ESA Releases Bad and Good News from Earth's Atmosphere Studies

Carbon dioxide emissions increased in East Asia (right) at an average rate of 9.8% per year from 2003 to 2011, but nitrogen oxides increased by ‘only’ 5.8% per year.  

This indicates a use of cleaner technology in East Asia. 

North America and Europe, however, show slightly decreasing trends for both gases. 

The maps show the corresponding spatial pattern as obtained from the satellite data: red corresponds to regions with high values of NOx and CO2, while blue indicates background values.

Credit: ESA

While Europe and North America show a decrease in emission trends between 2003 and 2011, emissions related to economic growth in East Asia continue to rise, but with a reduction in nitrogen oxides emitted per amount of carbon dioxide.

This demonstrates the use of cleaner technology in East Asia.

Nitrogen oxides are generated during the high-temperature combustion of fossil fuels in automobiles and industrial machinery.

They contribute significantly to a reduction of air quality and can be the cause of respiratory problems.

At the same time, these sources release large amounts of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is toxic only at very high concentrations, but is the most important man-made greenhouse gas, leading to global warming and its related consequences.

In a study published yesterday in Nature Geoscience, scientists from the University of Bremen in Germany used data from the Sciamachy instrument on ESA’s Envisat satellite to measure nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide trends from 2003 to 2011.

They also exploited  Sciamachy-based data products generated within the ‘GHG-CCI’ project under ESA’s Climate Change Initiative.

“Nitrogen dioxide has a relatively short lifetime, hours, compared to carbon dioxide, which lasts decades, and is a suitable tracer of recently emitted carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion,” explained Maximilian Reuter, lead author of the study.

“Sciamachy measured nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide simultaneously. We used a spatial high-pass filtering method to isolate the anthropogenic carbon dioxide signal from overlaying signals due to uptake and release of carbon dioxide by vegetation.”

Satellite-derived CO2 concentrations proportional to local anthropogenic emissions in North America and Europe. 

The green line shows the mean value and the grey-shaded area its variability and uncertainty. 

This indicates that less CO2 is emitted during weekends compared to week days.

Using this method, the scientists were able to better see where and when carbon dioxide was emitted.

For example, it showed that less carbon dioxide from local anthropogenic sources is emitted during weekends in Europe and North America compared to week days.

“This has never been observed from space before and shows how accurate the used method is,” said Dr Reuter.

Although Envisat’s mission ended in 2012, a decade of data from its 10 instruments is still being exploited for studies on Earth’s atmosphere, land, oceans and ice caps.

“Unfortunately, none of the existing nor any of the planned near-future satellites are designed to directly observe carbon dioxide emissions of cities, power plants, volcanoes or other important emission hot spots,” said Michael Buchwitz, co-author of the study and GHG-CCI scientific leader.

“This will only be possible with the proposed mission CarbonSat.”

CarbonSat is one of the two candidates for ESA’s eighth Earth Explorer satellite.

Using the unique spectroscopic fingerprint of carbon dioxide and methane, CarbonSat aims to image these two strong greenhouse gases at very high resolution.

The mission would lead to a better understanding of the sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane.

SpaceX reveal news of Hyperloop transportation system

Musk of SpaceX unveiled his idea for the potentially revolutionary "Hyperloop" transportation system.

ESA News Update: Flying in Zero- Gravity - Video

If you fly a plane in the right way at the right speed, you can be weightless for a few seconds. By throwing the aircraft into an orbit-like path within Earth's atmosphere, you can enter the wonderful world of weightlessness.

It is one of the best ways to simulate the environment of space, and a valuable experimental tool for scientists with a special interest in microgravity.

If they want to find out how the brain works, study the natural posture of humans in space, or how water boils in a weightless environment, this is the way to do it. Take a journey into a free-floating world of the parabola in this edition of Space.

NASA JPL Sept News: Details of GRAIL Mission to Moon

For more information visit: Grail.nasa.gov

ESA Videos: Highlights of Telecommunications Satellite News

Featuring the ESA Director of telecommunication Systems: Magali Vaissiere

This week at NASA: TW@N - 24th Oct 2010

Click on the Picture to play the video update

Seeing the Sun in a New Light : First SDO Photographs

Seeing the Sun in a New Light : First SDO Photographs

April 21, 2010 will be remembered as the day we saw the sun in a new light.

NASA showcased the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) 'first light' imagery of the sun, photographs that are 10 times the clarity of a household high definition television.

After decades of solar physics research, the advanced instrumentation aboard the SDO will answer many mysteries about our nearest star and will no doubt uncover new questions. Already, solar physicists are examining whether long-standing solar theories are holding true, and the SDO's sheer power will help scientists protect the Earth against potentially paralyzing space weather.

This week in Space

Neil Armstrong speaks out against Obama plan and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk fires back, Atlantis returns home home – perhaps permanently, Delta 4 and Ariane 5 rockets fly, black holes merge with a bang, and news from Mars' North Pole.

ITU Implores Iran To Stop Jamming EutelSat

The global regulator of satellite orbital slot and broadcast frequencies asked Iran to track down the source of intentional jamming of Eutelsat satellite signals that carry news broadcasts into Iran.

In a delicately worded statement apparently designed not to antagonize Iranian authorities, the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said it accepted the findings of the French National Frequencies Agency concluding that the interference to Eutelsat signals, particularly those from the BBC reporting on Iranian politics, is coming from Iranian territory.

The French agency, on behalf of Paris-based Eutelsat, has written to Iran on multiple occasions in the past year asking that the interference cease. The ITU Radio Regulations Board also contacted Iran, whose administration responded that it did not know the source of the signal jamming, which has interfered with broadcasts from Eutelsat satellites located at four different orbital slots.

The BBC has moved its BBC Persian news broadcasts from one satellite to another in an attempt to find an orbital slot that permits broadcasts into Iran but makes it difficult for Iran-based jammers to interfere with the signal.

The ITU’s Radio Regulations Board concluded that “the interfering signals appear to be of a nature” that is forbidden under ITU rules and is originating in Iran “based on the measurements provided by the administration of France, and having confidence in the measurement techniques.”

The ITU, a United Nations affiliate, has little power to enforce its rulings. It depends on member nations to respect the regulations as a matter of good faith in the general interest of maximizing the use of the radio spectrum and satellite orbital positions.

The ITU said it “urged the administration of Iran to continue its effort in locating the source of interference and to eliminate it as a matter of the highest priority.” It said it has asked the French administration and its own Radiocommunication Bureau “to assist the administration of Iran in identifying the source of the interference.”

Eutelsat has been telling French authorities for months about the interference, and the 27-nation European Union has urged Iran to stop it.

China to Create and Broadcast Its Own Version of the News - NYTimes.com

China to Create Its Own Version of the News - NYTimes.com

An ambitiouspolitical plan, set forth in guidelines last week by China's State Council, envisions the creation of entertainment, news and culture companies with a market orientation and with less government backing.

China, in short, would like to consolidate its media industry into companies resembling Bloomberg, Time Warner and Viacom, analysts say.

There appears to be a feeling at the highest levels of government that they need a media machine commensurate to the rising status and power of China

Beijing want the moves to improve the nation's image overseas - part of a longstanding effort to use 'soft power,' rather than military might to win friends and influence people abroad. The iron fist in a silk glove!

Along the way, Beijing will allow private and foreign companies to invest in everything from music, film and television to theater, dance and opera productions - though largely through state-owned companies and always controlled by the government.

The News Corporation, Viacom and other Western media giants have for years been frustrated by their inability to win approval to produce films and television programs aimed at Chinese consumers; often, they have operated with Chinese joint venture partners and run into procrastinating tactics; constant delays or political barriers. Several American companies said they were studying the new Chinese rules and declined to comment further on them.

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Japanese election, blogs and Twitter silenced

The day the blogging stopped. As campaigning begins in the On Tuesday, 1,370 Japanese stopped blogging and Twittering.

There's perhaps nothing unusual about that; after all, hundreds give up social media efforts every day but for these people the halt to their online activities has been brought on by the law.

No, they haven't done anything wrong. But they are candidates in Japan's upcoming national election, and with the official 12-day campaigning window now underway, online communication is off-limits.

It's the result of a 59-year-old election law that has failed to keep up with the times. In an era when politicians are turning to the Internet to interact with potential voters and mobilize a support base -- something demonstrated so vividly by U.S. President Obama in his election campaign -- Japanese politicians are restricted to stump speeches, leaflets and posters, and even those are regulated too.

"Today is the beginning of campaigning. I must end Twitter today, I feel it's unreasonable," wrote Seiji Ohsaka, a lawmaker from the northern island of Hokkaido, to his 6,361 followers on Twitter.

The Public Offices Election Law doesn't specifically ban use of the Internet, but it does place restrictions on the use of literature and images in campaigning, and that has been interpreted by all to include the Internet.

The result is that during election campaigns in Japan, the airwaves are not filled with political commercials and streets are not covered in posters. Election billboards, with a space allotted to each candidate for an 83cm-by-58cm poster, are erected throughout cities, and candidates are allowed to distribute only a limited number of posters. Leaflets must be counted and numbered.

Candidates get a brief slot on public television, usually in the early or late-night hours when few are watching, to make their pitch. The rest of the time it's down to campaigning in neighborhoods, walking through the streets and making speeches outside railway stations.

It's all designed, the law's defenders say, to stop the candidate with the deepest pockets from dominating the race.

Unfortunately, this law has an increasing number of critics, and not just Twittering politicians. Voter turnout among the young is poor and some believe it's because the old-fashioned way of campaigning has failed to energize a population that is surrounded by digital media from the day they are born.

"The Internet must be made available for election campaigns as soon as possible," the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's second-largest newspaper, wrote in a recent editorial but the Aug. 30 election could be the law's last stand.

If you believe the opinion polls, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is on the verge of a historic defeat. After more than 50 years of rule, broken only once for a few months, Japanese voters look set to reject the party and hand control of the powerful lower house to the opposition

Democratic Party of Japan. The DPJ already controls the upper house and plans some swift changes should it win at the polls. Hopefully, among those is likely to be the election law.