GIS NEWS : Locating Earthquake Victims, New GIS Tools, now in the Cloud

Locating Earthquake Victims, New GIS Tools, now in the Cloud

New tools to locate victims of earthquakes, and global information systems, to be featured at Global Humanitarian conference in Seattle. The world's first reliable earthquake victims locator, new global information systems (GIS) platforms, latest cloud based tools to be featured at IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference October 21 -24, 2012 in Seattle, Washington.

If there is a major earthquake over five points on the Richter scale this app automatically and instantaneously sends an email out to say you've been in an earthquake, says Australian business leader Adam Wells, developer of Earthquake Buddy to be featured at the conference. And if you're not heard from within, say thirty minutes, that they can come and find you.

Earthquake Buddy is an app downloaded from the iPhone App Store and has no monthly fees. Its the worlds first, nothing else like it, says Wells. During an earthquake anywhere in the world people preselected will receive a notice from the cloud. From international seismic feeds there will be a tagged map of where you were when the earthquake happened, says Wells.

Also featured at the conference and using new cloud enabled technology is a GIS platform that enables relief agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) to see the real world around them in fine geographic detail. We've found ways to abstract nearly everything that could be seen in the real world, says David Gadsden, who is leading the nonprofit organization program for the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri). This is really a paradigm shift for Esri technology, and GIS technology globally. Prior to the roll out of the cloud it really took some investment in infrastructure to implement GIS across an organization.

Both Wells and Gadsden made their comments on the Science News Radio Network program, the Promise of Tomorrow with Colonel Mason which is covering the conference. The program originates in Dallas, Texas, and is now archived and Webcast for its world audience. Wells spoke by phone from a site on the bay in Sidney, Australia, and Gadsden from his office in Olympia, WA.

Solutions to cure the worlds greatest human problems will get a thorough study at the conference, produced by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). More information on conference technical sessions, website registration, hotel reservations and exhibiting is available at the website www.ieeeghtc.org

For further information visit: http://www.examiner.com/article/locating-earthquake-victims-new-gis-tools-now-the-cloud

Testing Mars and Moon soil for sheltering astronauts from radiation

Testing Mars and Moon soil for sheltering astronauts from radiation

Humans venturing beyond Earth orbit deeper into space face increased exposure to cosmic radiation, so ESA have teamed with Germany’s GSI particle accelerator to test potential shielding for astronauts, including Moon and Mars soil.

ESA’s two-year project is assessing the most promising materials for shielding future astronauts going to the Moon, the asteroids or Mars.“We are working with the only facility in Europe capable of simulating the high-energy heavy atomic nuclei found in galactic cosmic radiation – the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany,” explained Alessandra Menicucci, overseeing the project.

“We assessed materials including aluminium, water, polyethylene plastic, multilayer structures and simulated Moon and Mars material – the latter on the basis these will be accessible to planetary expeditions.

Lunar soil simulant

“We have also confirmed a new type of hydrogen storage material holds particular promise.”Space is awash with charged particles, meaning that astronauts are officially classed as radiation workers. The International Space Station orbits within Earth’s magnetic field, safeguarding its occupants from the bulk of space radiation. To venture further out, dedicated shielding will be required.

Space radiation comes from the Sun – in the form of intense but short-lived ‘solar particle events’ – as well as galactic cosmic radiation originating beyond our Solar System: atomic nuclei produced by dying stars, their passage sped by magnetic fields as they cross the galaxy.

GSI

“Solar particle events are made up of protons that can be shielded quite simply,” added Alessandra.“The real challenge for deep-space missions is galactic cosmic radiation, which cannot be shielded completely because of its very high energy, although the exposure level decreases with increased solar activity.

Most are small protons or helium nuclei, but about 1% are larger, the size of an iron atom or more – known as ‘high-ionising high energy particles’ or HZE for short. Radiation shielding can be counter-intuitive because denser and thicker does not always mean better.

Astronauts

HZEs striking metal shields can produce showers of secondary particles that might be even more harmful. And as shield thickness increases, overall the energy loss of ionising radiation rises to a peak then declines rapidly.“In general, the lighter a material’s atomic nuclei the better the protection,” notes Alessandra.

Water and polyethylene performed better than aluminium for instance, and new hydrogen-rich materials developed by UK Company Cella Energy tested better still. Cella Energy originally developed its patent-pending materials for storing hydrogen fuel but is currently investigating their radiation resistance.

For further information visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMERGERI7H_index_0.html

On Internet rules, India now more willing to say ICANN

On Internet rules, India now more willing to say ICANN

The Hindu India has reinvented its position on Internet governance, hoping to become a new voice of reason in what has so far been a deeply polarised global debate. Distances itself from any model propagating governments taking “charge” or “balkanising” the web

India has reinvented its position on Internet governance, hoping to become a new voice of reason in what has so far been a deeply polarised global debate. The change, effected after detailed inter-ministerial as well as multi-stakeholder consultation, is intended to distance India from any model propagating governments taking “charge” or “balkanising” the Internet. It was unveiled at the recent Budapest Cyber Space Conference.

According to Minister of State for Telecom Sachin Pilot, who led the Indian delegation to Budapest, instead of opposing the U.S.-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and its operations through an earlier proposal called the U.N. Committee on Internet-Related Policies (UN-CIRP), India will pursue enhanced cooperation through wider dialogue.

“In our meetings with Fadi Chehade, the new CEO of ICANN, I have sought far stronger representation of the developing world on the four ICANN Advisory committees”, Mr. Pilot told The Hindu.ICANN’s committees include the “At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) and the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC).

Countries such as Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been advocating governance models that seek to place the Internet under U.N. control while the U.S. and western states have been reluctant to move away from the status quo position of ICANN-led Internet governance. India had positioned its UN-CIRP proposal as something that would lie in between these two extremes. But while the international debate continues, it is keen to step up its engagement with ICANN which remains, for the moment, the only game in town.

“The extreme views being floated by some countries on Internet governance could lead to the balkanisation of Internet and we are against any such move, including control of Internet by government or inter-governmental bodies. We seek enhanced dialogue and continuation of a working group to find ways to resolve the sharp differences that currently exist,” Mr. Pilot said.

Mr. Pilot’s position is consistent with that of Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, who maintained at two recent meetings on Internet governance in India in September 2012, that India was firmly against government control of the Internet while seeking consensus among multi-stakeholders to develop an appropriate model for the effective management of the Internet.

India had attracted criticism from the U.S. and from corporate stakeholders who want no dilution of the current ICANN-run system after it presented its UN-CIRP model for Internet governance last October at the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

While the UN-CIRP essentially sought a shift from the existing ICANN-run model that is perceived to be too close to the U.S. government, many domestic stakeholders were critical of the lack of consultation in the run-up to the October 2011 statement. Signs of a rethink in the government were evident when senior officials in the ministries concerned refused to entertain questions on the genesis of the UN-CIRP proposal put to them by The Hindu over the past few months.

In the run-up to the Budapest meet, a UPA task-force held closed-door consultations involving the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Telecom and IT, industry bodies and others. Latha Reddy, the Deputy National Security Adviser, coordinated this effort. On the issue of India’s earlier UN-CIRP model, Mr. Pilot also confirmed, “We are moving ahead with new proposals. While the existing system certainly needs to be changed, India’s position will include multi-stakeholder involvement and not inter-governmental bodies that may have been proposed in the past.”

The Indian government’s changed stance on Internet governance, though subtle, is expected to generate further attention at the upcoming Internet Governance Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan next month, where thousands of delegates representing governments, business, civil society, academia and media from across the world will collect to discuss the issue.

For further information visit: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/on-internet-rules-india-now-more-willing-to-say-icann/article3994985.ece

X-raying stellar winds in a high-speed collision

X-raying stellar winds in a high-speed collision

Two massive stars racing in orbit around each other have had their colliding stellar winds X-rayed for the first time, thanks to the combined efforts of ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Swift space telescopes. Stellar winds, pushed away from a massive star’s surface by its intense light, can have a profound influence on their environment.

In some locations, they may trigger the collapse of surrounding clouds of gas and dust to form new stars. In others, they may blast the clouds away before they have the chance to get started. Now, XMM-Newton and Swift have found a ‘Rosetta stone’ for such winds in a binary system known as Cyg OB2 #9, located in the Cygnus star-forming region, where the winds from two massive stars orbiting around each other collide at high speeds.

Colliding winds at Cyg OB2 #9

Cyg OB2 #9 remained a puzzle for many years. Its peculiar radio emission could only be explained if the object was not a single star but two, a hypothesis that was confirmed in 2008.At the time of the discovery, however, there was no direct evidence for the winds from the two stars colliding, even though the X-ray signature of such a phenomenon was expected.

This signature could only be found by tracking the stars as they neared the closest point on their 2.4-year orbit around each other, an opportunity that presented itself between June and July 2011.As the space telescopes looked on, the fierce stellar winds slammed together at speeds of several million kilometres per hour, generating hot plasma at a million degrees which then shone brightly in X-rays.

Colliding winds at WR 22

The telescopes recorded a four-fold increase in energy compared with the normal X-ray emission seen when the stars were further apart on their elliptical orbit.“This is the first time that we have found clear evidence for colliding winds in this system,” says Yael Nazé of the Université de Liège, Belgium, and lead author of the paper describing the results reported in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

“We only have a few other examples of winds in binary systems crashing together, but this one example can really be considered an archetype for this phenomenon.”Unlike the handful of other colliding wind systems, the style of the collision in Cyg OB2 #9 remains the same throughout the stars’ orbit, despite the increase in intensity as the two winds meet.

“In other examples the collision is turbulent; the winds of one star might crash onto the other when they are at their closest, causing a sudden drop in X-ray emission,” says Dr Nazé.“But in the Cyg OB2 #9 systems there is no such observation, so we can consider it the first ‘simple’ example that has been discovered – that really is the key to developing better models to help understand the characteristics of these powerful stellar winds. ”

“This particular binary system represents an important stepping stone in our understanding of stellar wind collisions and their associated emissions, and could only be achieved by tracking the two stars orbiting around each other with X-ray telescopes,” adds ESA’s XMM-Newton project scientist Norbert Schartel.

For further information visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM3H93S18H_index_0.html

Lost asteroid rediscovered with a little help from ESA

Lost asteroid rediscovered with a little help from ESA

A potentially hazardous asteroid once found but then lost has been rediscovered and its orbit confirmed by a determined amateur astronomer working with ESA’s space hazards programme. The half-kilometre object will not threaten Earth anytime soon.

Amateur astronomer Erwin Schwab, from Germany, conducted his asteroid hunt in September during a regular observation slot at ESA’s Optical Ground Station in Tenerife, Spain, sponsored by the Agency’s Space Situational Awareness programme.

He was determined to rediscover the object, known by its catalogue name as 2008SE85.Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 2008SE85 was discovered in September 2008 by the Catalina Sky Survey, and observed by a few observatories to October 2008.

Asteroid considered lost

Since then, however, nobody had observed the object and predictions for its current position had become so inaccurate that the object was considered to be ‘lost’.

Orbit of 2008SE85

Erwin planned his observing sequence to look for the object within the area of uncertainty of its predicted position. After only a few hours, he found it about 2° – four times the apparent size of the Moon – away from its predicted position.“I found the object on the evening of Saturday, 15 September, while checking the images on my computer,” says Erwin.

“I then saw it again at 01:30 on Sunday morning – and that was my birthday! It was one of the nicest birthday presents.” These new observations of the roughly 500 m-diameter asteroid will allow a much more accurate determination of its orbit and help confirm that it will not be a threat to Earth anytime soon.

Potentially Hazardous Asteroids approach Earth closer than about 7 million km; about 1300 is known. When a new asteroid is discovered, follow-up observations must be done within a few hours and then days to ensure it is not subsequently lost.

USA-based Minor Planet Center acknowledges the find Asteroid position measurements are collected from observers worldwide by the US-based Minor Planet Center, which acknowledged the rediscovery of 2008SE85 by releasing a Minor Planet Electronic Circular announcing the new observations.

1m telescope at ESA's Optical Ground Station

“These observations were part of the strong collaboration that we have with a number of experienced backyard observers,” says Detlef Koschny, Head of the Near-Earth Object segment of ESA’s Space Situational Awareness programme.

"It’s not the first time our collaboration with amateurs has scored such a success. Members of the Teide Observatory Tenerife Asteroid Survey started by Matthias Busch from Heppenheim, Germany, discovered two new near-Earth objects during the last year while working with our observing programme."

For further information visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM3KS2S18H_index_2.html