Tag Archives: Earth

Film & Movies, Science & Health, Web & Technology

Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

Rebecca Moore, Director, Google Earth, Earth Engine & Outreach, Published Apr 15, 2021

From article.. Google

Read this post in Spanish. // Blog en español aquí.

For the past 15 years, billions of people have turned to Google Earth to explore our planet from endless vantage points. You might have peeked at Mount Everest or flown through your hometown. Since launching Google Earth, we’ve focused on creating a 3D replica of the world that reflects our planet in magnificent detail with features that both entertain and empower everyone to create positive change.

In the biggest update to Google Earth since 2017, you can now see our planet in an entirely new dimension — time.

–from article

With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change. 

Source: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

Science & Health

Climate Change Has Knocked Earth Off Its Axis

Brian Kahn, Friday 5:12PM

A 3D portrait of methane concentrations and a slightly wobblier Earth.
Image: NASA

Of all the things attributable to climate change, the rotational poles moving differently is definitely one of the weirder ones. But a new study shows that’s exactly what’s happening. It builds on previous findings to show that disappearing ice is playing a major role, and shows that groundwater depletion is responsible for contributing to wobbles as well.

The findings, published last month in Geophysical Research Letters, uses satellites that track gravity to track what researchers call “polar drift.” While we think of gravity as a constant, it’s actually a moving target based on the shape of the planet. While earthquakes and other geophysical activities can certainly play a role by pushing land around, it’s water that is responsible for the biggest shifts. The satellites used for the study, known as GRACE and GRACE-FO, were calibrated to measure Earth’s shifting mass

Source: Climate Change Has Knocked Earth Off Its Axis

Current Affairs, Memories & History, Science & Health

Climate emergency: The new science showing it’s make-or-break time | New Scientist

As climate talks ramp up ahead of the crucial COP26 meeting in Glasgow, new research on what our carbon emissions are doing to the planet paints a disturbing picture

Environment, 21 April 2021, By Michael Le Page

Pete Reynolds

SHALL we start with the good news or the bad news? The good news is that the world has made some progress in cutting the carbon emissions driving climate change.

The bad news is that it is by no means enough, and emerging research suggests that the impact of the emissions we are pumping into the atmosphere could be even greater than we feared.

“The science, if anything, has become more pessimistic,” says Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the University of Potsdam, Germany. “The signs from the science are pointing towards more urgent climate action being needed.”

Source: Climate emergency: The new science showing it’s make-or-break time | New Scientist

Current Affairs, Science & Health

Upheaval and extinctions linked to magnetic reversal 42,000 years ago | Earth | EarthSky

Posted by Kelly Whitt in Earth | Human World | February 20, 2021

As the magnetic reversal of 42,000 years ago helped bring about earthly extinctions, these scientists said, the skies would have been lit by widespread auroras. These scientists suggest the reversal could help explain evolutionary mysteries, such as the extinction of Neanderthals. Image via Unsplash/ UNSW.

A magnetic reversal 42,000 years ago helped bring about earthly extinctions, scientists said, accompanied by changes in the sky including electrical storms and widespread auroras.

A new international study suggests that a magnetic field reversal – combined with changing solar winds – contributed to an environmental crisis and mass extinctions 42,000 years ago. It happened around the time of the demise of the Neanderthals, an extinct human species that once roamed what’s now Europe, these scientists said, and it would have come with electrical storms, widespread auroras and an influx of cosmic radiation.

Source: Upheaval and extinctions linked to magnetic reversal 42,000 years ago | Earth | EarthSky

Current Affairs, Science & Health

Crisis Ensued The Last Time Earth’s Magnetic Poles Flipped, Researchers Say : NPR

A giant kauri tree grows in Waipoua Forest in Northland, New Zealand. Trees like this one that fell long ago and were preserved for thousands of years are helping researchers discern fluctuations in the Earth's magnetic poles. Kim Westerskov/Getty Images
A giant kauri tree grows in Waipoua Forest in Northland, New Zealand. Trees like this one that fell long ago and were preserved for thousands of years are helping researchers discern fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic poles. Kim Westerskov/Getty Images

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An ancient, well-preserved tree that was alive the last time the Earth’s magnetic poles flipped has helped scientists pin down more precise timing of that event, which occurred about 42,000 years ago.

This new information has led them to link the flipping of the poles to key moments in the prehistoric record, like the sudden appearance of cave art and the mysterious extinction of large mammals and the Neanderthals. They argue that the weakening of the Earth’s magnetic field would have briefly transformed the world by altering its climate and allowing far more ultraviolet light to pour in.

Source: Crisis Ensued The Last Time Earth’s Magnetic Poles Flipped, Researchers Say : NPR

Current Affairs, Science & Health

The polar vortex is about to split in two. But what does that actually mean?

The polar vortex might mean cold weather—but it's not clear how much snow or ice that might mean.Jaymantri/Pexels
The polar vortex might mean cold weather—but it’s not clear how much snow or ice that might mean.Jaymantri/Pexels

The science behind the polar vortex is incredibly complicated, and we’ve only recently begun to understand how changes at our planet’s poles impact weather at more moderate latitudes.

Source: The polar vortex is about to split in two. But what does that actually mean?