Tag Archives: energy

Satellites Help in Arizona WIldfire

Posted on by

Satellites Help in Battle to Contain Arizona Wildfires

OurAmazingPlanet Staff

Date: 17 June 2011 Time: 12:18 PM ET
This Landsat 5 satellite image of the Wallow North Fire in east central Arizona was taken on June 15, 2011 at 19:54:23 Zulu (3:54 p.m. EDT). This false-colored image uses a 7, 4, 2 band combination and shows the burn scar in red the fire ongoing in really
This Landsat 5 satellite image of the Wallow North Fire in east central Arizona was taken on June 15, 2011 at 19:54:23 Zulu (3:54 p.m. EDT). This false-colored image uses a 7, 4, 2 band combination and shows the burn scar in red the fire ongoing in really bright red, vegetation is green, smoke is blue and bare ground is tan.
CREDIT: NASA/USGS, Mike Taylor

The raging Wallow Fire that has burned nearly 500,000 acres of Arizona is slowly being contained by firefighters with some helpfrom eyes in the sky.

About 33 percent of the fire is contained, but high winds that can cause wildfires to spread could tax those containment efforts. Emergency managers and responders are using satellite data from a variety of instruments to plan their firefighting containment strategies and mitigation efforts once the fires are out.

to read more, go to:    http://www.space.com/12000-arizona-wildfires-satellite-firefighting.html

 

Talk on Time

Posted on by

It’s All Relative

Back to Episode

Both physicist Brian Greene and neurologist Oliver Sacks explain the very strange, very subjective nature of time.

The elasticity of experience is expressed by sound artist Ben Rubin in a piece he produced for The Next Big Thing. We include an excerpt on being in “the zone.” His story features track stars: Shawn Crawford, Amy Acuff, Brendon Couts, Jason Pyrah, Derrek Atkins, Jon Drummond, and Larry Wade.

to read more, see more, hear more, go to:   http://www.radiolab.org/2007/may/29/its-all-relative/

Invisibility Cloak?

Posted on by

Invisibility carpet cloak can hide objects from visible light

June 15, 2011 by Lisa Zyga

Invisibility carpet cloak can hide objects from visible lightEnlarge

When an input beam (black arrow) reflects off (a) a bump without a cloak, the bump causes a perturbation. When the beam reflects off (b) a bump covered by a cloak, the cloak masks the bump, and the reflected beam is reconstructed as if the bump did not exist. (c) Light after reflection from a flat mirror, a bump without a cloak, and a cloaked bump, at three different wavelengths. Image credit: Majid Gharghi, et al. ©2011 American Chemical Society

he researchers, led by Prof. Xiang Zhang at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have published their study in a recent issue of .

As the researchers explain, most previous invisibility cloaks have used metallic metamaterials for cloaking at . But at , the metal absorbs too much  and leads to significant metallic loss, and Berkeley and other groups have had to design dielectric cloaks at infrared frequencies. More recently, researchers at University of Birmingham (UK) have experimented with using uniaxial  as the cloak material, which can enable cloaking in visible frequencies, but only for a certain polarization of light.

to read more, go to:    http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-invisibility-carpet-cloak-visible.html

 

Superfast Waves found on the Sun

Posted on by

Solar Dynamics Observatory detects superfast solar waves moving at 2,000 km/sec

June 15, 2011

Solar Dynamics Observatory detects superfast solar waves moving at 2,000 km/secEnlarge

(a) 171 Ĺ image showing the funnel and loop in which fast waves propagate. (b) 1600 Ĺ image showing flare ribbons. (c) 171 Ĺ base difference image showing dimming behind the CME front. The four brackets mark the smaller FOV of the other panels. (d)-(f ) 171 Ĺ running difference images showing successive wave fronts propagating in the funnel. The three curved cuts are used to obtain space-time diagrams shown in Fig. 2. The square box marks the region for Fourier analysis in Fig.4. (g)-(i) Images of (d)-(f ) in the boxed region Fourier filtered with a narrow Gaussian centered at the peak in Fig. 4(b) at frequency ν = 14.5 mHz (P = 69 s) and wave number k = 9.0 × 10-3 Mm -1 (λ = 110 Mm), which highlight the corresponding fast wave trains.

(PhysOrg.com) — Scientists using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument on board NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), have detected quasi-periodic waves in the low solar corona that travel at speeds as high as 2,000 kilometers per second (4.5 million miles per hour). These observations provide, for the first time, unambiguous evidence of propagating fast mode magnetosonic waves at such high speeds in the Sun’s low atmosphere

to read more go to:    http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-solar-dynamics-observatory-superfast-kmsec.html

Bigger Ash Clouds Coming?

Posted on by

Ash clouds? You ain’t seen nothing yet

June 13, 2011

The recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland upset airline bosses and caused a lot of fuss, but they were trivial by comparison with what could happen next, according to Clive Oppenheimer’s new book.

End of the Delusion – Climategate exposed the fraud But climate hucksters carry on – www.heartland.org

If you thought the Icelandic volcano was bad – think again. According to a new study, the recent ash clouds that grounded aircraft and marooned holiday-makers were “just a taste” of the widespread air pollution, public health problems and agricultural crises that future, bigger eruptions could bring.

These are just a few of the conclusions of what, rather ironically, claims to be a “non-catastrophist” new book by the University of Cambridge volcanologist, Dr. Clive Oppenheimer, entitled Eruptions That Shook The World and published by Cambridge University Press.

to read more, go to:    http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-ash-clouds-aint.html

 

 

New Info on Sunspots Due Tuesday

Posted on by

‘Major Result’ on Sunspot Cycle to be Announced Tuesday

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 10 June 2011 Time: 05:00 PM ET
A photo of a sunspot taken in May 2010, with Earth shown to scale. The image has been colorized for aesthetic reasons. This image with 0.1 arcsecond resolution from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope represents the limit of what is currently possible in te
A photo of a sunspot taken in May 2010, with Earth shown to scale. The image has been colorized for aesthetic reasons. This image with 0.1 arcsecond resolution from the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope represents the limit of what is currently possible in terms of spatial resolution.
CREDIT: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, V.M.J. Henriques (sunspot), NASA Apollo 17 (Earth)

Astronomers will unveil a “major result” on Tuesday (June 14) regarding the sun’s 11-year sunspot cycle.

The announcement will be made at a solar physics conference in New Mexico, according to an alert released today (June 10) by the American Astronomical Society. The discussion will begin at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT).

Sunspots are blotches on the sun that appear dark because they are significantly cooler than the rest of the solar surface. While they look small from our vantage point on Earth, these enigmatic structures can be huge — up to 30,000 miles (48,280 kilometers) across, or as wide as the planet Neptune. Sunspots last for a few days or weeks before dissipating. [Photos: Sunspots on Earth’s Star]

to read more, go to: http://www.space.com/11936-sun-weather-sunspot-cycle-announcement-preview.html

Wallow Fire Spreads to New Mexico

Posted on by

Wallow Fire: Firefighters Brace for Winds as Fire Crosses Into New Mexico

PHOTO: Huge AZ Wildfire Spreads, Health Conditions Worsen

Arizona Wildfire 2011
AUTO START: ON | OFF

 

June 11, 2011

 

Firefighters are bracing for high winds today as they continue to battle anArizona wildfire that has spread over more than 600 square miles as it crossed the border into New Mexico, authorities said.

The Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona is still keeping nearly 10,000 people out of their homes. The blaze started late last month and is 6 percent contained.

to read more, go to:    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wallow-fire-firefighters-brace-winds-fire-crosses-mexico/story?id=13819115