The Sputniks Orbit covers Defense, Science and Technology . Contact Admin_News@mail2world.com. here is a link to our coverage and rules page: https://thesputniksorbit.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-sputniks-orbit-blog-for-short-tso.html
German company Dynamit Nobel Defence (DND), a subsidiary of Israeli Rafael, announced last weekend that it awarded a €19 million contract to supply RGW90 HEAT/HESH man-portable anti-tank weapon systems to the Belgian Army.
DND describes the RGW90 (Recoilless Grenade Weapon) as a 90mm man-portable, anti-armor, multi-purpose weapon system. The RGW90 HEAT/HESH is an anti-tank and multi-purpose version of the RGW90 series. The weapon can be used from confined spaces and is able to destroy a wide range of land targets as main battle tanks, light armored vehicles, fortified facilities, bunkers, wall structures, and fixed shelters.
The HEAT version of the weapon is able to defeat 500mm RHA (rolled homogeneous armor) of combat vehicles. The RGW90 is a single-use weapon system consisting of a rocket stored in a tube launcher and a fire control system that includes an optical sighting system, night vision system, laser rangefinder, and ballistic computer. The anti-tank weapon has a weight of around 10 kg and has a firing range from 10 to 400 meters.
About a year ago, the German army purchased similar systems from DND. In March 2021, Israel Defense reported that the German Army has commissioned Dynamit Nobel Defense with the production and delivery of 2,107 "active agents" rocket launchers 90mm of the fog effector (DM15, red phosphorus).
Please recommend this page & follow the Sputniks Orbit
ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli inside his sleeping bag in the Italian-built Node 2 module. Also known as Harmony, Node 2 was delivered to the International Space Station during Nespoli's Esperia Mission, on board the STS-120 flight with Space Shuttle Discovery.
Credit: NASA
Hibernating astronauts could be the best way to save mission costs, reduce the size of spacecraft by a third and keep crew healthy on their way to Mars. An ESA-led investigation suggests that human hibernation goes beyond the realm of science-fiction and may become a game-changing technique for space travel.
When packing for a return flight to the red planet, space engineers account for around two years' worth of food and water for the crew.
"We are talking about 30 kg per astronaut per day, and on top of that we need to consider radiation as well as mental and physiological challenges," explains Jennifer Ngo-Anh, ESA research and payload coordinator of Human and Robotic Exploration and one of the authors of the paper that links biology to engineering.
Torpor during hibernation is an induced state that reduces the metabolic rate of an organism. This 'suspended animation' is a common mechanism in animals who wish to preserve energy.
Reducing the metabolic rate of a crew en route to Mars down to 25% of the normal state would dramatically cut down the amount of supplies and habitat size, making long-duration exploration more feasible.
"Where there is life, there is stress" reminds Jennifer. "The strategy would minimize boredom, loneliness and aggression levels linked to the confinement in a spacecraft," she adds.
Mimicking therapeutic torpor, the idea of putting human into a state of hibernation, has been around in hospitals since the 1980s—doctors can induce hypothermia to reduce metabolism during long and complex surgeries. However, it is not an active reduction of energy. Studies on hibernation to visit other planets could offer new potential applications for patient care on Earth.
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron reopens the door to ESA's Columbus module, after two days and nights of the Space Station's side modules being closed as a precautionary measure against space debris. Matthias posted this image to social media on 18 November 2021 with the caption: "NASA Astronaut Kayla Barron reopening the hatch of ESA's science laboratory Columbus after two days and nights of the side modules being closed as a precaution against space debris. This also marked the end of our slumber party in Node 2, as I go back to sleeping in my CASA crew quarters in Columbus In the second picture, you can see the four crew quarters of my NASA Astronauts colleagues in the foreground, with my temporary diagonal 'bed' at the back. Orientation doesn't matter in space – I slept beautifully."
Credit: ESA/NASA
Don't wake the bear
Animals hibernate to survive periods of cold and food or water scarcity, reducing their heart rate, breathing and other vital functions to a fraction of their normal life, while body temperature lowers close to ambient temperature. Tardigrades, frogs and reptiles are very good at it.
Bears seem to be the best role model for human hibernation in space. They have similar body mass to us and reduce their body temperature only by a few degrees—a limit considered safe for humans. Like bears, astronauts should acquire extra body fat before falling into a slumber.
During hibernation, brown and black bears retreat into their dens and experience six months of fasting and immobilization. If a person spends six months in bed, there is a major loss of muscle, bone strength and more risk of heart failure.
"However, research shows that bears exit their den healthily in spring with only marginal loss of muscle mass. It only takes them about 20 days to be back to normal. This teaches us that hibernation prevents disuse atrophy of muscle and bone, and protects against tissue damage," explains Alexander Choukér, professor of Medicine at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany.
Lower testosterone levels seem to aid long hibernation in mammals, estrogens in humans strongly regulate energy metabolism.
"The very specific and different balance of hormones in females or males and their role in regulating metabolism suggest that women could be preferred candidates," adds Alexander.
Enjoy your pod
Scientists suggest engineers build soft-shell pods with fine-tuned settings for sweet hibernation: a quiet environment with low lights, low temperature—less than 10 °C—and high humidity.
The astronauts would move very little, but would not be restrained, and wear clothing that avoids overheating. Wearable sensors would measure their posture, temperature and heart rate.
Every capsule should be surrounded by water containers that act as shield against radiation. "Hibernation will actually help protect people from the harmful effects of radiation during deep space travel. Away from Earth's magnetic field, damage caused by high-energy particles can result in cell death, radiation sickness or cancer," says Alexander.
Human hibernation has been recommended as a key ‘enabling technology’ for space. Once the preserve of science fiction, hibernation or ‘suspended animation’ may one day become an important enabler of deep space travel. Hibernation would take place in small individual pods that would double as cabins while the crew are awake. The assumption is that a drug would be administered to induce ‘torpor’ – the term for the hibernating state. Like hibernating animals, the astronauts would be expected to acquire extra body fat in advance of torpor. Their soft-shell pods would be darkened and their temperature greatly reduced to cool their occupants during a projected 180-day Earth-Mars cruise. Radiation exposure from high-energy particles is a key hazard of deep space travel, but because the hibernating crew will be spending so much time in their hibernation pods, then shielding – such as water containers – could be concentrated around them. Credit: European Space Agency
With the crew at rest for long periods, artificial intelligence will come into play during anomalies and emergencies.
"Besides monitoring power consumption and autonomous operations, the computers onboard will maintain optimal performance of the spacecraft until the crew could be woken up," explains Alexander.
The under-construction Ariane 6 rocket will provide a powerful vehicle for ESA launches.
ESA
The December 25 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope was a career capping triumph for the ESA Ariane 5 rocket. The Ariane 6 cometh soon.ESA
WITH A CENTRAL ROCKET CORE NOW ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE AT ITS SPACEPORT, the European Space Agency is making progress on the development of its Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket, the intended successor to the current Ariane 5 rocket that successfully launched the James Webb Space Telescope in December.
Designed as a less costly, more flexible heavy-lift vehicle than the Ariane 5, development of the Ariane 6 began in 2014. Like its predecessor, the new rocket will launch both scientific and commercial payloads from the European Space Port in Kourou, French Guiana, in South America, albeit from an all-new launchpad. If all goes well, Ariane 6 rockets will begin flying ESA missions such as the HERA spacecraft in 2024, while competing with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rockets to launch commercial payloads beginning in 2023.
On Friday, ESA announced the installation of the Ariane 6 lower and upper stages on the assembly line of a new launch vehicle assembly building in French Guiana. The two sections comprising the core of the rocket arrived by boat on January 17.
ESA ground crew will now run the Ariane 6 rocket through the same steps of assembly and testing that will eventually take place leading up to an actual rocket launch, and will also hot-fire the rocket at the launch pad without actually lifting off.
The first actual test flight of the Ariane 6 is expected sometime in late 2022.
WHAT IS THE DESIGN OF THE ARIANE 6 ROCKET?
Ariane 6 will be a two-stage, heavy-lift rocket, rising almost 200 feet off the launch pad.
A Vulcain 2.1 engine, an improved version of the engine powering the Ariane 5, will drive the lower stage, while the new Vinci engine powers the upper stage. Both engines use liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer.
The lower stage also accepts two or four solid rocket boosters to provide additional launch at lift-off, the two-booster configuration known as the A62 variant, and the four-booster configuration the A64 variant of the rocket.
ESA illustration of the two Ariane 6 launch configuration variants.
All told, the Ariane 6 will provide more than 1 million pounds of lift at lift-off and can deliver between 11 and nearly 24 tons to low-Earth orbit, depending on the variant used.
WHAT WILL THE ARIANE 6 BE CAPABLE OF?
Between the two variants, rocketing fairings of different sizes, and the flexibility of the Vinci engine — many rocket engines can only be restarted on the ground — Ariane 6 will be able to deliver payloads everywhere from Low-Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit.
It will also serve well in Earth escape missions, just as its predecessor the Ariane 5 did when launching the Webb telescope out to Lagrangian Point 2, 1 million miles from Earth in deep space.
The James Webb Space Telescope launches aboard an Ariane 5 rocket on December 25, 2021.
JODY AMIET/AFP/Getty Images
WHAT MISSIONS MIGHT ARIANE 6 LAUNCH?
With the first test flight of the Ariane 6 still uncertain, it’s not clear which payloads the new rocket will loft first and when.
ESA plans to launch a Galileo Navigation satellite sometime in 2023 using the Ariane 6, and its HERA spacecraft, which will examine the results of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), sometime in 2024.
Through analyzes of ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica, a research team led by Lund University in Sweden has found evidence of an extreme solar storm that occurred about 9,200 years ago. What puzzles the researchers is that the storm took place during one of the sun's more quiet phases—during which it is generally believed our planet is less exposed to such events.
The sun is a prerequisite for all life on Earth. But our life-giving companion can also cause problems. When there is strong activity on the surface of the sun, more energy is released, something that can give rise to geomagnetic storms. This in turn can cause power outages and communication disturbances.
Predicting solar storms is difficult. It is currently believed that they are more likely during an active phase of the sun, or solar maximum, during the so-called sunspot cycle. However, the new study published in Nature Communications shows that this may not always be the case for very large storms.
"We have studied drill cores from Greenland and Antarctica, and discovered traces of a massive solar storm that hit Earth during one of the sun's passive phases about 9,200 years ago," says Raimund Muscheler, geology researcher at Lund University.
The researchers scoured the drill cores for peaks of the radioactive isotopes beryllium-10 and chlorine-36. These are produced by high-energy cosmic particles that reach Earth, and can be preserved in ice and sediment.
Analyzing ice cores led the researchers to their surprising results.
Credit: Raimund Muscheler
"This is time consuming and expensive analytical work. Therefore, we were pleasantly surprised when we found such a peak, indicating a hitherto unknown giant solar storm in connection with low solar activity," says Raimund Muscheler.
If a similar solar storm were to take place today, it could have devastating consequences. In addition to power outages and radiation damage to satellites, it could pose a danger to air traffic and astronauts as well as a collapse of various communication systems.
"These enormous storms are currently not sufficiently included in risk assessments. It is of the utmost importance to analyze what these events could mean for today's technology and how we can protect ourselves," concludes Raimund Muscheler.
A $13 billion aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is adding to the Pentagon’s worries after a new assessment noted that the vessel is “yet to demonstrate that it can effectively” defend itself against anti-ship missiles and other threats.
The report, obtained by Bloomberg News in advance of its release, details that the ship’s missile interceptors, radar, and data-dissemination systems performed inconsistently under test conditions, limiting the vessel’s capacity to destroy incoming and hostile weapons.
The Pentagon’s testing office said that an assessment of key systems “identified several design shortfalls not previously discovered,” adding that the navy had already highlighted areas where the vessel, and its three sister ships, could be enhanced to improve survivability.
Its deficiency in neutralizing incoming threats was apparent even though sensor systems “satisfactorily detected, tracked and engaged the targets,” the assessment said.
The vessel’s Gatling gun-like system also “experienced numerous reliability failures that in several cases prevented the system from executing its mission,” the test office said.
The report, which contains unclassified and “controlled unclassified” information, has already been circulated to the Navy, Bloomberg said. It claimed that “only a limited assessment” of the combat system’s effectiveness is currently possible and noted that the testing office plans to send an interim report to Congress by September 30.
The vessel, the first in a new class of nuclear-powered carriers which will project US power around the world, has been dogged with reliability issues since it was delivered to the Navy four years ago.
Last January, a similar report highlighted issues with the ship’s next-generation takeoff and landing systems. The latest assessment also noted the “poor or unknown reliability” of its aircraft launch and recovery systems.
As the world’s energy demands increase, so does our consumption of fossil fuels. The result is a massive rise in greenhouse gases emissions with severely adverse environmental effects. To address this, scientists have been searching for alternative, renewable sources of energy.
A main candidate is hydrogen produced from organic waste, or “biomass,” of plants and animals. Biomass also absorbs, removes, and stores CO2 from the atmosphere, while biomass decomposition can also bring us ways to negative emissions or greenhouse gases removal. But even though biomass heralds a way forward, there is still the question of the best way to maximize its conversion into energy.
Biomass gasification
There are currently two main methods for converting biomass into energy: gasification and pyrolysis. Gasification puts solid or liquid biomass at temperatures around 1000°C, converting it into gas and solid compounds; the gas is called “syngas” while the solid is “biochar.”
Syngas is a mix of hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, and other hydrocarbons, and those are what are used as “biofuel” to generate power. On the other hand, biochar is often regarded as a solid carbon waste, although it can be used in agriculture applications.
A graphical summary of the xenon-lamp flash photo-pyrolysis method.
Credit: EPFL
Biomass pyrolysis
The other method, biomass pyrolysis, is similar to gasification except that biomass is heated at lower temperatures, between 400-800°C and at pressures up to 5 bar in an inert atmosphere. There are three types of pyrolysis: conventional, fast, and flash pyrolysis. Out of all three, the first two take the longest time, and have the most char production.
Flash pyrolysis takes place at 600°C and produces the most syngas and has the lowest residence time. Unfortunately, it also needs specialized reactors that can handle high temperatures and pressures.
Banana split for hydrogen production
Now, scientists led by Professor Hubert Girault at EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences have developed a new method for biomass photo-pyrolysis that produces not only valuable syngas, but also a biochar of solid carbon that can be repurposed in other applications. The work is published in Chemical Science.
The method performs flash light pyrolysis using a Xenon lamp, commonly used for curing metallic inks for printed electronics. Girault’s group has also used the system in the last few years for other purposes, like synthesizing nanoparticles.
The lamp’s white flash light provides a high-power energy source as well as short pulses that promote photo-thermal chemical reactions. The idea is to generate a powerful flash light shot, which the biomass absorbs and which instantaneously triggers a photothermal biomass conversion into syngas and biochar.
This flashing technique was used on different sources of biomass: banana peels, corn cobs, orange peels, coffee beans, and coconut shells, all of which were initially dried at 105°C for 24 hours and then ground and sieved to a thin powder. The powder was then placed in a stainless-steel reactor with a standard glass window at ambient pressure and under an inert atmosphere. The Xenon lamp flashes, and the whole conversion process is over in a few milliseconds.
“Each kg of dried biomass can generate around 100 liters of hydrogen and 330g of biochar, which is up to 33wt.% of the original dried banana peel mass,” says Bhawna Nagar, who worked on the study. The method also had a positive calculated energy outcome of 4.09 MJ·per kg of dried biomass.
What stands out in this method is that both its end products, hydrogen and solid-carbon biochar, are valuable. The hydrogen can be used as green fuel, while the carbon biochar, can either be buried and used as a fertilizer or it can be used to manufacture conductive electrodes.
“The relevance of our work is further heightened by the fact that we are indirectly capturing CO2 stores from the atmosphere for years,” says Nagar. “We have converted that into useful end products in no time using a Xenon flash lamp.”
Reference: “Banana split: Biomass splitting with flash light irradiation” by Wanderson O. Silva, Bhawna Nagar, Mathieu Soutrenon and Hubert H. Girault, 25 January 2022, Chemical Science. DOI: 10.1039/d1sc06322g
Other contributors: Institute of Systems Engineering, HES-SO Valais-Wallis
Top Aces has completed the initial test flight of its F-16 Advanced Aggressor Fighter (F-16 AAF) equipped with its proprietary Advanced Aggressor Mission System (AAMS). This sophisticated technology enables Top Aces' aircraft to replicate the most advanced capabilities of contemporary air-to-air combat opponents. With the completion of the first test flight, the F-16 AAF will now execute a series of robust operational test activities in preparation for its entry into service with the United States Air Force.
Powered by an open system architecture, AAMS permits the rapid integration of sensors and functions that a customer wishes to use to improve their air combat readiness. For example, today the system is fielded with:
• Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) air-to-air radar;
• Helmet-Mounted Cueing System (HMCS);
• Tactical datalink communications between aircraft and other entities;
• Infrared Search and Track (IRST) systems;
• High Fidelity Weapon Simulation allowing accurate replication of adversary tactics;
• Advanced Electronic Attack pod employment and passive RF detection capabilities; and
• An array of tactical functions coordinating the above systems to provide a spectrum of realistic adversary effects.
The AAMS represents four years of research and development work by Top Aces engineers and technology partner Coherent Technical Services, Inc. (CTSi) of Lexington Park, MD. Last year, the AAMS was certified for use on Top Aces' fleet of A-4N Skyhawks and is currently in service with the German Armed Forces and other European customers for advanced airborne training. Now this same federated mission system has been installed on Top Aces' F-16A aircraft by M7 Aerospace of San Antonio, TX, an Elbit Systems of America company experienced in aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO).
Top Aces plans to upgrade the majority of its F-16 fleet with the ground-breaking AAMS technology within the next year.
"When you combine the power and avionics of the F-16 with the AAMS, it provides the most realistic and cost-effective training solution available to pilots flying fifth-generation fighters, such as the F-22 or F-35", says Russ Quinn, President, Top Aces Corp., a 26-year USAF veteran and former Aggressor pilot with more than 3,300 F-16 flight hours.
"Due to the plug-and-play nature of our AAMS, it also allows for the addition of new and emerging sensors well into the future, which provides the flexibility to upgrade our F-16s and meet the needs of the Air Force for years to come," adds Mr. Quinn.
A supermassive black hole is seen in the center of a galaxy (illustrative). (photo credit: PIXABAY)
Black holes
are one of the most mysterious and terrifying phenomena to populate the
universe, and according to a new study, there may be far more of them
than we realize: A total of 40 quadrillion (40,000,000,000,000,000).
The findings come in the first study of a series published in the peer-reviewed academic periodical The Astrophysical Journal,
which focuses on modeling the mass function of black holes of various
sizes, ranging from stellar all the way to supermassive.
How many black holes are there in the universe?
That's a difficult question and likely cannot be answered any time
soon. But that is not the case with the observable universe, a vast
expanse of space that has a diameter of approximately 90 billion
light-years that represents the furthest extent of what in the universe
that can be seen by us on Earth with all the telescopes, space probes
and other methods of observation currently at our disposal.
So how many black holes are there in the observable universe?
According to the calculations of this study, that's 40 quadrillion, also known in scientific notation as 40 x 10^18.
Artistic impression of a material disc with illuminated gas around
Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky
Way. (credit: Wikimedia Commons )
But that's not all.
All these black holes gather a lot of matter into them through accretion. But just how much matter is that?
According
to the study, black holes have taken up around 1% of all ordinary
matter. This specifically refers to baryonic matter, which would
describe most things encountered in everyday life. Non-baryonic matter
refers to things like free electrons, neutrinos and, most notably, black
holes.
How do we know how many black holes exist?
In short, scientists did the math.
In
order to determine the number of black holes in the observable universe
and how much matter they have taken in, the researchers developed a new
method of calculation. This was done by evaluating a number of factors
like rate of star formation, the amount of stellar mass and metallicity -
the abundance of metals, which, in astronomy, refers to any element
heavier than hydrogen and helium.
Artist impression of a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)
It further relied on the use of a stellar and binary evolution code
to further calculate the evolution of stars. This evolution code is
combined with data and information about star formation and the
enrichment and distribution of metals in individual galaxies.
Then, it was all put into a model alongside the use of necessary equations.
It's
complicated, to say the least. But it is also innovative; a robust and
revolutionary "computation of the stellar black hole mass function
across cosmic history," lead author PhD student Alex Sicilia at the
International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Italy noted in a statement.
And
its complexity is only further heightened by how multidisciplinary it
is. As noted by Sicilia's supervisor Prof. Andrea Lapi, it required
expertise in galaxy formation and evolution, gravitational waves,
stellar astrophysics and more.
What are black holes?
Black
holes are, to put it simply, massive concentrations of gravity that are
so strong, nothing, not even light, can escape them. As such, it can be
very hard to spot them. In fact, scientists weren't even sure they
existed 20-30 years ago. The only way we know black holes exist is
because they have an enormous gravitational pull that influences
surrounding matter. In other words, it can be hard to see a black hole,
but we can see it affecting everything around it.
An artist's impression of a black hole accretion disk. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Most
black holes are formed when a star dies, its core collapsing in on
itself to form one massive concentration of gravity. They continue to
accrete matter over time and, while light and matter can't escape,
radiation and radio waves do get emitted.
Today,
our scientific understanding of black holes as grown considerably, and
we now know a lot more about them. For example, supermassive black holes
– which, as their name implies, are absolutely enormous – can be
located at the centers of most major spiral galaxies. Our own Milky Way
galaxy is no exception, with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* being located in the galactic center.
The recent study may have also shed light on another intergalactic mystery: The origin of supermassive black holes.
How are supermassive black holes created?
While the origins of most black holes are known, how supermassive black holes are created is a lot more unclear.
It
is thought that black holes gather material rapidly from the
surrounding environment and are surrounded by what is known as an
"accretion disk." These disks consist of fast-rotating high-temperature
gases that give off light - though the black holes themselves do not.
However, it is unclear if this is true, and our understanding of this process may be very much incomplete.
This
is something many scientists, including an international research team
led by the University of Haifa utilizing NASA's Hubble Space Telescope,
are trying to answer.
But this study presents a theory.
To
put it simply, supermassive black holes are thought to form with a
seed, which has been hypothesized to be formed when galaxies that birth
stars and experience supernovae see gases migrate inward to the galactic
center which will, eventually, fully condense and merge until a
supermassive black hole seed is formed. It is then that the black hole
grows bigger through accretion.
That
much was already known, but what the researchers figured out was about
seed distribution. Light seeds are distributed throughout the universe,
but how do they become heavier? That seems to be through the mergers of
star clusters and collapses, which would form heavier seeds. These
heavier seeds in turn are what are used to grow these supermassive black
holes.
Right now,
this is very much theoretical, but it is something the team is keen to
focus on next in an upcoming study. But it brings us another step closer
to understanding the mysteries of black holes and how they influence
and impact the universe around them.
Please recommend this page & follow the Sputniks Orbit
White steam billows from the Cattenom nuclear power plant in Cattenom, eastern France.
Hours before the window for lodging objections closes, EU environment and energy ministers meeting in France Friday differed sharply on a European Commission provision that would classify nuclear and natural gas energy as "sustainable".
The controversy pits countries led by France—where nuclear generates a world-leading 70 percent of electricity—against Germany, Austria and others in the 27-nation bloc.
Debate over the Commission's so-called "taxonomy" is not on the agenda of the informal, three-day talks in Amiens, but flared nonetheless.
In late December the European Commission unveiled a classification labelling investment in nuclear gas-based energy as sustainable, in order to favour sectors that reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming.
Nuclear power is carbon-free, and gas is significantly less polluting than coal.
Countries in the European Union had until midnight Friday to suggest modifications.
After that, the Commission—taking these suggestions into account—must "rapidly" publish a final text that will be definitely adopted four months later.
Passage in its current form seems more than likely: it would take a majority of deputies in the EU parliament or 20 of the 27 members states to derail it, and critical mass is lacking in both cases.
A letter to the executive European Commission from some European Parliament deputies protesting that the period for suggesting changes was too short has fallen on deaf ears.
And among EU member states, a dozen have backed France's position and the Commission's proposed taxonomy.
Many are central European nations looking to switch from carbon-intensive coal-fired power to natural gas.
"Nuclear is a decarbonised energy," French environment minister Barbara Pompili told journalists in Amiens.
"We cannot deprive ourselves of it at the same time that we need to very rapidly reduce our carbon emissions."
'A very bad signal'
Despite the strong headwinds, anti-nuclear resistance has not subsided.
"It is neither sustainable nor economic", countered Germany environment minister Stefan Tidow. "It is not a green energy."
Luxembourg and Austria have gone even further, threatening to take the case to court if nuclear is certified as sustainable, citing the risk of accidents and the as-yet unresolved problem of nuclear waste.
"It would be greenwashing," Luxembourg's environment minister, Carole Dieschbourg, told AFP.
"And it would send a very bad signal: it is not a transition energy, it takes too long," she added, alluding to the lag time for building nuclear reactors.
Her Austrian counterpart, Leonore Gewessler, said labelling nuclear power as sustainable will "undermine the credibility of the taxonomy" because it does not fulfil the legal criterion of "not causing damage to the environment".
The EU Commission has proposed a measure requiring financial products to specify what percentage of the activities financed involve nuclear energy, a transparency measure that would allow investors to steer clear if they wanted to.
Berlin has expressed reservations about joining Vienna and Luxembourg in a legal challenge.
"For now, we're working on our response, and when the Commission presents a new text we'll analyse it from a legal standpoint," said Germany state secretary for economic affairs and climate action Sven Giegold.
Austria has also objected to tagging gas as sustainable, with The Netherlands—which backs the label for nuclear energy—arguing "there is no scientific reason to include" gas.
Polish undersecretary of state for the environment Adam Guibourge-Czetwertynski disagreed.
"Gas replacing coal because there's nothing better in the short term, that makes sense," he said.
January 20 solar flare is seen on the right. (NASA/SDO)
After a series of eruptions on the Sun, Earth may be in for auroras over the next few days.
A sunspot called AR2929 has emitted two solar flares, accompanied by coronal mass ejections. Although neither was directed at Earth, the ejections that are currently blasting through space may deliver glancing blows to our planet's atmosphere that could cause minor geomagnetic storms.
The first flare took place on January 18 at 5:44 pm UT, and was categorized as an M1.5 class-flare. The second erupted on January 20 at 6:01 am UT. It was more powerful, clocking in at M5.5. Both are considered mid-level flares – not the most powerful activity of which our Sun is capable, but plenty strong enough for its effects to be felt here on Earth.
For both flares, a burst of X-rays ionized the top of Earth's atmosphere, causing brief, minor short-wave radio blackouts; the first above South America and the second over the Indian Ocean.
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are caused by magnetic field lines snapping and reconnecting, are massive ejections of up to billions of tons of plasma from the solar corona, carrying an embedded magnetic field. These often occur in concert with solar flares, and travel outwards from the Sun, taking several days to arrive at Earth if they're heading in our direction.
The CME associated with the January 20 flare. (NOAA)
If they're not, they can still deliver a glancing blow. That's what we might see with the two CMEs from AR2929. The resulting geomagnetic storms will be minor: perhaps a few power grid fluctuations, minor degradation of radio communications, and minor interruptions to space operations.
We might also see auroras, when charged particles from the CME collide and interact with Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field to produce gorgeous light shows at high latitudes.
Such flares are becoming more common as the Sun ramps up to solar maximum, the peak of solar activity that occurs over an 11-year cycle.
This cycle is based on the Sun's magnetic field, which flips every 11 years, with the north and south magnetic poles switching places. It's not known what drives these cycles (recent research suggests it has to do with an 11.07-year planetary alignment), but the poles switch when the magnetic field is at its weakest, also known as the solar minimum.
The January 20 flare in 131 Angstrom wavelengths. (NASA/SDO)
The Sun's magnetic field controls its activity, including sunspots (temporary regions of strong magnetic fields), solar flares, and coronal mass ejections, so the solar minimum manifests as a period of minimal activity. After the poles have switched, solar activity gradually ramps up to maximum, when the Sun is at its rowdiest.
The most recent solar minimum took place in December 2019. We're currently in the ramping up stage, heading for a solar maximum in around July 2025. Last year saw some truly epic flares, which could mean we're in for even more spectacular fireworks this year.
No two solar cycles are the same, so it's difficult to predict exactly how active the Sun will get. Probes and observatories such as the Parker Solar Probe and the Solar Dynamics Observatory are helping scientists try to better understand our Sun's behavior in order to better predict solar storms.
The possibly incoming CMEs are due to reach Earth's orbital distance sometime over the next few days, with a good chance of auroras on the weekend. You can keep an eye on the aurora forecast here or here.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai eruption. (NASA et `al.)
The ongoing volcanic eruption in Tonga began in December 2021, but it wasn't until 5:15 pm local time on January 15, 2022, that the powerful explosion occurred.
It generated an enormous cloud of ash, earthquakes, and tsunamis that reached as far as the distant coastlines of Peru on the other side of the Pacific.
Now scientists are even looking for the effects of the eruption in space.
The eruption column reached the Earth's stratosphere, the second layer of the atmosphere up from the ground. The sound of the explosion was heard thousands of kilometers away in Yukon Territory, Canada. And although below the threshold for human hearing, the pressure (sound) waves were even detected by barometers in the UK.
It seems that the eruption also appears to have generated a series of so-called "atmospheric gravity waves", which were detected by a NASA satellite, radiating outwards from the volcano in concentric circles.
Scientists, including me, are now looking to see what impact these waves may be having in space.
The purpose of our research is to better understand the top levels of the atmosphere, well above where the International Space Station (ISS) orbits, and in particular to what extent changes in it are driven by events on Earth (as opposed to the space environment).
It could also help us better understand how technology such as GPS is affected by volcanic eruptions.
Because the atmosphere is mostly transparent to human eyes, we rarely think of it as a complex and dynamic structure with many distinct layers. The upper tendrils of our atmosphere extend well above the Karman line, the point 100 km (62 miles) above sea level where space officially starts.
https://youtu.be/6SqMCIKV364
These atmospheric layers are full of waves traveling in all directions, not unlike waves on the surface of the sea. Such atmospheric gravity waves can be generated by any number of phenomena, including geomagnetic storms caused by outbursts on the Sun, earthquakes, volcanoes, thunderstorms, and even sunrise.
You have probably seen some of the effects of these yourself, as these same waves can create undulating clouds.
The ionosphere
Such waves do not just travel horizontally, they also propagate upwards to some of the very highest parts of our planet's atmosphere – the ionosphere.
This is a region of the Earth's atmosphere that extends from about 65 km to over 1,000 km up (the ISS orbits at about 400 km). At these altitudes, atmospheric gases are partially "ionized", forming a so-called plasma, meaning its molecules are split into charged particles – positive atoms called ions and negative electrons.
Ionization in the atmosphere occurs due to exposure of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, high-energy particles from space, and even meteors burning up.
But given that oppositely charged particles exert an attractive force on each other, like a magnet sticking to a fridge door, ions and electrons also tend to recombine, once again producing neutral molecules.
So there is a complex and continuous fluctuation in the ionosphere between plasma production and loss of plasma due to recombination.
While these processes are mostly undetectable in visible light, they can affect longer wavelength radio light. The plasma in the ionosphere can reflect radio waves at certain frequencies, scatter them at others, or even block them entirely.
These properties make the ionosphere useful for several modern technologies including high frequency radio communications, and over-the-horizon radar.
But just like at ground level, the ionosphere is subject to weather. This is caused by either the space environment (space weather) or by events on Earth.
Space disturbances
When atmospheric gravity waves generated by a volcanic eruption (or any source) reach the ionosphere they can trigger what are called "traveling ionospheric disturbances".
These are compression waves that can enhance the fluctuations in plasma density substantially in a short space of time and can travel for thousands of miles around the globe. These effects can disrupt modern technology, such as by interfering with the accuracy of satellite global positioning systems (GPS).
Volcanic eruptions in the past have been associated with measurable changes in the ionosphere as detected by GPS receivers on the ground, for example in 2015 and 2013.
To study these disturbances in more detail than their effects on GPS, I use data from a facility called the Low Frequency Array (Lofar). One of the world's largest radio telescopes, Lofar consists of dozens of radio antennas spread across Europe, designed to observe distant natural radio sources in the early Universe, such as radio galaxies.
The appearance of radio sources in space, when viewed through the ionosphere, is similar to how the view of objects through a glass of water can become distorted when we stir (or shake) it up.
With careful analysis, one can use these distortions to understand what is happening in the ionosphere itself. Traveling ionospheric disturbances can enhance these distortions, particularly at the radio wavelengths we use with Lofar.
screen shot only CC
The video above (and seen here), created by Richard Fallows, shows some Lofar data from December 2013. The bright points of light are natural radio sources such as distant galaxies. The sequence in the left panel is from a quiet night, and in the right panel the ionosphere is disturbed. The sources can be seen to rapidly change position and fade in and out.
Over the coming weeks, we will be looking quite carefully at our Lofar data to investigate whether there are distinct patterns visible that could be attributed to the Tongan eruption.
Ultimately, the research could help us better understand how volcanoes on Earth influence space and technology.
As the ionosphere is the atmospheric interface between Earth and space, it may even shed light on the precise degree to which disturbances are driven by terrestrial versus space weather events.
