Every action has a reaction. Every choice has a result. Every time you take steps toward making the world a greener place, you are making a difference. Today is Earth Day (April 22nd, 2012). The Environment Protection Agency is proving a tool for talking about environmental issues. It’s also a place to share environmental tips and ideas that you use every day.
So go ahead, make a difference. Recycle, reduce, reuse, on this and every day.
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Artist's concept of the TIMED spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JHU/APL
A key NASA instrument that can directly measure the impact of solar events on the Earth’s upper atmosphere has weighed in on the huge flare that impacted Earth recently.
The flare was considered one of the largest solar events in years even though its impact on the power grid and communications was minimal due to the angle it hit Earth.
The upper atmosphere heated up, and huge spikes occurred in infrared emission from nitric oxide and carbon dioxide, said Marty Mlynczak, SABER’s associate-principal investigator at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
Sol ‘waking up’
“It’s been seven years since we’ve had a storm like that,” he said. “This is the first major storm event since the deep solar minimum of 2008-2009. We are finally seeing the Sun ‘wake up’ as it proceeds to the next solar maximum.”
A solar maximum is a period of increased activity on the Sun, and minimum-to-maximum-to-minimum cycles generally last 11 years each. Solar activity began to pick up in 2010, is steadily increasing and should peak in late 2014.
The NRL team, using a specially equipped de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft (similar to aircraft shown), collect data to aid in the validation and calibration of data captured by the ESA Cryosat-2 satellite. (NASA Glenn Research Center)
Recent dramatic changes in the characteristics of the Arctic sea ice cover have sparked interest and concern from a wide range of disciplines. The demand for an improved ability to monitor and forecast changes in sea ice cover is driven by diverse and varying priorities to include socioeconomics, maritime safety and security, and resource management, as well as basic research science.
Satellites provide an important and cost effective platform for instruments designed to monitor basin-wide changes in the volume of ice cover and snow pack depths. The primary focus of NRL and NASA is to collect data to aid in the validation and calibration of these data sets to further optimize instrument suites and the development of predictive sea ice models.
“Our project takes direct aim at this issue by targeting the largest identified contributors to errors in sea ice thickness measurements from airborne and satellite-based instruments,” said Joan Gardner, NRL geologist. “Central to our work is the rare opportunity for a multi-scale approach to mapping the snow depth and sea ice thickness distribution using the most comprehensive set of in situ data collected to date.”
The goal of the LAUNCH: Beyond Waste Challenge is to identify ten “game changing” innovations that have the potential to transform the current waste management systems and practices to ones focused on minimizing waste and/or transforming waste into new products.
LAUNCH invites proposals for innovative design for zero waste solutions, waste elimination, waste transformation, and waste mitigation technologies, as well as waste reduction-focused education, business, and financial strategies that have the potential to reduce and/or eliminate waste at a household, community, office building, campus, or industrial level.
The Waste Hierarchy establishes a ranking of management options in context of increasing environmental impact, and is based on the simple premise that it is better to avoid generating waste than to treat or dispose of waste.
The ultimate goal of LAUNCH is a sustainable future for planet Earth and its inhabitants. The LAUNCH: Beyond Waste Challenge seeks to identify entrepreneurial efforts focused on the development of innovative products, services, and programs that can benefit from collaborating and networking with influential government and business leaders to accelerate their deployment and adoption in both the developed and developing worlds.
It’s isolated, noisy and messy – but if successful could be beneficial to Camp Lemonnier and local Djiboutians. Thanks to new equipment, U.S. Army National Guard 257th Engineer Team drilled four water test wells in different locations here, March 12-19.
“The wells are part of a study to determine if pulling water from a beach aquifer is a viable option for removing Camp Lemonnier from the Djiboutian Fresh Water Aquifer and leaving that resource solely for the Djiboutians,” said U.S. Army Capt. Joseph Bzdok, 257th Engineer Team commander.
The well development project directly supports Camp Lemonnier’s initiative to identify alternative well locations and assist in future development of camp infrastructure. The team conducted a 24-hour constant rate test for future development and testing of camp aquifer water tables. A constant rate test is a constant pumping of a well to determine what amount of water can be pumped out at a sustained rate for an indefinite amount of time.
“The pump test right now is pumping at 540 gallons per minute,” said Bzdok. “If the lowering of the water table level of the static water level does not change significantly, we know it can sustain 540 gallons per minute.”
The team finished the last of four test wells four days ahead of schedule.
“The sandy soil conditions have allowed us to drill faster, but the sandy soil is also harder to stabilize from collapsing down the hole,” Bzdok said.
“The sea water level is very shallow and doesn’t support heavy equipment operations well,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Shane Banks, 257th Engineer Team drill leader.
The rig itself weighs 80,000 pounds, said Bzdock.
“(There’s) less than an eight-inch crust (of soil),” said Bzdok. ”The rest is goop underneath.”
The team set up the rig in three locations around the final well site, but the weight of the rig caused it to sink into the soft sand and underlying glop.
“The third hole had to be abandoned after it was drilled and cased, and a fourth well had to be drilled for the pump test (due to the soil collapsing down the hole.) So the unit actually drilled four complete holes and cased three of them,” explained Bzdok.
The team is using this experience as on-the-job training to work out any kinks in the new equipment before using the machines out in the field.
“It is a lot easier to deal with equipment needs and repairs here than eight hours away,” says Banks about their upcoming missions throughout the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa’s area of responsibility.
Despite the challenges and constant maintenance issues, Banks said the team knows the wells and testing will “help support the success of the camp and the health and missions of the (personnel) stationed at Camp Lemonnier.”
Archaeologists excavate land Feb. 9, 2012, at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., in order to make way for a solar array the base is planning to build. The excavation team has found thousands of artifacts dating back to 3,000 B.C. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Sandra Welch)
By Senior Airman C.J. Hatch
56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
Archaeologists here recently unearthed an ancient dwelling — just one of thousands of artifacts found here that date back as far as 3,000 B.C.
The excavation was part of the site preparation, including mitigation of surface archaeology and testing for subsurface archaeology, for a large solar array on the south side of the base,
“This site could be of importance to Arizona and the Phoenix valley,” said John Hall, the senior project director with Statistical Research, which is doing the excavation. “We had some of the artifacts dated and this site is almost 1,000 years older than any other site in the Phoenix valley.”
Since October 2010, the excavation team has found thousands of artifacts around the area to help them get an idea of how the people here lived.
Following the path of one of Jupiter's jet streams, a line of V-shaped chevrons travels west to east just above Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Most of the planet is unfolded here in a single, flat map made on December 11 and 12, 2000, when NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew past Jupiter. At the left, the chevrons run into another storm called the South Equatorial Disturbance (SED). Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
New movies of Jupiter are the first to catch an invisible wave shaking up one of the giant planet’s jet streams, an interaction that also takes place in Earth’s atmosphere and influences the weather.
The movies, made from images taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft when it flew by Jupiter in 2000, are part of an in-depth study conducted by a team of scientists and amateur astronomers led by Amy Simon-Miller at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and published in the April 2012 issue of Icarus.
“This is the first time anyone has actually seen direct wave motion in one of Jupiter’s jet streams,” says Simon-Miller, the paper’s lead author. “And by comparing this type of interaction in Earth’s atmosphere to what happens on a planet as radically different as Jupiter, we can learn a lot about both planets.”
Like Earth, Jupiter has several fast-moving jet streams that circle the globe. Earth’s strongest and best known jet streams are those near the north and south poles; as these winds blow west to east, they take the scenic route, wandering north and south. What sets these jet streams on their meandering paths — and sometimes makes them blast Florida and other warm places with frigid air — are their encounters with slow-moving waves in Earth’s atmosphere, called Rossby waves.
A Coast Guard C-130, based out of Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., flies past an iceberg in the waters near Newfoundland, Canada. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Brewer.
Shipping areas in the North Atlantic have always been hazardous to navigate. The hazards of the North Atlantic captured global attention in April 1912 when the RMS Titanic sank after it struck an iceberg. The incident prompted maritime nations with ships transiting the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, Canada, to establish an iceberg patrol in the area. Since 1913, the U.S. Coast Guard has been tasked with the management and operation of the patrol. Except for the years of World Wars I and II, the ice patrol has been active each ice season since its inception.
2. What are the specific duties of the ice patrol?
Their mission is to monitor the iceberg danger near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and provide the iceberg limit to the maritime community, including ice and current conditions.
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