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NASA's Space Geodesy Project (SGP) uses a variety of space- and land-based techniques to determine the precise shape, position, and orientation of the Earth with respect to the Terrestrial Reference Frame (TRF) and Earth orientation parameters (EOP). This visualization presents a summary of these techniques.
The visualization begins with a shot of natural-looking Earth, then transitions to a view that shows the orbital components of the SGP, which include global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), satellite laser ranging (SLR) and Doppler Orbitography by Radiopositioning Integrated on Satellite (DORIS).
The view then moves to the surface of the Earth, showing the positions and direction of the motion of ground stations as measured by these techniques, as well by ground-based very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), which uses the radio emissions of distant quasars to determine geodetic measurements.
We then zoom into the center of the Earth to show the consequence of these surface motions: the movement of the geocenter, which these techniques can determine to within millimeters.
Booby traps and bodies mark the Russians' retreat: RICHARD PENDLEBURY reports on how invading forces are repositioning on frontlines around Kyiv
Look,’ Maxym tells me: ‘We got another of those orcs.’ He holds up a Russian passport open at the ID page and the face of Ensign Andrei M stares out at me.
Orcs – the humanoid monsters in JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings – is the name often given by Ukrainian soldiers to their Russian invaders.
Andrei M (we are not publishing his full name in case his family have yet to be informed) looks altogether nondescript. But his is now a face from the grave.
On Tuesday the Kremlin announced it is to ‘drastically reduce combat operations in the Kyiv and Chernihiv areas… in order to boost mutual trust’ during ceasefire negotiations.
I have been in touch with Maxym, a lieutenant in Ukraine’s territorial defence units, for almost a month now. He is one of a number of volunteers from Ireland who have returned to the land of their birth to fight
Well, that is one way to describe humiliating retreats and the necessary regrouping and resupply of battered formations. The licking of wounds.
For as these images – exclusive to the Daily Mail – show, Russia’s repositioning on the frontlines around this city is already taking place. And it is largely a result of Ukraine’s unexpected battlefield successes.
We also have first-hand evidence that, as they withdraw from towns and villages, the Russian forces are burning, looting and leaving behind them a deadly legacy of mines and booby traps.
And in their wake they are also leaving their dead.
I have been in touch with Maxym, a lieutenant in Ukraine’s territorial defence units, for almost a month now.
He is one of a number of volunteers from Ireland who have returned to the land of their birth to fight. Before the war he was a forklift truck operator at a meat-packing plant in rural County Laois.
Much attention has been focused on the recapture of the satellite towns of Irpin and Makariv, to the north and west of Kyiv.
But Maxym, 27, and other volunteers from the Emerald Isle – who wear the green, white and gold tricolour on their combat fatigues – have been taking part in the less widely reported Ukrainian counter-attack to the east of the capital.
Along that frontline they have pushed the Russians back a considerable distance.
As a new series of photographs and videos sent to us by Maxym show, his unit – the Bratstvo [Brotherhood] Battalion – was the spearhead of a Ukrainian advance on Sunday that recaptured the village of Rudnyts’ke.
It lies approximately 40 miles from central Kyiv and 30 miles east of the once frontline town of Brovary where a column of Russian tanks was battered by Ukrainian artillery three weeks ago.
Maxym, 27, and other volunteers from the Emerald Isle – who wear the green, white and gold tricolour on their combat fatigues – have been taking part in the less widely reported Ukrainian counter-attack to the east of the capital
The devastating barrage was captured by a drone and seen around the world.
In one piece of footage sent to the Mail yesterday, Maxym can be seen examining a tripwire that the retreating Russians had attached to a hand grenade beside a track on the edge of the village.
‘Brothers, we liberated Rudnyts’ke, but before they fled the (Russians) set up a lot of tripwires and booby traps,’ he says. ‘They are everywhere here. And of course everything is burnt and destroyed.’
He also examines a crude Russian dugout, which he likens to a henhouse for all the protection that it would afford, and films discarded Russian ration and ammunition boxes.
‘They were defeated once again,’ he says. ‘This is just another small victory. But soon the whole of Ukraine will be liberated.’
One of the pictures shows Maxym carrying a Panzerfaust 3 anti-tank weapon of a type supplied to the Ukrainians since the invasion by the German and Dutch governments.
The taking of Rudnyts’ke was possible after Maxym’s unit helped destroy a Russian armoured column and position in the neighbouring settlement of Lukyanivka. That is where Ensign Andrei M met his end. The soldier came from a tiny village of a few dozen residents in the shadow of the Ural mountains. He was probably a member of the Udmurt people – an ethnic minority that makes up a disproportionately large percentage of Russia’s armed forces.
He was killed in recent days more than 1,000 miles from home, in another village, in northern Ukraine.
Apart from the video that shows Maxym holding Ensign Andrei’s passport, he sent a number of other videos filmed at the scene of that battle, in which he and his comrades can be seen walking among the smoking wreckage of armoured vehicles, including at least one main battle tank.
In another film of the aftermath, one of Maxym’s comrades tells the camera, in English: ‘Hi guys, here you see the former Russian checkpoint which has been destroyed by our battalion’s Irish unit.
‘So here you see there was a battle, 48 hours ago, and our soldiers destroyed several tanks here and other military machinery and killed about 40 or 50 Russian soldiers.’
Other Western-supplied anti-tank weapons were used in the battle. One photograph shows a soldier carrying a Swedish AT-4 rocket launcher.
Another picture shows what Maxym said was a Russian T-80 tank that had been captured.
‘My Irish team is still intact,’ said Maxym, who had fought Russian separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine before moving to Ireland two years ago. ‘No one is injured. But they are still novices and have to be deployed carefully.’
He was cynical about the Kremlin’s announcement of a major drawdown in operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
‘It’s the result of what we have done to them, rather than their own choice,’ he said. ‘We counter-attacked and they can’t handle it.’
And the promised drastic reduction of Russian military activities here? Kyiv was hit by at least one rocket strike overnight and the city again woke to the rumble of artillery. As I write this, the sirens are sounding once more.
There is widespread cynicism here that the Russian offer is nothing more than words; a sop to world opinion while the Kremlin’s military rests between rounds.
Too late, though, for Ensign Andre M and the thousands of other ‘orcs’ who have perished so far in Vladimir Putin’s calamitous adventure.
(Invasion Salad: Several articles that interested me - AA)
Is Kyiv taking the fight to Putin as his invasion stalls? Suspected arms depot in western Russia is destroyed 'by Ukrainian missile' sparking a blast seen from across the border
Footage emerged of a huge explosion in Russia, a mere 12 miles from Ukraine
The blast is thought to have destroyed an arms depot in a village near Belgorod
There are reports the suspected arms depot was hit by a Ukrainian missile
Ukrainian officials have not yet confirmed the strike - but this would represent just the second Ukrainian attack on Russian territory since the war began
Footage has emerged of a huge explosion in Belgorod, western Russia, at the site of a suspected arms depot which is believed to have been hit by a Ukrainian missile.
The blast, which took place a mere 12 miles from the Russian-Ukrainian border near the village of Krasniy Oktyabr just outside the city of Belgorod, triggered a series of firework-like explosions which could be seen from Ukraine tonight.
Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov claimed that the depot was destroyed by an OTR-21 Tochka-U ballistic missile fired by the Ukrainian 19th missile brigade, though this has not yet been confirmed by Ukrainian officials.
If the missile strike is confirmed by Ukraine's armed forces, it will be just the second Ukrainian strike on Russian territory since the start of the war after the Millerovo airbase was attacked in late February.
Footage has emerged of a huge explosion in Belgorod, western Russia, at the site of a suspected arms depot which is believed to have been hit by a Ukrainian missile. The blast, which took place a mere 12 miles from the Russian-Ukrainian border near the village of Krasniy Oktyabr just outside the city of Belgorod, triggered a series of firework-like explosions which could be seen from Ukraine
The Governor of Belgorod Vyacheslav Gladkov confirmed reports of the explosion and said that no Russian citizens were hurt, but refused to shed any light on the reason for the blast.
'Explosions were heard on the territory of Belgorod and the Belgorod region,' Gladkov said.
'The incident took place near the village of Krasniy Oktyabr. The head of the village is in direct contact with me and has given me all the information. There are no casualties or injuries among the residents.'
'I'll post the reason for this later,' he added.
However, Russian news agency TASS reported that four Russian military personnel were injured and said preliminary reports suggested the explosion was caused by a Ukrainian missile.
'The shell hit the territory of a temporary military camp in the Belgorod region. Four servicemen were injured,' an emergency services source told TASS.
We are killing Russians... with their OWN kit: IAN BIRRELL's astonishing story of the Ukraine repairmen who are turning Vladimir Putin's weaponry against him
Ukraine's repairmen army are turning Putin's own weapons against him
Their forces are bragging of seizing high-tech electronic warfare equipment
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia has become one of the main suppliers of arms to their enemy
When Ukrainian forces won back control of Rudnytske, a small village 40 miles east of Kyiv, the Russians left them a gift: Three tanks and an armoured personnel carrier.
On the other side of the capital, as Ukraine’s troops pushed to recapture the bitterly contested town of Irpin, they collected a highly-prized BMD-4M: An amphibious infantry fighting vehicle among the pride of Moscow’s military.
The Ukrainians have bragged in recent days of also seizing a secretive advanced electronic warfare system, sophisticated missiles, tanks and other armoured personnel carriers, as well as rocket launchers and scores of rifles.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia has become one of the main suppliers of arms to their enemy
‘We have a lack of supplies but the Russians are providing us with many weapons,’ said Mamuka Mamulashvili, leader of a group of foreign fighters who participated in Sunday’s Rudnytske assault alongside local forces.
His words echo the mischievous claim of President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia has become one of the main suppliers of arms to their enemy. ‘They could not imagine such a thing in a nightmare,’ he said.
In a weekend interview, he pleaded with Western allies for more ‘aeroplanes, tanks and armoured personnel vehicles’ but admitted that his forces were taking ‘a lot’ from the Russians.
Mr Zelensky told The Economist that Ukraine had commandeered ‘12 or 17 tanks’ the previous day alone – and astonishingly, thanks to this battlefield booty, the defenders may now have more tanks and armoured vehicles than at the war’s outset despite their own heavy losses.
Yuri Butusov, a well-known Ukrainian military journalist, believes the country is gaining more tanks than it is losing. ‘Putin is supplying Ukraine with more military hardware than the West,’ he says.
Butusov says Ukrainians have captured more than 1,000 pieces of military equipment, including at least 120 tanks, that were either undamaged or are reasonably easy to repair.
Butusov says Ukrainians have captured more than 1,000 pieces of military equipment, including at least 120 tanks
‘Some of the equipment needs small repairs, but a lot of the vehicles are fine and our soldiers just take them and drive away,’ said the journalist, who has posed on social media with a captured Kornet anti-tank guided missile.
Other analysts documenting the conflict, using photographic or video evidence to verify equipment losses, believe that Ukraine is capturing almost three times as many tanks and armoured vehicles as the invading forces. But such data is difficult to confirm.
And of course, Russia is also pushing propaganda about using weapons captured from Ukraine.
Certainly, Ukraine is fighting back fiercely against an army that started with far greater firepower – including more than four times as many tanks in its armoury.
Ukraine is fighting back fiercely against an army that started with far greater firepower
As part of the national resistance effort, from major industrial factories through to small car workshops, many Ukrainian companies are adapting sites and refocusing staff in order to repair and repurpose military equipment captured from Russian forces.
‘To fight, the country has to work, everyone in their place,’ said defence minister Oleksii Reznikov. ‘Then, finally, the enemy will be killed by their [own] weapons.’
Yesterday, state-owned defence firm Ukroboronprom claimed to have ‘mastered the repair of Russian trophy equipment’ with factories now working ‘around the clock’ to get anti-aircraft missile systems and multiple rocket launchers back onto the battlefield. It is also offering a $1million reward for any aircraft it receives.
In cities such as Kyiv and Zhytomyr, mounted machine guns have been stripped from damaged armoured vehicles and handed to car repair shops for conversion into mobile weaponry that can be used by Ukrainian infantry troops.
‘We will remake the weapons so the barrels will be directed at the enemy’s side, not ours,’ said Oleksandr Fedchecnko, a garage owner in the capital.
A special unit of the territorial defence force is also repairing captured equipment in a Kyiv junkyard, painting the Ukrainian flag over Russian insignia.
Yuri Golodov, the unit’s deputy commander, claims to have been responsible for 24 Uragan missiles fired back at Russian forces. ‘Everything that we take away from the Russian army, we transfer to the armed forces of Ukraine,’ he says.
Such ‘battlefield scavenging’ has long been a feature of wars. In both the Second World War and Falklands War, British soldiers turned captured heavy machine guns on the enemy. More recently, Islamic State captured substantial quantities of US-made equipment after the 2014 fall of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul.
Ben Barry, senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: ‘The Ukrainian military seems to be celebrating their success at being able to seize armoured vehicles and rapidly press them back into service.’
Yuri Butusov, a well-known Ukrainian military journalist, believes the country is gaining more tanks than it is losing
Barry, a former British army brigadier, says such tactics are common when troops in combat use the same equipment. Although Russia has spent heavily to modernise its military under Putin, both sides often still rely on Soviet-era equipment. Captured artillery and military vehicles can also be cannibalised for spare parts and ammunition, relieving pressure on hard-pressed supply chains.
Ukrainians have also taken great delight in sharing videos of farmers towing away Russian tanks.
Last week, meanwhile, it emerged that retreating Russian forces from Kyiv’s outskirts failed to destroy a Krasukha-4 command module, which can jam drones and low-orbit satellites as well as track Nato aircraft. Reports said it would be flown to the US for examination.
The head of Europe Command admitted that there could have been an intelligence gap that allowed Washington to overestimate Russia's military capabilities and underestimate the power of Ukrainian resistance.
General Wolters said he believed Russia had deployed 70 to 75 percent of its entire military forces to the war in Ukraine.
The French defense procurement agency has received a batch of 15,000 new Glock-17 FR semi-automatic pistols while the German Federal Ministry of the Interior has ordered several hundred handguns and accessories from Glock, presumably Gen. 5 pistols
French defense procurement agency (DGA) has received a batch of 15,000 new Glock-17 FR semi-automatic pistols. According to Shephardmedia.com website, almost 14,600 pistols remain to be delivered by the end of 2022 under a December 2019 contract between the DGA and Glock.
The 9mm semi-automatic Glock-17 FR sidearm pistol weighs 700g with a 4.5-inch barrel and 17-bullet magazine pistol and is gradually replacing the PA MAC 50 and PAMAS G1 in French service. Some 80% of the Glock-17 FRs are destined for the French Army, with 10% for the French Air and Space Force, 8% for the French Navy and 2% to be kept in reserve or used for miscellaneous purposes.
At the same time, the German website Soldat & Technik reports that the German Federal Ministry of the Interior has ordered several hundred handguns and accessories from Glock, presumably Gen. 5 pistols. The stock of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and its subordinate areas - these include the Federal Police, the Federal Criminal Police Office or the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution - now includes 466 Glock 17 Gen. 5 FS including holster and light module as well as 324 Glock 19 Gen. 5 FS including Holster and light module, plus 20 Glock 17T Gen5 FX/FOF training guns and 20 Glock 19T Gen5 FX/FOF training guns.
Glock 17 Gen 5 Review
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Plane models stand outside the Lockheed Martin Corporation in Fort Worth, Texas.
Tom Pennington/Getty Images
OTTAWA, Ont. — Canada is pursuing a deal to purchase 88 F-35s from Lockheed Martin, an about-face for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who swore in 2015 to find another source for next-generation fighter jets.
The federal government announced Monday that it will spend up to C$19 billion to buy warplanes to replace the Royal Canadian Air Force’s aging CF-18 fleet.
“[The jets] are going to contribute to our multilateral alliances, both here on the North American continent and in terms of of our ... NATO capabilities,” Defense Minister Anita Anand told reporters in Ottawa.
The Trudeau government’s decision follows a competition that had narrowed the field to the F-35 and the Swedish Saab Gripen-E. Canada calls the fighter jet purchase the RCAF’s most significant investment in more than 30 years.
Canada’s long-awaited fighter jet announcement comes with Trudeau poised to boost military spending in his government’s upcoming budget. The prime minister recently signaled that his budget, anticipated in April and perhaps as soon as next week, will increase defense investments in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NATO estimates Canada spent 1.39 percent of its GDP in 2021 on defense, well short of the alliance’s 2-percent target. The Canadian government has been criticized at home and by partners like the United States for not spending enough on defense.
Anand noted Monday that Canada’s hunt for new fighters began well before Russia’s war on Ukraine. Asked if Canada’s C$19 billion budget for the purchase still stands, she said “details on costing will be further refined.”
Canada’s engagement with Lockheed is not a done deal. The government will enter final negotiations with the U.S. manufacturer that could see the first F-35 delivered to Canada by 2025.
Simon Page, assistant deputy minister for defense at the procurement department, told the press conference that the government hopes to ink a contract in 2022, though any deal will likely take at least seven months.
Just a few years ago, the Trudeau’s Liberals ruled out the F-35 as an option.
In 2015, Trudeau pledged, if elected, to ditch an agreement struck by his Conservative predecessors to acquire F-35s. At the time, Trudeau also said he would not buy the Lockheed planes and that he intended to open a new procurement process to find a cheaper option.
Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi told reporters Monday that she will always lean toward a competitive process.
“It drives the bidders, no matter what procurement you’re looking at, to come forward with their best possible bid,” Tassi said, arguing that the companies were given lots of time to make strong pitches.
Trudeau’s Liberals announced the new process in 2016.
Tassi was asked Monday whether the fact that it took more than a decade to come to the same result for the fighter jet procurement shows the file was politicized.
“I would actually argue to the contrary on that,” said Tassi, who also insisted she didn’t know which manufacturer was chosen until Monday morning. “We have made it clear that competition was really important in this process.”
Canada narrowed its field of potential fighters in recent months with the exclusion of Boeing’s F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet, a decision that left the F-35 and the Gripen-E.
Electrons in Earth’s radiation belts, show as yellow and red cross-sections, typically spiral back and forth, bouncing between the Poles. However, disturbances to the belts can boost electrons out of their typical orbits, making them shower down at the North and South Pole, where they can spark the auroras.
Credit: Emmanuel Masongsong
Using a NASA-funded CubeSat, scientists have uncovered a new source of super-fast, energetic electrons raining down on our planet, which can have implications for space infrastructure and atmospheric modeling.
Scientists from the University of California Los Angles (UCLA) observed this rain, known as “electron precipitation,” from low-Earth orbit using the Electron Losses and Fields Investigation, or ELFIN, mission. ELFIN is a pair of small, cube-shaped satellites known as CubeSats. It was built and operated by UCLA undergraduate and graduate students under guidance from small team of staff mentors.
Combining ELFIN data with more distant observations from NASA’s Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms, or THEMIS, spacecraft, the scientists determined that the electron rain was caused by whistler waves, a type of electromagnetic wave that ripples through plasma in space. Their results, published in Nature Communications, found more electron precipitation than leading theories had previously predicted.
“ELFIN is the first satellite to measure these super-fast electrons,” said Xiaojia Zhang, lead author on the new paper and researcher in UCLA’s Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences (EPSS). “The mission is yielding new insights due to its unique vantage point.”
The THEMIS and ELFIN satellites (orbits shown in cyan and green, respectively) worked together to help understand the mystery of electron rain. When whistler waves (purple) interact with the electrons, they can give them extra energy (red spiral), which causes them to fall into the atmosphere.
Credit: Zhang et al. 2022
The near-Earth space environment is highly dynamic and filled with charged particles orbiting in giant rings around the planet called Van Allen radiation belts. Similar to a coiled slinky bouncing back and forth between two hands, electrons in the radiation belts travel in spirals between Earth’s North and South magnetic poles. Under certain conditions, electromagnetic vibrations called whistler waves can occur in the radiation belts, energizing and speeding up the electrons so much that they can be lost into the atmosphere, creating the electron rain.
Combining THEMIS observations of whistler waves, ELFIN’s electron data and sophisticated computer modeling, the team saw how the whistler waves caused a rapid torrent of electrons to flow into the atmosphere, far beyond the amount expected from previous theories. Current space weather models do not account for this extra electron flow, which not only contributes to dazzling auroras, but can damage low-orbiting satellites and affect atmospheric chemistry.
“It’s truly a rewarding feeling to have increased our knowledge of space science, using data from the hardware we built ourselves,” said Colin Wilkins, co-author, instrument lead, and space physics doctoral student in EPSS. “It takes tremendous effort and determination behind the scenes to make that happen.”
The team further showed that this type of radiation belt loss to the atmosphere can increase significantly during geomagnetic storms, which are disturbances caused by enhanced solar activity that can affect near-Earth space. Existing models do not account for this, thus underestimating the effects of electron precipitation.
Factoring in the impact of electron losses on the atmosphere is important not only for terrestrial modeling, but also for understanding Earth’s magnetic environment and predicting hazards to satellites, astronauts, and other space infrastructure. Although space is commonly thought to be separate from our upper atmosphere, the two are inextricably linked. Understanding how they’re linked can benefit satellites and astronauts passing through the region, which are increasingly important for commerce, Earth monitoring, telecommunications, and tourism.
“The ELFIN mission has given UCLA students the chance to work on an industry-caliber project right on campus, and I’m proud that we’ve been able to accomplish so much with over 300 undergraduate students without sacrificing the quality of the science,” said Ethan Tsai, co-author, project manager, and doctoral student in space physics. “Data from the ELFIN satellites are at the cutting edge of space weather studies and will be heavily used by researchers around the world over the next decade, so we’ve worked very hard to make our data open and easily accessible to the entire space science community.”
