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The air temperature in a city like Madrid could rise to 1.5 to 2 degrees centigrade due to air conditioning in summer. For the study has been used a model to simulate the behavior of the atmosphere over the region of Madrid for two days of summer (specifically on 30 June and 1 July 2008).
It is known that one of the worst places to be on a hot summer day is about leaving the outside of an air conditioner. This is because in order to cool the interior of buildings, these devices extract heat from the interior to spew into the atmosphere. However, not being ideal machines, the amount of heat discharged into the atmosphere is more removed from inside the buildings (some up to 30% more). In a way, the price paid to maintain pleasant interior temperature is a further warming of the urban atmosphere. In recent years, the number of buildings with air conditioning has been increasing rapidly in many Spanish cities, particularly in commercial areas, and most buildings already have such facilities. The question then arises: does the heat generated by air conditioners is large enough to modify the urban climate?
A study by Francisco Salamanca, CIEMAT researcher, public research body under the Ministry of Science and Innovation, funded by the Ministry of Environment, Rural and Marine Affairs, suggests that air temperature in a city like Madrid could rise to 1, 5-2 degrees centigrade due to air conditioning in summer.
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Russian physicists expect to be able soon to predict the wind direction (and why not time) on different planets, using heterodyne spectrometers, reports the site inauka.ru, citing informnauka.ru.
Heterodyne spectrometer operating in the infrared could be a very useful device. Russian physicists intend to use them to determine the speed and direction of winds sweeping the other planets.
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New research has resolved decades of scientific debate. A team of researchers has found the final link between the trapped electrons in space and the glow in the upper atmosphere known as diffuse aurora.
This new research will help scientists better understand the “space weather”, which will be useful for satellites, power companies and airlines, among others. It will also allow a more detailed understanding of how space storms affect the Earth’s atmosphere.
Scientists have long known that the “diffuse aurora” is caused by electrons that bombard the upper atmosphere. However, the trapped electrons are usually much higher in the Earth’s magnetic field through a long chain of events that begins in the Sun The enigma has been on how these electrons reach the atmosphere.
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The first team to travel to Mars made in Spain provide daily weather information from our neighboring planet. REMS is a station designed and built environment at the Center for Astrobiology, a joint center of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).
Among the main objectives of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) to NASA include the environmental assessment of its area of operation on Mars, both with respect to current conditions as the existing billions of years ago by measuring changes daily and seasonal.
The instrument that will make it possible, one of ten that will have the vehicle (rover) that moves across the Martian surface, is called REMS, which stands for Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (Environmental Monitoring Station of the Rover), and has been provided by the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) under the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain. REMS uses sensors on the mast, the interior and roof of the vehicle, named Curiosity, which is the size of a car. Were installed in September and are currently being tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
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For the Russian astrophysicist Khabiboullo Abdoussamatov , Head of Department of Space Studies of the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory Astrometry and project leader , developed compartment aboard the Russian Space Station (ISS ) , the period of global warming is over . He even announced , soon , a new “little ice age “. For his colleague Piotr Sporychev , a researcher at the Geophysical Observatory main Rosguidromet ( Russian Meteorological Service ), no global cooling could threaten the Earth .
According Khabiboullo Abdoussamatov in 2014 will begin a new ice age. Humanity is heading towards a cooling , not warming , and she has much to fear , says the astrophysicist , who thinks he can soon make a concrete demonstration of what he says .
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The German Centre for Aerospace Research (DLR ) offers a new technological solution for the heat shields to protect spacecraft during re-entry into the atmosphere . Rather than adopting a rounded design as is currently done on space shuttles , the architecture used involves elements with sharp edges , that is to say that the angles are sharp.
This new coating, which is part of the research program SHEFEX II ( Sharp Edge Flight Experiment ) , is expected to make reentry less expensive , safer and more flexible. As can be seen in the photograph, it consists of many facets, all flat. The solutions usually consist of a coated ceramic tiles bulging, which occupy a place, all predefined and therefore each a different shape. Production of the new coating that overcomes this complexity it finds so much easier, which should allow a reduction in costs of around 50 % after Hendrik Weihs , the project manager . On the other hand , the aerodynamic properties , which have already been simulated and tested in a wind tunnel , seem more suited for supersonic flight.
In spring 2011, the system will be tested in real conditions in Australia . An experimental device , equipped with 160 sensors to measure pressure, heat flux and temperature in particular, will be screened at an altitude of 200 km before falling to Earth . The main advantage of such a test for the engineers is to examine the response of the projectile at temperatures of about 2,000 ° C, which is not feasible in a wind tunnel , for example , and study the conditions pressure . They hope to determine the material best suited for.
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n Russia and China do not play with the weather. And the authorities fund major campaigns to trigger rain and snow on request, by seeding clouds with silver salts or cement. A European team has a different method of irradiating with laser flash clouds. And it works, well almost.
This winter, the mayor of Moscow had promised a winter without snow its citizens. Suiting the action to the word, he had offered the services of the Russian air force to disperse chemicals (silver iodide and cement!) In the sky on the outskirts of Moscow. He hoped to trigger snowfall before the clouds over the city. Objective, avoid spending millions of dollars to clear snow from streets. The experience was a perfect failure.
The mayor of Moscow will be delighted to learn that researchers in Europe (Switzerland, Germany, France) have announced condensed water droplets by illuminating the skies of Berlin with a laser beam (1). A full-scale demonstration of work already conducted in the laboratory, which confirm the extraordinary range of laser applications, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.
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Despite a “pause” on the rise in average temperature of the Earth from 1999 to 2008, the ocean has not ceased to store heat during the last decade. This is what an international team (USA, Germany, Japan) in the columns of the journal Nature (1), which took over all the data available since 1993 to monitor the energy stored in all the oceans of the world.
The amount of energy involved are enough to dim the energy producers. Just between 2000 and 2009, the energy stored in the oceans have gone up the equivalent of one trillion tons oil equivalent, about one hundred times the annual energy consumption of the whole humanity. And over the period 1993 and 2009, is the double!
To achieve this, researchers have relied on two types of data. First measures bathythermograph immersed in scientific field. Very fragmentary data-dependent and conditions of use of these probes, John Lyman and his colleagues patiently corrected using calibration data available to establish a pattern of development of the stored heat from the surface a depth of 700 meters (black curve). And if the period 2003-2008 is marked by a more modest, changes from 1993 to 2009 confirms that the ocean captures more and more heat in the atmosphere. With an estimated average capture power at 0.64 watts per square meter (total land surface, red curve), between zero and seven hundred meters deep.
The reading of these results suggests that the rate of uptake of energy in the oceans has decreased in recent years. But only after 2003, while the temperature of the atmosphere had begun his break in 1999. A sign which confirms the thermal inertia of the ocean.
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Long been known the existence and role of peptides in animals, but their action on plants is much less known. A research team from Franco-Hungarian just published in the journal Science the results concerning the role of peptides in the plant kingdom.
Experts have long thought that plant cells peacefully coexisted with bacteria they accommodated: bacteria captured the nitrogen from the atmosphere and transmitted to their host plant, which was then able to grow on poor soil nitrogen , bacteria received in exchange for energy and carbon.
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A computer system that controls and prevents air pollution, and incorporates atmospheric modeling complex models tailored to the complexity and nonlinearity of the processes occurring in the atmosphere has been developed at the School of Informatics, Polytechnic University of Madrid and successfully applied within and outside Spain.
A computer system that allows for robust and efficient control and forecasting of air pollution, has been developed at the School of Informatics, Polytechnic University of Madrid (School of Computing), according to the Faculty in a release.
The computer system has the capacity to make predictions of air quality in real time and to analyze the impact of various sources, both static and dynamic operational mode, so it responds to the interests of environmental authorities to reduce the problems air quality.
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