Derweil hat das erneuerte Oberste Wahlgericht (TSE) von Bolivien zum Jahresende mehrere eingereichte Klagen zur Auflösung der bisherigen Regierungspartei Bewegung zum Sozialismus (Movimiento al Socialisimo, MAS) von Evo Morales einstimmig abgewiesen. Eine Auflösung der MAS und damit eine Verhinderung ihrer Teilnahme an den immer noch nicht terminierten Präsidentschafts- und Parlamentswahlen hatte zuletzt im Raum gestanden.
Daily Archives: 2. Januar 2020
Bolivien: Putschisten zeigen Gesicht
Die De-facto-Regierung der selbsternannten »Interimspräsidentin« Jeanine Áñez sieht in den Wahlen ihre wichtigste Aufgabe, um sich einen legalen Status zu verleihen.
UN Security Council to meet on Friday on Syria’s Idlib
The UN Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Friday to discuss an uptick in violence in the embattled Syrian opposition stronghold of Idlib, diplomats told AFP.
The meeting – which will begin at 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) – comes at the request of Britain and France, with the backing of the United States, the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday.
Top Sudan leaders in Darfur after 41 killed in clashes
Anadolu said Hemetti and Hamdok arrived in Al Jenina along with a delegation from the confederation in Khartoum that included several senior officials from the army and the ministerial council. No further details were given regarding the trip.
Military plane crashes after take-off from Sudan‘s West Darfur
A source at el-Geneina airport, from which the plane took off, said there were about 20 people on board, including three crew members, and all had been killed.
Längste Protestwelle in Frankreich seit 1968 hält an
In Frankreich halten die Proteste gegen die Pensionsreform an. Gegnerinnen und Gegner blockierten heute ein Busdepot in Paris. Wie Aufnahmen eines Fernsehreporters auf Twitter zeigen, setzte die Polizei Tränengas ein. Die Protestwelle dauert inzwischen 29 Tage und ist damit die längste seit 1968.
Israel: Netanyahu will Immunität
Am 2. März ist eine dritte Parlamentswahl angesetzt. Nach Einschätzung des Politik-Experten Amir Fuchs wird vor einer Regierungsbildung nach der Wahl kein Komitee zustande kommen. Eine Abstimmung über die Immunität könne damit möglicherweise erst im Mai stattfinden.
Hubschrauberabsturz: Taiwans Armeechef tödlich verunglückt
Auf dem Flug zu einem Truppenbesuch im Osten Taiwans sind Generalstabschef Shen Yi-ming und sieben weitere Armeeangehörige getötet worden.
Taiwan’s top military chief killed in chopper crash
Taiwan’s top military chief was killed in a helicopter crash on Thursday (Jan 2), the defence ministry said, just days before the island goes to polls to elect a new president.
The chief of the general staff, Shen Yi-ming, was among eight senior officers – including three major generals – who died when their Black Hawk helicopter smashed into mountains near Taipei.
Motion on troop deployment to Libya passes Turkish Parliament
Turkey’s parliament passed a motion that authorizes the government to send Turkish troops to Libya for a one-year deployment at their emergency session on Jan. 2.
Türkei beschließt Militärintervention in Libyen
Das türkische Parlament hat grünes Licht für eine mögliche Militärintervention in Libyen gegeben.
3 Things Scientists Need to Know About the IPCC
(01.09.2015)
The bottom line is that this is a week of naked political horse trading that goes on behind closed doors. Journalists are not allowed to witness what takes place, which is why we’ve been looking at official IPCC photos here. This is what they permit us to see.
It’s only after the diplomats have haggled over this Summary – paragraph by paragraph – that the final version gets officially released at a press conference.
The world is then told that science has spoken. But what’s just happened has nothing to do with science. Scientific truth is not determined in the dead of night by UN-level negotiations. On what planet would such an approach make scientific sense?
But the bad news doesn’t stop there. There’s actually a step in the IPCC process in which the original, lengthy report gets amended so that it conforms to the politically-negotiated Summary. I am not making this up.
„Magnetische Wand“ im interstellaren Raum
(04.11.2019)
„Voyager 2“ hat die Grenze der Heliosphäre in nur einem Tag passiert, was einen scharfen Übergang zum lokalen interstellaren Medium bedeutet. „Die alte, historische Vorstellung, dass der Sonnenwind sich einfach allmählich reduziert, je weiter man in den interstellaren Raum vordringt, trifft nicht zu“, erläuterte „Voyager“-Forscher Don Gurnett von der Universität von Iowa, Ko-Autor einer der Analysen. „Wir haben mit ‚Voyager 2‘ und vorher mit ‚Voyager 1 gezeigt, dass es dort draußen eine ausgeprägte Grenze gibt.“
Why the world is waiting for Betelgeuse to go supernova
(01.01.2020)
If Betelgeuse does go supernova, it will be the brightest star in the sky for many months. (Except for the sun, of course.) It will even be visible during the day.
I have always been interested in galactic archaeology, but I don‘t think this is what they meant. Did you know that dinosaurs lived on the other side of the Galaxy?
(28.08.2019)
Equatorial solar rotation and its relation to climatic changes
(29. September 1977)
During the years from 1965 to 1976, the magnitude of the solar rotation speed averaged annually showed a good inverse correlation with the annual relative sunspot numbers. It is suggested that this variation of the equatorial solar rotation speed may be responsible for the earth‘s present unusual climatic conditions. A similarity concerning the low sunspot activity for 1976 and the year 1643, just before the beginning of the Maunder Minimum (1645-1715) with its very severe climatic conditions, is pointed out. It appears, therefore, likely that the present unusual climatic conditions will remain as long as the solar activity continues to decrease.
Pluto Is Emitting X-Rays, and That’s Really Weird
(16.09.2016)
The most likely explanation, according to Wolk, is that high energy particles from the solar wind are colliding with escaped bits of Pluto’s atmosphere—which is mostly nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen—stripping away electrons, and producing an x-ray flare. If true, that’s a very important insight, because it means Pluto’s atmosphere is boiling away into space. Slowly.
Sun’s Magnetic Field To ‚Flip‘ Causing ‚A Ripple Effect‘ Past Pluto (VIDEO)
(06.08.2013)
The polar switch also affects cosmic rays, which can endanger satellites and astronauts. Disturbances in the rays could even affect Earth’s climate.
The sheet acts as a „shield“ against these rays, and a wavy current sheet can be even more effective.
Der berühmte Satz, den Galilei nie sagte
(27.3.2011)
als „geistige Pygmäen“ bezeichnete er all jene, die an seinen Lehren zweifelten. Das Urteil der Inquisition, das ihm am Ende die Weiterverbreitung seiner Ideen und seine Lehrtätigkeit untersagte, ging auch auf seine trotzige Unerbittlichkeit zurück.
Ein gesundes, frohes und gesegnetes neues Jahr 2020
Ein neues Jahrzehnt liegt vor uns. Die 20er Jahre können gute Jahre werden. Überraschen wir uns einmal mehr damit, was wir können. Veränderungen zum Guten sind möglich, wenn wir uns offen und entschlossen auf Neues einlassen
Earth and Mars: Evolution of Atmospheres and Surface Temperatures
(7. Juli 1972)
Indeed, detailed global climatic models (17) suggest that a relative increase in A of only 2 percent is enough to induce extensive glaciation on Earth, which implies that the present climate is extremely sensitive to albedo. This leaves changes in atmospheric composition as a possible explanation. Major variations in the CO2 abundance will have only minor greenhouse effects because the strongest bands are nearly saturated. A change in the present CO2 abundance by a factor of 2 will produce directly a 2° variation in surface temperature (18). The CO2 abundance is highly controlled by silicate-carbonate equilibria; by buffering with seawater, which contains almost 100 times the atmospheric CO2; and by the respiration and photosynthesis feedback loop (19).
Paradoxon der schwachen jungen Sonne
Unter dem Paradoxon der schwachen jungen Sonne versteht man den noch nicht vollständig geklärten Widerspruch zwischen der geringen Strahlungsleistung der jungen Sonne in der frühen Erdgeschichte und dem nicht entsprechend kälteren Klima zu dieser Zeit. Auf diese Diskrepanz wiesen erstmals die Astronomen Carl Sagan und George Mullen 1972 hin.[sm 1]
Sagan schlug eine vergleichsweise hohe Konzentration von Treibhausgasen als mögliche übergeordnete Erklärung vor, was sich aber für den fraglichen Zeitraum nicht bestätigt hat. Im Gegenteil, die im Archaikum stattgefundenen bedeutenden Änderungen der Atmosphärenzusammensetzung und der in Vergleich zur jüngeren Erdgeschichte nach einer globalen Vereisung vor 2,4 Milliarden Jahren lange Zeit relativ gleichmäßige Klimaverlauf (vgl. boring billion, dt. langweilige Milliarde[jko 1]) werfen eher zusätzliche Fragen auf. Über Jahrzehnte geführte kontroverse Diskussionen in Geologie, Astrophysik, Planetologie, Klimatologie und Atmosphärenwissenschaften machten das Paradoxon zu einer „der großen offenen Fragen der Paläoklimatologie“.
Solar Activity Forecast for Next Decade Favorable for Exploration
(12.06.2019)
The Sun‘s activity rises and falls in an 11-year cycle. The forecast for the next solar cycle says it will be the weakest of the last 200 years. The maximum of this next cycle – measured in terms of sunspot number, a standard measure of solar activity level – could be 30 to 50% lower than the most recent one.
Magnetic effect on CO 2 solubility in seawater: A possible link between geomagnetic field variations and climate
(August 2008)
Correlations between geomagnetic-field and climate parameters have been suggested repeatedly, but possible links are controversially discussed. Here we test if weak (Earth-strength) magnetic fields can affect climatically relevant properties of seawater. We found the solubility of air in seawater to be by 15% lower under reduced magneticfield (20 mT) compared to normal field conditions (50 mT). The magnetic-field effect on CO2 solubility is twice as large, from which we surmise that geomagnetic field variations modulate the carbon exchange between atmosphere and ocean. A 1% reduction in magnetic dipole moment may release up to ten times more CO2 from the surface ocean than is emitted by subaerial volcanism.
Wenn ein Treibhausgas baden geht: Wie das Erdmagnetfeld unser Klima beeinflusst
(6. Oktober 2008)
Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass selbst kleine Veränderungen des Magnetfelds die Löslichkeit von Gasen im Wasser verändern. „Wenn das Magnetfeld schwächer war, löste sich 15 Prozent weniger Luft im Wasser als bei einem stärkeren Magnetfeld“, erläutert Winklhofer. „Für Kohlendioxid war der beobachtete Effekt sogar doppelt so stark.“
Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Martian Atmosphere: Global Characteristics
(März 2004)
We report observations of magnetic fields amplitude, which consist of a series of individual spikes in the Martian atmosphere. A minimum variance analysis shows that these spikes form twisted cylindrical filaments. These small diameter magnetic filaments are commonly called magnetic flux ropes. We examine the global characteristics of magnetic flux ropes, which are observed on 5% of the elliptical orbits of Mars Global Surveyor.
MESSENGER Observations of Magnetic Flux Ropes in Mercury’s Plasma Sheet
(2014)
A superposed epoch analysis demonstrates that the magnetic structure of the flux ropes issimilar to what is observed at Earth, but the timescales are 40 times faster at Mercury.
Magnetic Rope observed for the first time between Saturn and the Sun
(06.07.2016)
The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004, and after many years analyzing the data collected, Cassini has observed the first FTE at Saturn.
Magnetic Reconnection in the Near Venusian Magnetotail
(04.05.2012)
Observations with the Venus Express magnetometer and low-energy particle detector revealed magnetic field and plasma behavior in the near-Venus wake that is symptomatic of magnetic reconnection, a process that occurs in Earth’s magnetotail but is not expected in the magnetotail of a nonmagnetized planet such as Venus.
Magnetic Portals Connect Earth to the Sun
(30.10.2008)
„It‘s called a flux transfer event or ‚FTE,'“ says space physicist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. „Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn‘t exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible.“
Indeed, today Sibeck is telling an international assembly of space physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama, that FTEs are not just common, but possibly twice as common as anyone had ever imagined.
Close Comet Flyby Threw Mars’ Magnetic Field Into Chaos
(09.03.2016)
And like a solar storm, the comet’s close passage likely fueled a temporary surge in the amount of gas escaping from Mars’ upper atmosphere. Over time, those storms took their toll on the atmosphere.
“With MAVEN, we’re trying to understand how the sun and solar wind interact with Mars,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN’s principal investigator from the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder. “By looking at how the magnetospheres of the comet and of Mars interact with each other, we’re getting a better understanding of the detailed processes that control each one.”
On the Origin of the Magnetic Field in Type-1 Comet Tails
(4. Juni 1976)
If the magnetic field in a type I comet tail were of internal origin, it would decrease with distance along the tail axis, and the comet tail would increase in cross section. The tail of Comet Arend-Roland (1957 III) was shown not to expand with distance from the nucleus, whence it is concluded that the magnetic field in the tail is of external origin. The magnetic field in type I comet tails, estimated from different considerations, turns out to be of the order of the interplanetary field, so that one may suppose that it results from the captured solar-wind magnetic field.
Recently, Mendis and Alfvén (1974) suggested that substantial magnetic fields, up to 100-1000y, could sometimes be generated within the coma. This means that the magnetic field in the comet tail may result from processes analogous to those producing the Earth‘s magnetotail.
Earth’s Magnetic Field is Weakening And Could Collapse Eventually, Expert Warns
(26.12.2019)
Hardwick noted that SWARM revealed that the magnetic field over certain areas of Earth has decreased dramatically. However, in certain areas, it appears to have strengthened.
“What SWARM has actually found is that after 2.5 years of observation, the Earth’s magnetic field has weakened by about 3.5 [percent] at high latitudes over North America, while it has strengthened about 2 [percent] over Asia,” he wrote on Quora. “In other words, it wiggles and wobbles.”
Earth‘s Magnetic Field Is Fading
(09.09.2004)
Today, it is about 10 percent weaker than it was in 1845, but what does that mean for us?
Earth‘s inner core nucleation paradox
(April 2018)
Using constraints from experiments, simulations, and theory, we show that spontaneous crystallization in a homogeneous liquid iron alloy at Earth‘s core pressures requires a critical supercooling of order 1000 K, which is too large to be a plausible mechanism for the origin of Earth‘s inner core. We consider mechanisms that can lower the nucleation barrier substantially. Each has caveats, yet the inner core exists: this is the nucleation paradox.
Earth‘s Inner Core Shouldn‘t Technically Exist
(09.02.2018)
In their paper, the researchers proposed one possibility: Perhaps a massive nugget of solid metal alloy dropped from the mantle and plunged into the liquid core.
Challenging core belief: Have we misunderstood how Earth‘s solid center formed?
(07.02.2018)
It is widely accepted that the Earth‘s inner core formed about a billion years ago when a solid, super-hot iron nugget spontaneously began to crystallize inside a 4,200-mile-wide ball of liquid metal at the planet‘s center.
One problem: That‘s not possible-or, at least, has never been easily explained-according to a new paper published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters from a team of scientists at Case Western Reserve University.
Extreme geomagnetic reversal frequency during the Middle Cambrian as revealed by the magnetostratigraphy of the Khorbusuonka section (northeastern Siberia)
(15.12.2019)
A geomagnetic reversal frequency of 26 reversals per Myr is therefore estimated for the Drumian, reduced to 15 reversals per Myr if only the polarity intervals defined by at least two consecutive samples are retained. This is an extreme reversal rate, similar to that reported for the Late Ediacaran (late Precambrian), ∼50 Myr earlier, and proposed to be potentially linked to a late nucleation of the inner core.
Earth‘s magnetic field flips much more frequently than we thought
(02.10.2019)
For now, the new study offers more questions than answers.
Earth‘s magnetic north pole is heading for Russia and scientists are puzzled
(18.12.2019)
A weakened magnetic field allows more cosmic radiation from space to strike our atmosphere, which creates more beryllium.
The actual reversal took less than 4,000 years — a drop in the bucket when compared to Earth‘s timeline so far. But leading up to that reversal were 18,000 years of instability, including two temporary and partial reversals. This is twice as long as expected.
Press Conference: Postcards from the edge of space: New images, new phenomena, and new insights
Tuesday, 10 December, 2:30 p.m. │ Presentations SA11A-01, SM51G-3219
In this briefing, scientists will present new images from Earth’s ionosphere, bringing color to processes that have widespread implications for the part of space closest to home. This collection of photos will span the first images ever captured by NASA’s ICON spacecraft — just launched in October 2019 — and the first science discoveries from NASA’s GOLD mission, along with observations of a never-before-studied type of aurora.
Participants:
Jennifer Briggs, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, United States;
Richard Eastes, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States;
Thomas Immel, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States.
A mysterious crunch in Earth‘s magnetic field created a new type of aurora borealis. A NASA intern discovered it.
(26.12.2019)
A NASA intern discovered a new type of aurora in 3-year-old video footage of the Arctic sky.
Massenevakuierungen mit militärischer Hilfe bei Buschbränden in Australien
Die Behörden haben zehntausende Menschen aufgefordert, die betroffenen Küstenstädte zu verlassen. „Es ist unerlässlich, es ist überlebenswichtig, dass wir alle gehen“, sagte der Verkehrsminister des Bundesstaates New South Wales (NSW), Andrew Constance, im australischen Fernsehen ABC.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian declares state of emergency, as thousands flee South Coast ahead of horror fire weekend
NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said Saturday is likely to bring conditions more dangerous than New Year‘s Eve, when bushfires left seven dead and thousands in peril.
„There‘ll be real challenges and very real risks associated with what‘s being forecast and predicted for fire spread under the sorts of weather conditions we‘re expecting as we head into Saturday,“ he said.
Machtkampf am Mittelmeer: Erdogans Libyen-Ambitionen
Der türkische Präsident Erdogan will so bald wie möglich Truppen nach Libyen schicken – und sich heute vom Parlament die Genehmigung dafür geben lassen. Beobachter warnen vor einer Eskalation.
Netanyahu to Depart to Athens to Sign Gas Pipeline Deal With Greece and Cyprus
Accompanying Netanyahu to Athens will be Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz. The two will meet with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Netanyahu will also meet with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.
Mittelmeerstaaten unterzeichnen Gas-Pipeline-Abkommen
Zypern, Griechenland und Israel unterzeichnen heute in Athen ein Abkommen für den Bau der Mittelmeer-Gas-Pipeline Eastmed.