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Science guru takes kids on space walk

NOAA Satellites Help Rescue 353 People in 2007

Bob McDonald, of CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks and the host of TV Ontario's "Head's Up"

Science guru takes kids on space walk
Posted By Brandi Cramer
North Bay Nugget

Gracie Bishop's favourite colour is blue.

The seven-year-old played scientist by mixing primary colours in a recent classroom exercise. The experiment sparked a curiosity and she's set her sights on grander exploration.

"I would like to do a volcano experiment next and make it erupt," said Gracie, a Grade 2 student at Vincent Massey Public School.

But her list of ideas may have expanded after Bob McDonald, of CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks and the host and author of TV Ontario's Head's Up, took students on a scientific journey at the Capitol Centre Tuesday.

"Who wants to go to space?" he asked the eager children.

McDonald showed the kids a video of himself floating during a ride in a zero gravity airplane in Florida.

"There are three different types of gravity," he told the kids, explaining how the Earth is falling through space all the time.

As the children focused on the topic, some looked up as though trying to visualize the great beyond.

"If the Earth stopped turning right now, you would all come flying at me at a thousand kilometres an hour," he said.

As he demonstrated how birds fly using a paper airplane and the effects of carbon dioxide using baking soda and vinegar, the best thing happened: His experiments didn't work.

"It's good for them to see things don't always work out in science. You have to experiment, that is how we learn."

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Challenge Yourself with Weather Slyders

The Dust Bowl. Hot, loopy solar gases. Killer Katrina. Combining dramatic images of Earth and space weather with the challenge of an old-fashioned slider puzzle, the new "Slyder" game on the SciJinks Weather Laboratory website by JPL/NASA and NOAA will capture the attention of any middle-schooler--and maybe even their parents and teachers. Players pick from a rich variety of captioned images, including photos from the ground, photos from space, and artist's renderings. After picking a difficulty level (3x3, 4x4, 5x5 grids), the player slides the scrambled tiles around to make a whole picture again. Go to http://scijinks.gov/weather/fun/slyder to become the newest Slyder buff!

Satellites high above the Earth give a very different view of the weather. These pictures are also beautiful and dramatic. But they contain valuable information as well. For example, satellite pictures of a storm forming out in the ocean show how strong the storm is, which way it is moving, how fast it is moving, and whether people living along the shore should be warned to get out of its way.

The GOES are satellites that help forecast the weather and forewarn the people on Earth. They also help forecast space weather . Find out more about hurricanes and play Whirlwind Disaster.

Elisabeth Cohen
Graduate Researcher and Lecturer
Meteorology Department
University of Utah

Yours truly,
Lis
www.WeatherOutreach.org

NASA Wants You to Name Its New Telescope

The agency is calling for the public to submit names for a new space-based gamma-ray telescope that will be launched in mid-2008. For now it's known as the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, which don't get me wrong, is plenty catchy, but surely you all can do better.

Mission leaders are hoping a good name will help raise the mission's profile. Here's Alan Stern, associate administrator for science at NASA's Washington headquarters:

"We're looking for name suggestions that will capture the excitement of GLAST’s mission and call attention to gamma-ray and high-energy astronomy ... We hope someone will come up with a name that is catchy, easy to say and will help make the satellite and its mission a topic of dinner table and classroom discussion."

In fact the GLAST mission is genuinely exciting. Gamma-ray observations will help scientists study some of the most extreme forces in the universe, from the ability of black holes to accelerate particles nearly to the speed of light, to helping puzzle out the composition of mysterious dark matter.

Click here to suggest a name.

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NOAA Satellites Help Rescue 353 People in 2007

Armed with personal locator beacons to send a distress signal, 353 people were rescued in the United States and its surrounding waters in 2007 from potentially life-threatening emergencies. These signals were transmitted to rescue teams via a NOAA environmental satellite more commonly known for providing information to weather forecasters.

NOAA’s polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites, along with Russia’s Cospas spacecraft, are part of the high-tech, international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking System, called COSPAS-SARSAT. This system uses a network of satellites to quickly detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons on board aircraft and boats and from handheld personal locator beacons (PLBs).

Now in its 25th year of operation, COSPAS-SARSAT has been credited with more than 22,000 rescues worldwide, including more than 5,700 in the United States and its surrounding waters. 

“Each person rescued was a tragedy averted,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service. “This satellite-based rescue program is a key NOAA contribution to protecting American lives.”

When a satellite pinpoints a distress location within the United States, or its surrounding waters, the information is relayed to SARSAT Mission Control at NOAA’s Satellite Operations Center in Suitland, Md., and then sent to a Rescue Coordination Center, operated either by the U.S. Air Force, for land rescues, or U.S. Coast Guard, for water rescues.

Alaska and Florida recorded the most rescues in 2007 – 73 each. North Carolina was third with 16 rescues. Twenty-four states experienced a SARSAT rescue. Of the 353 rescues for 2007, 235 people were saved at sea, 30 were rescued from downed aircraft, and 88 were saved with help from their PLBs — the highest total since PLBs became operational nationwide in 2003. The total rescues in 2007 mark an increase from 272 the previous year.

“Anyone with plans to hike, or camp, in a remote area, where cell phone service is not reliable, or sail a boat far from shore, should not leave home without an emergency locator beacon, registered with NOAA,” said Chris O’Conners, acting program manager for NOAA SARSAT. He added the number of beacon registrations in 2007 climbed to 29,710 compared with 23,383 in 2006.

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Scientists Reveal First-Ever Global Map of Total Human Effect on Oceans
National Science Foundation
Press Release
Contact: Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov

More than 40 percent of the world's oceans are heavily affected by human activities, and few if any areas remain untouched, according to the first global-scale study of human influence on marine ecosystems.

By overlaying maps of 17 different activities such as fishing, climate change and pollution, the researchers have produced a composite map of the toll that humans have exacted on the seas.

The work, published in this week's issue of Science, was conducted at the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and involved 19 scientists from a range of universities, NGOs, and government agencies.

The study synthesized global data on human impacts to marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, seagrass beds, continental shelves and the deep ocean.

"This research is a critically needed synthesis of the impact of human activity on ocean ecosystems," said David Garrison, biological oceanography program director at NSF. "The effort is likely to be a model for assessing these effects at local and regional scales."

Past studies have focused largely on single activities or single ecosystems in isolation, and rarely at the global scale. In this study the scientists were able to look at the summed influence of human activities across the entire ocean.

"This project allows us to finally start to see the big picture of how humans are affecting the oceans." said lead scientist Ben Halpern of NCEAS. "Our results show that when these and other individual impacts are summed up, the big picture looks much worse than I imagine most people expected. It was certainly a surprise to me."

The study reports that the most heavily affected waters in the world include large areas of the North Sea, the South and East China Seas, the Caribbean Sea, the east coast of North America, the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Bering Sea and several regions in the western Pacific. The least affected areas are largely near the poles.

"Unfortunately, as polar ice sheets disappear with warming global climate and human activities spread into these areas, there is a great risk of rapid degradation of these relatively pristine ecosystems," said Carrie Kappel, a scientist at NCEAS.

Human influence on the ocean varies dramatically across various ecosystems. The most heavily affected areas include coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, rocky reefs and shelves and seamounts. The least impacted ecosystems are soft-bottom areas and open-ocean surface waters.

"There is definitely room for hope," added Halpern. "With targeted efforts to protect the chunks of the ocean that remain relatively pristine, we have a good chance of preserving these areas in good condition."

The research involved a four-step process. First, the scientists developed techniques to quantify and compare how different human activities affect each marine ecosystem. For example, fertilizer runoff has been shown to have a large effect on coral reefs but a much smaller one on kelp forests.

Second, the researchers gathered and processed global data on the distributions of marine ecosystems and human influences.

Then the scientists combined data from the first and second steps to determine "human impact scores" for each location in the world.

Finally, using global estimates of the condition of marine ecosystems from previous studies, the researchers were able to ground-truth their impact scores.

Despite all this effort, the authors acknowledge that their maps are still incomplete, because many human activities are poorly studied or lack good data.

"Our hope is that as more data become available, the maps will be refined and updated," said Fio Micheli, a scientist at Stanford University. "But this will almost certainly create a more dire picture."

This study provides critical information for evaluating where certain activities can continue with little effect on the oceans, and where other activities might need to be stopped or moved to less sensitive areas.

As management and conservation of the oceans turns toward marine protected areas (MPAs), ecosystem-based management (EBM) and ocean zoning to manage human influence, such information will prove invaluable to managers and policymakers.

"Conservation and management groups have to decide where, when, and what to spend their resources on," said Kimberly Selkoe, a scientist at the University of Hawaii. "Whether one is interested in protecting ocean wilderness, assessing which human activities have the greatest impact, or prioritizing which ecosystem types need management intervention, our results provide a strong framework for doing so."

"My hope is that these results serve as a wake-up call to better manage and protect our oceans, rather than a reason to give up," added Halpern.

"Humans will always use the oceans for recreation, extraction of resources, and for commercial activity such as shipping. Our goal, and really our necessity, is to do this in a sustainable way so that our oceans remain in a healthy state and continue to provide us the resources we need and want."

Amazing Miniaturized 'SIDECAR' Drives Webb Telescope's Signal

Many technologies have become so advanced that they've been miniaturized to take up less space and weigh less. That's what happened to some electronics being built for the James Webb Space Telescope that will convert analog signals to digital signals and provide better images of objects in space when they're sent to scientists on Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope being built by Northrop Grumman.

The electronic components on the Webb telescope are called "SIDECAR ASIC." SIDECAR ASIC means "System for Image Digitization, Enhancement, Control And Retrieval Application Specific Integrated Circuit or ASIC. The SIDECAR has been miniaturized from a volume of about one cubic meter (35.3 cubic feet) down to a small circuit that fits in your hand.

To understand what the SIDECAR will do, it's similar to what is happening to broadcast television signals when they change from broadcasting analog signals to digital signals in February 2009. Like televisions, the Webb telescope is getting several of those "converter boxes." One benefit digital signals have over analog signals is that digital signals can be easily transmitted and stored.

SIDECAR is a tiny advanced low-noise, low-power microprocessor-based control chip that was designed by Teledyne Imaging Sensors, Thousand Oaks, Calif. It's about the size of a half-dollar and can do the same job as an electronics box weighing 20 pounds. Its smaller weight also makes it easier to launch. As the acronym implies, the SIDECAR sits next to the detector like a sidecar on a motorcycle.

"A smaller SIDECAR can be physically close to the detector it is controlling. This close proximity minimizes the distance the analog signal travels, thus reducing the noise of the system," said Matt Greenhouse, Integrated Science Instrument Module Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The three instruments that will use the SIDECAR on the Webb telescope are the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), and the Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS). These instruments all use highly sensitive infrared detectors to study distant stars, planets, and galaxies.

Infrared light is a band of light on the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths longer than visible light but shorter than radio waves, and cannot be seen by the naked eye.

"The significant technical advancement in the SIDECAR is its very low noise (or interference with the data or images it's gathering) - the analog to digital conversion is nearly perfect, adding no significant noise; and its very low power - the SIDECAR consumes only 11milliwatts of power," said Markus Loose, lead designer of the SIDECAR at Teledyne. Low consumption of power is important for keeping the telescope's science instruments cold (37 Kelvin, or minus 400 F) as they collect faint (heat) signals from objects near the edge of the universe.

It's important to make sure SIDECAR is fully functional before it goes into the Webb telescope, so it's already being used to improve astronomy on the ground. Astronomers are "test-driving" four SIDECARs that were installed in early 2007 in the University of Hawaii's 2.2 meter telescope on Mauna Kea. Since then they have been collecting science data and giving scientists experience in operating the SIDECAR so that its performance is optimal by the time that the Webb telescope flies.

As a result of SIDECAR's success in the review and in ground-based telescopes other missions are planning to use it, and there's a plan to install it in the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008.

LET YOUR STUDENTS KNOW!

To receive free NOAA science stuff, send an e-mail to: outreach@noaa.gov, they should include their age or grade level with their complete mailing address.

Let them know if specific materials are needed on oceans, fish, marine animals, weather, climate, or satellites. They can provide one copy of each publication.

VISIT NOAA'S WEB PAGES FOR KIDS AND STUDENTS

Also make note of the web pages NOAA has created for kids and students. Go to: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/kids/#top

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'Star Trek' Movie Gets Science Advice
By Newsarama Staff

The out-of-this world visuals in the new "Star Trek" movie will actually be based on science from our solar system. A NASA planetary scientist has joined the film's production team to ensure the scientific accuracy of the movie's astronomical scenes.

Team Up on the Weather
This lesson plan is from the wonderful people at SciJinks, a project of JPL/NASA.

Most of the activities can be adapted for grades 4-8. Some may also be of interest to grades 9-12.

These activities support national education standards for science, technology, and math.

Team Up on the Weather help the students learn how weather satellites, teamed with scientists, pilots, computers programmers, and super computers work together to save lives and property by predicting where large storms will hit and giving people time to get out of the way. Includes a fun weather trivia game with lots of background information.

This lesson plan requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you don't this this .pdf reader click on the logo below to download the program for free.

Click here to download the lesson plan

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Upcoming NASA Opportunities for Educators