“It was an extraordinarily strong experience that touched me also intellectually,” he said. “Among the strange phenomena was the sense of time stopping. Things were happening in my mind but the clock was not going ahead; the flow of time was not passing any more. It was a total subversion of the structure of reality.”
Few scientists or philosophers appear to believe that time is a complete illusion.
“What we call time is a rich, stratified concept; it has many layers,” Rovelli told Physics Today. “Some of time’s layers apply only at limited scales within limited domains. This does not make them illusions.”
The belief that time moves at an absolute rate is an illusion. The river of time may run forever, yet it moves at various rates between people and even within your own mind.
PISSEBED ONTDEKT DIE 25 KEER GROTER IS DAN DE EXEMPLAREN IN JOUW ACHTERTUIN
PISSEBED ONTDEKT DIE 25 KEER GROTER IS DAN DE EXEMPLAREN IN JOUW ACHTERTUIN
Vivian Lammerse
En hij ziet eruit als een echte Pokémon!
Onderzoekers hebben in de Golf van Mexico een gigantische en vrij griezelige zee-pissebed ontdekt. Het gaat om een nieuwe soort uit het geslacht Bathynomus – een mysterieuze en primitieve groep die leeft in de diepste uithoeken van de oceaan; plekken die nog nauwelijks door mensen zijn verkend. Het nieuw ontdekte, reusachtige, roomgele familielid is ongeveer 26 centimeter lang en doet volgens de onderzoekers vooral erg denken aan een Pokémon.
B. yucatanensis De reuzenpissebed werd gevonden voor de kust van het schiereiland Yucatán, op een diepte van ongeveer 600 tot 800 meter. Het dier heeft de naam B. yucatanensis gekregen, vernoemd naar zijn vindplaats. Hoewel de pissebed er misschien een beetje eng uitziet – ze zijn maar liefst 25 keer groter dan de exemplaren in jouw achtertuin – is hij volkomen ongevaarlijk, zo benadrukken de onderzoekers.
Foto van B. yucatanensis.
Afbeelding: Dr Ming-Chih Huang, Journal of Natural History
Dat het hier overigens om een nog onbekende soort ging, was niet meteen duidelijk. Aanvankelijk zagen onderzoekers de pissebed namelijk aan voor B. giganteus; de grootste bekende pissebed die wel bijna 50 centimeter lang kan worden.
Nieuwe soort De verwarring is niet onbegrijpelijk. In 2017 werd er bijvoorbeeld nog een B. giganteus op precies dezelfde plek en op dezelfde diepte gevangen. Bovendien lijken B. giganteus en B. yucatanensis op elkaar. Zo hebben ze bijvoorbeeld hetzelfde aantal stekels op hun achterlijf. “Oppervlakkig onderzoek, waarbij er alleen gekeken wordt naar deze stekels, heeft er gemakkelijk toe kunnen leiden dat de nieuwe soort ten onrechte werd herkend als B. giganteus,” schrijven de onderzoekers in hun studie.
Unieke kenmerken Toen onderzoekers echter een betere blik wierpen, ontdekten ze enkele onderscheidende kenmerken. Zo is B. yucatanensis bijvoorbeeld een stuk slanker en net iets korter dan zijn tegenhanger. Daarnaast heeft B. yucatanensis langere antennes op zijn kop. De vlekkerige, roomgele kleur van de schaal onderscheidt hem verder van zijn grijze verwanten. Om er toch honderd procent zeker van te zijn dat het hier om een nog onbekende soort ging, voerden de onderzoekers een genetische analyse uit waarbij ze B. giganteus en B. yucatanensis vergeleken. “Vanwege verschillende sequenties van twee genen, in combinatie met verschillen in morfologie, identificeerden we B. yucatanensis als een nieuwe soort,” zo luidt de conclusie van de onderzoekers.
Verwant Ondanks dat, zijn B. yucatanensis en B. giganteus wel het nauwst verwant aan elkaar. “Dit geeft aan dat de twee soorten waarschijnlijk een gemeenschappelijke voorouder hadden,” aldus de onderzoekers. Bovendien sluiten ze niet uit dat er mogelijk nog meer onbekende familieleden op ontdekking wachten.
Internethit Op dit moment zijn er zo’n 20 levende soorten reuzenpissebedden die tot het geslacht Bathynomus behoren, bekend. Door hun vreemde en ongebruikelijke afmetingen zijn de pissebedden een ware internethit geworden. Er zijn zelfs een reeks producten op de markt gebracht die hun vertederende en bizarre uiterlijk vieren; denk aan pluchen speelgoed tot aan telefoonhoesjes.
Ondanks dat er er nog niet grootschalig op de reuzenpissebedden gevist wordt, worden ze weleens aangetroffen op het menu van Aziatische visrestaurants. “Sommige soorten Bathynomus zijn het doelwit geworden van diepzee-visserij,” zo waarschuwen de onderzoekers. En daarom is het volgens hen nóg belangrijker dat de verschillende soorten goed uit elkaar worden gehouden. “Hoewel de gigantische pissebedden slechts sporadisch worden geëxploiteerd, is het voor het beheer van de Bathynomus-visserij en het behoud van de dieren belangrijk om precies te weten welke soorten er worden gevangen,” besluiten ze.
For a country with a population of just over 10 million people, it’s impressive that Sweden can maintain one of the best fighter aircraft programs.
An aircraft’s effectiveness is no longer determined mainly by how fast it can fly. Now it’s about how instant AI can interpret information and present the data for pilots to act upon in battle.
Unlike US or Russiαn fighters, Swedish Gripen can’t carry the most weapons, has no real stealth. To be clear, it isn’t the longest-range, the fastest, or even the cheapest jet.
Sweden has chosen another niche to compete. The country’s focus is to develop a fighter jet with the most advanced electronics to become a nightmare for its closest adversary – Russiα.
Check out this strange circular rainbow cloud spotted in China on August 21, 2022.
This is called a "scarf cloud", which occurs when a thunderstorm's updraft creates a pileus cloud and the sun's angle interacts with the ice crystals in the pileus cloud.
The scarf cloud is formed by the cooling and condensation of moist air forced up and over the peak. When the sunlight is at the right angle, the light diffracts between the droplets and the ice crystals in the cloud, creating a rainbow color.
For as long as we have been recording our lives in history, humanity has been preoccupied with longevity and immortality. So far, we haven’t even gotten close.
In the rest of the animal kingdom, however, we’ve seen amazing instances of death defiance. From animals that keep living even after being cut in half, to animals that can withstand crazy temperatures and radiation, to long-living animals, and immortal beings. Immortal?! Wait for it – we’re getting there.
Study Predicts More Long-Term Sea Level Rise from Greenland Ice
Study Predicts More Long-Term Sea Level Rise from Greenland Ice
The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second-largest body of ice in the world, covering roughly 650,000 square miles of Greenland's surface. If it melts completely, it could contribute up to 23 feet (7 meters) of sea level rise, according to a new study using data from NASA's Operation IceBridge.
Credit: NASA / Jefferson Beck
By Jessica Merzdorf, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenland’s melting ice sheet could generate more sea level rise than previously thought if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase and warm the atmosphere at their current rate, according to a new modeling study. The study, which used data from NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne campaign, was published in Science Advances today.
In the next 200 years, the ice sheet model shows that melting at the present rate could contribute 19 to 63 inches to global sea level rise, said the team led by scientists at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. These numbers are at least 80 percent higher than previous estimates, which forecasted up to 35 inches of sea level rise from Greenland’s ice.
The team ran the model 500 times out to the year 3000 for each of three possible future climate scenarios, adjusting key land, ice, ocean and atmospheric variables to test their effects on ice melt rate. The three climate scenarios depend on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere in coming years. In the scenario with no reduction of emissions, the study found that the entire Greenland Ice Sheet will likely melt in a millennium, causing 17 to 23 feet (5 to 7 meters) of sea level rise.
In the scenario where emissions are stabilized by the end of the century rather than continue to increase, the model shows ice loss falling to 26 to 57 percent of total mass by 3000. Drastically limiting emissions so they begin to decline by the end of the century could limit ice loss to 8 to 25 percent. This scenario would produce up to 6 feet (about 2 meters) of sea level rise in the next millennium, according to the study.
The updated model more accurately represents the flow of outlet glaciers, the river-like bodies of ice that connect to the ocean. Outlet glaciers play a key role in how ice sheets melt, but previous models lacked the data to adequately represent their complex flow patterns. The study found that melting outlet glaciers could account for up to 40 percent of the ice mass lost from Greenland in the next 200 years.
By incorporating ice thickness data from IceBridge and identifying sources of statistical uncertainty within the model, the study creates a more accurate picture of how human-generated greenhouse gas emissions and a warming climate may affect Greenland in the future.
A Clearer Picture
Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute used data from NASA’s Operation IceBridge to develop a more accurate model of how the Greenland Ice Sheet might respond to climate change in the future, finding that it could generate more sea level rise than previously thought. Credit: NASA / Katie Jepson. This video can be downloaded for free at NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio.
Capturing the changing flow and speed of outlet glacier melt makes the updated ice sheet model more accurate than previous models, according to the authors. As ocean waters have warmed over the past 20 years, they have melted the floating ice that shielded the outlet glaciers from their rising temperatures. As a result, the outlet glaciers flow faster, melt and get thinner, with the lowering surface of the ice sheet exposing new ice to warm air and melting as well.
“Once we had access to satellite observations, we were able to capture the surface velocity of the whole Greenland Ice Sheet and see how that ice flows. We recognized that some outlet glaciers flow very fast — orders of magnitude faster than the interior of the ice sheet,” said lead author Andy Aschwanden, a research associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute.
IceBridge’s detailed ice thickness measurements helped the team to be the first to model these areas where outlet glaciers are affected by warmer ocean waters, as well as to model more of the complex feedbacks and processes influencing ice loss than previously possible. They examined the importance of factors like underwater melting, large ice chunks breaking off of glaciers, changing snowfall rates and rising air temperatures. They also examined factors that could slow down ice loss, like the movement of Earth’s surface “bouncing back” from the weight of ice that is no longer there.
“At the end of the day, glaciers flow downhill,” Aschwanden said. “That’s very simplified, but if you don’t know where downhill is, the model can never do a good job. So the most important contributor to understanding ice flow is knowing how thick the ice is.”
Each of the three emissions scenarios used in the study produced different patterns of ice retreat across Greenland. The least severe scenario showed the ice retreating in the west and north, while the moderate scenario showed ice retreat around the island, except for in the highest elevation areas. The most severe scenario, in which emissions continue to increase at their present rate, showed more than half of the model runs losing more than 99 percent of the ice sheet by 3000.
At its thickest point, the Greenland Ice Sheet currently stands more than 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) above sea level. It rises high enough into the atmosphere to alter the weather around it, as mountains do. Today, this weather pattern generates almost enough snowfall to compensate for the amount of naturally melting ice each year. In the future, however, melting and flow will thin the interior, lowering it into a layer of the atmosphere that lacks the conditions necessary for sufficient replenishing snowfall.
“In the warmer climate, glaciers have lost the regions where more snow falls than melts in the summer, which is where new ice is formed,” said Mark Fahnestock, research professor at the Geophysical Institute and the study’s second author. “They’re like lumps of ice in an open cooler that are melting away, and no one is putting any more ice into the cooler.”
The team stressed that despite the need for ongoing research on exactly how glaciers will move and melt in response to warming temperatures, all of the model runs show that the next few decades will be pivotal in the ice sheet’s future outcome.
“If we continue as usual, Greenland will melt,” Aschwanden said. “What we are doing right now in terms of emissions, in the very near future, will have a big long-term impact on the Greenland Ice Sheet, and by extension, if it melts, to sea level and human society.”
Bridging the Data Gap
The model runs were performed on high-performance supercomputers atNASA’s Ames Research Center and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) using the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM), an open-source model developed at UAF and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. NASA also provided funding support for the study. While other ice sheet models could perform the simulations they did, the team said, PISM is unique for its high resolution and low computational cost.
NASA’s Operation IceBridge is the world’s largest airborne survey of polar land and sea ice. Using an array of aircraft and scientific instruments, IceBridge has collected data between the end of the first Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) mission in 2010 and the second, ICESat-2, which launched in 2018. It has measured the height of the ice below its flight path as well as the bedrock under the ice sheets.
“NASA’s space and airborne campaigns, like IceBridge, have fundamentally transformed our ability to try and make a model mimic the changes to the ice sheet,” Fahnestock said. “The technology that allows improved imaging of the glacier bed is like a better pair of glasses allowing us to see more clearly. Only NASA had an aircraft with the instruments and technology we needed and could go where we needed to go.”
The melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will cause global sea levels to rise by more than 10 inches (27cm) – even if the whole world stops burning fossil fuels today, a new study has warned.
Researchers from the National Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) studied two decades worth of measurements to predict the minimum ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet from climate warming so far.
Their findings suggest that, under the best possible situation, the Greenland Ice Sheet will lose about 110 trillion tonnes of ice.
'In the foreseeable scenario that global warming will only continue, the contribution of the Greenland Ice Sheet to sea level rise will only continue increasing,' said Professor Jason Box, lead author of the study.
'When we take the extreme melt year 2012 and take it as a hypothetical average constant climate later this century, the committed mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet more than doubles to 78 cm [30 inches].'
The melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet will cause global sea levels to rise by more than 10 inches (27cm) – even if the whole world stops burning fossil fuels, a new study has warned
Their findings suggest that in the best case scenario, a minimum of 3.3 per cent of the Ice Sheet will be lost, equal to 110 million tonnes of ice, or a sea level rise of 10 inches (27cm)
What time frame are we looking at?
While previous studies estimated sea level rise with climate models, this is the first time that researchers have made estimations based on measurements.
Unfortunately, the downside to this method is that it does not give a timeframe.
'In order to get the figure that we have, we had to let go of the time factor in the calculation,' Professor Box added.
'But our observations suggest that most of the committed sea level rise will occur this century.'
In the study, the researchers looked at changes in the snow line - the boundary between areas exposed to net melting during summer and areas that are not - of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 2000 to 2019.
Ice across the sheet does not melt equally, with ice along the edges at lower elevations melting the most quickly.
Further up the ice sheet, it's too cold for melting to occur, even in summer.
The snow line is set by the line where the upper layer of winter snow does not melt away in summer, but remains on top, nourishing the ice sheet.
This line varies from year to year, depending on the weather.
For example, a hot summer may move the boundary further up the ice sheet, while a colder year may push the line down towards the ice edges.
Snow falling on the ice during winter turns into new ice over time - that is, if it doesn't melt away during summer.
For the ice sheet to be in equilibrium, the added mass must equal the lost mass.
While that is the case in a stable climate, a hot summer causes the layers of snow to be lost by melt.
Professor Jason Box taking ice samples standing on exposed ice below the snow line of the Greenland Ice Sheet in West Greenland during the melt season
'When we take the extreme melt year 2012 and take it as a hypothetical average constant climate later this century, the committed mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet more than doubles to 78 cm [30 inches],' Professor Box said
That snow will then be missing in the mass budget for years to come, creating a disequilibrium.
Using a rigorous glaciological theory, the researchers calculated the average snow line needed to bring the ice sheet back into balance.
Their findings suggest that in the best case scenario, a minimum of 3.3 per cent of the Ice Sheet will be lost, equal to 110 million tonnes of ice, or a sea level rise of 10 inches (27cm).
'It is a very conservative rock-bottom minimum,' Professor Box said.
'Realistically, we will see this figure more than double within this century.'
The researchers only looked at the Greenland Ice Sheet, and did not consider sea level rise as a result of melting in Antarctica.
The glaciologist team setting up an automatic weather station on the snowy surface above the snow line during the melt season
While previous studies have estimated sea level rise with climate models, this is the first time that researchers have made estimations based on measurements.
This radically different method has raised some eyebrows in the science community according to Professor Box.
'The ice flow models are not ready in this area,' he explained. 'This is a complimentary way of calculating mass loss that has been lacking.'
Unfortunately, the downside to this method is that it does not give a time frame.
'In order to get the figure that we have, we had to let go of the time factor in the calculation,' Professor Box added.
'But our observations suggest that most of the committed sea level rise will occur this century.'
SEA LEVELS COULD RISE BY UP TO 4 FEET BY THE YEAR 2300
Global sea levels could rise as much as 1.2 metres (4 feet) by 2300 even if we meet the 2015 Paris climate goals, scientists have warned.
The long-term change will be driven by a thaw of ice from Greenland to Antarctica that is set to re-draw global coastlines.
Sea level rise threatens cities from Shanghai to London, to low-lying swathes of Florida or Bangladesh, and to entire nations such as the Maldives.
It is vital that we curb emissions as soon as possible to avoid an even greater rise, a German-led team of researchers said in a new report.
By 2300, the report projected that sea levels would gain by 0.7-1.2 metres, even if almost 200 nations fully meet goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Targets set by the accords include cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero in the second half of this century.
Ocean levels will rise inexorably because heat-trapping industrial gases already emitted will linger in the atmosphere, melting more ice, it said.
In addition, water naturally expands as it warms above four degrees Celsius (39.2°F).
Every five years of delay beyond 2020 in peaking global emissions would mean an extra 20 centimetres (8 inches) of sea level rise by 2300.
'Sea level is often communicated as a really slow process that you can't do much about ... but the next 30 years really matter,' said lead author Dr Matthias Mengel, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, in Potsdam, Germany.
None of the nearly 200 governments to sign the Paris Accords are on track to meet its pledges.
What Are The Odds? The U.S., Europe, Africa And China Are All Simultaneously Experiencing Droughts Of Epic Proportions
What Are The Odds? The U.S., Europe, Africa And China Are All Simultaneously Experiencing Droughts Of Epic Proportions
Do you believe in “coincidences”? There have always been droughts all throughout human history. So if there were a couple of isolated droughts in 2022, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But that isn’t what we are facing. Instead, right now the United States, Europe, Africa and China are all experiencing droughts of epic proportions. As a result, crops are failing in key agricultural areas all over the globe. Of course if just one country or one region was experiencing a “historic drought”, agricultural production from the rest of the world could make up for that. Unfortunately, what we are currently witnessing is truly unprecedented. For the very first time in
modern history, virtually all of the largest economies on the entire planet have been hit by extreme drought conditions simultaneously, and that means that global agricultural production is going to be way below expectations in 2022.
In this article, I would like to start my discussion by taking a look at what is going on in China right now.
Wan Jinjun, a 62-year-old retiree who has swum the Yangtze River almost every day for the past decade in Wuhan, said he’s never seen a drought like this before.
An extreme summer has taken a toll on Asia’s longest river, which flows about 3,900 miles (6,300 kilometers) through China and feeds farms that provide much of the country’s food and massive hydroelectric stations, including the Three Gorges Dam — the world’s biggest power plant. A year ago, water lapped almost as high as the riverbank where Wan swims. Now, the level is at the lowest for this time of year since records began in 1865, exposing swathes of sand, rock and oozing brown mud that reeks of rotting fish.
It is being reported that rainfall along the Yangtze River is 45 percent below normal levels, and that is extremely alarming.
Meanwhile, an absolutely monstrous heatwave has been scorching China for the past two months…
That is hot!
In fact, scientists are telling us that what China is currently experiencing is “the most severe heatwave” in recorded history…
It is the longest and hottest heatwave in China since national records began in 1961. According to weather historian Maximiliano Herrera, who monitors extreme temperatures around the world, it is the most severe heatwave recorded anywhere.
“This combines the most extreme intensity with the most extreme length with an incredibly huge area all at the same time,” he says. “There is nothing in world climatic history which is even minimally comparable to what is happening in China.”
In recent days, factories have been shut down in some areas of China as mandatory power restrictions have been implemented.
Hopefully relief will come soon, because the Chinese desperately need it.
Meanwhile, Europe is enduring the worst drought that it has experienced “in at least 500 years”…
Europe is facing its worst drought in at least 500 years, with two-thirds of the continent in a state of alert or warning, reducing inland shipping, electricity production and the yields of certain crops, a European Union agency said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, I wrote an article about the crippling crop losses that Europe is now facing as a result of this drought.
And today we got even more bad news. According to Zero Hedge, corn production for the entire EU could be reduced by about one-fifth this year due to a lack of moisture…
Besides the news of record high electricity prices, a troubling new crop failure report about Europe’s upcoming harvest was published Monday. The bloc’s Monitoring Agricultural Resources forecasted corn yields could drop by nearly a fifth due to a devastating drought, according to Bloomberg.
Before we dive into the crop report, Europe’s centuries-old ‘hunger stones’ were recetly revealed in the Elbe River, which runs from the mountains of Czechia through Germany to the North Sea. The stones date back to a drought in 1616 and read:“Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine.” That translates to “if you see me, then weep.”
Sadly, conditions are even worse in eastern Africa.
Seven million livestock in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia have died since last September due to severe drought conditions, according to a recent report by the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Famine Early Warning Systems Network.
“The Washington Post” reported last year that the carcasses of giraffes, goats, camels and droves of cattle were found in villages after starving to death in northern Kenya. Such losses can be ruinous for families, who face food insecurity as a result.
But have you seen any images of these dead animals on the nightly news?
Of course not.
They aren’t telling you what is really going on out there.
Before I end this article, I want to give you an update on what is going on in the United States.
The worst megadrought in 1,200 years has an iron grip on the western half of the country, and it is having an enormous impact on agricultural production.
In fact, it is being reported that in some areas the corn is under such stress that the plants are not even producing ears of grain…
It’s been so dry in parts of Nebraska and South Dakota that corn plants are doing something truly strange: they’re not producing ears of grain.
The stalks, which should be about 8 feet (2.4 meters) tall by this time of year, are withered, browning and short — some are only standing at about 5 feet. Crop scouts set out this week to analyze yields, and in some isolated patches, they actually had trouble finding enough corn ears to measure.While it’s not a widespread problem, the shocking development is an indicator of just how harsh the hot and dry weather has been.
Everything that I have shared in this article is not normal.
That is because we are entering times that are going to be exceedingly abnormal.
Every year, there are always a few parts of the globe that struggle with food production.
But we have never seen it happen simultaneously to so many key areas all over the planet.
Do you really think that what we are witnessing is just a “coincidence”?
If you are willing to believe that, there is a giant bridge on the west coast that I would like to sell you.
***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***
About the Author:
My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending digital copies as gifts through Amazon to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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!['When we take the extreme melt year 2012 and take it as a hypothetical average constant climate later this century, the committed mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet more than doubles to 78 cm [30 inches],' Professor Box said](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/08/29/15/61834769-11157017-image-a-365_1661781636473.jpg)
