The Roaring 40s

This past weekend I watched a special on the Science Channel about the Roaring 40s (also known as the Furious Forties). A phenomenon I had heard about before but never paid much mind to, the Roaring 40s actually turned on my interest as I discovered more about it.

The Roaring 40s refers to the parallel latitudes between 40° South and 50° South, which happens to only pass through the countries of New Zealand, Chile and Argentina. Because of the very reason that prevailing westerly winds moving through these latitudes are hardly disrupted by land, they, and the choppy seas they churn up, have for years shaped the pelagic coastlines they batter.

Global wind currents like the Roaring 40s are influenced by the Earth's shape and spin, and by basic thermodynamics, such as hot air rising and cold air sinking. The great speed of their winds is produced because of the relative change in rotational speed of the land at the Earth's surface. Because of this, the Roaring 40s vary greatly from day to day, across the seasons, and also from year to year.

Anyway, you are probably wondering why I am so into this phenomenon, but if you saw the special you would know! You’d see jagged mountains, rugged coastlines, lush rainforests, exotic habitats, unusual wildlife, dramatic seas, and a magnificent take on one of the many natural features that shape planet Earth. I guess it's just one of those occurrences that make you feel so small and insignificant to the power of nature!

That is all…

Readying Earth for 2013 Solar Storm

A report released a couple years ago by the National Academy of Sciences warned that a solar activity storm could could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.

A statement recently released by a representative at NASA states that the sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we can expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. That combined with our expanding sensitivity to solar storms as a result of our society becoming more technologically dependent, could create significant societal and economic impacts in coming years.

Solar storms occur when an eruption or explosion on the sun's surface sends radiation or electrically charged particles toward the Earth. Minor storms can interfere with radio signals. A large one can release as much energy as a billion hydrogen bombs. In fact, a large solar storm in May 1859 wreaked international havoc as telegraph wires spontaneously shorted out, causing numerous fires. The event even offered up an unexpected display of the Northern Lights as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii! Experts say the modern day equivalent of such a storm could leave millions of people without electricity, running water or phone service.

Well, there is hope...

The Space Weather Enterprise Forum kicks off today in Washington, DC and on the forefront of its agenda is the next peak of solar activity expected in 2013, and how planet Earth will respond.

The Forum, which is part of the National Space Weather Program (NSWP), falls beneath the overall national interagency initiative to prepare the country, and ultimately the world, to deal with technological vulnerabilities associated with the space environment. Some of the agencies involved include NOAA, NASA, USGS and FAA.

To help keep us safe and to avoid that which is stated above, the Forum will focus on critical infrastructure protection to improve the nation’s ability to prepare, avoid, mitigate, respond to and recover from potentially devastating impacts of space weather events on our health, economy, and national security.

25th Anniversary of Ozone Hole Discovery

25 years ago in May 1985, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) officially discovered the now controversial hole in Earth's ozone layer. The feature, which has expanded and contracted since its discovery, has been responsible for large losses of ozone in Earth's atmosphere over Antarctica.

The discovery of the ozone hole alerted the world to a major environmental threat as the accumulation of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in industrial solvents were found to deplete the protective layer of ozone that surrounds the Earth.

Action by governments around the world led to the 1987 Montreal Protocol and its amendments, which ensured that production and consumption of CFCs, halons and carbon tetrachloride were phased out by 2000, and methyl chloroform by 2005. All members of the United Nations have now signed the Montreal Protocol.

In good news, the ozone layer depletion seems to be on a dramatic upswing and levels of ozone are expected to continue to reach safer levels in the coming decades.

40th Anniversary of Earth Day

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day!

Dating back to April 22, 1970, this annual day-long event commenced when a chorus of demonstrators around the nation came together to voice their concerns about the environment, specifically about the pollution of air and water, and its affect on our planet.

The grassroots environmental movement led to to a significant amount of federal legislation which was later passed to protect the environment, and ultimately the world we live in. Among many others, those were:

• The Environmental Protection Agency on December 2, 1970
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act on December 29, 1970
• The Clean Air Act of 1970
• The Clean Water Act of 1972

To this day the Earth Day effort continues strong and now more than ever, with climate change on our minds, supporters of the Day work diligently to increase environmental awareness and to promote urgently needed federal legislation to deal with an alarming ecological crisis.

There are countless ways to get involved and show your interest in protecting the planet and making it more sustainable for all. From monetary donations to planting trees in your community, and from purchasing and using green products to attending nationwide climate rallies, the Earth Day Network provides useful tips on ways you can support the movement, so please try and do as little or as much as possible. I am certain Earth will appreciate it...

Do you appreciate Earth?

European Satellite to Map Earth's Ice... or Lack Thereof

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched Thursday from Kazakhstan its CryoSat-2 satellite in an effort to map Earth’s ice cover. From its polar orbit, CryoSat-2 will send back data leading to new insights into how ice is responding to climate change. In doing so it will measure changes in the thickness of the vast ice sheets that overlie Antarctica and Greenland, as well as variations in the thickness of the relatively thin ice floating in the polar oceans.

The launch of CryoSat-2 is the third in a series of ESA's Earth observation satellites now orbiting the planet. These 'Earth Explorers' as ESA calls them, are periodically launched in direct response to issues identified by the scientific community and aim to improve our understanding of how human activity is affecting Earth's natural processes.

I think it's pretty neat indeed, to see other world regions working on Earth science issues just as NASA does here in the U.S.!

Earth Hour: Tomorrow, Saturday, March 27, 8:30 p.m.

The Northeast Quadrant reminds you of the yearly global Earth Hour, taking place tomorrow, Saturday, March 27 at 8:30 p.m. local time. For the past three years at this time, for one hour, communities across planet Earth are asked to join forces in flipping the power switch to off. By participating in this movement you'll be showing your support of an action toward climate change.

According to the World Wildlife Fund's myearthhour.org Web site, last year 80 million Americans and 318 U.S. cities officially voted for action with their light switch, joining iconic landmarks from around the world that went dark for Earth Hour, including:

• Empire State Building
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Broadway Theater Marquees
• Las Vegas Strip
• United Nations Headquarters
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Seattle’s Space Needle
• Church of Latter-Day Saints Temple
• Gateway Arch in St. Louis
• Great Pyramids of Giza
• Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens
• Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro
• St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City
• Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in London
• Elysee Palace and Eiffel Tower in Paris
• Beijing’s Birds Nest and Water Cube
• Symphony of Lights in Hong Kong
• Sydney’s Opera House

Don't be left in the dark alone! Join the global community in raising awareness for the compassion of our planet, tomorrow at 8:30 p.m.!

Recent Earthquakes Connected?

The past couple of months have featured some of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). From the Pacific Rim and across Asia, to South America and the Caribbean, and from North America eastward to Europe, it now seems that a major earthquake is becoming an almost daily occurrence. Since early January massive tremors greater than 6.0 and as high as 8.8 have rattled Haiti, California, China, Japan, Indonesia, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile, Taiwan, and now Turkey.

Why is Earth so active and is there a connection between all these events?

Geophysicists say there is a connection and that major earthquakes such as these tend to come in clusters. Back in the early 1960s similar events took place, ending with the great Alaskan quake which triggered a significant tsunami. Dr. Gerard Fryer with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says “plate tectonics are working all the time, constantly grinding together and causing strain to accumulate more and more until suddenly, wham!” The outcome is a cluster of major earthquakes like we are seeing now.

Here’s an interesting fact: the USGS expects that 17 major earthquakes, those between 7.0 and 7.9, and one great quake 8.0 and higher, will affect the world in any given year. So it seems we’re right on target, eh? Well many times these quakes happen well below the surface of the earth, or often times over water where they are hardly felt. Despite the statistic, the USGS is calling the recent spate of quakes unusual.

I’m going to end here by expressing how glad I am that I finally found some information about the recent quakes because each time I get a CNN Breaking News alert on my phone I’m like, AGAIN!?!?! If you’re interested in learning more about these quakes or seismology in general, here’s some fun information I came across in my research…

→ Latest Up-to-the-Minute Earthquakes » click here
→ Earthquake Facts » click here
→ Today in Earthquake History » click here
→ Animations for Earthquake Terms and Concepts » click here

Time Bandit Earthquake Shifts Earth's Axis

Feel like there isn’t enough time in the day??? Well now there is less.

The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that hit Chile over the weekend — killing hundreds, and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless — may have shortened the length of each Earth day, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist, Richard Gross.

Dr. Gross computed how Earth's rotation should have changed as a result of the February 27 quake. Using a complex model, he and fellow scientists came up with a preliminary calculation that the quake should have shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second.) This might not seem like much to you and I, but consider supercomputers that operate millions of times faster where even a few of nanoseconds came make a difference. So much for sleeping in during precious microseconds we just lost forever.

Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis. Gross calculates the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by 2.7 milliseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches).

Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis; they are offset by about 33 feet. Now consider the earth has shifted, but the GPS satellites have not, which means due to the angles involved there are some positional errors, not to mention that any scientific experiments requiring accurate time will need to take it into account.

January 2010 Was Warmest Month In 32 Years

On its path to breaking records set 32 years ago, January 2010 was recorded as the warmest month across the globe since 1978... and it's being attributed to the strong El Niño climate pattern we are currently experiencing.

In a USA Today article published on Friday, it states that according to climatologists, the Earth was about 1.3 degrees above average last month. Sounds a bit skeptical to those of us in the United States and Europe that have been experiencing winter weather extremes in the form of record breaking low temperatures and snowfall. But our weather conditions are only a very small fraction of Earth's overall dynamic atmospheric environment.

The main heat in January is said to have come from the subtropical areas, especially from the Sahara through Arabia and South Asia.

Meanwhile in the United States, nearly three quarters of the nation is snow covered and for the first time in 14 years, Lake Erie, with an average depth of 62 feet, completely froze over!

And these crazy extremes are why we love weather!