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Pilots, boaters adjust to shift in magnetic north
Magnetic north, the point at the top of the Earth that determines compass headings, is shifting its position at a rate of about 40 miles per year. In geologic terms, it’s racing from the Arctic Ocean near Canada toward Russia.
As a result, everyone who uses a compass, even as a backup to modern GPS navigation systems, needs to be aware of the shift, make adjustments or obtain updated charts to ensure they get where they intend to go, authorities say. That includes pilots, boaters and even hikers.
“You could end up a few miles off or a couple hundred miles off, depending how far you’re going,” said Matthew Brock, a technician with Lauderdale Speedometer and Compass, a Fort Lauderdale company that repairs compasses.
Although the magnetic shift has little impact on the average person and presents no danger to the Earth overall, it is costing the Read more…
Earth Likely “Unrecognizable” by 2050 Say Experts
In 2011 the Earth’s population will reach 7 billion. The United Nations (UN) reports that the total number of people will climb to 9 billion in 2050, peak at 9.5 billion, stabilize temporarily, and then decline. Despite the confidence with which these projections are presented, in an American Association for the Advancement of Science press briefing and presentation today the Population Council’s John Bongaarts presents evidence that the actual Read more…
M CLASS Solar Flare Headed Toward Earth
Sunspot 1158 has just unleashed the strongest solar flare of the year, an M6.6-category blast @ 1738 UT on Feb. 13th and it is heading straight for Earth.
The eruption appears to have launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. It also produced a loud blast of radio emissions heard in shortwave receivers around the dayside of our planet. Amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft recorded these sounds. Stay tuned for updates!
Solar activity increased sharply over the weekend with the eruption of an M6.6-class solar flare from behemoth sunspot 1158. The blast produced a strong burst of radio waves heard in the loudspeakers of shortwave receivers around the dayside of our planet, and it appears to have hurled a faint coronal mass ejection toward Earth.
Sunspot 1158 is growing rapidly (48 hour movie) and crackling with M-class solar flares. The active region is now more than 100,000 km wide with at least a dozen Earth-sized dark cores scattered beneath its unstable magnetic canopy. Earth-directed eruptions are likely in the hours ahead.
The remains of old sunspot complex 1147-1149 are rotating over the eastern limb today. Although the region is in an advanced state of decay, it’s not dead yet. During the late hours of Feb. 11th, a plasma bullet came rocketing out of the region’s unstable core. Watch the movie–but don’t blink, because it’s fast.
Movie formats: 21 MB Quicktime, 1.3 MB mpeg, 0.5 MB iPad. Credit: SDO
Target Earth: Near Earth Asteroids Swarming the February Skies
Photo by Steve E. Farmer Jr.
February 12, another newly discovered hazardous asteroid (PHA) was announced. As most other NEO’s in the past, this one safely passed by Earth…this time.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2011 CU46 was announced on February 12, 2011. This hazardous asteroid did not drift by Earth at only a few thousand miles as in the case of Near Earth Object 2011 CQ1; 2011 CU46 safely passed by at a distance of a little more than 316,000 miles – which is still considered a “near miss” in astronomical terms. PHA 2011 CU46 has a diameter of 20m – 50m; and this particular object would likely cause a massive fireball and surface damage if it were to impact Earth in a populated area.
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids & Near Earth Objects
As defined by NASA, A Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) is based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. An asteroid which comes within an orbital intersection distance of 0.05 AU with Earths orbit and is of a diameter of 110m – 240m, is normally identified as a potentially hazardous object. Other factors are also included.
Since the February 4 announcement of NEO 2011 CQ1, over forty more Near Earth Objects have been discovered, identified, and catalogued.
Apophis Likely to Miss, What about PHA 2011 AG5?
PHA 2011 AG5 was discovered by Mt. Lemmon Survey on January 8, 2011. After more than one-hundred extra observations of this Potentially Hazardous Asteroid were collected by both amateur and professional astronomers, orbital elements were calculated and it was determined that 2011 AG5 could possibly impact Earth in the year 2052. More observations and research is needed to refine the orbit of this asteroid.
2011 AG5 is very similar to the famous asteroid Apophis which could possibly impact the Earth in the year 2036. Apophis is a little larger in diameter that 2011 AG5 and is expected to pass by Earth twice as close as 2011 AG5. Both of these minor planets are large enough to cause substantial damage to a major city on Earth if impact were to occur, but with any luck these minor planets will spare Earth and safely pass us by.
Preparing for Asteroid Impact
It’s only a matter of time before the announcement comes that Earth will obtain an impact from a minor planet large enough to cause wide-spread damage. It is this reason why more studies be performed on minor planets – to help further improve our understandings on these objects in hopes to give us a better defense option when that announcement comes. We have the technology to detect these hazardous objects and certain programs are working on methods to deflect or destroy asteroids. With any luck, they will design a fail-proof method to eliminate the potential risk from these objects impacting Earth.
2012: Leaks In Earth’s Magnetic Field Found
Scientists have found two large leaks in Earth’s magnetosphere, the region around our planet that shields us from severe solar storms.
The leaks are defying many of scientists’ previous ideas on how the interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and solar wind occurs: The leaks are in an unexpected location, let in solar particles in faster than expected and the whole interaction works in a manner that is completely the opposite of what scientists had thought.
Astronomy: “The Taurid Stream: A Cosmic Trail With Destruction In Its Wake”
by Nick Nuttall
According to astronomers such as Dr. Victor Clube, of Oxford University’s Department of Astrophysics, the coming and goings of the Taurid stream should be a source of concern to politicians, planners and anyone who cherishes life on Earth. A ”catastrophist”, Dr. Clube is one of many astronomers who are convinced that Read more…
Blast from the Sun
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| This still from SDO caught the action in freeze-frame splendor when the Sun popped off two events at once (Jan. 28, 2011). A filament on the left side became unstable and erupted, while an M-1 flare (mid-sized) and a coronal mass ejection on the right blasted into space. NASA/SDO/GSFC |
The sun unleashed two powerful solar eruptions today (Jan. 28) in a spectacular double blast caught on camera by a NASA spacecraft.
The twin solar storms occurred in concert and marked an impressive start for the 2011 space weatherseason.
A video recorded by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the two sun storms erupting from opposite sides of the star. Neither of the events posed a space weather threat to Earth or its satellites, NASA officials said. Read more…
All the volcano webcams of the world
Pacific
Kilauea – info – webcams: Pu’u O’o | Thanksgiving Eve Breakout | Halema`uma`u Crater from HVO | Halema`uma`u Crater overlook
Mariana Islands (United States)
Western/Southern Pacific
Earth’s magnetic pole shift unleashing poisonous space clouds linked to mysterious bird deaths
As Physorg.com explains:
The primary runway at the airport is designated 18R/36L, which means the runway is aligned along 180 degrees from north (that is, due south) when approached from the north and 360 degrees from north when approached from the south. Now the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has requested the designation be changed to 19R/1L to account for the movement of the magnetic north pole.
This brings us to our first physics fact of this article:
Physics Fact #1: The Earth’s magnetic poles are shifting. (And not just a little bit, but enough to affect airport runways on the scale of human observation.)
You can see a picture of that here: http://www.theozonehole.com/magneti…
Physics Fact #2: The Earth’s magnetic field has flipped hundreds of times in the past.
The Earth’s magnetic field “flips” (or reverses polarity) every few thousand years. This is called a geomagnetic reversal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomag…). In between these flips, the magnetic field can become quite weak and chaotic, causing “turbulence” in the field, which can effectively cause weaker gaps in the magnetosphere.
These magnetic gaps or weaknesses can allow outside influences that normally would not penetrate the magnetosphere to reach deep into that magnetosphere, theoretically all the way down to where birds fly at very low altitude.
Last week, a report from the Russia’s Ministry for Extraordinary Situations (MCHS) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minist…) warned that the weakening Earth magnetosphere was allowing “poisonous space clouds” to enter deep into Earth’s atmosphere where it is coming into contact with birds.
These “space clouds” are called Noctilucent clouds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctil…), which exist at very high altitudes (roughly 50 miles) and accumulate space dust from micrometeors and other sources.
What’s really interesting here is that these noctilucent clouds exhibit very high radar reflectivity (http://media.caltech.edu/press_rele…). This means these clouds create a very large radar signature on weather tracking systems.
Physics fact #3: Noctilucent clouds have very high radar reflectivity. Read more…
Northern Lights Could Be Seen In Florida as Poles Shift
It may soon be that compasses are no longer accurate, the North Star could be the South star, and Santa just may be lost.
Don’t blame anyone just yet— the “North Pole” is merely changing.
The change is so critical, workers at two Florida airports are making changes to the Tampa International Airport and Peter O. Knight Airport. Robert Burr of TIA said one runway, number 36, pointed North at 360 degrees. But now, that same runway points 10 degrees north. TIA decided to repaint the numbers on the runway to match the pilot compass readings. Runway number 36 is now number 1.
Chris Connor, Ph.D., a Volcanologist with the University of South Florida, said that there’s a magnetic pole which is produced by changes and or flow of iron in the core of the earth. Connor said the constantly moving molten iron creates a magnet on a planetary scale with a magnetic North and South Pole. He also said that the magnetic fields have been moving— what used to be in northern Canada is now in northern Siberia.
The last shift was more than 700,000 years ago, and some experts are saying it’s time for the change. Every million years or so Earth’s magnetic pole does a flip, and new poles arise in random places. After the poles are settled, South may be the new North and vice versa. Meaning that maybe the Aurora Borealis could be seen in Florida.
Read more: http://www.setyoufreenews.com/2011/01/northern-lights-could-be-seen-in.html#ixzz1BPttZA4g
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