Earth's New Lightning Capital Revealed
Huntsville AL (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
Earth has a new lightning capital, according to a recent study using observations from the Lightning Imaging Sensor onboard NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission. Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela earned the top spot receiving an average rate of about 233 flashes per square kilometer per year, according to the study. Researchers had previously identified Africa's Congo Basin as the location of ...
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Russia's New Launch Complex - Vostochny Cosmodrome
Bethesda MD (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
Russia has inaugurated its newest space launch site, the Vostochny (Eastern) Cosmodrome. It is located at a latitude of 51 degrees North in the Amur Oblast, Russia's far east territory. Although the complex is not yet complete, it became operational last Thursday with the launch of a Soyuz-2. The remaining construction was originally to be completed in 2018.
The primary purpose of this new ...
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Michael Watkins Named Next JPL Director
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 06, 2016 -
Michael M. Watkins, the Clare Cockrell Williams Centennial Chair in Aerospace Engineering and Director of the Center for Space Research at The University of Texas at Austin, has been appointed director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and vice president at Caltech, the Institute announced this week.
Watkins will formally assume his position on July 1, 2016. He succeeds Charles Elachi, who ...
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Hurricanes key to carbon uptake by forests
Durham NC (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
While hurricanes are a constant source of worry for residents of the southeastern United States, new research suggests that they have a major upside - counteracting global warming.
Previous research from Duke environmental engineer Ana Barros demonstrated that the regular landfall of tropical cyclones is vital to the region's water supply and can help mitigate droughts.
Now, a new st ...
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NASA Researchers Improve Hazardous Weather Forecasts
Hampton VA (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
Forecasts play key roles in many people's lives, from planning picnics at the park, to cancelling flights and avoiding weather-related tragedies. Because weather can be a life-or-death matter, researchers work hard to develop new technology and ways to provide earlier and more accurate forecasts.
Scientists and engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, are combining ...
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NASA Awards Contract for Aeronautics, Exploration Modeling, Simulation
Moffett Field CA (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
NASA has selected Science and Technology Corporation of Hampton, Virginia, to provide support services at the agency's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California under the Aeronautics and Exploration Mission Modeling and Simulation (AEMMS) contract.
AEMMS is a single-award, hybrid, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with definite core and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity core line it ...
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SES to take control of O3b Networks
Luxembourg (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
SES S.A. has agreed to increase its interest in O3b Networks (O3b) to 50.5% and, in doing so, will take a controlling share in the company. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals which are expected to be completed during H2 2016.
SES will pay USD 20 million to increase its fully diluted ownership of O3b from 49.1% to 50.5%, bringing its aggregate equity investment in O3b to dat ...
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Proposals to support astronaut health on long missions selected
Houston TX (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
NASA's Human Research Program and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) will fund 27 proposals to help answer questions about astronaut health and performance during future long duration missions beyond low Earth orbit.
The selected proposals will investigate the impact of the space environment on various aspects of astronaut health, including visual impairment, behavior ...
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The future of fashion with couture in orbit
Paris (ESA) May 06, 2016 -
ESA is in partnership with top European fashion schools to harness next-generation technology and explore the future of fashion. The Couture in Orbit project is bringing space back to Earth through designs from some of Europe's brightest fashion minds - tasked to develop desirable and practical clothing, incorporating technology to make life better.
Fashion schools in Paris, London, Milan, ...
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SpaceX lands rocket's first stage after space launch
Miami (AFP) May 6, 2016 -
SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean early Friday after launching a Japanese communications satellite into orbit.
Shouts of "USA, USA, USA" and applause from the ground control crew greeted the feat, only the second time it has been accomplished by SpaceX, the company headed by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The ...
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New Yorkers to pay for disposable plastic and paper bags
New York (AFP) May 5, 2016 -
New Yorkers will soon have to pay for disposable plastic and paper bags in a city that consumes billions of them each year.
The City Council voted on Thursday to require shoppers to pay five cents for each disposable bag they use in certain stores.
The measure, adopted after heated debate by 28 votes to 20, is aimed at encouraging New Yorkers to use reusable bags, the council said.
" ...
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Mexico fights to save species ensnared in China black market
San Felipe, Mexico (AFP) May 5, 2016 -
The high-speed navy boat stopped on the moonlit waters of Mexico's Gulf of California as sailors looked through binoculars for small vessels conducting illegal activities under the cover of darkness.
While naval forces patrol the seas to thwart drug trafficking, the sailors were not searching for cocaine ships that night off the coast of San Felipe, a fishing town.
They were hunting for ...
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UN's Ban says time to scale up action on climate change
Washington (AFP) May 5, 2016 -
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday said action on climate change must be faster and broader to turn the promises of the Paris deal on combatting global warming into concrete measures.
"It is time to take climate action to the next level," Ban told a gathering in Washington that included the mayors of New York and Paris, environmental campaigner Al Gore, business leaders and members ...
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Reef system with 10,000 km2 found at the Amazon River mouth
Sao Paulo, Brazil (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
The changes that the Amazon River promotes in the tropical North Atlantic ocean water make an unfavorable environment for reef development. Every second, 175 million liters of water mixed with sediments are brought to the ocean. The result is low sunlight penetration, variability in nutrient concentration, salinity and pH, extensive moody bottoms and significant changes in temperature and oxygen ...
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A new resource to help manage billbugs in turfgrass
Annapolis MD (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
Billbugs, a type of weevil that is found from southern Canada to Mexico as well as parts of the Caribbean, are a major pest of turfgrass, a crop that brings in tens of billions of dollars in annual revenues. A new article in the open-access Journal of Integrated Pest Management sheds light on how to manage this damaging insect.
"The information on billbugs is very regionally limited, so if ...
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Four rescued six days after Kenya building collapse
Nairobi (AFP) May 5, 2016 -
Four people were pulled alive Thursday from the rubble of an apartment block that collapsed six days ago when heavy rains hit Nairobi, causing floods and landslides in the Kenyan capital.
There were cheers and shouted prayers from the crowd gathered at the site of the ruined six-storey building as a woman, covered with a blanket and lying on a stretcher, was carried to a waiting ambulance. ...
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'Catastrophic wildfires' force thousands to flee in Canada
Edmonton, Canada (AFP) May 5, 2016 -
Raging wildfires pressed in on the Canadian oil city of Fort McMurray Thursday after more than 80,000 people were forced to flee, abandoning fire-gutted neighborhoods in a chaotic evacuation.
No casualties have been reported from the monster blaze, which swept across Alberta's oil sands region driven by strong winds and hot, dry weather.
But authorities warned that the next 24 hours woul ...
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Airlift for 1000s trapped by Canada fires; long wait to return home
Lac La Biche, Canada (AFP) May 6, 2016 -
Canada on Thursday began airlifting to safety up to 25,000 people from the city of Fort McMurray forced from their homes by raging forest fires in Alberta's oil sands region.
The authorities ordered the oil city of 100,000 people to be evacuated after firefighters backed by air tankers and helicopters failed to prevent the monster blaze from engulfing entire neighborhoods.
Some 4,000 peo ...
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Mexico City lifts pollution alert
Mexico City (AFP) May 5, 2016 -
Mexico City on Thursday lifted a three-day-old pollution alert that had kept nearly half the city's 5.5 million vehicles off the streets.
The restriction against 40 percent of the vehicles ended because steady winds dispersed the smog of recent days and improved air quality, the city's environmental department said.
It was the second time since last month that the government declared the ...
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Fort McMurray evacuees eager to return home gather on edge of fire zone
Wandering River, Canada (AFP) May 6, 2016 -
A handful of abandoned cars wrapped in yellow police ribbons still lined the ditches along the main roadway to Fort McMurray Thursday, days after a massive exodus from the wildfire-stricken Canadian city.
The bumper-to-bumper traffic that had clogged the roadway in recent days has dissipated.
Only a few government and emergency vehicles still speed up and down Highway 63, which has been ...
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Hydropeaking of river water levels is disrupting insect survival, rivers
Corvallis OR (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
A group of researchers have concluded in a study in the journal BioScience that "hydropeaking" of water flows on many rivers in the West has a devastating impact on aquatic insect abundance. The research was based in part on a huge citizen science project with more than 2,500 samples taken on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, and collaboration of researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey ...
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A cleansing rain falls; a soil-filled mist arises
Richland WA (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
Most of us think of that sweet smell after a storm as the aftereffect of rain that has rinsed the air of pollutants and dust. But it turns out that rain also triggers the release of a mist of particles from wet soils into the air, a finding with consequences of its own for how scientists model our planet's climate and future.
The evidence comes in the form of tiny glassy spheres, less than ...
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Californian sudden oak death epidemic 'unstoppable'
Cambridge, UK (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
New research shows the sudden oak death epidemic in California cannot now be stopped, but that its tremendous ecological and economic impacts could have been greatly reduced if control had been started earlier. The research also identifies new strategies to enhance control of future epidemics, including identifying where and how to fell trees, as "there will be a next time".
Sudden oak dea ...
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Insulating layer of air above the Greenland ice sheet reduces precipitation
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
The Earth's climate has been warming, but even though the Greenland ice sheet is melting rapidly in the coastal regions, there are large parts of the ice sheet (40 percent) where there has hardly been any melting on the surface. A warmer climate usually also means that there is more precipitation, but there has been no increase in the amount of precipitation on the ice sheet.
New research ...
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New study found ocean acidification may be impacting Florida keys
Miami FL (SPX) May 06, 2016 -
In a new study, University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science researchers found that the limestone that forms the foundation of coral reefs along the Florida Reef Tract is dissolving during the fall and winter months on many reefs in the Florida Keys. The research showed that the upper Florida Keys were the most impacted by the annual loss of reef.
Each year ...
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