Climate change research predicts that we may experience more extreme weather. As the planet warms, increased water evaporation could drive wilder weather, increasing storm frequency and/or intensity. With sophisticated weather technology, climate scientists aim to handle these changes through better prediction or even by manipulating storms before they wreak havoc. More precise data is needed as weather prediction improves, which is why weather technology is looking to space with tools such as satellites and other eye-in-the-sky capabilities.   Here Is the Weather News   At the start of the last century, weather prediction science could let you know fairly accurately what to wear for work the next day. More than 100 years later, the range for long-term forecasting reaches beyond five days and is still advancing, according to The New Yorker. Advanced mapping and data collection meant that residents in the path of the hurricane had around a week to watch and prepare as Hurricane Harvey barreled along.   Being prepared plays a huge role in managing the effects of extreme weather; with advance warning, local authorities are able to provide emergency coverage and move vulnerable residents to safety, minimizing loss of life and structural damage.   Weather Sensing   Data plays a big part in forecasting, feeding into more sophisticated modeling that helps scientists and disaster management agencies understand what to expect. Current technology means that researchers can measure what's happening in the middle of a storm from the protected radar arrays that monitor tornado activity, or as a global picture from farther away.   Satellites. NASA and other agencies operate both geostationary and orbiting earth-observing satellites. The New Yorker describes sensor technology from high above us that monitors developing weather patterns and collects data on humidity, wind speed, temperature and more that feed into increasingly complex simulation models.   Space Weather Sensing. Sensor technology helps gather data on space weather. NASA explained how improved low Earth orbit arrays let scientists learn how solar activity influences our climate.   Global Hawk. Some retired Northrop Grumman Global Hawks are setting off on a new mission. These unmanned aerial vehicles, repurposed from military surveillance by NASA, take part in weather patrol. Wired explained how a high-altitude vantage point, coupled with extensive range and duration ability, means that a Global Hawk UAV is an excellent tool for long-term monitoring. Gathering data for a few hours or a few days gives meteorologists information critical to enhance weather models and make them more accurate.   Weather Manipulation   Spotting weather patterns is one thing, but there's also weather technology that lets us change it by manipulating clouds. Cloud seeding isn't just science fiction, it's an advancing field in weather technology, both in making it rain and for storm control. Seeding a cloud with glaciogenic or hygroscopic agents such as silver iodide encourages fatter droplet formation and, thus, rain.   Cloud seeding also shows potential for storm suppression. Chemical and Engineering News described how silver iodide seeding reduced hail storm severity over Alberta by 27 percent. Although in theory seeding should work for other storms by altering the precipitation status in clouds, results for hurricane suppression were less impressive, as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.   UAVs Sensing and Seeding   Problems with cloud seeding, however, include the ability to tell which cloud is the right one to seed and determining the best time to do it. Combining UAV sensing with the ability to deliver cloud seeding with precision could help, bringing cognitive automation to enhance process. A review in Atmospheric Research suggested that using drones to prospect clouds and then deliver seeding precisely into the most receptive areas could push the success of this weather technology. In the future, weather technology could both predict and banish the clouds with accuracy.    —    —    — 

Weather Technology To Outpace Storms

Analysts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted a busier-than-average hurricane season in 2017, and they certainly hit the mark, according to the Los Angeles Times. These heavy-hitting storms left communities reeling in their wake and prompted important questions regarding hurricane predictions.   2018 may bring another active Atlantic hurricane season, according to New Scientist. Combined with ongoing impact from global climate change, weather prediction technology is more critical than ever — improved outcomes demand input from current tools and real-time data from tech advancements combined with expert interpretation.   What GOES Around Comes Around   Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria caused devastating, long-term damage. As noted by The Balance, Harvey caused around $180 billion worth of damage, Irma cost the economy at least $100 billion and the storm in Puerto Rico left $85 billion of insurance claims in its wake. Can hurricane prediction tools prevent this from happening again?     NOAA's National Hurricane Center — Provides tropical storm and hurricane forecasts and warnings to help mitigate the impact of large storms. Recent technological advances have also helped the cause, like the GOES-16 satellite. CNBC said GOES-16 makes it possible to see hurricanes and other storms in their formative stages, which helps weather forecasters stay up-to-date. "From its constant perch over the Western Hemisphere, GOES-16 is already helping meteorologists issue more accurate and earlier warnings for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding and hurricanes because of its greater resolution and faster refresh than previous GOES satellites," said The Washington Post.  Super Computing — As noted by CNBC, the National Weather Service has invested substantially in supercomputing to gain three-fold processing power, in turn reducing storm tracking and location error rates. According to Phys.org, NOAA tracked hurricane Harvey to within 100 nautical miles (185,200 m) — an impressive feat considering the scope of the hurricane.  Eyes in the Sky — With the capability to fly over severe weather and achieve high altitudes for up to 30 hours straight, intelligence gathered by Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk UAV has helped civilian authorities assess storm strength and direction and plan next steps for warnings and disaster relief. In partnership with NASA and NOAA, the Global Hawk UAV has been used to track hurricane intensification for the Eastern Pacific Origins and Characteristics of Hurricanes Program.  IoT Sensors — As noted by Recode, wind farms in Norway have already started using sensors to monitor the status of 400-foot-high (122 m) wind turbines for damage or performance degradation. Similarly, sensors could be attached to physical structures or on-site machinery to measure the impact of hurricane-force winds or rain. There's a double benefit here: Companies gain continual assessment of risk, and employees aren't put in danger checking the integrity of outside structures.    Intersecting Interests   While technology remains a critical aspect of weather prediction, The Washington Post points out that a tech-first approach only takes forecasting so far. Better outcomes mean taking a "mission-first" approach where end-user needs drive the development of new technology. For example, civil authorities want more time to warn residents they may need to evacuate, while homeowners want some kind of quantifiable data about risk to their property. Mission-driven goals can help set the stage for new technology development.   Forecasters are also still critical to weather prediction, as noted by David Novak, director of the NWS's Weather Prediction Center. "'Models and observations are the base infrastructure that allows human forecasters to do better forecasts,'" he said. This follows a similar trend in business: internet of things tools, analytics and automation are essential elements to improve ROI, but can't deliver ideal outcomes without human oversight.   The same is true of hurricane predictions — improved weather prediction technology can refine modeling and evaluation processes, but the experience and expertise of weather scientists remains critical to translate hard data into actionable outcomes. 

Hurricane Predictions: Tracking the Impact of New Tech

Evidence for ongoing climate change is growing, and historical data show that humans should be worried about environmental disruption. Previous climate change episodes may have pushed early people into extinction through habitat loss and food scarcity. There also may be a connection between climate change and natural disasters in our modern era. Wilder storms, intense droughts and all-consuming wildfires seem more frequent, but just how does climate change affect natural disasters and is this the whole story?
Randall Alliss, a Fellow and atmospheric scientist at Northrop Grumman, suggests that to get the whole picture, much more quantitative data must be gathered and analyzed before drawing conclusions.
“There’s a lot more to learn about climate science and weather prediction than can be simply explained by what we’re currently seeing,” he says. “Data collection needs to continue, and the technology and computing power needs to improve to start seeing the patterns.”
Climate Change 101
Anthropogenic climate change — manmade climate change due to human activity such as emissions from fossil fuel combustion and intensive farming — is warming up the world. Greenhouse gas abundance in the atmosphere is wrapping us in a cozy blanket, trapping warmth from the sun and raising the average surface temperature. It’s affecting conditions in the polar regions, warming them faster than the tropics. This means there is less of a gradient between the poles and the equator, with warmer oceans in between.
Temperatures and the Water Cycle Are Key Factors at Play
So far, the evidence is not yet extensive enough to draw firm conclusions. The potential comes down to rising temperatures and the effect on the water cycle. Changes in surface temperature are largely what’s fueling the potential link between climate change and natural disasters. It’s all about water uptake; changes in vapor and evaporation into the atmosphere are likely driving more frequent and more ferocious storms and rainfall while also paradoxically contributing to drought and wildfire intensity.
In short, even though the rise is less than two degrees Fahrenheit, water is evaporating, and atmospheric humidity is rising. According to NOAA’s Climate website, the average surface temperature of the planet in 2021 was 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 20th-century average of 57 degrees and 1.87 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial period of 1880-1900.
Changing Weather Patterns Bring Disasters Closer to Home
This change, though, is sufficient to alter weather patterns the world over, and it’s being felt by folks on the ground who are getting a personal experience of extreme weather. The U.S. Geological Survey, for example, describes an increase in the possibility of both droughts and intense storms as land temperatures increase and water vapor loads up in the atmosphere.
Hurricanes and Storms
Hurricane Ian hit Florida with faster winds and more rain. The combination was devastating. Though researchers cannot definitively pin worsening hurricanes on climate change, The Atlantic notes that planetary warming is having some effect.
The combination of heat and warmer oceans boost wind speeds, and with the planet’s poles warming faster than the tropics, this means that hurricanes form maximum intensity further from the equator and therefore closer to population density. The likelihood of these storms making landfall is therefore much greater, and we see more hurricane natural disasters reported as a result.
Floods and Storm Surges
Rising sea levels combine with these storms making landfall closer to populous areas, which causes flooding and storm surge natural disasters with greater impact on human life. Removal of coastal habitats like mangrove beds and saltwater marshes that offer protection increase the impact.
Inland, not only is climate change increasing precipitation, but The Conversation notes that it’s also leading to more and earlier rainfall on snow melt. In combination, these two factors lead to worse floods as rivers cannot cope with the higher volumes of water.
Human activities combine with adverse weather events to make flooding worse, as noted by The Narwhal. Heavier precipitation from an atmospheric river over southern British Columbia in November 2021 led to flooding in an extensive area of land reclaimed from a lake.
Droughts
Although global warming means more rainfall, the soil is drying out faster and less water is reaching rivers and lakes. In other areas, the traditional patterns of rainfall have changed, impacting reservoir accumulation. For example the Environmental Protection Agency notes that during spring, snow melts earlier and there is less accumulation of snowpack.
Shifting biomes move agriculture zones and the wildlife contained within regions. In areas that rely heavily on local agriculture and maintaining a water supply, these changes are devastating. EarthSky reports worst drought conditions in Europe in 500 years among other global regions hit hard. Reduced rainfall combined with prolonged extremes of heat result in greater evaporation; as a result, lakes dry up and fresh water supplies dwindle. In the Horn of Africa this affected thousands of people and their livestock, with many dying as a result.
Closer to home, NASA defines drought as a year with below-average rainfall. The agency notes that the American west has seen its driest years in the last two decades, impacting ranch country by decreasing valuable grassland grazing.
Wildfires
During droughts, vegetation dries out and becomes more flammable. There are also changes in water availability throughout the year, impacting growing seasons. This sets up dry conditions well ahead of the usual seasonal dry spells, and stresses vegetation, setting up banks of dead scrub and tinder. Climate change also leads to pest migration into previously safe areas, with pine beetle for example killing off more trees.
Wildfires in forests and grasslands can therefore be much more intense and uncontrollable since there is more fuel. People are also living closer to urban interface regions meaning that more lives and property are threatened when fires cannot be contained. This has certainly been noted over the past decade as seen in California, across Europe and within British Columbia, where each dry season seems accompanied by severe wildfires.
Does Climate Change Affect Natural Disasters?
While scientists have made observations such as a five-fold increase in weather-related disasters over the last 50 years and have made predictions that we’re more likely to see more natural disasters overlapping chronologically, data collection and analysis are still needed to conclusively link climate change and natural disasters.
And Alliss suggests that climate change might not be the whole answer.
“What causes the jet stream to be strong or weak is the difference in the temperature between the equator and the poles. And if that difference in temperature is decreasing because of climate change, we would expect the jet streams to become weaker,” Alliss suggests. “If the jet streams are becoming weaker, then in fact, we should see fewer severe winter storms, not more.”
There’s clearly still a lot of analysis and number-crunching needed to explore how climate change affects natural disasters. That’s where remote sensing technology and more powerful computing play important roles.
 
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Does Climate Change Affect Natural Disasters?

 Nowhere in the world are the effects of global climate change more visible and dramatic than in the Arctic, as documented by NASA's Aqua satellite and other powerful monitoring tools. The rate of warming across the Arctic is twice the global average. Vast regions of the Arctic Ocean, once covered with sea ice year round, are now open water during the summer months. This Arctic climate change is a transformation that has profound short and long-term national security implications. As the Arctic Ocean becomes open to widespread human activity, the world economy will be changed, with all the security implication for sea routes and other economic activities. At the same time, changes in the Arctic climate could accelerate climate changes worldwide. Opening the Northwest Passage ... Nearly five hundred years ago, explorers began searching for the Northwest Passage — a sea route around the northern edge of the North American continent that would save thousands of miles during a voyage between Europe and Asia. For centuries they never found it. Ships that attempted the Northwest Passage found their way blocked by Arctic sea ice. As NASA recounts, not until 1903—1906 did explorer Roald Amundsen succeed in making the passage in a specially built ship. But the voyage remained impassable to commercial shipping or indeed any conventional ships. Arctic climate change, however, is on the verge of opening the Arctic sea lanes — not only the Northwest Passage but also its counterpart, the Northeast Passage along the Arctic coast of Russia. Arctic coasts will thus become accessible for the first time. Ironically, Arctic land transportation could become more difficult as permafrost melts into marsh and mud. Rich deposits of natural resources are known to exist along these Arctic coasts, but sea ice rendered them economically out of reach. Now they are becoming accessible, potentially triggering a gold rush of activity that could raise the economic — and security — stakes across the Arctic region. As the CBC notes, the impact on Canada is particularly dramatic: Canada has the world's longest coastlines, more than 100,000 miles in all, most of it within the Arctic circle. Claims of territorial and navigation rights, once only nominal, may now become flashpoints of tension. Thus the Arctic region draws special attention in a Pentagon report on the national security implications of global climate change. Worldwide Security Implications But Arctic climate change has other national security implications that extend far beyond the Arctic. Polar bears are not alone in being threatened by the retreat of the Arctic sea ice. During the summer, the Arctic season of the midnight sun, intense sunlight pours down. Historically, sea ice has reflected most of it back into space. But as the ice melts, this summer sun is absorbed by sea water, warming it — and thus accelerating the process of global climate change. The warmer it gets, the faster the sea ice melts, and the more ice is melted, the more rapid the warming, a classic vicious circle or positive feedback loop. The effects, such as disruption of agriculture, could have a destabilizing effect on security worldwide. In responding to this national security challenge the first requirement is knowledge. As the Arctic region is transformed, we need to monitor both changing environmental conditions and growing human activity in the area. Yet Arctic conditions remain rugged at best, often hostile, making autonomous drone operations a natural and necessary solution for research and patrol surveillance alike. Thus a new tool for Arctic research is becoming available just as the need for it is growing.

The Seas They Are A Changin': Arctic Climate Change and National Security

Solar flares are energetic explosions of radiation released from the surface of the sun. Coronal mass ejections — solar explosions that release extremely hot streams of plasma into space — can cause solar flares to reach the Earth's surface. Although rare, some of the most serious solar flare effects include damaging magnetic storms on Earth; in the past, they have triggered regional blackouts. There are telltale signs of an impending solar explosion, but scientists have recently discovered a new way of predicting coronal mass ejections. The answer lies in the sun. What Happens When a Solar Flare Erupts? Scientists already know that some eruptive solar flares have warning signs. Often, they are preceded by arches of plasma — magnetic flux ropes — that visibly rise from the surface of the sun, according to Space.com. However, scientists have made a new discovery, recently published in Nature, about how solar flares occur and erupt. After careful research and observation, a team of scientists located the presence of what they call "magnetic cages," which might explain why some eruptive solar flares reach Earth and others do not. According to the study, magnetic cages are structures made of magnetic field lines that rise from the sun's surface. Before a dangerous flare, a magnetic flux rope grows under a solar arcade. If the rope develops a kink and becomes unstable, a burst of energy might blast through the cage, leading to coronal mass ejections that have the potential to reach Earth. If the cage is more substantial, however, NASA explained that the flare may not be able to blast through. "Our results show that the role of the cage, and thus of the environment, crucially affects the class of eruption ... that can be produced in an active region," the study authors wrote in Nature. What Are Solar Flare Effects? The Earth rarely experiences solar flare effects, yet they can have dramatic effects when they occur. In 1859, a plume of magnetized plasma shot 93 million miles from the sun to the Earth in less than a day. Known as the Carrington Event, it is the largest geomagnetic storm in history, according to Motherboard. Based on information from FEMA, Motherboard speculates that if a storm of that magnitude hit the Earth today, GPS signals, telecommunications and electricity would be in serious danger. On March 10, 1989, astronomers witnessed a powerful solar explosion on the surface of the sun that created a blackout in all of Quebec. This explosion released a billion-ton cloud of gas; NASA noted that this would be like the energy of thousands of nuclear bombs exploding at the same time. Companies like Northrop Grumman have joined forces with the Space Weather and Analysis Forecast System to monitor space weather's effect on military operations. Can We Prepare for Solar Flares? Scientists cannot stop these coronal mass ejections from happening. However, if scientists learn to predict coronal mass ejections, humans can take preventative measures here on Earth. "Shedding light on the origin and evolution of solar flares could help scientists forecast how powerful these explosions occur, which could help experts prevent widespread havoc on earth," according to Space.com. Survivalist websites, like Ready.gov, recommend taking precautions against solar flares just as you would for any other natural disaster: learn to purify water, and keep an emergency kit on hand with flashlights, medical supplies and non-perishable foods.   

A Rare Type of Solar Flare May Have Potentially Devastating Effects

Sometimes the simplest solutions offer the best outcomes — along with a little help from human ingenuity. This is the case for night sky radiant cooling (NSRC), a process that combines the temperature in space with the continual efforts of environmental systems to reach thermal equilibrium. In other words, objects hotter than their surroundings get colder until the system balances out. On clear nights, however, thermal emissions from objects can outpace nearby environments, resulting in lower-than-ambient temperatures. Bolstered by technology, this process may offer a way to help offset the environmental impacts of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that use massive amounts of energy and generate substantive amounts of heat. Here's how. It's Getting Hot in Here As global temperatures continue to reach new extremes — data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ranked 2021 as the sixth-hottest year on record, while 2020 and 2019 both ranked in the top three — demand for cooling systems is on the rise. The need for heating solutions is also heating up; even as the rest of the world sweltered, Antarctica recorded its coldest temperatures since 1976. The problem? All this heating and cooling is actually making our problem worse. HVAC systems (along with lighting) now account for 28% of total greenhouse emissions on Earth, meaning that even as we try to control the temperature in our immediate vicinity, we're creating larger environmental issues that in turn drive a greater need for HVAC systems. It's a classically human problem: While technology affords us ways to circumvent natural processes and allow people to live in extremely warm or cold climates that would otherwise wipe us out, this same technology creates ripple effects in the world around us. According to NASA, these effects aren't limited to temperature changes. Many parts of the world have already seen average temperature increases of 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. If these changes reach 2 C, more than 60 million people across urban areas worldwide could be subject to severe drought, while other regions could see substantially increased flooding. A 1.5 C change also leads to a 50% reduction in geographic range for 6% of insects, 8% of plants and 4% of vertebrates surveyed. Even more worrisome? Current predictions put us on track for a 5 C increase by 2100. NSRC may offer a partial solution. Keeping It Cool The underlying concept of night sky cooling is simple: Use the temperature in space to reduce the temperature of objects on Earth. All you need is ground, sky and a clear night. Here's how it works: All objects slowly radiate heat. On a clear night, this radiation can travel up into the vast expanse of space and allow objects to significantly cool down, even dipping below the ambient air temperature. This sky-concept cooling has been used for centuries in places where even the night provides little solace against accumulated heat. People in North Africa, India and Iran leveraged earthen pits or plant-insulated ceramic trays to hold water overnight. Heat radiated upward to cool the water, while natural insulation kept the water from warming up again when it fell below the ambient outside temperature. The result? Ice, despite an air temperature well above freezing. While other heating and cooling solutions rely on energy-intensive technology to either remove or add heat for human comfort, NSRC uses existing system components to improve efficiency and reduce total energy expenditures. (Night) Sky's the Limit How cold is outer space? It depends on where you are. At the edge of Earth's atmosphere, the average temperature is a not-so-chilly 10 degrees Celsius. Move past the upper atmosphere and temperatures can fall to -100 C; keep going and you'll see the mercury drop to -270 C. So how cold is outer space? Cold enough. This falling temperature gradient, however, sets the stage for night sky cooling. On a clear night, there's nothing to stop heat energy from radiating all the way up into space instead of hanging around here on Earth. But how do we make the best use of NSRC? While turning water into ice overnight offers a historical glimpse of this cool concept in action, how can it be adapted in predominately urban settings to help offset energy costs? One approach from Aaswath Raman — a materials scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) — looks to expand the impact of night sky cooling by bringing it into the light of day. Along with his colleagues, Raman has created an incredibly thin reflective film that allows objects such as solar panels to radiate substantial amounts of heat while absorbing virtually none. The results speak for themselves: Equipped with this film, the temperature of objects fell by 10 C or more, even in the middle of hot, sunny days. Applied to other HVAC systems such as air conditioners and furnaces, this film could help minimize heat generation while simultaneously improving performance. Work is also underway to generate rather than radiate energy from night sky cooling. It all started as a proof-of-concept effort from researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. The team purchased $30 worth of materials at hardware and electronic supply stores to create an aluminum disk and painted it black on one side. The researchers placed the disk on a rooftop during winter with the black side facing the sky, and it began to radiate heat, which was then captured by a thermoelectric generator and converted into heat. Worth noting? It wasn't much energy — 25 milliwatts per square meter, or enough to power an LED bulb. With purpose-built technology, however, the team believes they could increase the energy efficiency to 0.5 watts per square meter, enough to power a room full of lights. Expand this to a whole rooftop full of radiating discs, combine it with solar power generated during the day and you've got a substantial renewable resource scenario. Like Night and Day Night sky cooling looks to flip the script on energy consumption and heat production. By using natural temperature differentials to radiate heat into space — and leverage that heat to generate renewable energy — there's an opportunity to both improve HVAC efficiency and get something usable in return. Being on the forefront of change, especially regarding space, physics, and engineering has been part of the Northrop Grumman culture for generations. Click here to search jobs in these areas of scientific innovation.

Cold as Ice: Night Sky Cooling Taps the Temperature in Space

Could the end of the world be closer than we think? Earth is predicted to move out of the sun's habitable zone in a few billion years; however, computer modeling by a team of scientists published in Nature Geoscience brings forward mass mammalian extinction to only 250 million years away. Their estimates show that the formation of the supercontinent, Pangea Ultima, will render life on Earth inhospitable to mammals simply due to its size.Earth's Surface on the MoveThe surface of our planet and its landmasses are on the move. They always have been, and our current configuration of continents is not only temporary but also evolving. Plate tectonics are making the Atlantic Ocean wider, the Pacific is shrinking and, eventually, the Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia will be next-door neighbors. Walking across them or taking a road trip will be easy — if we're still around.This continual movement is because the land is only a thin crust on top of a molten core. Currents form underneath the crust, caused by convection and temperature changes in the molten rock, which are making the continents drift a few centimeters (around an inch) each year.Pangea UltimaAs described in The Conversation, the last supercontinent to exist was Pangea, which formed around 310 million years ago. Using computer modeling, it's possible to speculate what the next configurations will be. These vary from single masses straddling the equator or the North Pole to land masses where existing continents encircle ocean remnants as huge inland lakes.The most likely configurations to settle next are Novopangea, a consolidation of all current landmasses, or Pangea Ultima, where a much smaller Atlantic Ocean exists as an inland sea. It's the latter that researchers have used as their model to explore what life might be like on Earth 250 million years in the future.Climate ImpactThe impact on climate by the continental cluster will be extreme, according to the supercomputer simulation model. This will be due to the sheer size of the landmass itself as well as how it is formed.As plate tectonics push the continents together over the crust, a lot of energy will be released as increased volcanic activity. According to CNN, volcanic eruptions will release even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, thus increasing the greenhouse effect we're already seeing due to burning fossil fuels.This accelerated greenhouse gassing will combine with a brighter sun, which will be sending more energy our way 250 million years in the future. As temperatures rise, the new aggregation will impact the climate due to its sheer size alone — the landmass will alter ocean currents and the circulation of warm air and water, which will, in turn, alter weather patterns. The Guardian describes how an increase in humidity at the coastal zones will be matched by increasingly arid environments in the interior of the landmass.Mass Extinction EventThe last mass extinction event happened around 66 million years ago with an asteroid crashing into the planet. The research team predicts that Pangea Ultima will cause another mass extinction, this time for mammals as less landmass remains inhabitable. Despite its enormous size, only around 8% to 16% of the new landmass will be okay for mammals to live on.Predictions show the average temperatures rising to between 40 °C and 50 °C (~104 °F and 122 °F). At these temperatures over prolonged periods, mammals cannot survive. Combined with increased humidity, they simply cannot sweat enough to regulate body temperature and will die from heat stroke. Furthermore, at these temperatures, it's not only mammals that suffer — plants don't cope well in extreme heat. Above 40°C, they do not thrive, and above 60 °C, they suffer irreparable damage.Without viable plants, the mammal food chain is disrupted at the source. Mammal mass extinction is the result.What Comes After Pangea Ultima?Climate change due to the supercontinent wouldn't be the first time that humans have been forced into extinction; it may be the reason why modern humans survived, while other species of hominids perished. Will our own species be able to adapt and survive the dramatic increase in climate extremes?On a brighter note, the information gleaned from the computer simulation will help us look for a new planet to live on. It's already identified clues to the influence of tectonic events on mass extinctions and climate change that might make it easier for researchers to sift through data in the search for habitable exoplanets.Learn more about our people and life at Northrop Grumman, or check out our career opportunities to see how you can be a part of defining possible.

Pangea Ultima — the Supercontinent Marking the End of Humanity

Tricks of the light aside, for a celestial body to be seen during the day, it has to compete with the sun. Not many objects can outshine our main sequence star in its own system. A few supernovas have been so bright that they've been visible during the day. Meteors, if they are big enough, flare like giant torches as they burn through the atmosphere. And here and there across history, a comet rivaling the sun in brilliance has streaked across the sky, terrifying Earth-dwellers.
Then there is the moon. It breaks all the rules. Long before humans understood the orbital plane of the Earth and the stars, how many ancient people looked up at the moon and thought - what even is that thing?
Trickster or Rockstar
It's not hard to see why the moon had our species scratching their collective heads for millennia. It's nearly constant, phasing in and out every 27 days. But in most other ways, the moon makes less sense than anything else in the sky. How can it look as bright as firelight, but also seem solid? Why can we sometimes see the moon during the day, sometimes see it at night and sometimes not at all? What are those strange patterns across the surface, and why do they never change? Why doesn't the moon follow the same path across the sky as the sun, planets and stars? And why does it occasionally, seemingly out of nowhere, turn red?
In previous eras of human history, the amount of moon information possessed by modern eighth-graders would have made them legends. Or landed them in jail.
Around 600 BCE, Anaxagoras proposed to his fellow Athenians that the moon was not a deity but rather a rock — one that had been flung from the Earth. The sun, likewise, was solid and also burning. Rather than making its own power, the moon reflected the burning sun's light. This celestial setup allowed Anaxagoras and anyone of like mind to correctly predict that when the orbital planes of the three solid objects lined up, solar and lunar eclipses would be the result.
Seeing Is Believing
Suffice to say, Athenians were not entirely of like mind. Many ancients found it easier to imagine a god stationed in the sky than a highly reflective rock — one placed up there for unclear reasons by known forces. Why this rock never came down, why it continued to phase and how it remained unphased by weather seemed equally unfathomable. These days, basic knowledge of astronomy is a birthright. But 2600 years ago, it was simpler to arrest Anaxagoras for heresy than to understand that lunar phases are an optical illusion: that when the sun sets in the west as the moon rises in the east, the moon appears full only because we are standing in-between two distant, differently-sized bodies. Telescopes, invented more than a thousand years after Anaxagoras died in exile, allowed us to easily see craters, rocky planes and other imperfections in the sphere that was once believed to be a god.
Then, of course, we went there.
Post-Apollo, lunar knowledge is commonplace. Using a tennis ball and a flashlight, two school kids standing in a dark room can easily demonstrate phases of the moon. The child playing the sun stands still with the flashlight shining straight away from them. The other child playing the Earth faces the flashlight, trying not to squint too much. They hold the tennis ball in front of them with their left arm outstretched, then they rotate 90 degrees to the left. Presto: They can only see 25% of the illuminated moon. The moon/tennis ball is 50% illuminated, but the child only sees one illuminated quarter of it from their position. We see the same illuminated quarter from Earth during first-quarter moons.
Meanwhile, all the children standing around the child with the flashlight can see 50% of the moon lit up, as it always is. As the child with the tennis ball continues to rotate to their left, they will be able to see more of the moon lit up, too. It all looks the same from the sun's perspective. From the perspective of the child with the tennis ball, the day is going from noon to sunset, and the moon is waxing toward full as time fast-forwards through one whole week.
As the World Turns
Why can we see the moon during the day? Why is it crescent at dawn, first-quarter at noon and full at sunset? All this can be demonstrated in only a few minutes. But don't let the humbleness of the flashlight and the tennis ball fool you. Understanding this interaction of rotating bodies requires a surprisingly advanced appreciation of geometry. Entire civilizations rose and fell before simple demonstrations such as this were deemed more compelling than pantheons filled with drama, intrigue and interpersonal strife.
Speaking of which: The orbital plane of the moon relative to the Earth can be demonstrated with the same simple setup. If the moon's orbital plane were exactly the same as the one the Earth uses to travel around the sun, we would have lunar and solar eclipses every month. Instead, we only have them every so often. That's because the orbital plane of the moon is offset from Earth's orbital plane by about 5 degrees. To demonstrate this, instead of standing straight up, the child holding the tennis ball in front of them should slump a little to the left, as if one ear were heavier than the other. Or they could let their arm holding the ball wobble while they spin it. Either way, the ball should sink slightly below the line of the flashlight beam, then float slightly above it. As the child spins around in place with the tennis ball slightly offset, they'll create a solar eclipse only every so often, when their wonky orbit happens to dash directly in front of the flashlight beam.
New Gods
As easy as that, two lightly equipped children can blow eons of mythology out of the sky. At least, the part of moon mythology that explains how the sun is a god in a chariot, a dragon or any other mystical moon persona. In the era of lunar cam live-streams and satellite constellations, it's easier than ever before to see how the moon is 50% illuminated at all times. Yet, wherever you are on Earth, night or day, Northern or Southern Hemisphere, the same rules apply now as they did then. Whatever phase you are in — be it crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent or new — you'll see the part of the half-lit moon that faces you now.
Thousands of years ago, even those who understood the physics of the Earth-moon-sun system could never have imagined how we see the moon today. How when clouds crowd the sky and snow falls on our rooftops, we can call up a perfectly clear view of the lunar surface. How, at any given moment, we can ask a glowing box in our hand to show us the crater Anaxagoras as seen by an orbiting spacecraft. Partly lit by the sun, partly concealed in shadow, the rock thrown into space continues to challenge us to rise above assumptions, superstitions and the comfort of not knowing, and to look back at the whole, imperfect form of the Earth as it hovers above the horizon.
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Tails From the Orbital Plane: Why We Can See the Moon During the Day

Rainbows are the stuff of myth and legend. They're impossible to ignore — these sudden arcs of vivid colors streaming across the horizon naturally inspire a sense of awe and wonder. The also awaken our scientific curiosity with questions about the form and function of these fantastic phenomena. So let's dive into the science of the stunning: How are rainbows formed? What types exist? And what does it all mean? Mastering Meteorological Magic The basic rainbow recipe is simple: water and light. But creating the ideal end result isn't a question of whether you mix the basic ingredients well enough — it's a question of weather. As noted by the Met Office, two environmental conditions are required to reveal a rainbow:   The sun must be 42 degrees (or less) above the horizon  Water droplets — typically in the form of rain or fog — must be present  Sunlight entering a water droplet is refracted (bent), with each color in the visible spectrum refracting at a different angle due to differing wavelengths. These multiple rays of light are then partially reflected off the inside edge of the droplet and refracted again when leaving. If the sun is more than 42 degrees above the horizon from the observer's point of view, the refraction won't be significant enough to produce a rainbow. If the sun is below 42 degrees and there's enough water in the air, refracted light will naturally spread out into a familiar spectrum based on its wavelength. Red light has the longest wavelength at 650 nanometers and appears along the rainbow's top edge. Violet has the shortest wavelength at 400 nanometers and appears at the bottom. The position and shape of rainbows depend on observer location. For example, observers on the ground at sunset will often see what appears to be a complete arch with clear terminations on each end. Someone looking down from a plane at the same time may see a complete circle. In both cases, the center of a rainbow is the anti-solar point, which is directly opposite the sun. ROY G. BIV, Redux The familiar mnemonic device makes it easy to remember the classic rainbow color spectrum — Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet — though differentiating between blue and indigo with the naked eye is no easy task. Roy G. BIV pairs up nicely with what's know as a primary rainbow, which is created "when sunlight strikes raindrops in front of a viewer at a precise angle (42 degrees)," according to National Geographic. But this isn't the only rainbow reality. In fact, multiple rainbow variations exist, including:   Double Rainbows: Double rainbows happen when light is reflected twice inside raindrops creating a faint, reverse-spectrum image above the primary rainbow.  High-Order Rainbows: Rainbows produced by second, third or fourth reflections of light are called higher-order rainbows. For example, a tertiary rainbow is the third reflection of light within water droplets and is seen when facing the sun. Tertiary rainbows are much broader and fainter than their primary or secondary siblings.  Twinned Rainbows: Unlike a double rainbow, twinned rainbows are two distinct, standard-spectrum rainbows produced when sunlight strikes an air mass containing water droplets with multiple shapes and sizes.  Supernumerary Rainbows: These rainbows are pastel-colored and can be seen under the inner arch of a primary rainbow. They occur when light rays interact across small water droplets of similar size.  Red Rainbows: Next on the list of rainbow variations are these monochrome manifestations. They form at sunrise or sunset when shorter color wavelengths — such as blue, indigo and violet — are scattered in the atmosphere and only red remains visible.  Moonbows: A moonbow is a much fainter primary rainbow produced when sunlight reflected by the moon refracts through water droplets.  Of Signs and Symbols Beyond their visual impact, rainbows also carry cultural impact. In Judeo-Christian culture, for example, rainbows appeared to Noah after the great flood as a sign of hope for better times. There's also the oft-repeated legend of leprechauns guarding pots of gold. As noted by the BBC, these Irish tricksters supposedly grabbed gold from Vikings and will hand it over to treasure hunters who find the rainbow's end. The problem? Perceived location and length vary with difference, making this an impossible task. In Australia, aboriginal groups of the Pennefather River see the rainbow as a multi-colored serpent with the power to protect them from rain, while some Hindu traditions view the rainbow as a tool used by Indra, the god of thunder and war, to shoot arrows of lightning. In Norse mythology, meanwhile, the rainbow (or bifrost) was a burning bridge connecting Midgard and Asgard, the kingdoms of men and gods. And in Japan, land was formed from the ocean of chaos after creators descended from the rainbow bridge of heaven. Seeing Is Believing Environmental interactions in Earth's atmosphere produce incredible results — from terrifying lightning storms and powerful waterspouts to stunning rainbows and beautiful aurora borealis. And while there's a perfectly rational expiation to the question "how are rainbows formed?", empirical evidence doesn't negate emotional response. Instead, it highlights the human condition: the sometimes powerful, sometimes paradoxical balance of stunning beauty and scientific truth. 

Science of the Stunning: How Are Rainbows Formed?

Thanks to virtual assistants on your smartphone, you can make weather-appropriate wardrobe choices before even leaving your bed. So convenient, yet so annoying when that promised sunshine dissolves into a rain shower 10 minutes after leaving the house. There's lots of forecasting available today, so why does weather technology still face difficulties predicting what's going to happen? Weather Technology Weather forecasting data comes from different sources. NASA's Earth-sensing mission AQUA and other satellite-based sensors provide water-related data on ocean currents, sea ice and water vapor. Unmanned reconnaissance vehicles collect weather system information at altitude. Scientific American describes how phased-array and dual-polarization beam radar scan through slices of atmosphere and work in tandem with Doppler for rain cloud statistics. There's a lot of data to mine and specialized systems deliver weather intelligence to many different users. Why Is It Still So Difficult to Predict the Weather? Science Alert shows that it is still difficult to predict the weather with accuracy. This is partly due to the huge data sets generated, but National Geographic also notes that weather is more than just local or isolated; changes in one area spread around the globe to impact weather in other areas. These ripples, called "the butterfly effect" after the notion that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world can create weather patterns in another, are the reason why it is so difficult to predict the weather in advance. Curiosity describes how MIT meteorologist Edward Lorenz coined the phrase "the butterfly effect" when researching chaos theory and weather forecasting technology. Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary mathematical theory that states that within the apparent randomness of complex systems, there are underlying patterns and feedback loops. Lonez found that rounding up only one of 12 data variables in a computer simulation to three decimal places had a profound effect. With such a tiny change, he completely altered two months of weather modeling. According to the Fractal Foundation, chaos theory plays a part in unpredictable weather. Since weather forecasting relies on analysis and pattern recognition on data gathered from radar, satellite and remote sensing, chaos makes a big impact. Weather Prediction Using Machine Learning Supercomputing is already helping to process data faster. The Weather Network explains that in 1989, processing power could perform 2.4 billion operations per second; in 2016, the U.S. National Weather Service modeling took place on computers capable of running 5.78 quadrillion operations per second. Researchers are using machine learning to optimize processing power for unpredictability and large data sets. Weather prediction using machine learning helps refine algorithms for data analysis and pattern recognition for accurate, long-term forecasts. It has successfully been used to spot tropical cyclones, atmospheric rivers and other weather events, says Nature. Meanwhile, Interesting Engineering predicts that training computers with existing data sets will help meteorologists use weather forecasting technology more efficiently. For example, Science Daily reports that Penn State researchers trained computers to automatically recognize the type of cloud formations seen in satellite images that predict severe weather events. Since this pattern identification happens faster than a human could observe, the software can nudge meteorologists to pay attention and issue warnings much earlier. University of Maryland researchers used a reservoir computing approach for machine learning to improve accuracy. The reservoir computing technique essentially "learns" the dynamics of a chaotic system. The Weather Network describes how they trained their programs to learn the chaotic nature of weather systems. Through repeated analysis and training, the program was able to push the prediction accuracy further than previous attempts. Soon we'll be able to leave the umbrella at the front door with confidence.

When Will Weather Technology Be Accurate?

Are humans shifting the rotational axis of Earth? The Anthropocene is the most recent period in Earth's history when human activity started to impact the climate, but could that activity be having more of an effect than simply making the planet hotter?
The answer is yes — human activity is actually changing how our planet spins in space. Over the last hundred years, we've been moving so much water from land to sea that we've shifted how Earth spins on its axis.
Deep water from aquifers that feed into many irrigation systems is not being replenished, and this is putting the planet out of balance. Researchers reporting in Geophysical Research Letters describe how the North Pole shifted eastward toward Greenland between 1993 and 2010, and a whopping 78.48 centimeters (approximately 31 inches) is due to irrigation.
As ScienceNews explains, this would make groundwater depletion the second-biggest cause of polar drift. Even something as simple as an irrigation system can have a major effect on the planet as a whole.
What Is Polar Drift?
Polar drift is the normal tendency of the poles on this planet to wander around a bit. For example, USA Today describes that both poles, North and South, have shifted approximately 13 feet since 1980. Most of this is quite natural and seasonal with changes in ocean salinity and weather patterns.
The two poles are electromagnetic phenomena created from the earth's composition. There's a sea of molten metal surrounding Earth's solid iron core, and currents in the layer set up electrical currents. As these currents fluctuate, the positions of the magnetic poles change. These are not fixed in position and can move around according to the geomagnetic properties of Earth.
There's also a geographical location to the poles based on the axis that Earth rotates on, with the North and South poles being diametrically opposite each other.
The Main Causes of Polar Drift
As described by NASA, the rotational axis of Earth is subject to variation and wobble. Three causes for this variation and wobble have been identified, with the most recent research pointing to irrigation as its second-largest contributor.
In addition to mantle convection, a large cause of polar drift comes from glacial rebound. As the glaciers melted, they released weight from the land mass, and this altered the way the planet spins on its axis. More recently, it's Greenland that's been making the difference — or, more correctly, the ice sheets covering it.
During the last century, temperatures rose enough to melt ice that's the weight of more than 20 million Empire State Buildings weight. This reduced pressure on the country from glacial rebound. Unweighting Greenland is geographically important — the off-axis location of the land mass in relation to the North Pole exerts a bigger influence on spin than it would if it were located closer to the North Pole.
Water Is Heavy
Glacial rebound also sent huge volumes of water into the oceans as if Greenland was one large irrigation system. The meltwater runoff in the oceans has raised sea levels in the same way irrigation is impacting polar drift.
Water is heavy. The gravitational pull of the moon affects water in the ocean, causing the tides to ebb and flow. It also creates a bulge in the ocean surface that causes drag and slows the planet's rotation. The impact that irrigation has had between 1993 and 2010 is to raise sea levels by around six millimeters (almost a quarter of an inch).
That change is heavy enough to cause polar drift and influence the rotational axis of Earth. The Guardian explains it as a change in the mass distribution of the planet and points out that climate change is, therefore, altering the way Earth spins.
Is Irrigation a Problem?
There are benefits from irrigation that outweigh its impact on polar drift. For example, agriculture in arid areas relies heavily on water being brought to the crops artificially. Without it, food security and crop production are in danger. National Geographic estimates approximately 18% of the land used for growing crops is irrigated.
In addition, irrigation has a cooling effect and can boost humidity. It also increases rainfall, which in turn, increases river flow.
While scientists think that the effect of irrigation on polar drift is irreversible, its influence is minor. The change in the rotational axis of Earth could change the length of the day, but this would only be in milliseconds, so even though it may sound concerning, it's nothing to lose sleep over. Irrigation must continue, and the planet will keep turning.

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What's Shifting the Rotational Axis of Earth?

What happened on March 1994, near the eastern shore of Lake Michigan? The Netflix series, "Unsolved Mysteries," explores this question in its third episode. Was this a UFO sighting or something less spectacular? Was it some type of never-before-seen natural weather phenomenon or simply a mass hallucination that had hundreds of residents convinced they saw something impossible in the night sky?
Here's a look at what we know about the 1994 UFO sighting, what we don't and what might really have happened in Michigan.
A State of Alien-nation?
According to the National UFO Reporting Center, there have been 3,485 unexplained encounters in Michigan since 1940. And Michigan isn't the only state with a long history of possible UFO sightings. In Arizona, 4,735 potential sightings have been reported, while in California, the number tops 15,000.
There's also the recent release of an unclassified report by the federal government that speaks to the efforts of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force in collecting and analyzing UFO reports from military aviators and reliable defensive systems. In other words, while there's no definitive proof that aliens have visited Earth, the government isn't ruling out the possibility.
The Michigan Mystery
On the night of March 8, 1994, more than 300 residents living along Lake Michigan called 911 to report oddities in the night sky. Citizens reported seeing four large lights moving across the lake shore at high speed, periodically combining together and then splitting apart again. The stories told by residents were consistent, if hard to believe, and suggested that something strange really was happening.
Of course, it's easy to dismiss these reports as the sort of shared perceptive problems that can happen when large groups of people get together and compare notes. At least, it would be, if it weren't for a very interesting phone call between Holland, Michigan, police officer Jeff Velthouse and National Weather Service meteorologist Jack Bushong, who was stationed in Muskegon County.
After being contacted by residents and seeing the lights for himself, Velthouse called Bushong and asked him to take a look at his radar. What he saw was shocking: thumbnail-sized blips on the radar screen that were moving fast and unpredictably. Given that planes appear as small dots on weather radar scopes, the thumbnail size suggested something much bigger.
"There were three and sometimes four blips," said Bushong. "And they weren't planes. Planes show up as pinpoints on the scope; these were the size of half a thumbnail. They were from 5 to 12,000 feet at times, moving all over the place. Three were moving toward Chicago. I never saw anything like it before, not even when I'm doing severe weather."
He tracked them until they reached the south end of Lake Michigan, where he observed about a dozen similar objects that remained stationary for two hours. Then — as quick as they came — they were gone.
Unpacking the UFO Encounter
To this day, there's no adequate explanation for the 1994 UFO sighting. A year after the event, the Chicago Tribune reported that researchers had ruled out small planes, weather balloons, marsh gases, falling stars and military aircraft as the source of the sighting. Leo Grenier, director of the National Weather Service in Muskegon at the time of the incident, believed there was an "earthly explanation" for what happened but refused to elaborate, saying, "Once I retire from the National Weather Service, I might tell somebody." He never did.
Bushong, meanwhile, went largely silent after the event for fear that he'd be fired for his comments about it and the fact that the comments were recorded. "I'm supposed to be a scientist and skeptical," he said in an interview with WOODTV. But with the government going public about potential UFO sightings, Bushong said he feels vindicated. "Now, with the military coming out and saying the same thing I was 30 years ago, I can finally say to people, 'I told you so,'" he said.
What really happened that fateful March night in Michigan? We may never know for sure. The consistent nature of resident reports combined with National Weather Service radar evidence makes it clear that something strange was going on, but lacking details beyond the fact that these objects were fast, bright and moving erratically, there's not much to go on. The result is a frustrating lack of satisfactory answers. Could the mystery have an earthbound explanation? Absolutely. Could it be the work of alien observers? Possibly.
Either way, the incident ranks as one of the country's top unsolved mysteries, and it's a night that residents, law enforcement and radar operators will never forget.
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Unsolved Mysteries: Michigan UFOs or Massive Misunderstanding?

A record number of climbers are venturing up the world's tallest summits each year to test their limits. These adventurers often train for years to prepare themselves for the harsh terrains they will try to conquer. But as ecological conditions worsen, even one false step could put the most seasoned hiker in peril. One man who knows the risks and rewards of mountaineering is Northrop Grumman engineering manager Jim Diani, who has successfully climbed all Seven Summits (the seven continents' highest mountains). Having recently summited the world's tallest peak, Mt. Everest, Diani shares his first-hand experience of what it's like trekking through unpredictable situations and how technology could help save lives. The Sherpa Way  "Sherpas are people of the land," says Diani. They're native to the mountainous Himalayan regions and have adapted to the high altitude, low oxygen environments that foreigners are unaccustomed to. Their job is to support expedition teams along their trek by preparing the hiking route, setting up camp, carrying gear and food, and guiding them to safety.  Lines of yaks transport heavy equipment and hay up to the forward basecamp. (Photo Credit: Jim Diani) The Sherpa method for climbing Mt. Everest remains traditional. They use yaks to haul equipment to each basecamp, ropes and ladders are placed on the route to help people maneuver around tough peaks, and the protective clothing they use are low-tech regular mountaineering gear. Their elite mountaineering skills and acclimatization abilities allow them to maintain a traditional lifestyle, unlike Western trekkers. "They're tough people from a very early age," describes Diani. "I'll have $1,000 worth of gear on to keep me warm and there will be a mother bathing a child outside in near-freezing temperatures with cold water." Recent studies show that Sherpas are in fact more genetically acclimatized for harnessing oxygen and converting it into energy compared to the average person. Because of this, Westerners must use advanced technologies to better prepare for their climbs in order to keep up with their native guides. An Adventure Industry Revolution Over the past couple of decades, technology has made a significant impact on the adventure industry. Satellite communications give climbers better situational awareness and help direct them to their destination. There are hiking trail phone apps, like Guthook Guides, that work offline and use the phone's internal GPS to give beginners the ability to hike long trails on their own. Weather at higher elevations is incredibly unpredictable and extreme. There's only a short weather window on Mt. Everest that allows for safe climbing. Climbers used to base their ascent on long-range forecasts that were unreliable. Now, there are more accurate weather prediction systems that provide the most up-to-date information. Helicopters make rescue missions more feasible but are still risky. In 2015, a 7.8 earthquake hit Mt. Everest, destroying the icefall route and causing avalanches that led to the deaths of multiple people. Diani and his crew were trapped above the icefall and were eventually rescued. "The helicopter barely touched down," he recalls. "Loading had to take less than 30 seconds, so one-by-one people would run and jump into the helicopter. The pilot then tilted forward, making the helicopter descend down the icefall and land on a makeshift landing pad, which was just rocks." As high altitude rescue remains difficult, there is great potential for autonomous recovery vehicles that could offer a safer solution. Defeating Altitude Sickness Extended times in a high altitude environment is the greatest challenge to climbing the tallest peaks in the world. The amount of oxygen in the bloodstream decreases significantly at higher elevations, causing a variety of negative symptoms. "The altitude affects you physiologically and psychologically," Diani explains. "You don't have the same oxygen for your body, so it's more difficult to digest food, there's a loss of appetite, you become dehydrated quicker with the lower pressure, you are rapid breathing for days, and there's some loss of cognitive ability." In some cases, climbs need to be a rapid ascent due to environmental factors that come to play on the summit. There's not much time for individuals to acclimatize during their climb, so it's imperative to prepare beforehand. Hypoxic training, also known as altitude training, is the only proven way for people to pre- acclimatize to high levels of elevation. Modern fitness companies are creating home altitude systems and sports accessories, like oxygen deprivation masks, that help improve altitude performance. Diani slept in a hypoxic tent months before his expedition for his oxygen saturation levels to adjust easier on the mountain.   Diani examines which rope is safest to clip onto for safety. Rope exposure from previous years are hazardous, as only one rope is safe and climbers must choose at high altitude in extreme weather. (Photo Credit: Jim Diani) The Future of Hiking High-quality mountaineering gear is fundamental to a successful trek. Advances in these materials could improve climbers' survivability through harsh, erratic environments. Clothing that can absorb and retain heat, while still maintaining breathability, will add a protective layer against below freezing temperatures. Climbers also need stronger, lighter gear that can withstand high winds and snowfall. The less weight to carry will always be beneficial. Developments in performance training will also better prepare explorers for their expeditions. Telemetric clothing uses artificial intelligence to monitor body metrics and track how well the athlete performs. The data is displayed on a mobile platform for the person to understand their body physiology and see how they can adjust. Diani believes there is a great opportunity in virtual reality to simulate what you will experience in a life-or-death situation. These realistic simulations can help people strategize how to get out of dangerous circumstances they will most likely encounter on their journey. Each second matters when climbing at high altitudes. As conditions on Everest change over time, it's extremely beneficial to develop products that will help explorers accomplish their goals safely. Nothing can replace the hardiness and expertise of the Sherpa, but cutting-edge technologies will continue to make summits of these great mountains more accessible to people craving adventure. Northrop Grumman is recognized as one of the best places to work in the world. 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Adventure Technology Could Make Extreme Climbing (a Little) Easier

Last summer, weather agencies all over the globe issued alerts as solar weather in the form of charged particles and coronal mass ejections headed toward Earth. There was the possibility of strong solar — or geomagnetic — storms, but what exactly would that mean for us? What is a solar storm, and what is space weather generally? Could these forces pose a threat to human life? Many think of space as cold and unchanging, but space weather is actually quite dynamic, and charged particles and radiation (mostly from the sun) do travel through space and affect Earth. Read on to learn more about solar storms, the sun's solar cycles, and what effect they can have on Earth. What Is a Solar Storm? The sun is an incredibly volatile and often violent place, and it produces quite a bit of activity on a regular basis. According to NASA, solar activity can come in many forms, including solar flares, solar wind (or charged particles), and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The specific solar weather event that triggered alerts from August 17—19, 2022 was a mix of CMEs and solar wind coronal mass ejections (CWMEs). A CWME is a release of gas and magnetic fields from the sun's atmosphere, the corona, while solar flares are a burst of radiation from the sun's surface due to sunspots. It's important to note that not all solar storms affect Earth. They have to be directed at the planet to affect conditions here. Generally speaking, CMEs, solar flares, and energetic particles continue traveling in the direction they took at the point of eruption. If Earth is in that path, our planet will be affected. Why Does the Sun Produce Solar Storms? The sun goes through regular cycles. Over the course of 11 years, the sun's activity builds to a maximum. When it peaks, the magnetic field of the sun actually reverses — the north pole becomes the south pole, and the south pole becomes the north pole. Once that occurs, the sun starts cycling back to minimum activity. Scientists think the sun reached its most recent period of minimum activity in 2019, which means in 2020, we entered Solar Cycle 25. We're now in a period of increasing solar activity that will peak in July 2025. All of this is approximate, of course. To measure solar storms and the sun's cycle, scientists use sunspots, which are dark, cooler areas on our star's surface that occur when parts of the sun's strong interior magnetic field rise to the surface. They also produce solar flares and CMEs. You can see what sunspots are currently on the sun at any given time using NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory camera. Effects of Solar Weather on Earth Now that we've established what solar storms are, let's look at the impact of August's geomagnetic event on Earth. On August 17, a coronal mass ejection sent charged particles from the sun toward the planet. The NOAA's space weather division classified it as a G2 storm, which is "Minor to Strong." According to the NOAA, the storm started out as minor due to solar wind that traversed through a coronal hole, a gap that allows charged particles of solar wind to escape the sun more freely. These particles impacted Earth on August 17, causing a minor solar storm. However, emanations from multiple CMEs were also on their way to Earth and reached the planet on August 18, making the solar storm stronger. A particularly strong solar storm could have serious effects, such as knocking out power or disrupting cell phone service, satellites, or GPS. The effects of the recent storm, though, were relatively minor, and as with any geomagnetic storm, people were treated to stunning aurora in the night sky. Interested in all things in outer space and exploration? We are too. Take a look at open positions at Northrop Grumman, and consider joining our team.

How Is Earth Affected by Solar Storms?

What's the origin of life on Earth? It's an incredibly old mystery we still don't have the answer to. What we do know is that life began on this planet sometime between 4.5 billion years ago — the age of the Earth — and 3.4 billion years ago, which is the age of the oldest fossils we've found, according to New Scientist. Previously, scientists had been unsure of whether the chemical process that got life started occurred all at once as a sort of Big Bang or happened more gradually. But now, a study recently published in Nature is introducing a new story of what started life on Earth. According to the scientists who authored this paper, lightning strikes may have been the literal spark that got life started on our planet. The Prevailing Theory: Meteorites As Space.com points out, phosphorous is one of the building blocks of life and may have been the fuel that propelled the chemical reactions that lead to the development of life. But this element is a solid at room temperature and mostly found in rocks. How, then, was it released in order to propel the formation of life? Until now, the prevailing theory has been that phosphorous may have arrived on early Earth through meteorite impacts, according to a study from the University of South Florida. This theory says that these space rocks contained schreibersite, which dissolves in water. If these meteorites crashed into the ocean, the phosphorous would have been released, spurring the creation of life. However, there's a problem with this theory: Researchers have posited that there weren't enough meteorite impacts during this period in Earth's history to create enough phosphorous to jump-start the chemical reaction for life. As a result, scientists have been looking for alternative explanations for the origins of life on this planet. Lightning Strikes as a Source of Phosphorous There's an abundance of phosphorous within Earth's rocks — more than enough to jump-start life — but outside of meteorites, these components are not soluble in water. Therefore, there's no way for the phosphorous to escape. Fulgurite, which is created when lightning strikes Earth, contains phosphorous that is taken from surrounding rocks. And it does, in fact, dissolve in water, as MIT Technology Review explains. The Earth had volatile weather during this period of its history, and lightning impacted the Earth's surface trillions of times. The authors of the new Nature study determined that there would have been more than enough phosphorous released to be key to the origin of life on Earth — forming 10-1000 kg of phosphide and 100-10,000 kg of phosphite and hypophosphite per year. Not only could lightning strikes have been a major source of phosphorous for the creation of early life, but these storms occurred regularly, primarily in tropical regions of the Earth. That means there was a continual supply of phosphorous to ensure that chemical reactions had enough fuel to progress. Life on Other Planets This discovery is especially important because understanding what started life on Earth can help us understand how it might develop on other worlds. We've already used phosphorous as a key factor when it comes to looking for life on other planets. For example, a well-publicized study in 2020 announced the discovery of phosphine gas in Venus's atmosphere, as the New York Times reports. This revelation led many to pronounce that we were well on our way to discovering life on our sister planet. But since then, many have cast doubt on the claim, as three separate studies have since failed to come to the same conclusion and did not find phosphine in Venus's atmosphere, according to National Geographic. Even if Venus does not harbor life, it's important to understand the source of the phosphorous that jump-started life on this world, so we can look at other planets with heavy lightning activity as possible candidates for the development of life. Check out Northrop Grumman career opportunities to see how you can participate in this fascinating time of discovery in science, technology and engineering.

Lightning Could Hold the Key to the Origin of Life on Earth

Researchers have discovered a solar radio burst with a signal pattern comparable to the Sun's heartbeat. What does cardiology have to do with astronomy? The familiar lub-dub sound of a heart is a rhythmic pattern caused by electrical signals stimulating the heart muscle to contract. Similarly, the radio bursts feature a signal pattern reminiscent of a heartbeat.
An Electromagnetic Discovery
The electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is a range of wavelengths of EM radiation covering a wide spectrum from short gamma- and X-rays to longer waves, such as infrared, radio and microwaves. The human eye can only see a small portion of the spectrum (visible light), but scientific instruments, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, can capture invisible radiation that astronomers use to understand the universe.
An international team of researchers from institutions in China, Germany, the United Kingdom and New Jersey detected the solar radio burst by studying microwave imaging observations from a telescope in California called the Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array. They reported their findings in Nature Communications.
The study describes a solar radio burst, an intense burst of radio waves from the Sun. These bursts can feature signals with repeating patterns, and the signal pattern comes from within a solar flare more than 5,000 kilometers (~3,107 miles) above the Sun's surface.
What Is a Solar Flare?
Solar flares are a type of powerful explosion from the surface of the Sun. According to Live Science, solar flares are intense bursts of EM radiation generated in the layers of sparse, hot gas that comprise the Sun's atmosphere.
The researchers have labeled this particular solar flare as a C5.9 class, which is a medium-sized explosion on the immense scale of the universe. For context, the most powerful solar flares are equivalent to the energy of a billion hydrogen bombs, which is enough energy to power the world for 20,000 years, according to NASA.
What Causes Solar Flares?
The big yellow ball in the sky is a mixture of hydrogen and helium held together by the force of gravity. But there is another fundamental force at work: electromagnetism, which involves the interaction of electric currents and magnetic fields. This force causes matter to behave in certain ways, and when it comes to the Sun, magnetic energy sometimes builds up in the atmosphere and is suddenly released as a solar flare.
Most of the energy released by solar flares is in the ultraviolet and X-ray part of the EM spectrum at shorter wavelengths and higher energies than visible light. These events are not unusual. The Sun's magnetic field drives a solar cycle, which is a period of solar activity that lasts approximately 11 years, according to Space.com.
How Solar Flares Affect Earth
The recent discovery of "the Sun's heartbeat" can help astronomers understand more about electromagnetism and how it affects activity in the universe and space weather in general.
"The discovery is unexpected," said Sijie Yu, the study's corresponding author and astronomer affiliated with the New Jersey Institute of Technology Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research. "This beating pattern is important for understanding how energy is released and is dissipated in the Sun's atmosphere during these incredibly powerful explosions on the Sun. However, the origin of these repetitive patterns, also called quasi-periodic pulsations, has long been a mystery and a source of debate among solar physicists."
Fortunately, Earth's atmosphere protects our bodies from solar flares and similar solar activity. However, these events can affect technology on Earth because they can inhibit radio communications and GPS navigation. They can reach Earth in just about eight minutes — the amount of time it takes light to travel from the Sun to our planet — so the more we understand about solar flares, the better we can prepare.
As NASA and other space agencies prepare to send crews into space, a deeper understanding of solar activity will be crucial for safety as astronauts travel without the atmosphere's protection.
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The Sun&#8217;s Heartbeat: A Solar Radio Burst

Far inside the habitable zone, 520 light-years from Earth, a strange planet whips around its parent star. WASP 127-b makes a bee-line from one side to the other in four days. Yet this wanderer is no winged Mercury. It's not small or rocky. It orbits off-kilter, in the opposite direction of its parent star's rotation — like a table tilted to the plane of the solar system. As far as exoplanets go, this planet is not quite like anything scientists have found before. The existence of undiscovered and alien planets hold potential for new discoveries in space and science, including a look into weather on other planets. WASP 127-b is a gas giant, like Jupiter or Saturn. Unlike the two biggest planets in our solar system, this exoplanet is an order of magnitude closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun. It's bigger than Jupiter, while only having 16% of Jupiter's mass. That means the planet is sort of â€¦ puffy. Hot, fast and, for a planet, fluffy. WASP 127-b's Salt Clouds One of the cool things about finding a planet this big and fluffy and this close to its star? Not only can you look at it — you can also look through the upper layers of its atmosphere. Scientists from around the world worked together to combine data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile to watch one of the least dense planets discovered to date move in front of its star over and over again. No research team had (successfully) tried using one ground-based telescope and one space-based telescope to go cloud-watching on another planet. Their powers combined, the two telescopes were able to watch light from WASP 127 filter through the layers of vapor hovering around this huge planet. Researchers now believe one of those vapor layers could possibly be water, and the other looks more like sodium. This could mean there are salt clouds, or at least salt in the clouds. No one is quite sure — yet. Weather on other planets is fascinating because, unlike Earth, scientists have to pull out all the stops to even begin to measure it. There's no walking outside, holding out a palm or consulting the neighbor whose knee always knows when it's going to rain. Finding and measuring the composition of clouds on an alien world took two of the world's biggest telescopes. Death of a Gas Giant WASP-12b, like WASP 127-b, is big, hot, fast and close to its star. In fact, it's so close to WASP-12 that WASP-12b — which is 46% larger than Jupiter — is being literally pulled apart. Or rather, its nearness to the star heats up the gas, which rises so high that it literally falls away from the planet toward WASP-12. Researchers calculated that with the mass loss, WASP-12 only had 10 million more years of existence. A similar fate may await WASP 127-b, another hot Jupiter. Hot Jupiters in general are becoming a popular topic in the exoplanet universe, mostly because they shouldn't be there. Young stars have high winds that blow gas away. Even when it gets cool and quiet enough for the gas to settle down and collect into these hot Jupiters' cores, they are huge and solid. In order to exist up close and personal with a star, the material from the planet's core needs to find its way to the clouds. Then, that material needs to wander close to the parent star after the star has grown out of its initial, young-star, high-wind phase. That's a lot of steps to become a hot Jupiter that gets just close enough to show us its cloud cover — but not close enough to get that cover ripped off by the star that bore it. It's strange to think how the same kind of star — a yellow G-type main sequence — can give birth to Earth while another creates conditions terribly adverse to any kind of life. WASP 127-b's salt-filled clouds face a 2,000-degree Fahrenheit surface, and it's getting even hotter. Now that scientists can look into the atmospheres of worlds far, far away using multiple telescopes, exoplanetary meteorology (or "alien cloud spotting") could take researching weather on other planets to entirely new heights. Interested in all things in outer space and exploration? We are, too. Take a look at open positions at Northrop Grumman and consider joining our team.

The Buzz About Weather on Other Planets: WASP 127-b

When a new zombie virus discovered due to permafrost melting made its way into headlines in March 2023, it caused concern. Some wondered if this meant we were on the brink of another worldwide health crisis. Here's a look at what researchers have brought back from the (near) dead, and how this undead infection could relate to public health.
What Is a Zombie Virus?
A zombie virus is a virus frozen in time. They're often caught up in permafrost after hitching a ride in the immune system of a long-deceased animal or insect. If these viruses are thawed out and introduced into a suitable host, however, they can effectively resurrect and get back to doing what they do best: infecting organisms.
According to Scientific American, zombie virus genomes could play a positive role in disease treatment. These genomes are byproducts of viral infections that are no longer capable of reproducing on their own. If they're introduced to cells compromised by other infections, they can hijack existing viruses and use them to replicate, in effect reducing the overall viral load. In healthy cells, meanwhile, these zombies have no effect. While research on zombie virus benefits remains in the early stages, the work suggests that not all zombies are out for brains.
Playing the Long Game: A Virus Threat 48,500 Years in the Making
How long can a virus survive and then be brought back to life in melting permafrost? If you said 50,000 years, you were just 1,500 years off the mark.
This is because permafrost offers the ideal environment to keep viruses in stasis. Not only is the temperature cold, but it's also oxygen-free and doesn't let in light. In other words, the energy sources needed to help the virus replicate — or kill it completely — are absent in permafrost.
As climate change drives rising temperatures, however, the top layers of permafrost are beginning to melt. This has made it possible for researchers like Jean-Michel Claverie, Emeritus professor of genomics at the School of Medicine of Aix-Marseille University, to obtain and revive virus samples that are tens of thousands of years old. Most recently, he discovered five new families of viruses in samples ranging from 48,500 years old and found in the soil of an underground lake to those discovered in a 27,000-year-old wooly mammoth's stomach contents and coat.
The biggest threat posed by these viruses? A lack of natural human immunity. Since we've never encountered these viruses, our immune systems have no natural defense against their infection vectors. As a result, it's possible that these old issues could become modern problems. This isn't without precedent: Consider the impact of the European colonization of the Americas, which led to massive outbreaks of diseases, such as smallpox and influenza.
Is Permafrost Melting a Public Health Risk?
Yes and no. So far, the viruses reanimated by scientists are only capable of infecting amoebas. While it's possible that less-permanent permafrost could bring human- and animal-infecting viruses back to life, Claverie notes that any unearthed microbes would be "quick to decay once they're exposed to heat, UV light and oxygen." Claverie also points out that, while humans might lack the inherent ability to combat zombie infections, the chance of infection itself is "extremely low" because these viruses have never encountered a modern human immune system.
While the chances of a zombie virus going viral are slim, however, they're never zero. Increasing temperatures mean that more permafrost is melting more quickly, which means that more zombie viruses are getting a second shot. As the COVID-19 pandemic made perfectly clear, it doesn't take much for a new virus to spread once it successfully infects an immune system that lacks effective defenses.
In short, while the new zombie virus discovered doesn't spell disaster for humankind, it does speak to the second-order effects of climate change. If we're not careful, crop and coastline loss could be the precursors to an unopposed, undead viral vector.
 
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Grave Concerns: New Zombie Virus Discovered Due to Permafrost Melting

Greenland just recorded its warmest temperature in 1,000 years. According to a recent study published in Nature, cores taken from the Greenland ice sheet over the last decade show a 1.5 °C increase compared to climate reconstructions of the past millennia.
 
What, exactly, does this Greenland average temperature tracking mean for ice caps, sea levels and the world at large? Here's the hot take.
 
 
 
Getting Warmer — What's Happening in Greenland?
 
 
 
As noted by The Washington Post, 2023 temperatures in Greenland are significantly above average, with some areas smashing previous records. For example, Greenland's capital city, Nuuk, saw temperatures hit 59.4 °F (15.2 °C) on March 5, breaking both the previous March and April records of 55.7 °F (13.2 °C) and 58.2 °F (14.6 °C), respectively. Compared to the average temperature this time of year, this high is even higher: Typically, Nuuk comes in at 23 °F (-5 °C) in March. The new record is fully 32 degrees (18 degrees in Celsius) above normal.
 
 
 
Farther north, temperatures are even more extreme, with some areas of Greenland seeing a 50 °F (28 °C) jump over seasonal averages. This country-wide warming trend is linked to what's known as the "Greenland block" — a zone of high pressure that isn't going anywhere, causing the air beneath it to sink and warm. The block may be tied to a sudden warming trend in Earth's stratosphere that disrupted the polar vortex in February and pushed colder air further south.
 
 
 
The result is a dual concern for Greenland: Not only are current temperatures significantly above recent averages, but millennial measurements are also on the rise, suggesting this is more than a one-off hot spell.
 
 
 
Ice Cap Concerns: Sea-ing the Impact
 
 
 
What does Greenland global warming mean for the country's ice caps and the world at large? In a word: melting — and lots of it.
 
 
 
Current data suggests that melting already underway will cause sea levels worldwide to rise about 10.6 inches. As SciTechDaily points out, however, this is a low estimate. If Greenland continues to see record-breaking temperatures, it's possible for sea levels to rise by 30 inches or more. This estimate only includes the increase from Greenland — melting of other Atlantic ice sheets could add to this total.
 
 
 
For humankind, this melt means problems. First up are the direct effects on people who live in low-lying coastal areas. With more than 680 million people living at or very near sea level, these rising waters could spell disaster for small communities and big cities alike as infrastructure ends up permanently underwater or battered by continual coastal floods.
 
 
 
There are also growing concerns about what we may find under the ice as it melts. Some of what's revealed may be valuable, such as precious metals or fossil fuels that have remained untouched for millennia. But thawing ice sheets may uncover bacteria, viruses and pollutants that could cause problems for humans. According to a study published in Nature Climate Change in September 2021, one gram of permafrost may contain thousands of dormant microbes. While most of these microbes are likely harmless to humans, some could be viruses we've never seen or ancient diseases that could make a concerning comeback.
 
 
 
Consider a report from Siberia in 2016: As noted by NPR, dozens of people were hospitalized and one child died after an outbreak of anthrax. The culprit? An infected reindeer frozen in permafrost for 75 years until a heatwave hit. When it thawed, the anthrax bacteria became active and covered the nearby tundra in spores. Other reindeer picked up the anthrax and were then killed and eaten by humans, kickstarting the outbreak.
 
 
 
The effect of global warming on Greenland also comes with concerns about pollutants, such as dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), which haven't been used for decades but are trapped in layers of permafrost. As icemelt continues, these chemicals could leech into seawater and circulate around the globe.
 
 
 
Reducing the Effects of Global Warming on Greenland
 
 
 
Is there anything we can do about Greenland average temperature issues? Yes and no. Put simply, there's no going back. Melting ice can't suddenly be reversed, and rising sea levels would take decades to fix.
 
 
 
But it's not all bad news. According to Horizon, the E.U.'s Research and Innovation Magazine, while Greenland's ice sheet is melting, the driving component of this phase is air temperature — the hotter the air, the more the ice melts. Sea ice-melt, meanwhile, is tied to water temperature, and with water temperatures rising more quickly than their atmospheric counterparts, even significant changes in sea ice volumes didn't have a marked effect on Greenland ice sheets. In an experiment that assumed a 15 °C worldwide temperature increase, all sea ice disappeared, but the ice sheets remained relatively intact for centuries. This suggests that, while action is needed, there may still be time to save most of Greenland's ice.
 
 
 
Accomplishing this goal, however, isn't easy. One suggestion is spraying sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the stratosphere through a process known as stratospheric aerosol injection. Also called solar radiation modification or solar geoengineering, the plan is straightforward: Pack aircraft full of SO2, launch them into the stratosphere, release the payloads and then repeat the process each year for 15 years. Once the SO2 is in the atmosphere, it would reflect some of the sun's heat back into space in much the same way as ash from large volcanic eruptions. Done right, this process could cut the impact of global warming in half. The caveat? It can't reverse the damage that's already been done.
 
 
 
Ice, Ice Maybe?
 
 
 
When it comes to the effect of global warming on Greenland, ongoing icemelt is a significant concern — rising sea levels could pose problems for coastal settlements, while long-frozen chemicals and viruses could cause worldwide harm.
 
While there may still be time to prevent the worst, it's imperative that we take action now, even in the form of an SO2 stopgap, as we work on more permanent temperature management tactics.
 
 
 
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Greenland Average Temperature Tracking Reveals Worrisome Warming

Lightning and the thunder that it triggers are among the most spectacular of common weather events. Ancient peoples imagined their angry gods hurling lightning bolts, and modern horror filmmakers still rely on lightning as a surefire way to jolt an audience. On average, lightning strikes somewhere in the world about half a dozen times every second. Thus, reports Science magazine, a network of some 100 lightning-detecting radio stations detected around 2 billion lightning strikes between 2010 and 2018. The lightning tracking study also offered insight into a phenomenon that scientists are only beginning to understand: so-called superbolt lightning that strikes with a thousand times the energy of ordinary lightning bolts. Lightning Striking Again The detection network "listened" for lightning strikes by tuning to the very low frequency radio band from 5 to 18 kilohertz, a band in which lightning strikes are readily detected. Most of the strikes it detected released in the neighborhood of a thousand joules of energy within that band. But very occasionally — about once in 250,000 lightning strikes, according to Weatherology — the network detected a strike that was enormously more powerful, releasing more than a million joules of radio energy. And because the very low frequency radio band used by the detector network accounts for only a small fraction of lightning strike energy, the superbolt lightning strikes, reports Science, may range in total energy from 10 billion to a trillion joules. How much energy is that? The most powerful lightning strike releases about as much energy as a low-yield nuclear weapon, a quarter kiloton of TNT. Striking Surprises But the study of worldwide lightning strikes, led by Robert Holzworth of the University of Washington, did more than simply confirm the existence of superbolt lightning. According to Futurity, the study also found that these most powerful lightning strike events are not just amped-up versions of ordinary lightning. Instead, they have a very different distribution pattern in both season and location. Most lightning takes place over land (about 90% of observed strikes), and it's most frequently observed during summer thunderstorms — especially in the "lightning chimney" regions of tropical and subtropical Africa and the Americas, and the islands of Southeast Asia. Superbolt lightning, in contrast, appears most often in October and November, and mainly in the northern hemisphere. It usually strikes at sea, concentrated especially in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean regions, with another concentration near South America's Andes mountains. And Whole New Questions  The occurrence of superbolts also varies widely from year to year. The study recorded the most superbolt lightning strikes in 2013, and a lesser spike in 2014, while far fewer events were recorded in the other years. The study authors speculate that this pattern may be linked to the sunspot cycle, or to cosmic rays. But when it comes to understanding superbolt lightning, you can't look up the answers in the back of the book because that book is still being written. Science Daily quotes study lead author Holzworth as saying of the possible explanations, "We're leaving that as stimulation for future research." 

Superbolt Lightning Strikes With Surprises

Meteorological phenomena conspire to create a host of wild and wonderful outcomes, from "superbolt" lightning that strikes with the force of a low-yield nuclear bomb to pastel-colored "supernumerary" rainbows that occur under the arch of their primary counterparts when sunlight shines through small, similarly-sized water droplets. There's also an oft-repeated adage that warns of worrisome weather to come: When skies turn green, tornadoes soon follow. But is there any truth to this green sky tornado theory, or is this color concern merely circumstantial? Not Easy Being Green Given the potential property and personal damage powerful tornadoes can cause, it's easy to position this color palate presumption as nothing more than superstition — an unrelated occurrence that isn't tied to weather patterns directly but happens adjacent to their occurrence. In fact, green skies prior to significant storms are well documented, suggesting some type of causal link between color and the creation of catastrophic conditions. In an effort to understand this atmospheric advance warning, scientists have already eliminated several explanations, including:   Ground reflection — Some theories held that color reflections from green grass or fields were responsible for the observed emerald effect, but the spectra isn't consistent, and the phenomenon has been observed even when the primary ground color is red or brown soil.  Optical obfuscation — Just as rainbows appear to have "ends" that touch the ground, it's been suggested that the green coloration of clouds is simply an optical illusion. However, meteorological analysis of stormy weather wavelengths has confirmed the presence of green light.  Considering Color Theory: Why Does the Sky Turn Green? Is it the direct result of tornado formation? The time of day? Or something more exotic? As it turns out, there's no single explanation that accounts for every shamrock-colored storm and teal-colored tornado, but several theories may explain common causes:   Low-angle sunlight — In the same way that low-angle light through water droplets after a rainstorm creates rainbows, it's possible the reddish-yellow glow produced by the rising or setting sun combined with blue sky above conspires to create a subtle greenish cast, which may be enhanced when severe storms provide a dark cloud backdrop. In this case, storms don't serve as the catalyst for green light but instead make it easier to observe.  Water vapor wavelengths — Another theory holds that the blue-tinted water held in large amounts by storm clouds combined with low-angle sunlight creates this green coloration as similarly-sized raindrops scatter sunlight into generally uniform wavelengths.  In-storm situations — It's also possible that falling hail or flashing lightning may act as the genesis of these green effects. In the case of falling hail, light reflected through its crystalline structure may produce a green color between storm clouds and the ground, while lightning crashing through a dusty sky may take on a yellow tinge against blue clouds and combine to create green.  So, why does the sky turn green during a storm? There's no simple answer. At best, it's complicated — and unpredictable. Seeking Storm Signs While the green sky tornado theory is scientifically sound, it's worth noting that, even in areas where severe storms are persistent and tornadoes are perpetual, this phenomenon remains rare. In most cases, inclement weather doesn't come with a color-first calling card. This makes it more important for observers to watch for more common signs, such as sudden changes in temperature, pressure or wind speed and the visible formation of large or rotating cloud masses. Put simply? When it comes to powerful storms and pulverizing tornadoes, green is tangentially tied to meteorological machinations. But even without chartreuse-colored clouds or spring-colored skies, severe weather can occur; as a result, it's better to bank on current conditions than bet on color concerns.

Color Me Concerned: The Green Sky Tornado Theory

 Enable targeting cookies to view this content.   Northrop Grumman engineers Josh Saunders and Mark Sakaguchi are programming a self-thinking quadcopter using cognitive automation, which will allow the vehicle to fly intelligently and respond quickly in emergencies and for disaster relief. This is just the beginning — unmanned aerial vehicle technology is evolving rapidly, and the possibilities are endless. The Future of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles As explained by Expert System, cognitive automation is neither machine learning nor pure artificial intelligence. It uses algorithms like natural language processing and data mining to bring ordered action in response to unstructured data. For example, the University of Pennsylvania developed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that fly through narrow spaces without guidance from a human pilot. According to Quartz, the tiny quadcopters use sensors that monitor their surroundings then adjust to squeeze through windows. Described by Harvard Business Review as the "internet of flying things," UAVs can capture high-resolution aerial images of construction sites, which are often missed by street observation and satellites. These images help architects check construction sites for deviations from the computer-aided design file. Other intelligent UAVs tackle routine but dangerous inspections so human don't have to undergo the risk, according to IBM. Inspection drones connected with IBM Watson IoT can autonomously plot flight paths between cell towers or wind turbines to look at a loose wire or corrosion and log the damage. Deloitte, in collaboration with Energia and IBM Maximo, flies robotic inspectors around wind farm turbines, enabling closer inspection without climbing ladders. Space exploration can also benefit from cognitive autonomy. Pushing the Limits Saunders and Sakaguchi see cognitive automation playing a role in disaster relief as well. Their quadcopter could map victim location and status before rescuers enter a burning building. "It's really interesting to get a machine to think for itself and to do what you want it to do," said Saunders. "It pushes my limits but also I get to have a lot of fun, too." Interested in pushing your limits (and having fun)? Check out the Northrop Grumman Careers page to find your next big opportunity.

Cognitive Automation: Drones for Disaster Relief

With the weather on Earth getting more extreme by the day, you might think you have enough to worry about. But did you know there are storms in space, too?
A solar storm is an eruption of mass and energy that occurs at the surface of the sun. These solar storms can go on for as little as a few minutes or as long as several hours. They can even impact Earth in a significant way, but that begs the question: Could a solar storm hit Earth? Let's take a look at space weather and how it can affect us.
What Are Solar Storms?
With our naked eyes, the sun can appear static, placid and constant. But in reality, our sun is an enormous thermonuclear reactor, which fuses hydrogen atoms into helium and produces million-degree temperatures and intense magnetic fields. The outer layer of the sun is like a pot of boiling water, with bubbles of hot, electrified gas — electrons and protons in a fourth state of matter known as plasma — that circulate up from the interior and burst out into space.
Scientists believe that high-energy charged particles are released from the sun by solar flares that pour out from the surface of the sun and by shocks that form at the front of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). This means our sun bathes the earth as well as the rest of our solar system with electrically charged particles and magnetic fields. These solar bursts are a form of space weather.
A solar burst of magnetic energy can include solar flares, high-speed solar winds, solar energetic particles and CMEs. A large CME can contain a billion tons of matter that can be accelerated to several million miles per hour in a spectacular explosion. Solar material streams out through the interplanetary medium, impacting any planet or spacecraft in its path. A CME cloud can also erupt from the sun in any direction, but a CME will only impact Earth when it occurs on the side of the sun that faces us. In other words, for a solar storm to hit Earth and cause an impact, the CME cloud would need to be aimed at us.
When a CME cloud plows through the solar wind, high-velocity solar energetic particles can be produced, and because they are charged, they must follow the magnetic field lines that pervade the space between the sun and the earth. Therefore, only the charged particles that follow magnetic field lines that intersect with Earth will result in impacts.
How Space Weather Impacts Earth
When the charged particles from a solar storm follow the magnetic field lines all the way to Earth, they collide with Earth's magnetic field and trapped radiation belts, which can cause an aurora. An aurora forms when magnetic particles in the solar wind interact with Earth's magnetosphere.
These same particles can also produce their own magnetic fields, which can modify our magnetic field. The amount of the sun's geomagnetic activity varies over 11-year cycles, which means there are times when solar activity and solar storms are more frequent. We know this because people have been observing auroras and drawing pictures of them for thousands of years.
But are auroras dangerous? Modern society depends on technologies that are indeed susceptible to the extremes of space weather. Strong electrical currents driven along Earth's surface during aurora events can affect compass readings and contribute to the corrosion of oil and gas pipelines. A particularly strong solar storm could have serious effects, such as electrical surges that knock out the power grid, which can lead to brownouts and blackouts, or disrupt cell phone service.
Changes in the ionosphere during geomagnetic storms can also interfere with high-frequency radio communications and Global Positioning System navigation. The effect of these geomagnetic storms can linger in Earth's magnetosphere and atmosphere for days or even weeks.
As society's reliance on technological systems grows, so does our vulnerability to solar storms. The ultimate goal in studying space weather is to gain the ability to foretell events and conditions on the sun that could produce harmful societal and economic effects with sufficient accuracy and far enough in advance to allow preventive or mitigating actions to be taken.
So, could a solar storm hit Earth? In short, yes — these storms can affect us, but it's not quite as intense as you might imagine.
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Could a Solar Storm Hit Earth?

In September 2017, we saw more superstorm hurricanes hit North America than usual, including hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katia and Maria. This is the only time in history — except for 2007 — that multiple Category 5 hurricanes have hit North America in the period of a year, let alone a month, said the The Atlantic. Research shows that more superstorms — defined as large, destructive storms — will occur every few centuries in a stable climate. However, according According to the NCA and Science News, as Earth's temperatures increase, the intensity and duration of these superstorms may get worse as a result.  As these storms hit harder and harder, many of us are left with big questions like: What is the outlook for weather patterns in the coming years? Can we expect more superstorms ahead? And how can we prepare for those superstorms? The Research The scientific jury is still out on whether or not increasing temperatures will increase the frequency of superstorms. However, according to Skeptical Science, scientists are certain that when these superstorms do occur, the effects of climate change will make the impact of these storms more pronounced. "As the world warms, evaporation speeds up. So on avg there's more water vapour for a storm to sweep up & dump now, compared to 70 years ago," climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe tweeted in the wake of Harvey. In a Nature article, several scientists explained that storm thermodynamics are strongly dependent on the climate. The world's rising temperatures and sea levels have in turn changed the intensity, path and location of the storms we have experienced and will experience. Climate Central also notes that severe downpours are now more likely, leading to increased flooding. PreventionWeb's 2016 Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report showed that financial damages from natural disasters are rising worldwide. After Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, Gary Lackmann, an atmospheric science professor at North Carolina State University, became interested in predicting future storms. He mapped the features of Sandy into the future and into the past, taking into account changing temperatures and humidity. In an American Meteorology Society paper titled "Hurricane Sandy before 1990 and after 2100," Lackmann explained that by using mathematically simulated computer models, he could see that an 1880 version of Sandy was similar to 2012's Sandy. However, due to changing temperatures and rising humidity, Lackmann found that a 2100 version of Sandy would be much, much worse. It would hit further inland with more intensity, causing more damages. Several other studies, including one from PNAS, have confirmed this finding about Sandy. How to Prepare John Holdren, Obama's presidential adviser, famously said that when it comes to changing climates, we will end up with a future that holds a mix of prevention, adaption and suffering. It is up to us to determine the ratio of these pieces. Through home preparation and awareness, we can prevent certain damages. When storms are about to hit, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommends taking necessary precautions in your own home: "Coastal and inland residents should ensure that their families have an emergency plan and emergency kits in their homes and cars," FEMA experts recommend. "Some of the items in a basic emergency kit include: one gallon of water per person per day, for drinking and sanitation; at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food; battery-powered radio and a NOAA Weather Radio; flashlight and extra batteries; and First Aid kit." Through mitigation, we can attempt to limit greenhouse gases. The National Park Service recommends using renewable energy when possible and getting a home energy audit, if you're a home owner. Spending less time on the road and using energy-saving light bulbs are easy ways to reduce carbon emissions, according to the National Park Service. Finally, if we cannot mitigate or prevent damages, we can adjust to climate change. Some scientists have built tools that allow them to predict future superstorms, while other people are moving away from high-flood areas. As history has shown, human beings are designed for adaption.

Are There More Superstorms in Our Future?

Key Takeaways  Cloud seeding can encourage the production of "ice nuclei" that condense into precipitation. Glaciogenic cloud seeding uses silver iodide to form water droplets in cold clouds, while hygroscopic seeding uses salt for warm clouds. In Canada, scientists used cloud seeding to reduce storm severity and limit property damage due to hail.Farmers have long wished they could control the rain, and now weather manipulation can do just that. Cloud seeding, the most common way to modify weather, involves shooting silver iodide or other chemicals into clouds to encourage precipitation. In other words, a silver bullet can make it rain.This technique is not perfect, and it can't solve chronic drought, but it's relatively inexpensive and many communities around the world are desperate for water. Scientists use weather modification to enhance rainfall and increase water supplies, to disperse fog and to minimize hail during storms. Private companies and state-sponsored groups have even used cloud seeding to drop fresh snow on ski mountains and to squeeze out the rain before major events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics.What is Cloud Seeding?The idea is not to create clouds out of thin air, but to squeeze every last drop of rain from naturally occurring clouds. So, what is cloud seeding?Cloud seeding adds substances to clouds by shooting them from the ground or dropping them from planes. Air already contains water vapor, but cloud seeding can encourage the water to condense until it falls from the sky. Normally, when air rises into the atmosphere, it cools and forms particles called ice nuclei, which clump together to form clouds. When enough of these cloud droplets combine, they grow bigger until they are heavy enough that they fall to the ground in some form of precipitation, determined by the temperature and other conditions. Adding a "seed" gives clouds a boost by creating ice nuclei that grow faster and bigger than normal.Glaciogenic seeding is a technique for squeezing water from cold clouds. Back in 1946, Bernard Vonnegut (author Kurt's brother) was one of the researchers at General Electric who discovered that silver iodide could help clouds form ice crystals. Scientists still aren't exactly sure how it works, but it's possible that ice easily bonds with silver iodide because they both have similar structures at the molecular level. When more particles collide, ice crystals are formed, and soon the cloud is full of heavy water droplets that become rain. Similarly, hygroscopic seeding is a technique for warm clouds, wherein a simple salt helps encourage water droplets to collide and produce rain.Other weather manipulation techniques that have been considered over the years include: blowing storms away from land with windmills, cooling the ocean with cryogenic material or icebergs, delaying surface evaporation with monomolecular films, blowing a hurricane apart with hydrogen bombs or laser beams and injecting air into the center of a storm. Cloud seeding has prevailed because it is the simplest and most cost-effective way to change the weather.Who is Manipulating the Weather?Although weather manipulation lingers on the fringes of the scientific community, it is practiced more widely than one might expect. More than 50 countries around the world currently have weather modification programs and the World Meteorological Organization just hosted an expert team meeting on weather modification in Geneva in June 2017.The reasons for modifying weather vary, depending on where the operation takes place. Russia has removed cloud cover for a national holiday, while India has focused on encouraging rain to fall in drought conditions.China made headlines when authorities said they had cleared the skies by shooting salt-filled bullets into clouds ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Then, in 2016, the Chinese government announced it had allocated 199 million yuan ($29.76 million) to spend on its weather modification program to combat drought and reduce the impact of natural disasters. In 2015 the United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched a $5-million research program for "rain enhancement science." Groundwater supplies were running low and demand for water is projected to double in the next 15 years as the country continues to grow. In 2016, the UAE carried out 177 cloud seeding operations — primarily hygroscopic seeding in the mountains to add water to aquifers and reservoirs.The United States is no stranger to weather manipulation, either. From the mid-1960s through the early 1980s, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) actively pursued Project STORMFURY, a program for experimental hurricane modification. Cloud seeding has especially been used in the Great Plains and western states to combat drought.Wyoming just completed a $15-million study over 10 years that concluded that cloud seeding can add, on average, 10 percent more snow to an existing storm. In Idaho this year, the National Science Foundation partially funded a research project to test seeding clouds to increase snowfall near communities where it can be used for crop irrigation and hydropower."Idaho Power is interested in putting more snow on the ground in the mountains, which leads to more water in rivers from snowmelt," said atmospheric scientist Jeff French of the University of Wyoming, in a statement. "In turn, that leads to more power generation capability throughout the year."Weighing the Costs and BenefitsMessing with the weather is a tricky science, and more research is needed to explain exactly how it works. There has been healthy skepticism that challenges whether cloud seeding and other techniques are effective. Since weather systems are complex and impossible to duplicate, it's hard to prove how much rain has been added to a cloud.Aside from proving the efficacy, there are also risks involved with modifying nature. Introducing salt or other chemicals into the rain could alter microclimates and possibly interfere with nearby crop growth, which would defeat the whole purpose. There is also a potential to abuse the science by using it as a military tactic to force storms on enemies or sabotage crops, though this practice is banned by the United Nations.Nevertheless, weather manipulation is worth exploring, since when used properly it has so much potential to work for the greater good. It can reduce fog at airports, minimize air pollution in large cities and be used for hydropower. It is mostly used to add water to areas with chronic drought, and even a small percentage increase could go a long way toward creating better agricultural conditions.It can also prevent or reduce damaging weather, such as hail, hurricanes and tornadoes. In the Canadian province of Alberta, in 2012, scientists attempted to use cloud seeding to mitigate a hail storm. They hypothesized that seeding the clouds would redistribute the water vapor in the clouds to form smaller hailstones rather than the golf ball-sized hail that was predicted. Radar data collected afterward showed that the storm was 27 percent milder than the original forecast. It's hard to prove cause and effect, but meteorologists involved in the project say it saved up to CAD$100 million in property damage. In places that are prone to severe storms, even a slight reduction in hail intensity could save millions and easily offset the cost of a weather manipulation program.Cloud seeding is still an imperfect science with room for progress, but one with potential to positively alter the way weather affects our lives.Learn how new disaster relief technology can help teams better respond to extreme weather issues.

Making it Rain: The Science of Weather Manipulation

Key Takeaways  Weather machines are active worldwide, helping to control rainfall, storm severity, and snowpack levels. Cloud seeding is the primary weather control technique, and uses agents such as dry ice to speed up droplet production. Perforated pipes in the ocean could bring cooler water to the surface and help reduce hurricane intensity.Have you ever looked up at dark clouds rolling in and wished you could wave them away? Although weather manipulation on a personal level exists only in fiction, weather machine technology on a bigger scale is already on the horizon. Based around cloud modification, Business Insider notes that around the world, many countries are working on storm control.Man-Made Weather ManipulationAlthough it sounds like science fiction, weather machines are in action around the world already, influencing factors such as rainfall, storm severity and snowpack. Most of these rely on cloud seeding techniques that force clouds to rain.For example, China is investing heavily in large projects to ensure sufficient agricultural water supply. News Corp Australia describes vast ground-based cauldrons or burners that release rain-making silver iodide particles into updrafts. As part of the "Skyriver" project, around 500 artificial rainmaking machines near the Tibetan plateau will cover an area larger than Alaska. Business Insider estimates rainfall of around 10 billion cubic meters.The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is also investigating weather manipulation. Since large parts of the country are arid, there is great stress on groundwater supplies in areas with low rainfall and high evaporation rates. According to the Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, UAE researchers are looking into aircraft dispersal cloud seeding to increase rainfall and improve the freshwater supply.The Alberta government in Canada also uses cloud seeding to modify precipitation. Its hail suppression program uses aircraft to launch dispersal agents into storm clouds and reduce the size of hail. According to Chemical and Engineering News, the use of silver iodide seeding was able to reduce hail storm severity above Alberta by 27 percent.How Weather Machine Technology WorksThe technology behind the current battery of weather machines relies on cloud seeding: Spraying agents such as dry ice, silver or potassium iodide or pure salt crystals into rain-bearing clouds speeds up droplet formation. The particles dispersed from aircraft or rockets act as nuclei for water droplets already present in the cloud. As water gathers around the nuclei, they become too heavy, and gravity takes over.This technique also makes snow. In The Conversation, two researchers described how clouds grew ice crystals following silver iodide seeding. Using wing-mounted sensors, they followed crystal formation along the path taken by an aircraft spraying silver iodide through the cloud. Areas that were not seeded did not form crystals.Storm Control for Climate ChangeUnderstanding how weather is made and how it can be manipulated could be valuable in the future. Of course, good snowfall is a boon to ski resorts, but it is also valuable in areas that regularly experience summer drought. Building up seasonal snowpack increases meltwater abundance for the spring and summer water supplies.Other types of weather machines could also reduce storm intensity. Although the National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) acknowledges that cloud seeding for hurricane suppression has been unsuccessful, other weather machines could have success in the future.Bubbles for Hurricane SuppressionOcean temperatures drive hurricane formation, as a storm's intensity depends on warm water at the surface. Making it cooler could, in theory, diminish the power of a hurricane.An ocean weather machine that produces bubble curtains, bringing cooler water from the depths, could reduce surface temperature. Newsweek describes a system of perforated pipes blowing bubbles from 100 to 150 meters deep that lift cold water to cool the surface. Similar technology is already in place in Norwegian fjords to stop them from freezing in the winter, but here the bubbles bring warmer water to the cooler wintry surface.Another suggestion blocks ocean warming in the hurricane's path by making brighter clouds to deflect sunlight. Loading clouds up with small water droplets makes them more reflective. Vox describes a theoretical prototype that sprays salt water plumes from floating weather machines positioned in the hurricane path. The machine's inventor however, acknowledges that so far, success exists only in computer models.Although fine control of our weather is still only available in films, research into weather forecasting has advanced in the last few decades. Breakthroughs in technology have improved prediction science and facilitated data gathering to reveal how and why weather happens. This exciting innovation could help refine weather manipulation, with the potential that weather machines could help mitigate climate change.We don't have total control over the weather (yet), but Northrop Grumman is on the leading edge of innovation that empowers the human experience. Learn more about how we're defining possible.

Storm Control With Weather Machine Technology

Whirlpools have entranced humans throughout history, with their existence sometimes being credited to mythological sea monsters intent on destruction. However, studying how water flows and understanding the physics behind turbulence, flow and currents has helped us learn how whirlpools are formed and how to survive them. From natural phenomena in the world's oceans to man-made examples, not all of these spinning marvels are dangerous whirlpools, and in fact, not all of them classify as vortices. How Are Whirlpools Formed? Britannica calls whirlpools "rotatory oceanic currents," but how are whirlpools formed? The science behind their formation is detailed in the branch of physics known as fluid mechanics, which explains the movement of liquids and gases. In the oceans and other bodies of water, whirlpools form when two currents meet each other. As Live Science explains, the interaction between the two currents is rather strange: since neither can continue moving in the same direction and pass through the opposing current, the different streams must circulate around each other. A whirlpool's size depends on the speed of the currents that formed it. When a whirlpool forms a downdraft in its center, dragging objects deep below the surface, it's known as a vortex. This can trap whatever it submerges on the seabed, only spitting it out if it can float and bob back to the surface. You'll often see these dangerous types of whirlpools referred to as "maelstroms." Whirlpools also form when a current runs into an obstacle, so they're often seen as water rushes through a narrow ocean strait or over disturbances in the seabed. One of the strongest whirlpool systems in the world, the Moskstraumen off the coast of Norway, exists due to fast currents flowing through a narrow and exceptionally deep channel. This is where the kraken of ancient lore supposedly snatched up seafarers. The Corryvreckan, off the west coast of Scotland, forms in a narrow strait where the tides run over an unusually pyramidal seafloor. Whirlpool Hotspots Around the World Whirlpools are found all over the world, and probably a lot closer than you think. Every time you empty a bath or a sink, the eddies that accompany the water vanishing down the drain give clues about how whirlpools are formed. You can also find man-made versions; wherever human activity creates water outflows, there's a possibility that a vortex may appear. For this reason, always be careful near the base of a dam and around any water drainage outflow. In the natural world, the most powerful whirlpools are found off the coast of Norway. Near the Arctic Circle you can find the world's strongest maelstrom: Saltstraumen. Saltstraumen forms with each tide, so visitors can watch the whirlpool form four times each day in the narrow channel. Currents here flow as fast as 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour), and ships will only pass through the area during the dangerous whirlpool's slack times. For comparison, the Moskstraumen reaches speeds of 20 miles per hour (32 kilometers per hour), while the Corryvreckan runs at just 11 miles per hour (18 kilometers per hour). However, the Corryvreckan is still classified by the UK Royal Navy as "very dangerous," since waves in the area can reach as high as 30 feet (9 meters). It might also be the world's loudest whirlpool, with a roar that's audible 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. The vortex has been known to pull objects down to 862 feet (262 meters) below the surface before spitting them out. Thanks to the Coriolis effect, you'll notice that whirlpools in the Southern Hemisphere spin clockwise, while those in the Northern Hemisphere spin counterclockwise. This is due to the effects of the planet's rotation. Are Dangerous Whirlpools a Concern? Yes, whirlpools can be dangerous, but contrary to some exaggerated depictions in various literary sources, they are unlikely to sink large ships. However, smaller craft and swimmers should pay attention. The main danger is being caught up in a strong current and, with vortices, being sucked under the surface. You can view whirlpools safely in most instances from land — or even in your bathtub. If you want to get a closer look, you could check out the gardens at Alnwick Castle in northern England. The Serpent Garden there features not only a vortex but also other examples of fluid dynamics in the shape of artist William Pye's sculptures. You can also harness the power of a whirlpool in home brewing. Separating the wort from the trub is managed by whirlpool physics, where solid particulate matter is spun out from the liquid simply by creating a vortex. The debris, which includes hops vital to the brew flavor, simply sink to the bottom of the vessel as the whirlpool subsides. Whirlpool Survival 101 If you're not a hop, how can you survive being trapped in a dangerous whirlpool? Avoiding them altogether is one option, but if you're kayaking near them, remember to wear personal protective gear, including a helmet and a buoyancy aid to help you pop back up to the surface. If your boat gets trapped in a whirlpool, use strong paddle strokes to break free of the current. Swimmers should aim for the outside of the whirlpool to reach calmer water, but don't let go of your kayak or paddleboard, as it can be a good buoyancy aid. Buoyancy helped to keep a Chinese submarine afloat when it got trapped by an underwater whirlpool that formed above a deep ocean trench off the city of Hainan. According to The Guardian, making the vessel more buoyant helped prevent it from being pulled beyond its operating range and crushed. 

Fluid Dynamics, Rotation and Surviving Dangerous Whirlpools

Key Takeaways Sunsets are caused by scattered light waves breaking up the spectrum in the atmosphere. Sunsets form with different color palettes each evening, reflecting the atmospheric conditions such as water vapor, dust and pollutants present. Sunsets on Mars, Uranus and Titan look different due to their atmospheres containing iron-rich dust or helium, for example.Sunsets are very dramatic and often highly anticipated. With their vibrant oranges, yellows and reds, they tint the clouds and light up the sky to the delight of romancing couples and photographers alike. These stunning light displays may make you wonder what exactly makes them so colorful. What causes a pink sunset, and why are sunsets different colors sometimes? It comes down to a mixture of natural and human-derived phenomena.A Scattered Approach to Creating a SunsetSunsets are caused by scattered light waves breaking up sunlight in the atmosphere. Light from the sun, though white in appearance, is actually made of up of all colors of the spectrum — from red, which has a longer wavelength, to shorter-wavelength colors like blue and violet.During the day, particles in the Earth's atmosphere — such as water vapor, dust and ash, for example — mostly reflect back short-wavelength blue light from the sun's spectrum. As Vox notes, this is what causes the blue color of sky during the day. Molecules of nitrogen and oxygen in the air reflect the shorter wavelength blue and violet light more than any other color to form the familiar blue dome.However, at the end of the day, the angle of the sun relative to the horizon forces its light to pass through a greater distance of atmosphere than it does when the sun is overhead. Due to a phenomenon known as Rayleigh Scattering, this means that primarily red, yellow and orange light — which all have longer wavelengths — will get through to light up any clouds.What Causes a Pink Sunset?Similar to a rainbow, sunlight contains a full spectrum of colors. However, unlike rainbows — which the Science Education Center of UCAR notes are caused by the refraction of sunlight in water droplets — sunset colors come from light being scattered or reflected as it passes through our atmosphere.According to Earth Eclipse, the pink color comes from mixing the red part of the spectrum with additional white light. This happens when there are more aerosols or fine particulate particles in the air to scatter and reflect the sunlight spectrum. Shorter wavelengths of light such as blue and violet don't get through as much as the longer-wavelength reds and orange, which are in turn reflected and scattered more.Why Are Sunsets Different Colors?Sunsets form with different color palates each evening, and these reflect the atmospheric conditions that the sunlight must pass through to reach our eyes. These conditions also affect the intensity of the colors seen. Since the Raleigh Scattering depends on aerosols in the atmosphere, conditions that alter these fine particles will impact the sunset you see each evening.For example, sunsets are much more intense in winter months. Not only does the sun take longer to set, but the atmosphere contains less water vapor. When humidity is low, aerosol particles have fewer water droplets to interact with, and they don't interact as much with the sunlight passing through. With less reflection, the sunlight spectra are less diffused, and the colors are purer, appearing more vibrant.Another reason for why sunsets are different colors? The level of pollution in the atmosphere. This can be man-made from burning fossil fuels, or from natural events such as hurricanes or even volcanic action throwing dust plumes into the sky. With each of these, sunsets take on a more blue or purple appearance. Grist points out that the effects of volcanic activity in the past is often seen in older art. Industrial smog results in sunsets of dark red, purple, or pink.Atmospheric composition also explains why sunsets seen on other worlds are different. Live Science notes that due to quantities of iron-rich dust found in the Martian atmosphere — which is around 1% the density of that on Earth — sunsets appear blue. On Uranus, with hydrogen, helium and methane in abundance, sunset is blue or turquoise. And on Titan, it is yellow, orange or brown due to this moon's atmospheric composition.Discover how remote sensing technology keeps an eye on conditions here on Earth via orbiting satellites.

What Causes a Pink Sunset, and Where Can You See One?

Key Takeaways Space weather includes any events on or near the sun or in near-Earth space that impact technology and human life. Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and atmosphere protect us from the brunt of severe space weather. The geomagnetic storm of 1859, also called the Carrington Event, caused the Northern Lights to be visible as far south as Hawaii.Everyone is familiar with the concept of weather and how it can affect daily activity and change with the seasons. But what is space weather?According to NASA, "Space weather includes any and all conditions and events on the sun, in the solar wind, in near-Earth space and in our upper atmosphere that can affect space-borne and ground-based technological systems and through these, human life and endeavor."As far as humans are concerned, almost all space weather is due to activity on the Sun's surface. Let's dig into what space weather is by examining four major phenomena: auroras, solar wind, coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares. But first, we must discuss how the Earth is protected from these events.Earth's Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and AtmosphereWe are protected from most space weather by Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and atmosphere. The Earth's magnetic field (or magnetosphere) extends far into space and provides the first layer of protection from weather in space. The magnetosphere isn't actually sphere-shaped but has a shape that's strongly influenced by the solar wind coming from the sun. Like a long-haired dog enjoying the breeze during a car ride, Earth's magnetosphere is teardrop-shaped. The side facing the Sun is compressed by the solar wind, while the night side is stretched into a long "magnetotail." The magnetosphere helps block harmful solar and cosmic radiation.The next layer of protection is the ionosphere, which contains atoms that interact with high-energy particles from the Sun to form charged ions. In the case of auroras, the ions release energy as light. Closer to the Earth's surface, the atmosphere blocks harmful ultraviolet radiation.Let's take a look at a few examples of space weather, starting with auroras — space weather events you've probably seen in photos or videos.AurorasAuroras are colorful, dancing light shows that appear in the night sky at latitudes far from the equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, auroras are known as the Northern Lights or the aurora borealis. In the Southern Hemisphere, they are the Southern Lights or the aurora australis. As National Geographic explains, travelers hoping to see auroras should aim for a magnetic latitude above 55ºC and dark, moonless nights. Auroras can be especially bright around the Spring equinox and the Fall equinox, but there is no guarantee that sky gazers will be lucky enough to see an aurora on any given night. Like many space weather events, auroras are highly unpredictable.Auroras are emissions of visible light that occur at 60 to 250 miles (100 to 400 kilometers) above the Earth's surface. They are due to charged particles (electrons) from the Sun colliding with gases in Earth's upper atmosphere, which is called the ionosphere. An aurora's colors depend on the molecules involved, as described by NASA. Oxygen molecules produce the more common green-yellow auroras as well as rare red auroras. Nitrogen molecules produce blue auroras.Solar WindFrom 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away, the sun is constantly spewing gas and particles into space. This material becomes charged as it passes through the Sun's outer atmosphere (the corona) and streams into space as the solar wind. Like sunlight, the solar wind radiates in all directions, passing through the entire solar system. When the solar wind reaches Earth, it can cause the Earth's magnetosphere to contract and then expand. These changes can cause electromagnetic disturbances on Earth that are usually mild.The solar wind is mild and fairly consistent, whereas coronal mass ejections are extreme and unpredictable.Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs)Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occur when gigantic clouds of magnetized solar particles called plasma erupt from the Sun's outer atmosphere (the corona). CMEs are the result of powerful solar storms and can cause 100 million tons of plasma to hurl through space at over a million miles per hour. It takes this plasma a few days to reach Earth, where it can cause the magnetosphere to temporarily buckle and create colorful auroras in the ionosphere.If a CME reaches Earth, it can trigger a geomagnetic storm. The fluctuating magnetic fields associated with these storms can induce current in long electrical wires. These currents can damage electrical equipment, such as transformers, leading to widespread power failures.A cloud of plasma from a CME can also cause the ionosphere to heat and expand, then cool and contract, which is problematic for satellites that orbit just beyond the ionosphere. Increased friction between a satellite and the atmosphere can drag the satellite into a lower altitude and/or damage it. Both the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station regularly adjust their altitude to remain in orbit.Solar FlaresMagnetic activity within the Sun can cause intense solar storms. During a solar storm, sudden explosions called solar flares can send huge bursts of electromagnetic and particle radiation into space at the speed of light. Electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet (UV) light, X-rays and gamma rays. Particle radiation includes subatomic particles like alpha particles, beta particles, neutrons and positrons. The high-energy UV light, X-rays, gamma rays and particle radiation can be especially damaging.Solar flares are hard to predict and can reach Earth's atmosphere just 8.5 minutes after they occur. Most of the energetic particles will be captured by Earth's magnetosphere, but these high-energy particles can damage spacecraft and satellites used for communication, GPS, imaging, weather and more. Electronic components are especially vulnerable.During a solar flare, the increase in X-ray radiation causes the ionosphere to absorb high-frequency radio waves instead of reflecting them. The resulting radio blackouts temporarily interfere with communication systems and GPS. Solar flares can also produce CMEs, which reach Earth a few days later.Historic Geomagnetic StormThe strongest geomagnetic storm on record is the Carrington Event of September 1859, which caused excess electrical currents to flow through telegraph lines around the world. Telegraph operators were literally shocked, and telegraph equipment and papers caught on fire, as described by History. The Northern Lights were visible as far south as Cuba and Hawaii. The event is named for Richard Carrington, an amateur British astronomer who had observed a solar flare a day or two earlier and noted the coincidence with these worldwide events.Our reliance on electricity has only increased since 1859. Beyond the electrical devices that people plug in every day, such as refrigerators and medical equipment, essential services like clean water distribution, wastewater treatment, and fuel delivery now require electricity for some steps. When the next Carrington-sized event occurs, it could disable a large portion of the North American power grid, which might take years to recover. Many smaller geomagnetic storms have impacted Earth in the meantime, including one on March 13, 1989 that left six million Canadians without electricity for up to nine hours.Dangers to Human HealthHumans are at risk of radiation exposure due to weather in space. Doses of high-energy radiation increase with altitude and can lead to radiation sickness and DNA damage that increases the risk of cancer and other diseases. For someone flying in a plane at 25,000 feet, the exposure to radiation is ~10 times higher than at sea level. At 40,000 feet, which is common for commercial aircraft, the exposure is 50 times higher. Astronauts in low orbit on the International Space Station (ISS) receive the radiation equivalent of 5-10 chest X-rays per day, even without any major space weather events. The situation only becomes more hazardous as humans venture further into space. The planet Mars does not generate its own magnetic field, so any humans traveling to Mars will need other means of protection.Discover how Northrop Grumman is unlocking the mysteries of our solar system with space exploration. 

What Is Space Weather?

When it comes to weirdness, our world never disappoints. Just when we think we have things figured out — bam! — there's suddenly upside-down bursts of blue jet lightning streaming into the stratosphere. Thankfully, science is on the case. Using instruments on the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts were able to track down the spark that sets off this azure atmospheric occurrence. Blue Jets: Such a Bright Thing Terrestrial lighting is a commonplace and relatively well-understood phenomenon. These everyday electrical discharges occur between oppositely charged endpoints — usually storm clouds and the ground — and release up to 1020 worth of electrons. There's even a supercharged form known as "superlightning" that packs a punch equivalent to that of a low-yield nuclear weapon. Yikes. However, blue jet lightning is something else entirely. As Science News notes, this type of lightning arcs up into the stratosphere instead of down toward the ground and glows blue instead of white. The color palette comes down to gas excitement: On its way to Earth, typical lightning excites a host of gases simultaneously to create a white or yellowish light. But as these jets streak into the stratosphere, they primarily excite nitrogen, in turn causing the bright blue glow. These blue blasts aren't uncommon. They've been observed from both the ground and in aircraft, but their mechanism of action was largely a mystery. Now, readings from the ISS are helping scientists better understand these stratospheric cobalt crackles, according to Science News. The Results Are Enlightening Using both traditional cameras and light-sensing photometers, the ISS has observed a number of blue jet events. However, in 2019, the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor on the ISS captured the emergence of blue jet lightning from a storm system near the island of Nauru in the Pacific Ocean, according to the results published in Nature. "The photometer signal in the blue band increased more than two orders of magnitude in the span of 10-20 Î¼s, suggesting that the emissions are from the cloud top, where photons reaching the instruments are relatively unaffected by scattering in the cloud," the study says. Torsten Neubert, an astrophysicist from the Technical University of Denmark in Kongens Lyngby, told Science News that the data collected suggests that these blue jets start with sparks that may be linked to short-range electric discharges within the clouds themselves. Instead of arcing from clouds to the ground like normal lighting, these blue bolts travel upward while cloud mixing at higher altitudes brings oppositely-charged areas much closer together (within a kilometer) to prompt quick but powerful bursts of energy. The ISS also caught sight of four accompanying ultraviolet Emissions of Light and Very Low-Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources — also known as ELVES, since the scientific term is quite a mouthful. It's also worth noting that Earth isn't alone in experiencing these transient luminous events (TLEs). According to Forbes, similar flashes of powerful lightning have been observed above the clouds of Jupiter, though at a much greater magnitude. Still, They're a Little Bit Frightening Blue jets and ultraviolet ELVES aren't the only TLEs occurring in Earth's atmosphere. Red sprites were first reported in 1886 and photographed in 1989. They're tied to cold plasma discharges that occur above terrestrial lightning strikes and often resemble jellyfish, as Forbes points out. According to Smithsonian Magazine, these natural phenomena are much lower-energy than their blue jet counterparts and are rarely observable with the naked eye. Seeing them from Earth typically requires significant distance (100 miles or so), a lack of light pollution and a storm system that's generating a significant amount of lightning. While the risk of getting struck by a blue jet or stung by a red jellyfish sprite is far lower than the already minimal chance of Earthbound zaps from typical lightning, there's still some cause for concern, especially when it comes to radio communication. As Eos notes, when thunderstorm updrafts strengthen, the resulting electrification of clouds can cause temperature increases in the lower ionosphere, which can lead to "prolonged disturbances to radio waves in the rarefied atmospheric layer." Powerful blue jets could potentially precipitate the same issue at higher altitudes, in turn disrupting orbit-to-Earth or space-to-Earth communications for substantive periods of time. The result? The more we know about the natural phenomena of blue jets — what causes them, how often they happen and where they're likely to occur — the better for our atmospheric efforts. Check out Northrop Grumman career opportunities to see how you can participate in this fascinating time of discovery in science, technology and engineering.

Blue Jet Lightning: Exploring the Secret Lives of Thunderclouds

Key Takeaways  Different atmospheres mean that weather conditions aren't necessarily the same on each planet. Lack of water and presence of other gases in the atmosphere influences the type of rain that forms. Gathering planetary weather data for modeling could help the search for other worlds capable of sustaining life and also give insight into climate change here on Earth.The weather outside might be frightful, but have you ever wondered about the weather in space? Since other planets have different atmospheres than Earth, weather conditions aren't necessarily the same on each planet.Solar System-Wide WeatherSystem-wide weather exists in the form of solar storms; waves of electromagnetic particles blast off from the sun's surface as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. The effects range from widespread power outages to interference with the radiocommunications, as well as impressive light shows like the auroras or polar lights over the poles.NASA invests heavily in space weather technology like satellites and low Earth orbiting systems to monitor impact on our own climate. The agency is also keeping tabs on weather across our solar system and beyond, with findings that could be useful to life here on Earth.Windy Outlook on MarsWeather tech here on Earth helps predict extreme weather scenarios, like shifting polar vortex impact on cold weather outflow. It also helps outpace storms for proactive response to prevent damage. Our storms are localized to specific areas on Earth, but the entirety of Mars can be enveloped in a dust storm. On Jupiter, NASA has found cyclones that cover most of the planet. Storms also last a long time in space; the biggest storm on Jupiter — visible as the Great Red Spot to astronomers — has been active for hundreds of years. On Uranus, IFL Science describes how infrared telescopes track giant hurricanes across the planet.Martian winds form due to the difference in air temperatures between hot and cold surfaces; the planet's sandy surface gains and loses heat rapidly to drive air movement, but the atmosphere lacks moisture and is much thinner than Earth's. Although it's easier to whip up a planet-wide dust storm, wind speeds measured by the various Mars rovers are not as great as on Earth. Despite the lack of power, Space notes that Martian dust is electromagnetically charged; in addition to "sticky" particles obscuring solar panels powering planetary rovers, storms wreak havoc on sensitive electronics.Raining Diamonds on SaturnConditions on other planets are not the same as on Earth. Planets such as Venus and Jupiter lack our atmosphere rich in nitrogen and oxygen, and there is no moisture to drive a lifegiving water cycle. It shouldn't be surprising that the weather in space also differs; something as simple as rain might not be the same wet stuff we're used to here on Earth.For example, according to a report in Nature, scientists believe it could be raining diamonds on Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.Based on observations by interplanetary spacecraft like Cassini, researchers theorized that lightning could split carbon atoms from atmospheric methane, forming soot, which would then create diamond or graphite under combinations of high pressure, heat and then rapid cooling. Saturn's intense atmospheric pressure squeezes carbon into diamond or graphite projectiles that zip around like bullets in the wind. These extremes could also create diamond oceans on Neptune.This might also be happening outside our solar system. Gizmodo reports that it could be raining gemstones on exoplanet HAT-P-7b. The Kepler space telescope spotted changes in brightness that could signify rubies and sapphires squeezing from the corundum-containing clouds circling the far-off world.Acid Rain on Venus and Dry Ice Snow on MarsPollution causes acid rain on Earth; on Venus, it happens naturally as sunlight splits sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere, according to research from the European Space Agency Venus Express probe. However, the Venusian atmosphere comprises a thick blanket of carbon dioxide that prevents heat from the sun escaping, so the acid rain drops evaporate long before they hit the planet's surface.Methane rains on Saturn's moon Titan, according to Astronomy. Over the polar regions on Mars, snow falls as dry ice or solid carbon dioxide since the atmosphere is largely devoid of water vapor.What We Can Learn From Weather in SpaceSo why bother with weather forecasts on other planets? Is it worth knowing about the vertical double eye of the northern polar vortex on Venus? The answer is that this kind of data can help with life on Earth, especially in the face of climate change.Weather on Mars, for example could help scientists understand vulnerabilities in the water cycle here on Earth. Research has shown that Mars once held surface water. A report in Nature on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter describes how dust storms transport water vapor into the escape region of the upper atmosphere.Gathering planetary weather data for modeling could help the search for other worlds capable of sustaining life. A report from the NASA Goddard Space Institute mentioned in Science Alert proposes that Venus might have been habitable at one point. Virtual modeling suggests that although its current climate causes an intense greenhouse effect, the planet might have been habitable for around 3 billion years. This could re-direct searches for Earth-like exoplanets into regions around stars previously discounted.Farther from home, New Atlas reports on climate data modeling for the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanet system of Earth-like planets circling a red dwarf star. This kind of research can help space telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope pick out habitability signals across space and perhaps direct interplanetary travel in the future.Space technology gives us an eye on distant planets. Learn how the James Webb space telescope gives us a view of our universe.

Raining Diamonds on Saturn, and Other Stories of Weather in Space

Tsunamis, Hurricanes, Eruptions: Predicting a Natural Disaster

In 2019, solar power accounted for nearly 15 percent of the renewable energy generated in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions expects that figure to grow to 48 percent by 2050. This trend is driven in part by states' growing commitment to fighting climate change by transitioning from fossil-fueled power to renewable forms of energy. As a result, independent system operators (ISO) of the national power grid are becoming increasingly reliant on solar forecasting tools to help maintain a reliable, balanced and economically efficient grid. "Having an accurate sense of what solar panels are going to be producing helps us ensure that we have enough electricity on hand to meet our power demands," said Matthew Kakley, a spokesman for ISO-New England. "It also helps us create the energy forecast that we use to maintain a stable wholesale market for power buyers and sellers, and ensure that we're getting the electricity that consumers need at efficient and competitive prices." Solar forecasts — most of which are produced by commercial vendors — are also used by energy traders, and operators of large solar plants to manage operations or to schedule maintenance. Typical power sellers include energy producers such as power plants or solar farms. Typical buyers include local utility companies that distribute power to consumers. Forecasting the Future According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Golden, Colorado, there are two basic approaches to solar forecasting:   Physical methods, which use numerical weather prediction (NWP) models to forecast solar irradiance — solar energy per unit area falling on a horizontal surface — in a particular region. Irradiance data is used to predict the power output from solar photovoltaic cells; and ...     Statistical methods, which use historic and real-time generation data to correct results derived from NWP models, or to produce short-term forecasts.  Gathering the Data Irradiance data, explained Bri-Mathias Hodge, chief scientist for the NREL's Power Systems Engineering Center, is typically collected either terrestrially using an instrument called a pyranometer, or from space by satellites such as NASA's family of GOES-R environmental sensing satellites. "Irradiance has two components: direct normal irradiance such as sunlight shining directly on a solar cell, and diffuse irradiance, which is sunlight that's been reflected off clouds and particles in the atmosphere," Hodge said. Among other things, Hodge added, the geostationary GOES-R satellites can identify the types of clouds present, how they're distributed in the sky, how much shadow they're creating over solar farms and where they'll move next. The satellites' focus on short-term phenomena makes this data most valuable for predicting solar energy production within, say, the next four hours. Adding Magic to Experience According to Hodge, most solar forecasts used in the U.S., are based on weather prediction models — with a little bit of experience and "secret sauce" added in by forecast vendors. "Grid operators typically use what we call a deterministic or point forecasts to predict solar output at a given location at a given time, for example, 50 Megawatts of power at 1 p.m.," Hodge said. "If I'm forecasting a day ahead, I would use NWP model output like NOAA produces, then adjust that data based on local weather information and the history of how accurate it's been. For an hour-ahead forecast, I'd rely more on a statistical or machine-learning approach." And, like weather reports, Hodge added, the accuracy of solar forecasts tends to follow an exponential decay curve. "Once you go past four hours, the most reliable models will be the NWP variety," he said. "If you're looking at the weekend or a week ahead, you would still use an NWP model, but the accuracy of a week ahead is much less than it would be for say, a day-ahead forecast." Improving the Odds To make solar forecasting more reliable for national power grid operators, Hodge advises, the solar industry is now moving toward using more probabilistic forecasts. "There will always be weather-related uncertainties associated with even the most robust solar power point forecasts," he said. "A probabilistic forecast is better at quantifying these uncertainties and the degree of risk associated with a given forecast, in the same way that a weather forecast might say there is a 10 percent chance of rain today." Measuring Invisible Power In some parts of the country, such as New England, much of the solar power being consumed is not readily visible to or controlled by grid operators. This "behind the meter" (BTM) solar power comes from small, privately owned, often rooftop solar installations and is typically consumed where it is generated. At last count, advised Kakley, there was more than 3400 MW of BTM solar capacity installed in New England or about 15 percent of the region's typical peak electrical load of 23,000 MW. "Knowing when that solar power is going to be available and when it's not is vitally important for our forecasting team because on a cloudy day, we need to make sure we can replace that 3,000 or so MW of capacity," he said. "This task is especially challenging because residential solar shows up on our grid not as a source of power, but rather as a lack of demand." Making Predictions Nonetheless, added Kakley, solar forecasting remains a vital part of ISO-NE's management of two types of energy trading markets: its day-ahead market and the real-time market. The day-ahead market allows energy traders to secure prices the day before delivery while avoiding market price volatility. The real-time market allows market participants to buy and sell wholesale electricity to balance the difference between day-ahead energy commitments and real-time demand for and production of electricity. "We do our solar forecast in five-minute increments and feed it into the overall energy forecast that guides system operations," he said. "Knowing how much solar is being used on the grid helps ISO-NE operators decide which other types of power resources to dispatch (i.e. select) to satisfy fluctuations in demand for electricity." Over the next 10 years, Kakley added, "ISO-NE expects the amount of BTM solar power in New England to double, so it's going to be even more important to have an accurate accounting of how much power those solar panels are producing as part of developing our daily energy forecasts." Keeping the Lights On From a broader perspective, Kakley advised, solar energy and solar forecasting tools are both important parts of a major transformation occurring in the power industry. U.S. cities and states are looking increasingly to renewable energy and new energy-saving technologies as a way to reduce their carbon footprint and their reliance on greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels. "There are a lot of moving parts in this transition of the power grid," said Kakley. "Through it all, our number one job is to make sure that our system works, that it remains reliable and that the lights stay on." If you're ready to add power to your career and some green to your future, please visit www.northropgrumman.com/careers.

Solar Forecasting Helps Ensure Balance, Stability of National Power Grid

From Clouds to Cloud: Weather Forecasting for Long-Range Prediction

Have you ever wondered what causes the Northern Lights phenomenon? It's not magic; it's electrically charged particles and gaseous particles colliding in the air. What causes this collision? The answer can be found in space.   As human infrastructure expands into space, predicting the weather in that environment becomes just as important as it is on Earth. The U.S. military is steadily increasing its dependence on satellites for communication, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, so accurate space weather prediction technology is vital.   A Solar Storm Is Brewing   The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center monitors Earth's upper atmosphere for possible hazardous solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or large releases of matter and electromagnetic radiation.   These outbursts, known as a solar storm, are occasionally directed toward Earth, creating large disturbances in our magnetic field and upper atmosphere. Such events can have a major or even catastrophic impact on the performance and reliability of technological systems in space and on Earth, and can even endanger human health, according to NOAA.   How to Forecast   Accurate prediction is a challenge, which is why meteorologists seek to improve the ability to characterize the global climate and predict and track storms. To accomplish this, scientists gather data from remote sensing assets like unmanned aerial vehicles and geostationary satellites. Space weather forecasting helps meteorologists better understand how Earth's atmosphere responds to changes in the space environment and how satellites are impacted.   The History of Space Situational Awareness Tech In collaboration with the European Space Agency, NASA operates the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. SOHO's instruments monitor the sun, from its deep core to its outer corona. Continuously imaging the solar corona is critical to forecasting, as it provides advance warning of a solar storm.   In 2006, NASA launched the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory spacecraft. STEREO employs 3-D vision and advanced stereoscopic imaging to observe the sun and determine how quickly phenomena are moving.   NASA's Living With a Star program manages various space weather missions. In 2010, NASA launched the first LWS mission, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, to study the sun's magnetic field. In 2012, NASA launched the Van Allen Probes to monitor the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth. The more we understand about the belts, the easier it will be to predict future storms. Future LWS missions include the Space Environment Testbed, launched in 2019, with the goal of improving spacecraft hardware performance in the space radiation environment.   Parallel to NASA's efforts, the U.S. Air Force is improving its own forecasting abilities and its understanding of space weather's impact on its current and future fleet of spacecraft. The Air Force plans to install Energetic Charged Particle sensors on its next generation of spacecraft by 2023, according to Space News.   The Key Players   In addition to NASA, many organizations across the planet contribute to space weather situational awareness and knowledge database, according to NOAA. The European Space Agency's Space Situational Awareness program includes extensive space weather monitoring, for example.    The American Commercial Space Weather Association includes a growing number of commercial companies, such as Space Environment Technologies, the Carmel Research Center and many others, that are major providers of data products. The Air Force is actively working to expand its collaboration with these commercial and international partners.   Yes, There's an App for That . . .    For those who want to keep track of space weather themselves, a number of smartphone apps are available, such as the Space Weather App or <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/releases/2012/12-20.html" target="_blaNASA Space Weather.    

Space Weather Prediction: Weathering the Solar Storm

You've heard of earthquakes. You may have even heard of Marsquakes. But have you heard of earthquakes in space, or spacequakes?Earth experiences a sort of quake in its magnetic field. It's part of the complex space weather the planet endures on a daily basis (very different than atmospheric weather — more on that later). Let's explore what spacequakes are, why they happen and what effect they have on our planet.Earthquakes, Marsquakes, Starquakes — Oh My!Before talking about the ones that occur in space, it's useful to understand what causes earthquakes in the first place. Earthquakes happen when the planet's tectonic plates, which are constantly moving and shifting, get stuck. Stress builds up between the plates, and when they are finally able to move again, a tremendous amount of energy known as an earthquake is released.The moon and Mars both have quakes on their surfaces, too, just like Earth, but they are distinct from one another. Earthquakes travel in a direct way through the planet while moonquakes are more scattered. Marsquakes fall in between these two. And that's not all — there are all kinds of quakes around our solar system.Starquakes occur in a specific type of dense neutron star, which is the remnant of a massive star's core after it's collapsed, called a magnetar. A magnetar is a neutron star with a magnetic field so strong that it actually warps the outer layer of the star, a hard crust that forms over a fluid core. When this warping occurs, it's called a starquake.Asteroids have quakes, too. Over the millions and billions of years that asteroids move through space, their surface turns a dark red color thanks to exposure to cosmic rays and radiation. But some don't, and scientists believe this is due to close flybys of planets that cause seismic events on asteroids. As they're twisted and rocked by the gravity of other planets, that red muck is cleaned off thanks to seismic asteroidquakes.How Are Quakes in Space Different?Obviously, spacequakes are different than earthquakes and quakes of other planetary bodies because there aren't shifting tectonic plates to think about. But there are strong magnetic forces that make up spacequakes. These earthquakes in space are still considered temblors or tremors, but instead of being on land, they're located inside Earth's magnetic field.Earth's magnetosphere is one of the reasons life can exist on this planet. We have a strong magnetic field compared to our fellow inner rocky planets. This protects us from space radiation and our atmosphere from erosion, among other things. But despite its protective nature, our magnetosphere isn't a calm and tranquil place. Interaction between our magnetic field and solar wind is what creates space weather — and earthquakes in space.Earth's magnetic field is extended out like the tail of a comet thanks to solar wind. When it gets overstretched, it ends up snapping back like a rubber band. That's when spacequakes, which were first detected in 2010 by the THEMIS spacecraft, occur. Solar wind plasma (also called ionized gas) that's trapped in the magnetic tail is released and races toward Earth. It gets caught in Earth's geomagnetic field, but the impact sets off a chain of events in which the trapped plasma actually bounces off the magnetic field over and over again.When this happens, it creates "space twisters," or vortices, high above Earth's equator. They're visible from Earth through auroras, where they can create ripples. Spacequakes are so strong that their energy is equivalent to a magnitude 5 or 6 earthquake, and while they occur in space, the reverberations can reach Earth's surface. These strong magnetic events can also instigate spikes in electricity that can affect the power grid.While these earthquakes in space may have electromagnetic effects that can reach Earth's surface, they generally don't cause permanent damage of any kind. But researchers are still delving into the potential implications of these natural phenomena to understand their short- and long-term effects on the planet.Interested in all things in outer space and exploration? We are, too. Take a look at open positions at Northrop Grumman and consider joining our team.

What Are Spacequakes, and How Do They Happen?

Visiting countries in the northern latitudes during winter is often a great opportunity to see the aurora borealis, or the Northern Lights. This awe-inspiring natural phenomenon is a beautiful addition to winter's night skies, and many people plan holidays simply to view the flickering lights overhead. They may be natural, but they're not always predictable. So, what causes the Northern Lights? And what's the best way to make sure you see them on a holiday? Shimmering Curtains of Dancing Light The Northern Lights are one of the two aurora polaris phenomena visible from Earth. Focused around the Earth's two magnetic poles, the aurora borealis shines out over the northern latitudes, while the aurora australis shimmers above the south pole. The Northern Lights are seen on dark winter nights as curtains of shimmering colors. These include greens and blues, plus pink, red and purple. The lights often move or pulse as curtains of light. They are seen high in the atmosphere, between 100 and 300 km high (around 328,000-984,000 feet), but they have been recorded at heights of 600 km. They are definitely strange phenomena to witness, and people often describe them as quite emotional to see. CBC News shares that Indigenous people in the north include the aurora borealis in stories of ancestors, connecting the lights with spirits moving and dancing across the sky. The lights are also visible from space. In fact, Space.com notes that astronauts aboard the International Space Station have shared photographs of the Northern Lights taken from above, showing a dancing necklace of greenish light surrounding the poles. Upon seeing them for the first time, many people often ask what causes the Northern Lights. Solar Wind and Charged Particles Astronomers have a clear idea of what causes the Northern Lights: the sun's influence on Earth's night sky.  The solar wind generated by our closest star pushes a steady stream of charged particles toward us. The Canadian Space Agency describes how these protons and electrons collide with the planet's upper atmosphere where they create tiny flashes of light with each collision. These collisions are what causes the Northern Lights in the night sky. Incoming solar winds then interact with the Earth's magnetic field, streaming the charged plasma flow toward the poles; this is where the light show takes place. The aurora is similar to rock luminescence as it's also a reaction where charged particles from the sun react with atoms in the atmosphere to activate their electrons. Aurora borealis activity is heavily dependent on solar activity. You're much more likely to see the Northern Lights when sunspots are active, which occurs over an 11-year cycle. What Causes the Northern Lights Color Spectrum? Collisions between solar wind charged particles and Earth's upper atmosphere create the lights, but the color of the light emitted depends on what the particles collide with. For example, the Canadian Space Agency describes how pink and dark red forms when electrons collide with the element nitrogen. Collisions with oxygen at higher altitudes of around 300 to 400 km create red auroras, whereas green light is emitted at lower altitudes. Blue and purple fringes of light come from collisions with hydrogen and helium. The best time to see an aurora is against a dark night sky, when the colors are easier to pick out. They're simply not visible when it's light, hence the best time of year for viewing in the northern hemisphere is between mid-September and mid-March. Different Auroras, and Auroras in Different Places The traditional aurora borealis shows as curtains of greenish light streaming down toward the ground. However, this isn't the only type of aurora visible. Astronomers have recorded two additional styles of northern lights. One features horizontal frozen waves of light, which are called dunes. The other displays a streak of purple light and is often accompanied by a "green picket fence," as a CBC Quirks and Quarks radio show once described it. This phenomenon is called STEVE, which stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, and it has been classified largely thanks to work by citizen science. And there's also often a difference between the auroras visible at each pole. Astronomers expected the light shows to mirror each other at Earth's North and South poles, but when examined, they found that the activity didn't match. According to Scientific American, this is due to the sun's magnetic field impacting the tails of the Earth's magnetic field in an unequal fashion. And it's not just peculiar to Earth. NASA notes that auroras are possible on any planet with an atmosphere and a magnetic field. They're also visible on Saturn and Jupiter. Are you interested in science and innovation? We are, too. Check out Northrop Grumman career opportunities to see how you can participate in this fascinating time of discovery.

What Causes the Northern Lights?

Key Takeaways  2014 saw the first recorded evidence of a space hurricane in our upper atmosphere, which looks similar to its Earthbound cousins, complete with calm center eye. Space hurricanes are caused by solar winds interacting with Earth's magnetic field, and may be common around any planet with similar features. These intrasolar weather events can temporarily knock out satellites, causing communications glitches, radio blackouts and GPS problems.Researchers recently found that a few years back, they "slept" through a hurricane. On analyzing weather satellite data from 2014, scientists discovered evidence of a hurricane from space that pushed plasma toward Earth's upper atmosphere. Though these events are invisible to the eye, the evidence reveals that they're not uncommon. Understanding more about them could help to protect satellite and communications systems from disturbance and preserve radar and GPS output for life below on the planet's surface.A Swirling Vortex of PlasmaSatellites in orbit around the planet gather immense amounts of data on environmental and climate activity. A recent publication in Nature Communications explains how the first hurricane from space was discovered through analysis of data gathered back in August 2014.The research team looked at recently released files containing measurements taken by four satellites in the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. From their analysis, the scientists created a 3D image that showed the hurricane from space forming features similar to what we're familiar with in Earth's lower atmosphere. A press release in Science Daily describes it as a gigantic spiral of plasma, with its arms swirling counterclockwise above the North Pole.The space hurricane, complete with a calm eye at its center, saw plasma whipping around at 4,700 miles per hour (or 2,100 meters per second). Researchers tracked its progress over eight hours of activity as the storm dumped a steady stream of electron rain across the ionosphere into Earth's upper atmosphere.What Makes a Space Hurricane?On Earth, hurricanes are created by differences in air pressure. Physics World describes how warm, moist air rises over the oceans to create areas of low pressure. This in turn sucks in air from higher-pressure areas, creating strong winds and bringing clouds to dump massive amounts of rain. The energy unleashed during a storm is huge, and there's usually a lot of damage.With hurricanes from space, there's also a lot of energy involved, but the storm itself is not caused by pressure gradients. In the vacuum of space, researchers thought that solar wind and geomagnetic turbulence were probably the answer. However, upon checking the satellite data, the scientists found that these were relatively quiet.Thinking this unusual, the research team looked for another solution, using modeling to run various scenarios. What they found was quite a surprise. Instead of an outburst from the sun pushing plasma winds onto the Earth's magnetosphere, the model showed that magnetic field lines were responsible for the hurricane. Incoming solar winds interacted with the magnetic field over the North Pole to whip the plasma stream into the vortex that the satellites detected.As Astronomy explains, the alignment between the Sun's magnetic field and the Earth's facilitated electron flow. Although similar to the convection currents generated during hurricane formation, the energy driving the process came from the Sun above rather than warmth in the oceans below.Smithsonian Magazine notes that space hurricanes are probably much more common than expected since conditions like this exist around numerous other planets.Space Weather and Life on EarthPlasma is the fourth state of matter. University College London describes it as gas that is so superheated that the atoms split apart to release electrons. Usually, plasma is invisible unless particles of the ionizing radiation fall into the atmosphere to form an aurora borealis. The researcher team found evidence that an aurora formed above the storm.The magnetosphere creates a protective layer that protects Earth against plasma from the solar wind. Turbulence develops at the interface as it deflects the flow of electrons. However, ionization does more than create a stunning light show. Space weather such as this can also impact radio communications and satellite transmissions, for example, leading to satellite lag and decreasing the accuracy of beyond-the-horizon radar. As Science Alert notes, this weather could even knock out the satellites we rely on for a lot of day-to-day activities.While you may not see a hurricane from space, you may have experienced them on the surface as communications glitches, radio blackouts and GPS confusion. The more we understand about space weather, the better scientists can protect our communications systems in the future, as well as spot space weather on other planets.Solar hurricanes aren't the only form of space weather — solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can also impact life on Earth. Learn more.

First Recorded Hurricane From Space Pushes Plasma Toward Earth's Upper Atmosphere

 In a paper from California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the author laments the loss of connection between machine learning and solving real-world problems. The main question that seems to come up is: what good can machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) do? A lot, as it turns out. AI could play a big role in aiding and even solving the issues of world hunger and poverty in ways that are surprisingly simple, but increasingly necessary.   AI's Natural Abilities Used in New Ways    When you think of AI, it's possible that fixing world hunger isn't the first application that comes to mind. However, when broken down to their most basic components, world issues need more of one thing: data. The right kind of data can help identify issues that impoverished regions face, which, in turn, can lead to solutions. Information processing and solution finding are the backbone of AI, and enlisting its help can generate the data required by global initiatives to identify regions in the greatest need of aid.    Global programs like the United Nations and World Bank have launched initiatives to reduce world hunger and poverty that need the massive amounts of data and analytics that AI technology can mine and sift through. The UN is developing strategies at conferences like AI for Good Global Summit to figure out how AI can help them fulfill their Sustainable Development Goals, while the World Bank is taking a more direct approach. They've partnered with Orbital Insight, a geospatial analysis company, to determine whether satellite data can improve ways of tracking poverty and socioeconomic trends globally.  Capturing images of distressed areas via satellite, for example, provides markers that measure how a village is doing. A team of scientists from Stanford University's Department of Earth System Science created a poverty mapping technique that uses satellite images to capture and measure luminosity levels to determine what potentially impoverished areas look like during the day and night. The daytime images highlight the homes, roads, cars and other aspects of the village to provide a baseline of how many people live there and what resources are nearby. If the population is sparse or the area is rural, less light in nighttime satellite images would be expected. However, if a village is well populated but has less electricity than expected, that can be an indicator of poverty.    Gathering this type of data could make it possible to pinpoint the areas most affected by poverty. Providing that information to humanitarian groups, NGOs and even governments could better equip them to deal with a region's unique issues.   In Times of Crisis ...    As smartphones gain popularity in the developing world, the possibilities for AI to contribute to struggling communities grow. Researchers from the Data Science Institute and Department of Computing at Imperial College in London developed an algorithm that can look at mobile data from users in a region to predict the gender of the user. When a disaster hits, those traceable demographics could potentially help identify and track the most vulnerable users (such as women with young children) and get aid to them faster, even in remote or dangerous areas.    Another method of tracking crisis victims combines smartphones with our innate human need to socialize or let our friends and family know when something is going on. Crisis-mapping technology uses social media, email and texts to identify and map areas where a natural disaster or other humanitarian crisis is happening. An open source software program created by researchers from the Qatar Computing Research Institute called Artificial Intelligence for Disaster Response (AIDR) collects and classifies tweets posted during an event. Using a keyword and tag tracker, this software marries machine learning and the natural human impulse to share and connect during times of crisis to create virtual maps that can show events as they are happening.   Enable targeting cookies to view this content.   Despite all of the good that planning, gathering data, and developing programs may do, helping those in crisis does require some on the ground (or in the sky) legwork. Humanitarian aid is an important part of the mission that the Northrop Grumman autonomous aircraft system Global Hawk has taken on. In 2013, it was able to find a safe zone for humanitarian aid during Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines using data collected through detailed imagery. It was also able to determine safe roads and fields to guide rescue teams to displaced survivors to get them help. In addition to being an "eye in the sky" for rescue missions, Global Hawk also supported requests from international partners to surveil areas of Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and the Fukushima disaster in 2011.   AI and Humanity Entering the Future, Hand-in-Hand    Next steps for injecting AI and machine learning into humanitarian aid vary from collecting and developing crops that can adapt to a changing climate to drones and smartphone accessories that can deliver medical attention to remote areas. These methods aren't tactics being saved for a far-off future; they can happen right now. Jack Hidary, a serial tech entrepreneur and Senior Advisor to XLabs, told the Telegraph that "In low-income areas, agriculture and healthcare are two critical ecosystems that we can apply AI to immediately."    While the debate rages on about artificial intelligence and how it will affect the workforce of those in developed nations, those in developing nations could benefit from the intervention of technology into their lives. Partnerships between world health organizations and AI-driven initiatives like Orbital Insight, AIDR and Global Hawk show that the efforts to combat world hunger are becoming more focused. As AI technology evolves, its role in providing solutions and data to help combat world problems will grow, providing us with an insight into our world and society that we may have never seen without it.

World Hunger and Disaster Relief Are the Next Targets for Artificial Intelligence

"Houston, we have a problem!" 
Those words from the astronauts of Apollo 13 triggered the most famous emergency response of the space age, as the crew and their teammates back on Earth fought to bring their crippled spaceship safely home.
Bringing history full circle, NASA's own Houston Space Flight Center has required hurricane protection, so that it can continue its mission of providing first responders, crisis managers and the public with critical information about storm and flooding conditions.
Real-Time Hurricane Trackers
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Hurricane Harvey first pummeled the city and its surrounding metropolitan area with historic record rainfall, then came back around to hit them with more. Some locations recorded nearly 5 feet of rainfall.
Thousands have been rescued from the rising floodwaters, while tens of thousands more fled their homes. Simply grasping the full scope of the tragedy is an ongoing process. Floodwaters may not recede for weeks; full recovery and rebuilding will take years.
Every stage of the emergency response, from tracking the hurricane to planning rescue missions, has relied crucially on reconnaissance information from space. We have become so accustomed to space imagery that we take it for granted — real-time images of the storm itself and detailed, high-resolution mapping images showing the hurricane from space and extent of the flooding.
All of it is critical lifesaving data, and all of it depends on keeping NASA's mission control and space-based hurricane trackers in operation, even amid a catastrophic flood.
Information to the Rescue


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A key player in hurricane protection is the Aqua Earth Observing System satellite, as reported at Space.com. Aqua sends back infrared-light telemetry that allows meteorologists to identify the cloud bands within a hurricane or tropical storm that are most likely to produce heavy rainfall.
When these intense rain bands stalled over the Houston area, Aqua data tipped off forecasters that the greatest threat from Harvey would come not from its high winds or ocean waves, but from days of constant, intense rainfall over the Houston region's low-lying terrain.
Amid the flood disaster, according to Ars Technica, NASA maintained a skeleton crew of 125 people to maintain critical functions ranging from Mission Control for the International Space Station to managing the space center's own emergency response plan.
A NASA spokesperson emailed Ars Technica noting that "[c]urrent work focuses on supporting critical operations, riding out the storm and addressing minor issues such as fixing leaks and keeping drains open as they arise."
Working alongside NASA during space emergencies is a place that Northrop Grumman has been before. We built the Lunar Module, which, though never meant as a lifeboat, safely carried the Apollo 13 astronauts 250,000 miles back to Earth.
We were there for Houston with the Aqua Earth Observing System. And we'll be there tomorrow with the latest hurricane tracker.

Hurricane Tracking: Houston, We Have You in Sight

For millennia, we studied the world without the benefit of a view from orbit. Then, in 1947, a camera flew 100 miles above ground. In an instant, our view expanded by far more than the millions of square miles captured in four black and white frames. The era of studying objects in space via remote sensing continues to this day, with the aid of detailed maps using visual, thermal and chemical data. The blue dunes — constructed images celebrating the Odyssey orbiter's 20th anniversary — demonstrate how remote sensing satellites not only show us the geology of Mars but also allow us to map out future missions there. A Deceivingly Simple Mission At first glance, the Mars Odyssey explorer has a straightforward-sounding mission: to detail the amount and distribution of chemicals and minerals in the Martian surface. To do this, Odyssey first flew 200 days through deep space. Then, since real-time remote control from Earth isn't possible 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) from Earth, it followed pre-written instructions: Slow down from 5.4 km/sec (12,000 mph) to 4.3 km/sec (10,000 mph). Insert into orbit. Photograph the same amount of land as the Earth using three instruments. Find water, if possible, and anything that might have been shaped by water. Look for hydrogen and other chemicals, too. And don't crash. Simple and to the point — but far from easy. Twenty years ago, the imperative to go make a map of Mars came with a high risk of failure. Prior to Odyssey, 30 total missions from the U.S., Russia and Japan attempted to reach Mars. Only 10 managed to return images. Most either exploded on the launch pad, malfunctioned in transit or missed Mars entirely. The two missions immediately prior to Odyssey didn't miss the planet enough. Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar lander were destroyed on arrival. By the time Odyssey came along, NASA needed to stick the Mars landing — not just for the sake of the eponymously named orbiter. When Odyssey successfully took up its survey of the red planet, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers were less than two years from launch. They would be the first Mars rovers since Sojourner in 1996. The maps they would use to land in 2004, made by Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), showed that many surface features seemed to have been made by flowing water, some of which seemed to still be on the move. Gullies were clearly seen changing shape from one year to the next. MGS images also showed boulders the size of houses in some areas. Spirit and Opportunity intended to avoid those as well as smaller obstacles during landing. But for that, they would need better maps. Much better maps. Thanks in part to Odyssey, both Spirit and Opportunity (or Oppy, as the rover came to be called) managed to avoid giant boulders and other calamities. The two rovers went on to exceed their original mission by more than a decade. That time was spent investigating the geology of Mars up close, observing targets picked by Odyssey and MGS scientists as possibly water-made or even water-containing. From 400 km (250 miles) up, Odyssey identified sites of interest not only by physical appearance but also by temperature and what each structure contained. That's where the blue dunes come in. Cold Contrast While not actually blue in any way, shape or form, the false-colored dunes are in fact much colder than the surrounding dunes at Mars' northern polar cap. From an exploration standpoint, that's very interesting. Water ice trapped there wouldn't sublimate as frequently, making these dunes a potential target for finding the much-sought-after stuff of life. Then again, their lower temperatures indicate that the sun doesn't reach there for as long or as often. Robotic explorers counting on solar power might well run out of juice before completing their study. It might take a remote sampling mission like Mars Ingenuity, an explorer powered by something other than sunlight or even a person to find out if these colder dunes hold the substance we've been seeking all over the planet for half a century. The long-term goals of Mars exploration are many and stacked: Find the water and look for life. Extract the water on Mars to make fuel supplies and air. Feed the habitat's plants and people. For our dreams to come to pass, we first have to find a large, accessible supply of water — or, more likely, more than one. Enhanced-color images like the blue dunes highlight changes in geomorphology that guide major decisions about planetary exploration. Given how much we know about Mars today from the cameras mounted on MGS, Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, it's amazing to think that the Solar System Exploration Committee argued against sending a mission to Mars with a camera onboard. The reason? In the 1990s, the images gathered from Viking in the 1970s were believed to be good enough for future mission planning. This line of reasoning appears now and again, most recently with the Juno mission to Jupiter. JunoCam, the onboard camera, isn't even listed as a scientific instrument. Image processing from JunoCam has been outsourced to the public. Analysis from JunoCam and the handful of active Mars Orbiters is still taking place at NASA. In the near future, the distant dunes may be colored in by anyone with the curiosity, will and talent to make their mark on Mars exploration. Interested in all things in outer space and exploration? We are, too. 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