The Black Marble: Earth At Night

Universe Today supplies the eye candy in article, "The Black Marble: Stunning New Orbital Views of Earth at Night."  "Two months of night-time imagery gathered by the Suomi NPP satellite have resulted in a stunning new look at Earth at night, appropriately nicknamed the Black Marble.  The nighttime views were made possible by the new satellite’s 'day-night band' of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite."  It's two minutes of visual immersion:  "NASA | Earth at Night."

impressive auroras as aurora max 2012 nears

Take a brief and beautiful tour of auroras (or aurorae) from around the world, then depart for more pix from other points in the solar system, Saturn (red) and Jupiter (blue). Auroras are building and will reach an aurora max in 2012. First stop, Northern Lights in Iceland are pictured on The Telegraph UK website. The next stop is in Scotland, where Jim Henderson captured exceptional images in, "Awe-inspiring auroras: The psychedelic majesty of the Northern Lights captured in the skies over Aberdeen. The Jovian planets are huge magnets, Jupiter's magnetosphere is 20,000 times greater than the Earth's and UV studies at the University of Arizona go into detail with auroras pictured here. The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft captured pix of Mars aurora here. Our neighbor Venus is, perhaps, unique with little intrinsic magnetic field, but has a "night glow" from the solar wind. You can learn more about how auroras form here. The viewing will only get better as we approach the Solar Max and Aurora Max of 2012.

earth's magnetic fields cause of bird & fish die off

The Earth's magnetic fields are surfacing in the press as an explanation for several recent mass bird and fish die-offs! Donna Pravel writes in, "Earth's Magnetic Fields May Be Causing Bird and Fish Die-Off", about massive breaches detected in the magnetosphere by five NASA Themis spacecraft. Breaches allow highly charged particles to enter and can result in large geomagnetic storms. Pravel offers disruptions in the magnetic fields as disorienting both birds and fish, who use the magnetic fields to navigate, although she leaves open the possibility the fish kills are unrelated. The article fails to convince, under a critical eye, although a geomagnetic storm may explain the trauma to the dead birds. The die offs, at least in Arkansas, seem too specific to be explained by a storm as primarily blackbirds and drum fish died. How did other birds survive? How did other fish manage to navigate? It could be a coincidental disease killed the fish? A mass die off roundup at news.com.au should raise questions in any rational mind?

In June 2007, Themis spacecraft recorded a breach 10 times larger than anticipated. There is an audio version of the article by Tony Phillips as well as a video version available here. The present writer's concern is the growing number of sources capable of taking down our civilization in a single sweeping blackout. Will it be a electromagnetic pulse from a rogue terrorist nuke or ruined circuitry from a solar maximum, a solar flare and/or geomagnetic storm? What else can cause a breach in the magnetosphere? The possible sources of attribution seem on the rise, but how will we know the real source with any certainty in such an event? Is it predictive programming?

update: the mystery of dead birds, fish & other weird events

why the moon appears grey from earth

Cary Martynuik, a moon researcher with a part in movie, "Moon Rising", asks good questions about the Moon's appearance as seen from Earth. Martynuik contends our atmosphere and its light diffusion and scattering properties, only makes the moon appear colorless. Our eyes simply do not receive the color information before it's deflected? Is there color info not reaching the earth's surface? It's a good question! Here's a link to an eight minute video, "Why the Moon Appears Grey From Earth".

nasa says solar flare will strike earth nov 14 or 15

Sunspot 1123 hurled a C-4 class solar flare in the Earth's direction just south of the Sun-Earth line, sometime, in the early hours of Nov. 12, 2010. The coronal mass ejection (CME) could glance off the Earth's magnetic field on either Nov. 14th or Nov. 15th to create auroras. Full article is at Before It's News. "Earlier last week, active sunspot 1121 has unleashed one of the brightest x-ray solar flares in years, an M5.4-class eruption at 15:36 UT on Nov. 6th." Please follow link to brief You Tube video of sunspot 1121. A C-4 class solar flare is of mediocre strength. Present observer finds prevalence of news on solar flares curious.