Earth ChangesS


Blackbox

What's wrong with the sun?

Stuart Clark
New Scientist
Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:04 UTC
Sunspots come and go, but recently they have mostly gone. For centuries, astronomers have recorded when these dark blemishes on the solar surface emerge, only for them to fade away again after a few days, weeks or months. Thanks to their efforts, we know that sunspot numbers ebb and flow in cycles lasting about 11 years.

But for the past two years, the sunspots have mostly been missing. Their absence, the most prolonged for nearly a hundred years, has taken even seasoned sun watchers by surprise. "This is solar behaviour we haven't seen in living memory," says David Hathaway, a physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

The sun is under scrutiny as never before thanks to an armada of space telescopes. The results they beam back are portraying our nearest star, and its influence on Earth, in a new light. Sunspots and other clues indicate that the sun's magnetic activity is diminishing, and that the sun may even be shrinking. Together the results hint that something profound is happening inside the sun. The big question is what?

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Sun

Flashback Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe

Michael Brooks
New Scientist
Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:25 UTC
It is midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.

A year later and millions of Americans are dead and the nation's infrastructure lies in tatters. The World Bank declares America a developing nation. Europe, Scandinavia, China and Japan are also struggling to recover from the same fateful event - a violent storm, 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun.

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USA

Jesus Struck by Lightning, Melts in Fireball (Video)

Joshua Burns
The Examiner.com
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:49 UTC
Jesus Burns
© C. EnquirerGiant Jesus of Monroe was disintegrated after being struck by lightning Monday Night.
In one of the most ironic acts of God in recent memory, a six-story tall statute of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning Monday night and engulfed in flames. The only thing left remaining of the fiberglass and plastic depiction of the Son of God was his charred steel frame, Tuesday morning.

The "King of Kings" statue had become a nationally-known landmark, the most well known landmark in southwest Ohio. It measured at 62 feet high and 40 feet wide and reportedly cost the Solid Rock Church of Monroe, Ohio $250,000 to construct.

When crews arrived, Monroe Fire Chief Mark Neu said the statue was fully engulfed and the fire had spread to the attic area of the church's adjacent amphitheater. There were no injuries, said Neu, who spoke just before 2:30 a.m. to media at the scene. It was a "hot fire," he said, which made it more difficult to battle, but it was extinguished within about an hour.
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Blackbox

Mysterious Clouds Produced When Aircraft Inadvertently Cause Rain Or Snow


Terra Daily / SPX
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:20 UTC
Image
© Alan SeallsAs far back as the 1940s, scientists have wondered about the causes of these clouds with gaps seemingly made by a giant hole punch.
As turboprop and jet engines climb or descent under certain atmospheric conditions, they can inadvertently seed mid-level clouds and cause narrow bands of snow or rain to develop and fall to the ground, new research finds.

Through this seeding process, they leave behind odd-shaped holes or channels in the clouds, which have long fascinated the public.

The key ingredient for developing these holes in the clouds: water droplets at subfreezing temperatures, below about 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius). As air is cooled behind aircraft propellers or over jet wings, the water droplets freeze and drop toward Earth.

"Any time aircraft fly through these specific conditions, they are altering the clouds in a way that can result in enhanced precipitation nearby," says Andrew Heymsfield, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and lead author of a new study into the phenomenon.

"Just by flying an airplane through these clouds, you could produce as much precipitation as with seeding materials along the same path in the cloud."

Precipitation from planes may be particularly common in regions such as the Pacific Northwest and western Europe because of the frequent occurrence of cloud layers with supercooled droplets, Heymsfield says.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Earthquake Magnitude 5.7 - Southern California


US Geological Survey
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:30 UTC
Image
© USGS
Date-Time:
Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 04:26:58 UTC

Monday, June 14, 2010 at 09:26:58 PM at epicenter

Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location:
32.698°N, 115.924°W

Depth:
6.9 km (4.3 miles)

Region:
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Distances:
8 km (5 miles) SE (124°) from Ocotillo, CA

24 km (15 miles) WSW (244°) from Seeley, CA

26 km (16 miles) ENE (70°) from Jacumba Hot Springs, CA

36 km (22 miles) WSW (254°) from El Centro, CA

104 km (65 miles) E (79°) from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
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Sun

Best of the Web: NASA warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation


Daily Telegraph
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:41 UTC

Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation "space storm", Nasa has warned.

National power grids could overheat and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power in a few years.

Senior space agency scientists believe the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes "from a deep slumber" sometime around 2013.

In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like "a bolt of lightning" and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world's health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.

Comment: However... see this:
What's wrong with the sun?

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Family

People Power! The Boycott BP Movement


ABC News
Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:26 UTC
Diane Sawyer Talks With the Man Behind the Expanding "Boycott BP" Facebook

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Heart - Black

The BP Oil Spill's Cruel Toll of Wildlife

Ingrid Newkirk
The Guardian
Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:38 UTC
We can react positively to what is the largest case of cruelty to animals in US history - if it changes our behaviour as consumers

BP has certainly shone an international spotlight on British business, but no one is applauding. In the US, it has more than the loss of human life, livelihoods and tourism to answer for. And so do the government inspectors who allowed the corporation to put profit before safety.

If the criminal investigation of BP and those who signed off on the drill-site inspection sheets and safety assurances shows wilful fraud and deception, dereliction of duty, bribes or who knows what else, there is one additional set of criminal charges that should be added to the list: cruelty to animals. For this is the largest case of cruelty to animals in US history.

There is no shortage of photographs of the animals that have died and are still dying - slowly, painfully, drenched in oil. It is hard for anyone to see the gulls and pelicans, blinking up through a thick coat of muck that prevents them from flying, eating, taking a drink of water or escaping the burning heat along the Gulf coast. It is even too much to come across video that shows a huge rubber-gloved hand gently plucking a tiny crab out of a puddle of black glop. Only the outline of body tells you what it is, although its struggles tell you it is still alive. For the moment.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Unrelenting thunderstorms flood Oklahoma City - 10 inches of rain in 9 hours - More rain on the way


CNN
Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:20 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Evacuations are under way in some Oklahoma City neighborhoods, Mayor Mick Cornett said Monday. People there are dealing with vicious flash-flooding and scattered power outages as more thunderstorms head their way.

CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said the damage Monday morning was caused by "backbuilding thunderstorms," a series of heavy rain cores without intermittent periods of let-up. After an early afternoon respite, CNN meteorologist Sean Morris said, Oklahoma City is again under a severe thunderstorm watch, as more storms head toward the rain-soaked metropolitan area. However, Morris said the newer storms are aiming south and east of the areas deluged the most Monday morning.

The National Weather Service said almost 10 inches of rain fell between 2 and 11 a.m. A flash flood watch was extended across central Oklahoma through 7 a.m. CT Tuesday.

According to the National Weather Service, an average of 1 to 2 more inches of rain was likely across the region through Monday night, with locally higher amounts.
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Attention

US: Lightning Sparks Massive Fire at Gas Company in North Carolina


CNN
Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:19 UTC
Lightning strikes apparently caused a major fire at a gas company in North Carolina early Sunday morning, fire officials said.

The blaze started at Colonial Pipeline Company in Greensboro after midnight, said David Douglas, an assistant fire chief in Greensboro.

A pipe with 20,000 gallons of gas was burning and two tanks with about 12,000 gallons of gas caught on fire, Douglas said.

Firefighters used foam to extinguish the flames on the tanks, Colonial Pipeline spokesman Steve Baker said.

The huge facility, known as the tank farm, is near Piedmont Triad International Airport, and the massive blaze sent plumes of smoke throughout the area.
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