Thursday, December 5, 2019

Defense - How much does an island cost? Japan may soon buy one for US Navy training.

How much does an island cost? Japan may soon buy one for US Navy training.

By Mike Yeo, Defense News, December 4, 2019

https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2019/12/03/how-much-does-an-island-cost-japan-may-soon-buy-one-for-us-navy-training/

Two B-1B Lancer bombers and two F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighters fly in formation over the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Hyuga-class helicopter destroyer JS ISE, front, and the U.S. Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. (MC2 Holly L. Herline/U.S. Navy)

MELBOURNE, Australia — Japan is nearing an agreement to purchase a privately owned island for use as a training ground for U.S. military aircraft based in Japan, potentially ending a sometimes torturous process that began nearly a decade ago.

Quoting “several government sources” as well as those from the company that owns the island of Mageshima, the Asahi Shimbun reported Nov. 30 that an agreement for the sale was “close to completion.”

The price for ownership of the uninhabited island, which measures roughly 3 square miles, was reported to be $146 million.

This Landsat 8 satellite image, taken April 13, 2013, shows some southern Japanese islands, including Mageshima. (Mike Taylor/NASA and U.S. Geological Survey)

Japan moved to purchase the island following an agreement reached in 2011 with the U.S. military to provide a training site for Japan-based U.S. Navy carrier-based aircraft to conduct landing training operations.

Previously, such training operations were conducted at Iwo-to, more commonly known as Iwo Jima, in the Bonin group of islands, located in the Pacific Ocean and more than 700 miles from the U.S. Navy’s Japanese bases at Atsugi and Iwakuni.

Japan’s Defense Ministry also reportedly plans to build facilities for its forces on the island, which will make it easier to defend its southern islands that also include Okinawa and the disputed Senkaku islands, which are claimed by China.

The latest report comes after an earlier agreement for the sale of the island reached in January was scuppered when a new president took over the helm of Taston Airport, the Tokyo-based development company that owns 99 percent of Mageshima.

The Japanese government valued the island at $60 million, 10 percent of Taston Airport’s valuation. Negotiations were broken off in May and only restarted in November as the island’s owners faced financial difficulties, according to Asahi Shimbun.

The Japanese newspaper also reported that the new purchase price was reached after taking into account money spent by the company to improve the island, which is part of the Osumi group of islands and is located 18 miles from the southern tip of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.

According to satellite images, Mageshima currently has two dirt runways measuring 2.6-by-1.4 miles. These will, however, require resurfacing, and other supporting infrastructure must be built on the island before it could be used for its intended purpose.

The Asahi Shimbun also reported that the local government of Nishinoomote city, which owns the remaining 1 percent of the island and has jurisdiction over Mageshima, previously “expressed a cautious stance toward such military training.”

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Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Defense - US air forces in Syria use rare Hellfire missile to kill two targets

US air forces in Syria use rare Hellfire missile to kill two targets

By Kenneth Garger, New York Post, December 3, 2019

https://nypost.com/2019/12/03/us-air-forces-in-syria-use-rare-hellfire-missile-to-kill-two-targets/

Contract workers load a Hellfire missile onto a U.S. Air Force MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), at a secret air base in the Persian Gulf region. Getty Images

American forces reportedly carried out an airstrike in northwestern Syria Tuesday, killing two people in a minivan just 10 miles from the compound where ISIS fiend Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died during a US-raid in October.

The projectile used in the attack in Atmeh is believed to be a rare Hellfire missile known as the AGM-114R9X — which instead of a traditional warhead, has sword-like blades that protrude out of it, according The Warzone.

STAHLKOCHER/WIKICOMMONS

AGM-114 internal configuration.

The publication cited a report that said the dead targets were “mashed” from the impact of the weapon.

Another report said one of the van’s occupants was also believed to be part of a group that splintered from Al Qaeda in 2017, called the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham.

Photos from the scene — which is in Idlib province — shows sizable damage to the front passenger side of the van, while the rest of the vehicle remained generally intact.

The previous known use of the AGM-114R was on May 9, 2019

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Study shows Southern Arizona once looked like Tibet

DECEMBER 3, 2019, by University of Wyoming

https://phys.org/news/2019-12-southern-arizona-tibet.html

University of Wyoming Assistant Professor Jay Chapman has led geological research showing the southwestern United States was once similar to modern-day Tibet. Credit: Adam Trzinski

A University of Wyoming researcher and his colleagues have shown that much of the southwestern United States was once a vast high-elevation plateau, similar to Tibet today.

This work has implications for the distribution of natural resources, such as copper, and provides insight into the formation of mountains during the subduction of tectonic plates.

"We normally think of southern Arizona and the surrounding areas as hot, cactus-laden deserts with relatively low base elevations, below 3,000 feet," says Jay Chapman, an assistant professor in UW's Department of Geology and Geophysics. "However, our recent research suggests that, during the Late Cretaceous to Early Paleogene period (80-50 million years ago), the region may have had elevations in excess of 10,000 feet and looked more like the Tibetan plateau north of the Himalayan Mountains or the Altiplano in the Andes Mountains in South America."

Chapman is lead author of a paper, titled "Geochemical evidence for an orogenic plateau in the southern U.S. and northern Mexican Cordillera during the Laramide Orogeny," which was published online Nov. 22 in the journal Geology. The print version will be published in February.

Roy Greig, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, and Gordon Haxel, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist based in Flagstaff, Ariz., are co-authors of the paper. Chapman and his colleagues analyzed the chemistry of igneous rocks to determine how thick Earth's crust was in the past and then related the thickness to elevation.

"Earth's crust floats in the mantle just like an iceberg floats in the water, with a little bit sticking out above the surface," Chapman says. "When the crust is thicker, the height of mountains and the elevation of the land surface are higher, just like the height of an iceberg sticking out of the water is taller if the overall iceberg is larger."

The study determined that the crust in southern Arizona was once almost 60 kilometers thick, which is twice as thick as it is today—and comparable to how thick the crust is in parts of the Himalayas.

"While the ancient mountains were forming, magma intruded into the crust and formed rocks like granite," Chapman says. "When the crust was really thick, the magmas experienced extreme pressure from the weight of all the rocks above them, which caused distinctive changes in the types and the chemistry of the minerals that formed those rocks."

One of the interesting questions the study raises is how the crust in southern Arizona became so thick in the past.
"The most common way to make really thick crust is for tectonic plates to converge or collide, which produces large earthquakes and faults that stack rock masses overtop one another," he says. "The prevailing view of southern Arizona is that there was never enough faulting in the area to make the thickness of crust we observe. It is a bit of a conundrum as to how such thick crust was generated."

Adam Trzinski, a first-year Ph.D. student at UW, is now tackling this problem and searching for ancient faults in southern Arizona that could help explain how the thick crust became so thick. In addition to helping understand plate tectonic processes, the study may help explain why copper is so abundant in southern Arizona.

"Several previous studies have noted a correlation between large copper ore deposits and regions of thick crust," Chapman says. "For example, there are many copper mines in the Andes Mountains in Chile. The results of this study strengthen that correlation and may aid in exploration efforts."

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SPACE - S0 - 20191204 - Space Weather Health Alerts, Exoplanets, Galactic Spin

Good Morning, Observers!

Solar winds remain low, dipping just below 300 KPS. The Zero-Day alert continued all through yesterday, only just popping up to KP-1 range, with a brief KP-2 a few hours ago. A new coronal hole is approaching the center longitudes, sliding in from the South about midway between the equator and the pole. We might get a glancing blow from this by the weekend, unless the hole expands more toward the equator.

For those who are interested, here are two videos on the health effects of space weather...

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Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Defense - US Navy awards largest-ever shipbuilding contract to Electric Boat for new attack submarines

US Navy awards largest-ever shipbuilding contract to Electric Boat for new attack submarines

By David B. Larter, Defense News, December 2, 2019

https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/12/02/navy-awards-largest-ever-shipbuilding-contract-to-electric-boat-for-new-attack-submarines/

The US Navy announced Dec. 12 the largest ever shipbuilding contract for nine Virginia-class attack submarines. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of General Dynamics Electric Boat)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy on Monday awarded its largest-ever shipbuilding contract to General Dynamics Electric Boat for construction of nine Virginia-class attack submarines, eight of which will have 84-foot section that boosts the boat’s strike missile capacity.

The contract for the Block V Virginias, worth $22.2 billion, could grow by another $2 billion if the Navy exercises an option for a 10th boat. The contract is for two fewer boats than the 11 proposed by the fleet in this year’s budget submission.

“A lot of hard work across the whole team to structure the contract in such a was as to balance risk between the government and the shipbuilder,” said James Geurts, the Navy’s top acquisition official, in a roundtable with members of the media to announce the contract signing. “If the shipbuilder delivers on target, the multi-year savings will be 16.5 percent, or $4.4 billion in savings. So, it’s a pretty important day for us.”

The Virginia-class fast-attack submarine Texas off the coast of Ketchikan, Alaska. (Kelley Stirling/U.S. Navy)

Guerts, the assistant Secretary of the Navy for research, acquisition and development, said that when you add government furnished equipment into the contract, the total swells to about $35 billion.

The first boat in Block V, SSN 802, is currently under construction but does not have the Virginia Payload Module. The next boat, 803, will have VPM. All of the boats will have an upgraded acoustics suite.

In the briefing, Navy officials said that six of the boats would be constructed at Electric Boat’s partner yard, Huntington Ingalls Newport News, and three would be built at Electric Boat. The 10th boat would go to Electric Boat if the Navy exercised the option.

The move to put most of the work in Newport News was done to balance the increased workload at Electric Boat with the start of the Columbia class, the next generation of ballistic missile submarines slated to begin construction this year.

In a statement, Electric Boat President Kevin Graney said the contract provides stability for his shipyard.

“This contract allows for our shipbuilding team, out suppliers and our employees to plan ahead so that we can continue to deliver submarines of unmatched quality, stealth and lethality,” Graney said.

Dave Bolcar, Newport News’ vice president of submarine construction, likewise hailed the contract as a means of stability in the submarine industrial base.

"Today’s contract maintains the Virginia-class build rate that provides continued stability to our workforce and to the 5,000 suppliers that will support submarines for the next decade,” he said. "This contract also continues the two per year construction cadence essential to sustaining production efficiencies, while ensuring our national security and the Navy’s continued undersea superiority.”

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Medical Science - Israeli scientists find way to treat deadly pancreatic cancer in 14 days .

Israeli scientists find way to treat deadly pancreatic cancer in 14 days

The tumor in one mouse that was injected with human cancer cells completely disappeared.

By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman,
The Jerusalem Post, December 3, 2019
https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-scientists-find-way-to-treat-deadly-pancreatic-cancer-in-14-days-609647

Cancerous cells forming a lump in the pancreatic tissue (photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/SCIENTIFIC ANIMATIONS INC.)

A new treatment developed by Tel Aviv University could induce the destruction of pancreatic cancer cells, eradicating the number of cancerous cells by up to 90% after two weeks of daily injections of a small molecule known as PJ34. Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to treat.

Most people who are diagnosed with the disease do not even live five years after being diagnosed. The study, led by Prof. Malka Cohen-Armon and her team at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with Dr. Talia Golan’s team at the Cancer Research Center at Sheba Medical Center, was recently published in the journal Oncotarget. Specifically, the study found that PJ34, when injected intravenously, causes the self-destruction of human cancer cells during mitosis, the scientific term for cell division.

The research was conducted with xenografts, transplantation of human pancreatic cancer into immunocompromised mice. A month after being injected with the molecule daily for 14 days, “there was a reduction of 90% of pancreatic cells in the tumor,” Cohen-Armon told The Jerusalem Post. “In one mouse, the tumor completely disappeared.”

“This molecule causes an anomaly during mitosis of human cancer cells, provoking rapid cell death,” she said. “Thus, cell multiplication itself resulted in cell death in the treated cancer cells.” Moreover, she said, PJ34 appears to have no impact on healthy cells, thus “no adverse effects were observed.” The mice, she said, continued to grow and gain weight as usual.

She added that she first published about the mechanism in 2017 when it was used to effectively treat triple-negative breast cancer implanted in xenografts. This type of breast cancer – which tests negative for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and excess HER2 protein – like pancreatic cancer, is very hard to treat and many women don’t live more than five years after being diagnosed.

Though Cohen-Armon said the team did not specifically study whether or not the treatment could prolong the lifespan of a patient, one can assume such an effect could result if the cancerous cells are eliminated. How long will it take to move from mice trials to human trials?

She estimates that would take “at least two years on the condition that we get enough funding.” First, she said, the group will test the treatment on pigs and then apply for permission from the FDA to administer humans with this molecule. “I am optimistic,” Cohen-Armon concluded.

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Auroral crackling sounds are related to the electromagnetic resonances of the Earth

Date: July 10, 2019

Source: Aalto University

Summary: A new study shows that the sounds generated at an altitude of 70 to 80 meters are the result of the activation of Schumann resonances.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190710121547.htm

added by CiC

The study is a continuation of a hypothesis that Unto K. Laine, Professor Emeritus, published three years ago on the origin of the sounds heard during the displays of the Northern Lights. His theory postulated that the sounds are generated when a magnetic storm causes charges in the temperature inversion layer of the lower atmosphere, to be discharged at an altitude of 70 to 80 metres.
A recent research paper presented by Laine at the ICSV26 congress in Montreal provides a more detailed account of the sound generation. According to this study, when the Northern Lights occur, the spectrum of the temporal envelope of the crackling noise (or in other words, the rapid changes in the sound amplitude) contain frequencies of the Schumann resonances.
The Schumann resonances refer to the low-frequency electromagnetic resonances occurring around the Earth, the strongest of them being below 50 Hz. Laine has now observed that these resonances generated similar rhythmic structures in all the measured crackling sounds.
'Previous international research has shown that a geomagnetic storm occurring during the Northern Lights reinforces the Schumann resonances. For the first time, such resonances have been found to activate the sound generation mechanism in the temperature inversion layer at altitudes of between 70 to 80 metres where the accumulated electric charges give rise to corona discharges and crackling sounds. In addition to the nine lowest Schumann resonances, the spectra also include their difference and sum frequencies or in other words, distortion components. This non-linearity also lends support to the hypothesis of auroral sounds generation,' Laine says.

The research material consisted of 25 sound events measured on the ground in September 2001 and in March 2012 in Southern Finland, during the display of active Northern Lights. Although the measurements were conducted at different locations using various equipment, the results nevertheless point to the same direction.

The results will be published today (10 July) at the ICSV26 congress in Montreal, which brings together more than 2,000 researchers in acoustics from around the globe.

Story Source: Materials provided by Aalto University. Original written by Minna Hölttä. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Schumann resonance frequency and conductivity in the nighttime ionosphere of Mars: A source for lightning

Advances in Space Research, Volume 63, Issue 7, 1 April 2019, Pages 2260-2266

S.A.Haidera, Jayesh P. Pabari, J.Masoom, Siddhi Y.Shahab

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273117718309049

Added by CiC

Highlights

•: A theoretical model is developed for calculating the SR profiles for modes l = 1, 2 and 3 in the non-homogeneous surface-ionosphere cavity during major dust storm in Martian Year 25.
•: It is found that the lightning can occur within the accumulated dust layer at ∼20–30 km altitudes.; Abstract; We have solved the Maxwellian equations of electromagnetic waves which oscillate within the cavity formed in the lower ionosphere of Mars between 0 and 70 km. The electrical conductivity and Schumann Resonance (SR) frequencies are calculated in the lower ionosphere of Mars, in the presence of a major dust storm that occurred in Martian Year (MY) 25 at low latitude region (25°–35°S). It is found that the atmospheric conductivity reduced by one to two orders of magnitude in the presence of a dust storm. It represents a small dust layer at about 25–30 km altitudes where lightning can occur. We also found that the SR frequencies peak at ∼18 km with values 19.9, 34.5 and 48.8 Hz for the modes l = 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in the non-homogeneous medium. Our results indicate that practical or measurable values of SR are dependent on the altitudes.; Schumann resonance frequency and conductivity in the nighttime ionosphere of Mars: A source for lightning; Recommend this post and follow Sputniks Orbit; https://disqus.com/home/forum/thesputniksorbit-blogspot-com/

Scientist leads international team to crack 60-year-old mystery of Sun's magnetic waves

DECEMBER 2, 2019, by Queen's University Belfast

https://phys.org/news/2019-12-scientist-international-team-year-old-mystery.html

X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Credit: NASA

A Queen's University Belfast scientist has led an international team to the ground-breaking discovery of why the Sun's magnetic waves strengthen and grow as they emerge from its surface, which could help to solve the mystery of how the corona of the Sun maintains its multi-million degree temperatures.

For more than 60 years observations of the Sun have shown that as the magnetic waves leave the interior of the Sun they grow in strength but until now there has been no solid observational evidence as to why this was the case.

The corona's high temperatures have also always been a mystery. Usually the closer we are to a heat source, the warmer we feel. However, this is the opposite of what seems to happen on the Sun—its outer layers are warmer than the heat source at its surface.

Scientists have accepted for a long time that magnetic waves channel energy from the Sun's vast interior energy reservoir, which is powered by nuclear fusion, up into the outer regions of its atmosphere. Therefore, understanding how the wave motion is generated and spread throughout the Sun is of huge importance to researchers.

The team, which was led by Queen's, included 13 scientists, spanning five countries and 11 research institutes including University of Exeter; Northumbria University; the European Space Agency; Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain; University of Oslo, Norway; the Italian Space Agency and California State University Northridge, USA.

The experts formed a consortium called "Waves in the Lower Solar Atmosphere (WaLSA)" to carry out the research and used advanced high-resolution observations from the National Science Foundation's Dunn Solar Telescope, New Mexico, to study the waves.

Dr. David Jess from the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's led the team of experts. He explains: "This new understanding of wave motion may help scientists uncover the missing piece in the puzzle of why the outer layers of the Sun are hotter than its surface, despite being further from the heat source.

"By breaking the Sun's light up into its basic colours, we were able to examine the behaviour of certain elements from the periodic table within its atmosphere, including silicon (formed close to the Sun's surface), calcium and helium (formed in the chromosphere where the wave amplification is most apparent).

"The variations in the elements allowed the speeds of the Sun's plasma to be uncovered. The timescales over which they evolve were benchmarked, which allowed the wave frequencies of the Sun to be recorded. This is similar to how a complex musical ensemble is deconstructed into basic notes and frequencies by visualising its musical score."

The team then used super computers to analyse the data through simulations. They found that the wave amplification process can be attributed to the formation of an 'acoustic resonator,' where significant changes in temperature between the surface of the Sun and its outer corona create boundaries that are partially reflective and act to trap the waves, allowing them to intensify and dramatically grow in strength.
The experts also found that the thickness of the resonance cavity -the distance between the significant temperature changes—is one of the main factors governing the characteristics of the detected wave motion.
Dr. Jess comments: "The effect that we have found through the research is similar to how an acoustic guitar changes the sound it emits through the shape of its hollow body. If we think of this analogy we can see how the waves captured in the Sun can grow and change as they exit its surface and move towards the outer layers and exterior."

Dr. Ben Snow, from the University of Exeter and a co-author of the study, said: "This new research opens the door to providing a new understanding of the mystery surrounding the Sun's magnetic waves. This is a crucial step towards explaining the coronal heating problem—where the temperature a few thousand km from the surface—is hotter than the heat source itself."

The findings of the study have been published in Nature Astronomy.

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SPACE - S0 - 20191203 - Cosmic Ray Alert, Distant Galactic Superwave

Good Morning, Observers!

ZERO DAY ALERT!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_FESOnym4o

Solar wind is really hitting the deck, steadily dropping to near 300 KPS at present. A Phi-angle shift in the solar magnetic dynamics occurred overnight. Actually did have a cosmic ray strike on the detectors a couple hours ago, expect more of them if the solar wind speed remains low. We've had over 24 hours of KP-0, so we have a heath alert. Keep a closer eye on people with psychiatric, cardiac, and immunodeficiency issues. A Mag 6.0 hit offshore Chile before 0400 EST, preceded by a Mag 5.4 just over an hour before.

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