Sixth Galileo satellite reaches corrected orbit
Paris (ESA) Mar 17, 2015 -
The sixth Galileo satellite of Europe's navigation system has now entered its corrected target orbit, which will allow detailed testing to assess the performance of its navigation payload.
Launched with the fifth Galileo last August, its initial elongated orbit saw it travelling as high as 25 900 km above Earth and down to a low point of 13 713 km - confusing the Earth sensor used to point ...
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Scientists fly kites on Earth to study Mars
Tucson AZ (SPX) Mar 17, 2015 -
Scientists of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have taken to kites that they fly above lava flows blanketing the Hawaiian landscape to unravel the past mysteries that shaped Mars.
A kite, equipped with off-the-shelf instruments such as a camera, a GPS, and orientation sensors, scans the terrain from high above. The team then employs parallel computing and powerful ...
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Colorful life-form catalog will help discern if we're alone
Ithaca NY (SPX) Mar 17, 2015 -
While looking for life on planets beyond our own solar system, a group of international scientists has created a colorful catalog containing reflection signatures of Earth life forms that might be found on planet surfaces throughout the cosmic hinterlands. The new database and research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, gives humans a better chance to learn if we ...
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Payments for ecosystem services? Here's the guidebook
New York NY (SPX) Mar 16, 2015 -
A team of investors, development organizations, conservationists, economists, and ecologists have published in the journal Science six natural science principles to ensure success of Payments for Ecosystem Services, mechanisms that have helped preserve carbon stocks stored in Madagascar's rainforests, maintain wildlife populations important for tourism in Tanzania, and protect watersheds in Fran ...
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Friction means Antarctic glaciers more sensitive to climate change
Pasadena CA (SPX) Mar 16, 2015 -
One of the biggest unknowns in understanding the effects of climate change today is the melting rate of glacial ice in Antarctica. Scientists agree rising atmospheric and ocean temperatures could destabilize these ice sheets, but there is uncertainty about how fast they will lose ice.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is of particular concern to scientists because it contains enough ice to rais ...
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Predicting which African storms will intensify into hurricanes
Tel Aviv, Israel (SPX) Mar 16, 2015 -
Hurricanes require moisture, the rotation of the earth, and warm ocean temperatures to grow from a mere atmospheric disturbance into a tropical storm. But where do these storm cells originate, and exactly what makes an atmospheric disturbance amp up full throttle?
A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters by Tel Aviv University's Prof. Colin Price and his graduate student Naama ...
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The physics of clouds
Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Mar 16, 2015 -
In 1941, Russian physicist Andrey Kolmogorov developed a theory of turbulence that has served as the basic foundation for our understanding of this important naturally occurring phenomenon.
Turbulence occurs when fluid flow is characterized by chaotic physical changes. Kolmogorov's theory has been interpreted to imply that transitions from one state of turbulence to another must be a smoot ...
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