Current Events

  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.
  • Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows
    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 ...Read more

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    Earth's Center Is 1,000 Degrees Hotter Than Previously Thought, Synchrotron X-Ray Experiment Shows

    Scientists have determined the temperature near the Earth’s center to be 6000 degrees Celsius, 1000 degrees hotter than in a previous experiment run 20 years ago. These measurements confirm geophysical models that the temperature difference between the solid core and the mantle above, must be at least 1500 degrees to explain why the Earth has a magnetic field. For more information about this study, see the press release from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.
  • Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust
    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials fr...Read more

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    Ocean Volcanic Rocks Contain Samples of Recycled Crust

    Scientists have long believed that lava erupted from certain oceanic volcanoes contains materials from the early Earth’s crust. But decisive evidence for this phenomenon has proven elusive. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Erik Hauri demonstrates that oceanic volcanic rocks contain samples of recycled crust dating back to the Archean era 2.5 billion years ago. Their work is published in Nature. Oceanic crust sinks into the Earth’s mantle at so-called subduction zones, where two plates come together. Much of what happens to the crust during this journey is unknown. Model-dependent studies for how long subducted material can exist in the mantle are uncertain and evidence of very old crust returning to Earth’s surface via upwellings of magma has not been found until now. For more information about these results, see the press release from the Carnegie Institution.

High-energy Electrons at Earth Orbit - Live Data

High-energy Electrons at Earth Orbit

This plot shows current (today) levels of high-energy electron radiation at Low-Earth Orbit altitudes. Click here to see average values over one year for energetic electron levels at Low-Earth Orbit.

A quick glance at the plot tells you whether the satellite radiation environment is unusually high (red/orange), average (yellow/dark blue) or unusually low (light blue/white) today. The belt indices in the upper right hand corner (click on the plot for a larger version) give the ratio of the electron flux integrated over specific regions to the 1-year average for those same regions. These indices are a quick-look at how significant the radiation environment really is right now.

The plot shows high-velocity electrons (energies > 30 keV) observed along the orbit of NOAA/TIROS at ~800 kilometers above the Earth's surface compared to the value at the same location averaged over the past year. The plot is broken up into lines because the satellite track does not cover all points above the Earth in a single day. The red box shows where the satellite was at the beginning of the day. The red triangle is its position at the end of the day's observations.

Last modified September 1, 2010 by Randy Russell.

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