Canada Invests $3M in Technology Initiatives for Lunar Exploration

26.05.2021

http://www.canadiandefencereview.com/news?news/3179

There is great potential for Canadian entrepreneurs and scientists to advance lunar science and technology. Canadians will play an important role in the highly competitive and innovative global supply chain of the expanding new space economy.

That is why, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry announced investments of $3 million in technology initiatives for lunar exploration through the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Minister Champagne highlighted the latest support and opportunities provided under the CSA's Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program, to expand and prepare Canadian entrepreneurs and scientists to take part in lunar exploration, including:

• Mission Control Space Services is receiving $3-million to test cutting-edge technology in lunar orbit and on the Moon's surface, with a mission currently planned for 2022.

• Two other Canadian companies, Canadensys Aerospace Corporation and NGC Aerospace Ltd. will also demonstrate advanced technologies during a lunar mission.

• CSA will be supporting scientists in Canadian universities to advance their understanding of the lunar surface.

• In partnership with NASA, a Canadian rover will land on the Moon within the next five years. As a first step, the CSA will select two Canadian companies to develop concepts for the rover and science instrument(s) for this mission.

The Minister highlighted the government's commitment that Canada remains a leading spacefaring nation. In 2019, the government announced Canada would build Canadarm3 for the Lunar Gateway and fund the development and demonstration of lunar science and technologies in fields that include AI, robotics and health. In return for its contribution to the Gateway initiative, Canada secured two future crewed flight opportunities in deep space. This includes a flight to the Moon as part of the historic Artemis II mission.

The Minister also noted that, since early 2020, the government has invested $36.5 million to prepare for future mission opportunities, including

• $4.4 million to advance technology for nano- and micro-rovers, as well as autonomous science instruments.

• $2.9 million to develop Canadian lunar science instruments.

• $3.3 million to test technology in lunar orbit and on the Moon's surface.

• $22.8 million to MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) to establish the technical requirements to build Canadarm3.

• $3.1 million to support the development of technologies targeting the lunar economy and looking to be included into lunar mission supply chains, by April 2024.

"By investing in Canada's vibrant space sector, we are giving Canadian entrepreneurs, creators, engineers, scientists and researchers the opportunity to advance science and technology, and be part of the growing global space economy. The results of these efforts will improve life for everyone, in space and on Earth. They will also put Canada at the forefront of space innovation while creating the good jobs of tomorrow." The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

• Launched in 2019, Canada's space strategy established space as a strategic national asset. It set out to position Canada's space sector to seize the opportunities of the future, and thrive in Canada and abroad.

• The Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program is providing $150 million over five years to help firms develop and demonstrate space technologies that will create new commercial opportunities in Canada linked to our participation in the Lunar Gateway mission.

• The global space market is expected to triple over the next 20 years to $1.1 trillion. Today, Canada has about a 1.3 percent share of this global market.

• Every year, Canada's space sector contributes 21,000 jobs (direct and indirect) and $2.5 billion to Canada's economy. 94% of companies in Canada's space sector are SMEs.

•Canada's participation in space science and exploration has benefitted Canadians on Earth, from the development of new medical technologies to the strengthening of our tech industry and our economy.

• With the application of the Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy, Canadarm3 is estimated to contribute up to $135 million annually to Canada's GDP and create and maintain some 1,300 high-quality jobs for Canadians over an estimated 6-year build period.

• A Canadian will be part of the Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to the Moon since 1972.

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SPACE - S0 - 20210530 - Large Solar Eruption, Mars Changes, Orion

SPACE - S0 - 20210530 - Large Solar Eruption, Mars Changes, Orion

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

    

Solar wind speeds stayed pretty much the same for most of yesterday in the 400-440 KPS range, but it dipped down to 380 KPS around midnight UTC, with a brief spike to 460 KPS around 0700 UTC, now in the 380-420 KPS range. Particle density was on the low side most of yesterday, but elevated rather sharply rose at 0400 and has not yet dipped, and Temperature readings have followed suit. Phi Angle readings have stayed similar to the previous report, and the Bt/Bz has also kept a steady gap. The KP-Index was quite calm, just a combo of KP-1s and KP-0s, and the Magnetometer is back to a shallow sine wave. Electron Flux readings are nominal, but here's a shocker - the Proton Flux is NOT! Yup, you read that right, and it surprised me too. but just after midnight UTC one of the four combined lines jumped out of nominal-world and shot above the 10 MeV warning threshold! Luckily, it only indicates a level-1 radiation storm, but still, that's a serious change. The X-Ray Flux remained jumpy, with a mid-Class C flare around 1000 UTC, a Class M flare at 2300 UTC, and another lower-Class C flare around 0730 UTC. You can see a massive blowout on the video loop at 193Å at that time index, pretty much covering the entire Northwest quadrant of the disc. The other wavelengths show the brightness of the flare (from the larger departing sunspot group) as well as its scope. It was big. The ENLIL Spiral show the ejection heading 90° away from Earth, ahead of our orbit, so you'd HOPE we wouldn't see any impact from that one. Problem is, it is a very large and very WIDE ejection, so we may catch a bit of this one in the next couple of days. The Magnetogram shows the large sunspot group just about ready to cross the lim in the next 24 hours, but it also shows a more "invisible" (to the naked eye and to the visible light image) sunspot group just crossing the midpoint. Looks like it's Beta complexity only and only about a quarter the size of the larger group, but just remember, those can change rapidly, and Earth is well within its striking range.

* * *

Another new video from Suspicious0bservers, "CLIMATE FRAUDS | Experts on the Hook". This is THE BOMB, folks! He NAILS these lying liars who lie to their own fake research! Kudos, Ben! We're all proud of you!

  

  

Enjoy!

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SPACE - S0 - 20210528 - Galactic Center, Everything Connected, Special Video Tonight

SPACE - S0 - 20210528 - Galactic Center, Everything Connected, Special Video Tonight

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

    

Solar wind speeds remained elevated all of yesterday, trending slowly upward with a couple spikes near 460 KPS. Particle Density, on the other hand, made steady reductions. Temperatures were unsteady throughout yesterday, but seem to have stabilized to around 5000°K since 0400 UTC. The Bt/Bz readings finally started smoothing out around 2000 UTC and the Phi Angle is ranging in the 50°-180° range for most of yesterday and this morning. The KP-Index has gone back into the green, with the last five reports moving from KP-2 to KP-1 to a KP-0. The Magnetometer has also re-normalized itself after the previous staggering high, now showing a more nominal sine wave pattern. Proton Flux and Electron Flux readings are also nominal. We had a pretty strong flare indication on the X-Ray Flux charts, almost reaching Class M, but after that the background radiation levels returned to the lower Class B range. The video loops were pretty scary showing a destabilization of the entire large sunspot group in the North, at 304Å and 131Å, with a possible release visible at 193Å. Couldn't see it on LASCO C3, but it definitely showed up on LASCO C2. The ENLIL Spiral, however, shows it ejecting from the far side of the Sun and well away from Earth.

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Magnetized threads weave spectacular galactic tapestry

MAY 27, 2021, by Chandra X-ray Center

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-magnetized-threads-spectacular-galactic-tapestry.html

A panorama of the Galactic Center builds on previous surveys from Chandra and other telescopes. This latest version expands Chandra's high-energy view farther above and below the plane of the galaxy - that is, the disk where most of the galaxy's stars reside - than previous imaging campaigns. In the first two images, X-rays from Chandra are orange, green, and purple, showing different X-ray energies, and the radio data from MeerKAT are gray. 

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT

Threads of superheated gas and magnetic fields are weaving a tapestry of energy at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. A new image of this new cosmic masterpiece was made using a giant mosaic of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

The new panorama of the Galactic Center builds on previous surveys from Chandra and other telescopes. This latest version expands Chandra's high-energy view farther above and below the plane of the Galaxy—that is, the disk where most of the Galaxy's stars reside—than previous imaging campaigns. In the image featured in our main graphic, X-rays from Chandra are orange, green, blue and purple, showing different X-ray energies, and the radio data from MeerKAT are shown in lilac and gray. The main features in the image are shown in a labeled version.

One thread is particularly intriguing because it has X-ray and radio emission intertwined. It points perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy and is about 20 light-years long but only one-hundredth that size in width.

A new study of the X-ray and radio properties of this thread by Q. Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst suggests these features are bound together by thin strips of magnetic fields. This is similar to what was observed in a previously studied thread. (Both threads are labeled in the image. The newly studied one is in the lower left and is much farther away from the plane of the Galaxy.) Such strips may have formed when magnetic fields aligned in different directions, collided, and became twisted around each other in a process called magnetic reconnection. This is similar to the phenomenon that drives energetic particles away from the Sun and is responsible for the space weather that sometimes affects Earth.

https://youtu.be/Ov2nX954Ui8

A detailed study of these threads teaches us more about the Galactic space weather astronomers have witnessed throughout the region. This weather is driven by volatile phenomena such as supernova explosions, close-quartered stars blowing off hot gas, and outbursts of matter from regions near Sagittarius A*, our Galaxy's supermassive black hole.

In addition to the threads, the new panorama reveals other wonders in the Galactic Center. For example, Wang's paper reports large plumes of hot gas, which extend for about 700 light-years above and below the plane of the galaxy, seen here in greater detail than ever before. (They are much smaller than the Fermi Bubbles which extend for about 25,000 light-years above and below the plane of the galaxy.) These plumes may represent galactic-scale outflows, analogous to the particles driven away from the Sun. The gas is likely heated by supernova explosions and many recent magnetic reconnections occurring near the center of the galaxy. Such reconnection events in the Galaxy are normally not sufficiently energetic to be detected in X-rays, except for the most energetic ones at the center of the Galaxy, where the interstellar magnetic field is much stronger.

This version of the image highlights several key features of this new Galactic Center survey. The threads are labeled with red rectangles in the image, while X-rays reflected from dust around bright X-ray sources (green circles), Sagittarius A*. In purple circles and ellipses, the Arches and Quintuplet Clusters, DB00-58 and DB00-6, 1E 1743.1-28.43, the Cold Gas Cloud and Sagittarius C are outlined. 

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT

Magnetic reconnection events may play a major role in heating the gas existing between stars (the interstellar medium). This process may also be responsible for accelerating particles to produce cosmic rays like those observed on Earth and driving turbulence in the interstellar medium that triggers new generations of star birth.

The images shows single (broadband) colors, with Chandra X-ray data in pink and MeerKat radio data, a radio telescope in South Africa, in blue.

 Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT

The image shows that the magnetic threads tend to occur at the outer boundaries of the large plumes of hot gas. This suggests that the gas in the plumes is driving magnetic fields that collide to create the threads.

The paper by Wang describing these results appears in the June issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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SPACE - S0 - 20210527 - CME Impact, Grading Earth's Field, Deep Quake Revelation

SPACE - S0 - 20210527 - CME Impact, Grading Earth's Field, Deep Quake Revelation

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

    

That jump in solar wind speeds from yesterday's report was definitely the leading edge of the CME impact, and it was a good'un! From a low of 280 KPS yesterday, it jumped to a high of 430 KPS around 0800 UTC. Particle Density jumped at the same time as the wind speed yesterday, and it took some pretty high leaps afterward as well, calming and then rising again. It's calmed significantly since midnight UTC, though. The Temperature chart looks more like a roller coaster ride, from a low of 4000°K to a peak of 5100°K, then dropping to 4200°K around 2200 UTC, then back to 5100°K at 0630 UTC, and now back to near 4000°K. If you read the chart on SpaceWeatherNews.com, take some Dramamine first... The Bt/Bz chart also did its impression of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, with massive gaps and occasional collisions, which in turn really messed up the Phi Angle readings. Those collisions coincided with some KP-Index jumps that went into the minor geomagnetic storm region (KP-4s) and a period of a level 1 storm (KP-5). The Magnetometer was also hit hard, with peaks above 150 nT and a low of about 45-50 nT (still above the threshold, though). The Proton Flux remains in the nominal range, but you can see a bit more variation in the three lines of data than usual. As to the Electron Flux, it again breached the alert threshold around 1800 UTC, but only briefly before returning to nominal readings. There were quite a number of spikes into Class C flare range on the X-Ray Flux charts, a couple of them reaching the middle, and background radiation levels remain in the upper B Class. There's a new coronal hole developing in the South at about 25°-30° latitude, approaching the center point. If it stays intact, it should pass the midline by Saturday morning. You can see the sparking/flaring of the two departing sunspot groups in the North best at 304Å and 131Å. I'm also seeing what appears to be an ejection this morning from both LASCO C3 and C2 (the latter is a few months behind in Earth's orbit so we can see what's coming), and it appears from both that the CME is facing away from us.

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Thirty-six dwarf galaxies had simultaneous 'baby boom' of new stars

MAY 24, 2021, by Rutgers University

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-thirty-six-dwarf-galaxies-simultaneous-baby.html

Three dozen dwarf galaxies far from each other had a simultaneous 'baby boom' of new stars.

 Credit: Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Three dozen dwarf galaxies far from each other had a simultaneous 'baby boom' of new stars, an unexpected discovery that challenges current theories on how galaxies grow and may enhance our understanding of the universe.

Galaxies more than 1 million light-years apart should have completely independent lives in terms of when they give birth to new stars. But galaxies separated by up to 13 million light-years slowed down and then simultaneously accelerated their birth rate of stars, according to a Rutgers-led study published in the Astrophysical Journal.

"It appears that these galaxies are responding to a large-scale change in their environment in the same way a good economy can spur a baby boom," said lead author Charlotte Olsen, a doctoral student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

"We found that regardless of whether these galaxies were next-door neighbors or not, they stopped and then started forming new stars at the same time, as if they'd all influenced each other through some extra-galactic social network," said co-author Eric Gawiser, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The simultaneous decrease in the stellar birth rate in the 36 dwarf galaxies began 6 billion years ago, and the increase began 3 billion years ago. Understanding how galaxies evolve requires untangling the many processes that affect them over their lifetimes (billions of years). Star formation is one of the most fundamental processes. The stellar birth rate can increase when galaxies collide or interact, and galaxies can stop making new stars if the gas (mostly hydrogen) that makes stars is lost.

Rutgers' unexpected discovery challenges current theories on how galaxies grow and may enhance our understanding of the universe. 

Credit: Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Star formation histories can paint a rich record of environmental conditions as a galaxy 'grew up.' Dwarf galaxies are the most common but least massive type of galaxies in the universe, and they are especially sensitive to the effects of their surrounding environment.

The 36 dwarf galaxies included a diverse array of environments at distances as far as 13 million light-years from the Milky Way. The environmental change the galaxies apparently responded to must be something that distributes fuel for galaxies very far apart. That could mean encountering a huge cloud of gas, for example, or a phenomenon in the universe we don't yet know about, according to Olsen.

The scientists used two methods to compare star formation histories. One uses light from individual stars within galaxies; the other uses the light of a whole galaxy, including a broad range of colors.

"The full impact of the discovery is not yet known as it remains to be seen how much our current models of galaxy growth need to be modified to understand this surprise," Gawiser said. "If the result cannot be explained within our current understanding of cosmology, that would be a huge implication, but we have to give the theorists a chance to read our paper and respond with their own research advances."

"The James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to be launched by NASA this October, will be the ideal way to add that new data to find out just how far outwards from the Milky Way this 'baby boom' extended," Olsen added.

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AI is used to profile people from their head vibrations: Is there evidence to support it?

MAY 25, 2021, by James Wright, The Conversation

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-05-ai-profile-people-vibrations-evidence.html

Does technology more about us than we know about ourselves? 

Credit: Trismegist san/Shutterstock

Digital video surveillance systems can't just identify who someone is. They can also work out how someone is feeling and what kind of personality they have. They can even tell how they might behave in the future. And the key to unlocking this information about a person is the movement of their head.

That is the claim made by the company behind the VibraImage artificial intelligence (AI) system. (The term "AI" is used here in a broad sense to refer to digital systems that use algorithms and tools such as automated biometrics and computer vision). You may never have heard of it, but digital tools based on VibraImage are being used across a broad range of applications in Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

But as I show in my recent research, published in Science, Technology and Society, there is very little reliable, empirical evidence that VibraImage and systems like it are actually effective at what they claim to do.

Among other things, these applications include identifying "suspect" individuals among crowds of people. They are also used to grade the mental and emotional states of employees. Users of VibraImage include police forces, the nuclear industry and airport security. The technology has already been deployed at two Olympic Games, a FIFA World Cup and a G7 Summit.

In Japan, clients of such systems include one of the world's leading facial recognition providers (NEC), one of the largest security services companies (ALSOK), as well as Fujitsu and Toshiba. In South Korea, among other uses it is being developed as a contactless lie detection system for use in police interrogations. In China, it has already been officially certified for police use to identify suspicious individuals at airports, border crossings and elsewhere.

Across east Asia and beyond, algorithmic security, surveillance, predictive policing and smart city infrastructure are becoming mainstream. VibraImage forms one part of this emerging infrastructure. Like other algorithmic emotion detection systems being developed and deployed globally, it promises to take video surveillance to a new level. As I explain in my paper, it claims to do this by generating information about subjects' characters and inner lives that they don't even know about themselves.

Vibraimage has been developed by Russian biometrist Viktor Minkin through his company ELSYS Corp since 2001. Other emotion detection systems try to calculate people's emotional states by analyzing their facial expressions. By contrast, VibraImage analyses video footage of the involuntary micro movements, or "vibrations," of a person's head, which are caused by muscles and the circulatory system. The analysis of facial expressions to identify emotions has come under growing criticism in recent years. Could VibraImage provide a more accurate approach?

Minkin puts forward two theories apparently supporting the idea that these movements are tied to emotional states. The first is the existence of a "vestibulo-emotional reflex" based on the idea that the body's system responsible for balance and spatial orientation is related to psychological and emotional states. The second is a "thermodynamic model of emotions", which draws a direct link between specific emotional-mental states and the amount of energy expended by muscles. What's more, Minkin claims this energy can be measured through tiny vibrations of the head.

According to these theories, involuntary movement of the face and head are therefore emotion, intention and personality made visible. In addition to spotting suspect individuals, supporters of VibraImage also believe this data can be used to determine personality type, identifying adolescents more likely to commit crimes, or categorizing types of intelligence based on nationality and ethnicity. They even suggest it could be used to create a 1984-style test of loyalty to the values of a company or nation, based on how someone's head vibrations change in response to statements.

But the many claims made about its effects seem unprovable. Very few scientific articles on VibraImage have been published in academic journals with rigorous peer review processes—and many are written by those with an interest in the success of the technology. This research often relies on experiments that already assume VibraImage is effective. How exactly certain head movements are linked to specific emotional-mental states is not explained. One study from Kagawa University of Japan found almost no correlation between the results of a VibraImage assessment and those of existing psychological tests.

In a statement in response to the claims in this article, Minkin says that VibraImage is not an AI technology, but "is based on understandable physics and cybernetics and physiology principles and transparent equations for emotions calculations." It may use AI processing in behavior detection or emotion recognition when they have "technical necessity for it."

He also argues that people might assume the technology is "fake" as "contactless and simple technology of psychophysiological detection looks so fantastic," and because it is associated with Russia. Minkin has also published a technical response to my paper.

"Suspect AI'

One of the main reasons why it is so difficult to prove whether VibraImage works is its underlying premise that the system reveals more about subjects than they know about themselves. But there is no compelling evidence that that's the case.

I propose the term "suspect AI" to describe the growing number of systems that algorithmically classify individuals as suspects, yet I argue are themselves deeply suspect. They are opaque, unproven, developed and implemented without democratic input or oversight. They are also largely unregulated, and possess the potential for serious harm.

VibraImage is not the only such system out there. Other AI systems to detect suspicious or deceptive individuals have been trialed. For example, Avatar has been tested on the US-Mexico border, and iBorderCtrl at the EU's borders. Both are designed to detect deception among migrants. In China, VibraImage-based systems and similar products are being used for a growing range of applications in law enforcement, security and healthcare.

The broader algorithmic emotion recognition industry was worth up to US$12 billion in 2018. It is expected to reach US$37.1 billion by 2026. Amid growing global concern about the need to create rules around the ethical development of AI, we need to look far more closely at such opaque algorithmic systems of surveillance and control.

The European Commission's recently announced draft AI regulations categorize emotion recognition systems as "high-risk" and subject to a higher level of governance control. This is an important start. Other countries should now follow this lead to ensure that possible harms from these high-risk systems are minimized.

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SPACE - S0 - 20210526 - More Sunspots, Geomagnetic Wiggles, Solar Forcing

SPACE - S0 - 20210526 - More Sunspots, Geomagnetic Wiggles, Solar Forcing

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

    

So far we've lucked out a bit on the CMEs from the other day, they've had a minimal effect on Earth. Solar winds stayed generally calm, although there was a rise around 1600 UTC that stayed on until midnight, but that only capped out around 330 KPS and started dropping around 2200 UTC. At 1140 UTC it had dropped below 290 KPS, but it jumped to nearly 350 KPS only 20 minutes later. Particle Density had a steady rise throughout the period, and Temperatures started a slow reduction also around midnight UTC. The Phi Angle stayed pretty variable most of yesterday, but took a major jump around 0200 when the Bt/Bz polarities collided. Doesn't seem to have negatively affected the KP-Index, though, which remained in the KP-0/KP-1 range until midnight UTC, with a couple of KP-2 readings this morning. Oddly enough, though, NOAA is forecasting KP-5 and KP-6 stuff for this morning (which haven't yet materialized from their own readings) but this may finally be the leading edge of the larger of the CMEs. Eyes 0pen on that one. Magnetometer looks good as does the Proton Flux, but the Electron Flux did go above the alert threshold around noon UTC yesterday, dropping back below it at roughly 2000 UTC. X-Ray Flux readings started climbing around noon UTC yesterday as well to mid-Class B levels, then went down a bit around 0200 UTC, but there have been a few small spikes into Class C. The video loops were not too active until I got to 304Å and saw a release in the Southwest (lower right) quadrant. I had looked because the ENLIL spiral picked it up. The CME is moving ahead of our orbit, but we will catch a piece of it in the next few days. LASCO C3 image loops confirmed this on the NOAA website as well. Also observed a new sunspot growing ahead of the larger one (Beta-Gamma-Delta complexity), which is a bit odd and a bit worrisome should it build itself up on the "dark" side of the Sun. The Magnetogram is also showing a new sunspot group in the North but not yet reaching central heliographic longitude (Beta complexity) so it's already within striking range. 

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Solar storms are back, threatening life as we know it on Earth

MAY 24, 2021, by Brian K. Sullivan, Bloomberg News

https://phys.org/news/2021-05-solar-storms-threatening-life-earth.html

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A few days ago, millions of tons of super-heated gas shot off from the surface of the sun and hurtled 90 million miles toward Earth.

The eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, wasn't particularly powerful on the space-weather scale, but when it hit the Earth's magnetic field it triggered the strongest geomagnetic storm seen for years. There wasn't much disruption this time—few people probably even knew it happened—but it served as a reminder the sun has woken from a yearslong slumber.

While invisible and harmless to anyone on the Earth's surface, the geomagnetic waves unleashed by solar storms can cripple power grids, jam radio communications, bathe airline crews in dangerous levels of radiation and knock critical satellites off kilter. The sun began a new 11-year cycle last year and as it reaches its peak in 2025 the specter of powerful space weather creating havoc for humans grows, threatening chaos in a world that has become ever more reliant on technology since the last big storms hit 17 years ago. A recent study suggested hardening the grid could lead to $27 billion worth of benefits to the U.S. power industry.

"It is still remarkable to me the number of people, companies, who think space weather is Hollywood fiction," said Caitlin Durkovich, a special assistant to President Joe Biden and senior director of resilience and response in the National Security Council, during a talk at a solar-weather conference last month.

The danger isn't hypothetical. In 2017, a solar storm caused ham radios to turn to static just as the Category 5 Hurricane Irma was ripping through the Caribbean. In 2015, solar storms knocked out global positioning systems in the U.S. Northeast, a particular concern as self-driving cars become a reality. Airline pilots are at greater risk of developing cataracts when solar storms hit. Female crew see higher rates of miscarriages.

In March 1989, a solar storm over Quebec caused a province-wide outage that lasted nine hours, according to Hydro-Quebec's website. A 2017 paper in the journal of the American Geophysical Union predicted blackouts caused by severe space weather could strike as much as 66% of the U.S. population, with economic losses reaching a potential $41.5 billion a day.

To head off such a catastrophe, President Barack Obama's administration laid out a strategy to begin raising awareness of the dangers of massive solar storms and to assess the risks they pose. Last year, President Donald Trump signed the ProSwift bill into law, which aims to build up technology to improve forecasting and measurement of space weather events.

There's debate among scientists about how much can be done to shield vulnerable parts of the planet's infrastructure from the effects of solar storms. Steps such as using non-magnetic steel in transformers and installing more surge protectors in the grid could bolster resistance, but in the end the best defense against catastrophe might be better forecasting.

That would go a long way toward helping utilities prepare for shortages and making sure there are paths to back up their systems in case they lose power. In weeks, a new model developed by the University of Michigan will come online to help improve Earth-bound forecasting.

In the U.K., National Grid is building up its supply of spare transformers and conducting regular drills to deal with a major space weather event, said Mark Prouse, deputy director of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, a ministerial department.

Within the past 15 years, the U.S. and U.K. have built space weather forecasting centers that deliver daily outlooks on what may be coming from the sun for airlines, power grids, satellite owners and anyone else threatened by solar flares. While Earth-bound observers can see explosive storms erupt on the sun, they can't tell the true nature of the threat—exactly how potent it is—until the blast reaches a set of satellites 1 million miles from the planet. At that point, there is only 60 to 90 minutes until it hits Earth.

"Our ability to understand and predict the solar cycle is still very limited," said William Murtagh, director of the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center.

Just as utilities can prepare for a severe thunderstorm by staging repair workers nearby, similar precautions could be taken ahead of a solar storm, according to Mark Olson, the reliability assessment manager for the North America Electric Reliability Corp., a nonprofit answerable to the U.S. and Canadian governments.

"You have the potential for very large areas to have voltage instability," Olson said. "Situational awareness is the key here, just like in terrestrial weather events."

Solar storms have their roots in an 11-year cycle that shifts the polarity of the sun's magnetic field. The magnetic forces at work on the sun get tangled during the process, and can punch out through the surface, sending the sun's plasma into outer space and potentially triggering storms on Earth.

The most powerful geomagnetic storm ever recorded resulted in the 1859 Carrington Event, when telegraph lines electrified, zapping operators and setting offices ablaze in North America and Europe. If a storm of that magnitude were to hit today, it would likely cut power to millions if not billions of people.

"When I first started on this road and was briefed on space weather I raised an eyebrow," said Prouse. "It is much more mainstream and some of the mystification is gone. You can now raise it as a risk and not get laughed at."

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SPACE - S0 - 20210525 - Solar Storm Forcing of Earth Rotation and Axis Tilt

SPACE - S0 - 20210525 - Solar Storm Forcing of Earth Rotation and Axis Tilt

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

    

There was a minor rise in solar wind speeds yesterday around 1000 UTC to 380 KPS (from the low point of 330 KPS) which appears to be from the smaller of the CMEs from last week. Looks like a Bt/Bz effect from the two polarities coming quite close, as it also bumped up the Temperature and Particle Density at the same time. Speeds calmed throughout the remaining period down to a current 300-320 KPS range. The Bt/Bz gap has widened since then, and the Phi Angle did shift moderately around 2200 UTC. Looks as if that didn't have any impact reading on the KP-Index either, as they've been staying in the KP-0/KP01 range since yesterday at 0600 UTC. Magnetometer and Proton Flux readings are nominal, but the Electron Flux did briefly cross the alert threshold around 1800 UTC. X-Ray Flux readings have calmed from a few days ago, with only a few small lower Class B spikes on the chart. However, the background radiation has risen somewhat, to just into the Class B range. Video loops show the new sunspot group in the Northeast quadrant is slightly less aggressive than before, and the departing (and larger) sunspot group has passed the midpoint but is still within striking range of Earth.

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Canada Will Move Forward with the Construction of Two Polar Icebreakers and has Awarded Contracts to Seaspan and Davie

06.05.2021

http://www.canadiandefencereview.com/news?news/3156

The Government of Canada will move forward with the construction of two Polar icebreakers under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS).

Both new Polar icebreakers will have capacity and ability beyond that of Canada's current largest icebreaker, the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, and will both be built by Canadian shipyards. Early estimates are that the construction of these ships will generate approximately 300 jobs per vessel at the shipyards, and 2,500 jobs across the marine supply chain. The construction of these new ships is in addition to the $17.49 billion in contracts already awarded to shipyards large and small across Canada under the NSS that have resulted in the revitalization of Canada's shipbuilding industry, and the creation of thousands of jobs already.

Seaspan Shipyards in Vancouver, British Columbia, which has proven its shipbuilding capability with the completion of the first class of large vessels under the NSS, will build one of the Polar icebreakers. The other Polar icebreaker will be built by Davie Shipbuilding of Lévis, Quebec, pending the successful completion of the ongoing selection process as the third strategic partner for large ships construction under the NSS. Both shipyards are expected to be supported by many small and medium-sized Canadian businesses across the country, ensuring that the construction of these ships will be a historic, cross-country effort to help drive Canada's economic recovery from COVID-19.

This procurement approach will ensure at least one polar icebreaker is delivered by 2030 when the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent is expected to retire from service. Precise timing of icebreaker delivery will be determined once shipyard agreements are in place.

With their enhanced capabilities, these larger, more powerful Polar icebreakers will enable the Coast Guard to conduct year-round operations in Canada's Arctic. Their greater endurance will ensure they can operate at higher latitudes for longer periods, and will allow the fleet to better support Indigenous Peoples and northerners, strengthen Arctic sovereignty, advance high Arctic science, and better respond to maritime emergencies.

Today's announcement represents a large step forward in ensuring the Canadian Coast Guard has the equipment it needs. It will also have a lasting impact on Canadian marine industry, its workers and their suppliers. Through their construction and service, the Polar icebreakers will contribute to growing Canada's blue economy and create more opportunities in our coastal communities. They will strengthen our Coast Guard for the long-term, and ensure that maritime services and science platforms are available year-round in Arctic waters.

"The new Polar icebreakers will be a game-changer for Canada's marine industry–both in their construction and the difference that a stronger presence in the Arctic will make. Built by Canadian shipyards, these vessels will enable the coast guard to conduct critical science, supply and other missions in our Arctic region year-round. Under the National Ship Building Strategy, we're putting thousands of Canadians to work building a fleet that will serve those communities for decades." The Honourable Bernadette Jordan, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

"We are positioning Canada for the future by making investments today to build a more competitive economy. This includes investments to support the domestic construction of two new Polar icebreakers. The Industrial and Technological Benefits Policy will apply to these investments to strengthen Canada's shipbuilding industry and create good quality jobs for Canadians across the country." The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

"The know-how and expertise of shipyard workers in the Quebec City area is well established. By planning the order for a polar icebreaker, we confirm our confidence in them and support hundreds of jobs on site and throughout the supply chain in our regions. We are here to support the economic recovery and create good jobs for families in the national capital, in the Chaudière-Appalaches region, and in all regions of Quebec." The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Quebec Lieutenant and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

"This is a good day for North Vancouver, for Vancouver, for British Columbia and it's a good day for Canada. Two Polar icebreakers will give Canada a year-round presence in the Arctic to help protect mariners, safeguard our marine environments, ensure the safe and efficient movement of ships, and protect our borders. At the same time, we are continuing to build a thriving domestic shipbuilding industry, creating thousands of jobs and generating economic growth and prosperity in communities across British Columbia and Canada." The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change

"Today's announcement is further demonstration of the National Shipbuilding Strategy's success in bringing together the Canadian marine industry to strengthen and renew our federal fleets. We are honoured to continue to support the delivery of modern, safe and effective vessels to members of the Canadian Coast Guard, which also creates jobs and supports our country's shipbuilding industry. Thanks to the NSS, these ships will be built at home and support our communities from coast to coast to coast." The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Public Services and Procurement

"This National Shipbuilding Strategy major investment marks an important step in renewing the Coast Guard's fleet, and equipping our members with modern, safe and reliable ships so they can continue delivering critical services from coast to coast to coast. We look forward to the addition of two new Polar icebreakers to our fleet, which will extend the Coast Guard's on-water Arctic operations all year long." Mario Pelletier, Commissioner for the Canadian Coast Guard


ADDITIONAL INFO

• Canada's Coast Guard currently has 18 icebreakers of varying sizes and capability, which is the second largest icebreaking fleet in the world. The largest is the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, which will continue to operate through the next decade.

• In 2019, the Government of Canada announced an investment for the renewal of the Canadian Coast Guard fleet with funding of $15.7 billion for up to 18 new large ships, additional funding for up to six Program icebreakers, as well as investments of over $2 billion in vessel life extension, refit, and maintenance work for the existing fleet.

• The Government of Canada's National Shipbuilding Strategy is a long-term, multi-billion-dollar program focused on renewing the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy fleets to ensure that Canada's marine agencies have the modern ships they need to fulfill their missions, while revitalizing Canada's marine industry, creating good middle-class jobs and maximizing economic benefits across the country.

• To date, three Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels (OFSV) and 18 small vessels have been delivered to the Canadian Coast Guard under the National Shipbuilding Strategy along with two refitted Medium interim icebreakers.

• In 2019, the Government of Canada announced its intention to add a third Canadian shipyard as a partner under the NSS, and launched the competitive process to select the new shipyard.

• Following an Invitation to Qualify (ITQ), Davie Shipbuilding of Lévis, Quebec, is the only shipyard that pre-qualified to become the third strategic partner under the Strategy. Davie Shipbuilding moved to the next stage in the selection process, the Request for Proposal and evaluation stage.

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SPACE - S0 - 20210524 - Awaiting CME Impact, Atlantis Evidence, China Weather

SPACE - S0 - 20210524 - Awaiting CME Impact, Atlantis Evidence, China Weather

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

    

Looks like I missed out on some serious solar activity yesterday, or more accurately on Saturday after the morning report. We ended up with three Class M flares Saturday evening, and then another one on Sunday just before noon UTC. All were Earth-facing. Right now, solar winds are relatively calm (330-350 KPS, after two full days of steady dropping), but expect that to rise later with the CME from Saturday, and continue with further CMEs yesterday. Not gonna be fun for those with cardiac, psychiatric, and immunodeficiency issues over the next couple of days, and it's hard to gauge the impact considering Earth's severely compromised magnetic field. Particle Density and Temperature have been decreasing as well, the Phi Angle is mostly stabilized since Saturday morning, but the Bt/Bz chart is showing a rather large gap between the two for more than 24 hours now. The KP-Index has stayed calm for the last 60 hours or so, with only KP-1/KP-2 readings, but as stated before that will change. The Magnetometer is showing a normal sine wave with one big difference - another potential (and thankfully brief Zero nT reading yesterday just after noon UTC. I hope this time it was just an anomaly in the readings and not a repeat of the issue we saw last week. Proton Flux readings remain nominal, as does the Electron Flux chart, but the latter is getting awfully close to the Alert Threshold. As mentioned before, the X-Ray Flux was pretty wild over the weekend but it has "calmed" since then, with only one mid-Class C spike around 1700 UTC yesterday, and a few mid-to-upper Class B spikes this morning. Background radiation levels have returned to the high end of Class A. The video loops show the main sunspot group is now crossing the midpoint. Not seeing any new coronal hole development, but I did see what appears to be a CME from the sunspot, and a further snap from a point in the Southern mid-latitudes. The ENLIL spiral seems to confirm this, so we've got another incoming item, perhaps impacting Earth with a glancing blow by Wednesday/Thursday.

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Canadian UAVS Validates the Function of Their Sparrowhawk Radar

11.05.2021

http://www.canadiandefencereview.com/news?news/3160

Canadian UAVs, as part of the LOOK North Detect and Avoid (DAA) trials, has effectively demonstrated the Sparrowhawk Radar as a qualified solution for enabling beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) operations in Canada. Under observation from Transport Canada and the National Research Council, Canadian UAVs held trials at the Foremost UAS Test Range to validate the function of their Sparrowhawk Radar – a low-cost solution for DAA.

Sparrowhawk is much more than a ground-based radar system. It is a comprehensive technology solution which combines low-cost radars of various forms with computer vision, predictive modelling, data presentation and RPA flight contingency planning. The raw data received from the radar is distilled into an airspace picture and presented to the RPAS operator natively on the ground control station. Air risk is then automatically interpreted during airspace intrusions, allowing for emergency procedures engagement by the operator, or automatic evasive maneuvers.

“It is overly simplistic to think you can just buy a radar and start flying BVLOS. We have spent four years selecting and developing the technology, processes, and safety protocols to determine and interpret the fingerprint of an airspace” said John Molberg, Vice President of Innovation at Canadian UAVs. “We take a holistic view of the entire problem before we start flying BVLOS. This approach takes into account the needs of the company, the customer, the regulator, and of course, other airspace users. We have been working with Transport Canada for years to demonstrate that economic and effective DAA is possible for RPAS operators. Our partnerships have allowed for this innovation to develop organically in Canada.”

Sparrowhawk is a Canadian innovation made possible through an assortment of public and private investments in Canadian UAVs Inc. Investment has been leveraged from NSERC, IRAP, Tecterra, LOOKNorth, and most significantly as part of the SkySensus Project, a research and development project under Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) funded and led by Peraton Canada. These investments facilitate Canadian UAVs’s mission of providing the ecosystem for integration of UAVs into complex airspace by helping to ‘crack’ the most difficult problem facing the widespread adoption of RPAS in Canadian skies: Detection and Avoidance of manned aircraft.

“Peraton’s SkySensus ITB investment is an example of public policy made good” says Chris Brosinsky, Chief Operating Officer at UxS Consulting, and former director of the IDEaS program at the Department of National Defence. “By combining industry demand with ITB funding, this policy is helping Canadian innovators address significant barriers in the emerging RPAS industry.”

The DAA trials, sponsored in part by LOOKNorth, set in motion a series of technology demonstrations to measure the efficacy of different forms of DAA. Canadian UAVs, as part of this demonstration, showcased the effectiveness of its ground–based radar and software by commissioning a manned RV-10 aircraft to fly at the Foremost UAS Test Range. Canadian UAVs engineers and operators tested detection of the aircraft from 2 NM to 8 NM (15 km) in real-time. The aircraft altitude varied from 400 to 4000 feet AGL with typical and atypical flight paths flown to thoroughly test detection performance. On-board the aircraft was a GPS/IMU tracker supplied by the National Research Council (NRC) to establish the ground truth reference for detection analysis. Sparrowhawk’s performance was assessed against the aircraft’s GPS data to confirm the accuracy and reliability of detections.

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SPACE - S0 - 20210522 - Sun Awakens, Flares/CMEs, Galactic Magnetism

SPACE - S0 - 20210522 - Sun Awakens, Flares/CMEs, Galactic Magnetism

Good Morning, 0bservers!

   

    

Solar wind speeds drew down from their high of 600 KPS yesterday to a current 460-500 KPS. Particle density also took a slow but steady downward glide, almost a straight line at a shallow angle. Temperatures are just a couple hundred degrees Kelvin lower than yesterday, also in a slow slide. The Phi Angle is still pretty scrambled, but the Bt/Bz has stabilized significantly from 48 hours ago. The KP-Index is definitely calmer than before, staying steady at KP-1 since noon UTC yesterday. The Magnetometer has returned to a nominal sine wave, the Proton Flux is steady and straight, but the Electron Flux did climb quite a bit over the last 24 hours, coming pretty close to (but not breaching) the alert threshold. The X-Ray Flux charts showed three sharp spikes at 1800, 0300 and 0500 UTC, all into the mid/upper C Class range. The ENLIL Spiral is showing a small CME but it is moving well behind our orbit. It was also visible on the LASCO C3 (but again, they're showing a different direction, what's with that?). The video loops are a bit worrisome, as it shows those flares coming from the main Northern sunspot, and they're pretty strong. You can see Earth-directed CMEs at 193Å which should arrive by Monday, and very bright flashes at 301Å and 131Å (with one of the latter showing a very bright flash OFF the Sun by a good distance... wait, what?). The Northern coronal hole is just now passing central heliographic longitude, and I'm seeing that new sunspot from yesterday on the Magnetogram. The main one is quite large and complex there as it approaches center disc, but if you look at it in visible light it's far smaller. Go figure...

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