Progress MS-04 το οποίο εκτοξεύτηκε την Πέμπτη σε αποστολή ανεφοδιασμού τους Διεθνούς Διαστημικού Σταθμού (ISS).
Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα NASA. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
Εμφάνιση αναρτήσεων με ετικέτα NASA. Εμφάνιση όλων των αναρτήσεων
Πέμπτη 1 Δεκεμβρίου 2016
Το διαστημόπλοιο Progress MS-04 κάηκε στην ατμόσφαιρα, ανακοίνωσε η Roscosmos
Progress MS-04 το οποίο εκτοξεύτηκε την Πέμπτη σε αποστολή ανεφοδιασμού τους Διεθνούς Διαστημικού Σταθμού (ISS).
Τετάρτη 17 Αυγούστου 2016
Ο φετινός Ιούλιος ήταν ο πιο θερμός μήνας από το 1880
Πέμπτη 19 Φεβρουαρίου 2015
Over 100 tons of space junk fell on Earth in 2014 (NASA)
According to the American weekly newspaper Space News, the data was reported by NASA to the UN Committee on the peaceful uses of outer space, where the space junk disposition was discussed.
Specialists estimate that last year's space junk fall was more intense than usual because of high solar activity which raised the atmosphere boundary and made a part of space junk from low orbits approach the Earth’s surface.
According to experts the overall weight of the space junk that entered atmosphere is over 100 tons. It is impossible to find out how many pieces have reached the earth having crossed the dense atmosphere, but it is known that no one suffered from the phenomenon.
According to NASA experts, after the space junk fall the space has become cleaner. They claim that there are fewer 10-cm objects classified as space junk. Meanwhile, the weight of used-up satellites and pieces of orbital platforms has increased from 5 to 6.5 thousand tons over the last 10 years.
Specialists offer different ways of space junk disposition, even such exotic ones as special orbital “vacuum cleaners”. At the same time almost everybody agrees that it is most important for all countries to abide by the rules of the spacecraft usage.
http://tass.ru/en/non-political/778607
19/2/15
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Russian satellite hit by remnants of destroyed Chinese spacecraft (VIDEO)
Δορυφόροι από ανακυκλωμένα διαστημικά «σκουπίδια» σε τροχιά
Weltraumschrott: Eine Müllabfuhr für die Umlaufbahn.....
Εν αναμονή του «φαινομένου του Κέσλερ»
Πέμπτη 12 Φεβρουαρίου 2015
SpaceX launches deep space weather observatory
Experts say the DSCOVR - a joint collaboration of the US Air Force, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - will help with the preparation and response to "space weather," thereby protecting utilities, consumers and industries.
"The Falcon takes flight, propelling the Deep Space Climate Observatory on a million mile journey to protect our planet Earth," said NASA commentator George Diller as the rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6:03 pm (2303 GMT).
DSCOVR is headed to a destination between the Earth and the sun known as Lagrangian point, or L1. The journey will take 110 days, followed by 40 days of instrument tests.
Space weather is the primary objective of the five-year mission, although the initial idea for the satellite came from former US vice president Al Gore, who dreamed of a spacecraft that would observe Earth and send back live images that would raise environmental awareness of the planet's fragility.
DSCOVR will replace an aging satellite, known as ACE, that is many years past its expiration date. It should provide the same accuracy as its predecessor, officials said.
Its secondary mission is to collect scientific data about aerosol levels, ozone and radiation balance on Earth.
Meanwhile, California-based SpaceX said high seas off the coast of Florida had forced it to abandon another planned attempt at recycling its rocket by flying the first stage of the Falcon 9 to a controlled landing on an ocean platform, known as a drone ship.
SpaceX is embarking on a series of such tests with the goal of one day making rockets as reusable as airplanes, instead of allowing them to fall to pieces into the ocean after launch.
An attempt to land the first stage on a floating barge in January was not successful. Instead of landing upright, the rocket collided with the platform and broke into pieces.
But the company said it intends to keep trying to refine the technology.
Source:AFP - globaltimes.cn
12/2/15
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Τετάρτη 11 Φεβρουαρίου 2015
Le cargo américain Dragon se sépare de l'ISS (video)
Le vaisseau de transport tombera dans le Pacifique, à l'ouest de la Californie, six heures plus tard, mercredi vers 00h44 UTC, ramenant sur Terre 1,5 tonne de fret, principalement des résultats d'expériences scientifiques réalisées en orbite.
Dragon a décollé le 10 janvier dernier. Il s'est arrimé à l'ISS deux jours plus tard, transportant plus de 2 tonnes de fret en orbite.
Le cargo Dragon est actuellement le seul vaisseau spatial capable de ramener des cargaisons sur Terre. Il s'agit du cinquième des douze vols prévus par un contrat passé entre la société américaine SpaceX, conceptrice de la capsule Dragon, et la NASA en décembre 2008.
Le premier vol commercial d'un Dragon s'est officiellement tenu en octobre 2012. En mai 2012, ce vaisseau de transport est devenu le premier cargo privé à s'arrimer à l'ISS.
[sputniknews.com]
10/2/15
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US Dragon Spacecraft Blasts Off to ISS, Falcon 9 Rocket Landing Fails
- The American cargo spacecraft Dragon that was launched last Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to the International Space Station (ISS) is to dock with the orbiting station on Monday...
Κυριακή 25 Ιανουαρίου 2015
Mountain-Sized, 500-Meter-Wide Asteroid to Whizz By Earth on Monday
The 500-meter-wide rock may seem apocalyptic in size, but thankfully it will pass no closer than 1.2 million kilometers of our planet — about three times the distance between Earth and the moon. The agency says it will provide a rare opportunity to get a good look at a near-Earth asteroid.
The next chance will come in 2027, when asteroid 1999 AN10 will fly past Earth.
Due to its orbit around the sun, the asteroid is currently only visible by astronomers with large telescopes who are located in the southern hemisphere.
However, by January 26, its changing position will make it visible to in the northern hemisphere.
"Monday, January 26 will be the closest asteroid 2004 BL86 will get to Earth for at least the next 200 years," Don Yeomans, who is retiring as manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California is quoted as saying in a statement on NASA’s website.
"And while it poses no threat to Earth for the foreseeable future, it's a relatively close approach by a relatively large asteroid, so it provides us a unique opportunity to observe and learn more."
The scientists plan to track the fast-moving space rock using the 230-foot (70 m) dish-shaped Goldstone antenna at NASA's Deep Space Network in California, as well as the 1,000-foot (305 m) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. These radio dishes will beam microwave signals at the asteroid, which will then bounce off the target and return to Earth.
"When we get our radar data back the day after the flyby, we will have the first detailed images," said radar astronomer Lance Benner of the JPL, the principal investigator handling the Goldstone radar observations of the asteroid. "At present, we know almost nothing about the asteroid, so there are bound to be surprises."
Asteroid 2004 BL86 was initially discovered on January 30, 2004 by a telescope from the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey in White Sands, New Mexico.
The asteroid is expected to be observable to amateur astronomers with small telescopes and strong binoculars.
http://sputniknews.com/science/20150125/1017328213.html
25/1/15
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Παρασκευή 16 Ιανουαρίου 2015
Missing spacecraft discovered on Mars 11 years later
Beagle 2, part of a European Space Agency's Mars Express mission searching for extraterrestrial life, had been due to land on Mars on Christmas Day of 2003, but disappeared on December 19, 2003. Until now, nothing had been heard from it. But at a packed news conference at London's Royal Society scientific institution on Friday, space experts said the tiny Mars lander had been found on the surface of the red planet.
"Beagle 2 is no longer lost," said David Parker, chief executive of UK Space Agency. He said recent images from the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed "good evidence" that the spacecraft landed on Mars on the date it was due, but only partially deployed and failed to report its location to the home base.
Reuters
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/902376.shtml
16/1/15
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- The UK-led Beagle-2 Mars lander, which hitched a ride on ESA’s Mars Express mission and was lost on Mars since 2003, has been found in images taken by a NASA orbiter at the Red Planet.
Now, over a decade later, the lander has been identified in images taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The lander is seen partially deployed on the surface, showing that the entry, descent and landing sequence worked and it did indeed successfully land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003.................http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Beagle-2_lander_found_on_Mars
16/1/15
Τετάρτη 14 Ιανουαρίου 2015
Fausse alerte à l'ISS
« L’équipe américaine se trouve en ce moment dans le segment russe et retournera probablement dans son segment dès ce soir ou demain matin », a précisé Fuller.
Selon lui, le segment russe est bien pourvu en eau et vivres et ses conditions sanitaires permettent à tous les 6 membres de l’équipage de se sentir à l’aise.
Auparavant, le centre de contrôle des vols de la NASA à Houston a fait savoir qu’il n’y avait pas de fuite d’ammoniac et que l’incident n’était qu’une fausse alerte. Un responsable de la NASA a précisé que l’alerte aurait pu être déclenchée par un saut de pression, la panne d’un capteur ou la défaillance du système informatique.
Les spationautes russes Alexandre Samoukoutiaev, Anton Chakplerov et Elena Serova, les Américains Barry Willmore (commandant de bord) et Terry Werst de même que Samantha Christoforetti de l’Agence spatiale européenne, sont actuellement de quart à l’ISS.
http://fr.ria.ru/science/20150114/203419909.html
14/1/15
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Δευτέρα 12 Ιανουαρίου 2015
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft arrives at space station
The spacecraft was successfully captured by a robotic arm operated by U.S. astronaut Barry Wilmore inside the ISS at 5:54 a.m. EDT (1054 GMT), 18 minutes ahead of schedule, as the two flew over the Mediterranean Sea, NASA said.
Dragon, which was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday, carried about 2.5 tons of supplies and payloads, including materials to support 256 scientific experiments in space.
The scientific payloads included an instrument that will evaluate the clouds and tiny particles in the Earth's atmosphere to potentially decipher important clues for climate change and aid in weather forecasting on the Earth.
The spacecraft is also loaded with several biological experiments that will take advantage of the microgravity environment unavailable on the Earth to advance medical knowledge.
- One of the projects will study fruit flies' immune systems as a model for the human immune system, to explore how spaceflight can make organisms more susceptible to disease, especially since microbes can become more virulent in space.
- Another project will grow proteins inside a 10-centimeter cube in weightlessness to research a suspected cause of Alzheimer's and similar brain ailments in people.
Dragon will remain connected to the ISS for more than four weeks before departing for a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of California.
This is the fifth operational cargo delivery mission for SpaceX to the ISS. The company's 1.6-billion-U.S.-dollar contract with NASA requires at least a dozen cargo delivery flights in all.
Besides SpaceX, NASA has also signed a deal with another private company called Orbital Sciences Corp. to supply cargo to the ISS.
Orbital's first two flights went smoothly, but the third failed when the company's Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff in late October.
Xinhua - china.org.cn
12/1/15
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Σάββατο 10 Ιανουαρίου 2015
US Dragon Spacecraft Blasts Off to ISS, Falcon 9 Rocket Landing Fails
The Dragon spacecraft was brought into the orbit by the Falcon 9 carrier-rocket. After completing the task, the first stage of the carrier-rocket was expected to land on a huge platform installed in the ocean off the coast of Florida.
According to US media reports, Falcon 9 crashed into the platform and broke into pieces, making it impossible to use the rocket in the future.
- The first stage of SpaceX's Flacon 9 rocket failed to make a soft landing at the ocean platform after separating from the spacecraft Dragon, chief executive of SpaceX private developer said Saturday.
"Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho. Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced," Elon Musk said via Twitter.
Musk earlier stated that in case of successful landing, his company would be able to use the rocket's booster stage multiple times, which would change the economics of space flights completely.....................http://sputniknews.com/science/20150110/1016737710.html
10/1/15
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Τρίτη 6 Ιανουαρίου 2015
Launch of Dragon supply ship to ISS postponed due to bad weather (NASA)
“Launch of SpaceX's fifth resupply mission to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida was scrubbed for this morning,” NASA reported on Tuesday. Cargo on board the Dragon spacecraft includes supplies, science investigations and NASA's CATS instrument.
Another launch attempt will be made at 05:09 am, local time (13:09, Moscow time) on Friday.
The Dragon spaceship marks SpaceX’s fifth resupply mission to the ISS under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to deliver 20,000 kg (44,000 pounds) of cargo to the station during a dozen Dragon cargo spacecraft flights through 2016 under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.
The unmanned cargo freighter is loaded with more than 5108 pounds (2317 kg) of scientific experiments, technology demonstrations, crew supplies, spare parts, food, water, clothing and assorted research gear for the space station.
[itar-tass.com]
6/1/15
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Δευτέρα 1 Δεκεμβρίου 2014
Eco Geo Flash News - (December 2014 -b)
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NASA is ready to launch the most ambitious test flight in decades as its unmanned capsule Orion is all set for a two-orbit, 4.5-hour trip. With favorable weather forecast, NASA hopes the test flight will bring it one step closer to a Mars journey...The mission plans to reach an altitude of 3,600 miles from Earth, the farthest space mission since the Apollo 17 trip to the moon in 1972.
The capsule is scheduled to be launched using a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex...................Orion’s first flight
(December 2014 -a)
Παρασκευή 14 Νοεμβρίου 2014
Philae may not have energy to send results to Earth, says ESA
"We are not sure there is enough energy so that we can transmit" the data, lander manager Stephan Ulamec said at a press conference webcast from European Space Agency (ESA) ground control in Germany.
Scientists are to decide whether to try a risky drilling procedure to enable an exploration probe to examine samples from the surface of a comet before its batteries run out.
The probe on Wednesday floated away from its planned landing site after harpoons designed to hold it down on the comet failed to deploy.
It is now resting precariously on two out of three legs in the shadow of a cliff on the comet.
- The lack of light means the probe, dubbed Philae, would not draw sufficient energy to operate on its solar panels as hoped once its batteries run out.
- The ESA team are also uncertain of its exact position, making it difficult to "hop" the probe into a better position using its landing gear.
Despite the landing setbacks, the mission has achieved many breakthroughs, including the first time a spacecraft has followed a comet rather than just whizzing past and the first time a probe has landed on a comet.
Comets are of interest to scientists because they are remnants from the formation of our solar system, over 4.6 billion years ago.
These masses of ice and rock have preserved ancient organic molecules like a time capsule and may provide insight into how planets and life evolved.
Even if Philae is unable to drill into the surface to analyse samples, the Rosetta spacecraft will follow the comet until at least the end of 2015, even as it passes closest to the sun on its orbit.
[http://www.rte.ie]
14/11/1
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Τετάρτη 12 Νοεμβρίου 2014
The Rosetta comet landing has made history (Space probe, Philae, reaches comet’s surface first time in history)
The lander Philae was confirmed to touch down on the surface of the comet more than 300 million miles away at 11:05 a.m. Eastern. Now, scientists expect it to send a panoramic image home and begin analyzing the comet for scientists back on Earth.
Philae is already transmitting scientific data back home, but we're still waiting to see whether the probe is in a stable position. Until we know it's anchored tight, it could roll onto its back and never get back up.
Tensions were high in the European Space Agency's German mission control center, especially as the landing window approached. Because the comet that Philae landed on is so far from Earth, there's a communications delay of 28 minutes. So as the minutes ticked by, the Rosetta team knew that Philae had already either landed or failed — and there was nothing they could do but wait for the data to reach them. Those following the video online were nearly as desperate for news, and Twitter became a sounding chamber of anticipation and excitement.
But a few minutes after 11 a.m., the stern, cautious expressions of the mission control team melted into smiles. And just like that, the world swiveled from anxiety to elation: Philae was on the surface of the comet and ready to do some science.
[washingtonpost.com]
12/11/14
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Rosetta spacecraft to be woken after nearly three years, ESA awaits signs of life(20/1/13)
Rosetta: Raumsonde erfolgreich aus dem Tiefschlaf erwacht ....
Après 31 mois de sommeil, la sonde spatiale Rosetta se réveille...
For the first time in the history of space exploration a research probe has reached the surface of a comet.
The robotic lander Philae of the European Space Agency separated from the spacecraft Rosetta and landed on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 500 million kilometers away from the Earth.
Philae separated from the Rosetta spacecraft at 11:35 Moscow time.
The journey from Rosetta to the comet’s surface lasted about seven hours.
Rosetta and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which was discovered in 1969 by Soviet astronomers Klim Churyumov and Svetlana Gerasimenko, now lie about half way between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, rushing towards the inner Solar System at nearly 55,000 kilometers per hour, the ESA said.
Rosetta will follow the comet for more than a year to provide a detailed scientific study of the Solar System body.
[en.itar-tass.com]
12/11/14
Πέμπτη 30 Οκτωβρίου 2014
Earth to face unprecedented heatwave in 2015
Since the start of permanent climate observations in 1880, the frequency of temperature anomalies has been growing. Occurrences of high average temperatures follow each other: in 1995, 1997, 1998, 2005 and 2010.
This September, average global temperature was 15.7 degrees Celsius, which is a new record for the past 135 years. During the first nine months of this year, average global temperature made up 14.7 degrees Celsius.
NASA experts say that the current year can be regarded the hottest since 1998. However, in the summer of 2015, different regions of the world will experience an unprecedented heatwave and drought, Rosbalt reports.
Source: Pravda.Ru
30/10/14
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Τετάρτη 29 Οκτωβρίου 2014
Roscosmos: Η Ρωσία μπορεί να αναλάβει την τροφοδοσία και τις προμήθειες στον ISS, μετά το ατύχημα της NASA
«Εάν λάβουμε αίτημα για την επείγουσα τροφοδοσία του Διεθνούς Διαστημικού Σταθμού (ISS) με αμερικανικό φορτίο μέσω δικού μας σκάφους, θα το ικανοποιήσουμε.
Προς το παρόν, δεν έχει υπάρξει τέτοιο αίτημα», δήλωσε στο ρωσικό πρακτορείο ειδήσεων Ria-Novosti ο επικεφαλής του προγράμματος των επανδρωμένων πτήσεων της Ρωσικής Διαστημικής Υπηρεσίας Roscosmos Αλεξέι Κρασνόφ: «Mέχρι στιγμής, η NASA δεν μας έχει ζητήσει βοήθεια, όμως, έχουμε υποχρέωση να βοηθούμε ο ένας τον άλλον, σε περίπτωση απώλειας σκάφους ανεφοδιασμού ή άλλης έκτακτης ανάγκης, στα πλαίσια της συμφωνίας Κυρίων που έχουμε συνάψει. Σε τέτοιες περιπτώσεις θέτουμε πάντα τους εταίρους μας σε λίστα προτεραιότητας, και το ίδια θα κάνουν και εκείνοι για εμάς εάν χρειαστεί. Η Ρωσία μπορεί να στείλει άμεσα προμήθειες - καύσιμα, οξυγόνο, τρόφιμα και υλικό για επιστημονικά πειράματα – στον Διεθνή Διαστημικό Σταθμό».
Οπως διευκρίνισε ο Κρασνόφ, «η έκρηξη του Antares δεν έχει συνέπειες στην τροφοδοσία του ρωσικού τομέα του ISS, στο μέτρο που εμείς μεταφέρουμε με δικά μας σκάφη, τύπου Progress το μεγαλύτερο τμήμα των φορτίων μας.. Εξάλλου, δεν είναι διόλου σημαντικό το εάν η παράδοση προμηθειών θα γίνει από ρώσους ή αμερικανούς... »
Εξάλλου η Roscosmos εκτόξευσε με επιτυχία από το κοσμοδρόμιο Μπαϊκονούρ το σκάφος Progress M-25M με τον πύραυλο Soyuz-2.1a, μία ημέρα μετά την έκρηξη του Antares, με προορισμό τον ISS, δευτερόλεπτα μετά την απογείωσή του, στις εγκαταστάσεις της NASA στη Βιρτζίνια των ΗΠΑ.
Το επίσης μη επανδρωμένο σκάφος Cygnus, το οποίο βρισκόταν στην κορυφή του Antares, επρόκειτο να μεταφέρει στον Διεθνή Διαστημικό Σταθμό 2,2 τόνους τροφίμων και εξοπλιστικού υλικού. Το ρωσικό διαστημόπλοιο μεταφέρει καύσιμα, οξυγόνο, τρόφιμα και υλικό για επιστημονικά πειράματα, καθώς και γράμματα για τους αμερικανούς και τους ρώσους κοσμοναύτες.
[gr.rbth.com]
29/10/14
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U.S. rocket explodes seconds after launch (video)
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The Antares rocket carrying the company's Cygnus spacecraft blew up seconds after its liftoff at 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT) from U.S. space agency NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.
"There has been a vehicle anomaly. We will update as soon as we are able," Orbital tweeted.
TV footage showed flames rising into the sky. The cause of the explosion remains unclear.
Orbital Sciences Corp. said no one was believed to have been injured and the damage seems to be limited to the facilities.
Cygnus is carrying 5,050 pounds (2,290 kilograms) of supplies for its third cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.
[cntv.cn]
29/10/14
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The Antares rocket carrying the company's Cygnus spacecraft blew up seconds after its liftoff at 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT) from U.S. space agency NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.
"There has been a vehicle anomaly. We will update as soon as we are able," Orbital tweeted.
TV footage showed flames rising into the sky. The cause of the explosion remains unclear.
Orbital Sciences Corp. said no one was believed to have been injured and the damage seems to be limited to the facilities.
Cygnus is carrying 5,050 pounds (2,290 kilograms) of supplies for its third cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station.
[cntv.cn]
29/10/14
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Σάββατο 4 Οκτωβρίου 2014
NASA Satellite Images Reveal Shocking Groundwater Loss in Drought-Stricken California
“This trio of images depicts satellite observations of declining water storage in California as seen by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites,” says NASA. “Colors progressing from green to orange to red represent greater accumulated water loss between April 2002 and June 2014.”
The prolonged drought has impacted everything from agriculture to fisheries to residential use, worsened and prolonged the wildfire season and created conflicts over the use of water resources.
That has included calls for banning water-intensive fracking and disputes over the diversion of river water for the state’s even more water-intensive agriculture sector, primarily in its fertile Central Valley.
“California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins, including the Central Valley, have suffered the greatest losses, in part due to increased groundwater pumping to support agricultural production,” said NASA. “Between 2011 and 2014, the combined river basins have lost 4 trillion gallons of water each year, an amount far greater than California’s 38 million residents use in cities and homes annually.”
Gov. Brown declared a state of emergency in January after the state had its lowest recorded rainfall in its history.
*** GRACE is a collaborative endeavor involving the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas, Austin; NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the German Space Agency and Germany’s National Research Center for Geosciences, Potsdam.
Anastasia Pantsios | October 3, 2014
ecowatch.com
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NASA Photographs Show Eastern Basin of Aral Sea Totally Dried
Premios Nobel preocupados por "estado catastrófico" del planeta...
California Experiencing Most Severe Drought Ever Recorded
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Παρασκευή 3 Οκτωβρίου 2014
NASA Photographs Show Eastern Basin of Aral Sea Totally Dried
The images taken in August by the Terra satellite show that the sea's eastern basin, on the border of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, completely empty, the first time in modern times, said Philip Micklin, a well-known geographer and professor emeritus of Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert.
"And it is likely the first time it has completely dried in 600 years, since medieval desiccation associated with diversion of the Amu Darya [river] to the Caspian Sea," he told NASA.
By some accounts, the destruction of the sea is considered one of the world's worst environmental catastrophes.
- Once the fourth largest sea in the world, the Aral has been shrinking since the 1960s when the Soviet Union undertook a major irrigation project to supply the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
The desert bloomed in many places, but at the expense of the lake, which has shriveled, destroying ecosystems, decimating a vibrant fishing industry and leaving dozens of communities suffering from poverty and environmentally-induced disease.
Micklin said lower rain and snow fall in the mountains to the east this year considerably reduced the flow into the Amu Darya feeding the lake.
Uzbekistan continues to use the river for its economically-important cotton industry.
As the water receded, the sea has split into two separate sections: the North, or Small, Aral Sea, located within Kazakhstan; and the South, or Large, Aral Sea. The latter split into western and eastern basins.
- “As the lake dried up, fisheries and the communities that depended on them collapsed,” NASA noted in its statement that accompanied the publication of photographs. “The increasingly salty water became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides. Blowing dust from the exposed lakebed, contaminated with agricultural chemicals, became a public health hazard.”
The photos of the drying lake were taken in August of this year by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite.
In an effort to save the lake, in 2005 a World Bank-funded dam was built in Kazakhstan, which has helped to partially restore the northern section, albeit at a fraction of its former size and volume.
http://www.voanews.com/content/nasa-photographs-show-eastern-basin-of-aral-sea-totally-dried/2471680.html
3/10/14
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