– JULY 20, 2012

First images from High Resolution Coronal Imager or Hi-C launched last week just started coming in.

Hi-C telescope was launched on July 11, 2012 aboard a NASA sounding rocket and has captured the highest-resolution images ever taken of the sun’s million-degree atmosphere called the corona. The clarity of the images can help scientists better understand the behavior of the solar atmosphere and its impacts on Earth’s space environment.

“These revolutionary images of the sun demonstrate the key aspects of NASA’s sounding rocket program, namely the training of the next generation of principal investigators, the development of new space technologies, and scientific advancements,” said Barbara Giles, director for NASA’s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

 – JULY 19, 2012

On July 14 the sun unleashed a major X1.4 solar flare which was accompanied with a CME (Coronal Mass Ejection). InFocusImagery brings us amazing timelapse video.

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2012/07/19/after-storm-timelapse/

 – JULY 20, 2012

On July 20, 2012 GeoNet raised the Volcano Alert Level at Mt. Tongariro, New Zealand after a series of quakes beneath the volcanic complex. The alert is now on Aviation Color Code: Yellow and Volcanic Alert Code: 1. Small volcanic earthquakes have been recorded beneath Mount Tongariro. The sequence started on July 13, but soon declined, restarting on July 18 and increased in numbers on July 19 and 20. The earthquakes cluster is in a zone between Emerald Crater and the Te Māri craters at 2-7km depth.

 – JULY 20, 2012

July 20th did not start so well for Kuril Islands. On July 15 we reported swarm of earthquakes on Kuril Island for seventh day in a row (link here), while it showed less activity for last couple of days today we had 5 strong ones again. The strongest one was reported at magnitude 6.3 on July 20, 2012 at 06:32 UTC. Recorded depth was 22.7 km (14.1 miles) by USGS. Epicenter location was 137 km (85 miles) S of Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia (49.418°N, 155.935°E). 20 minutes earlier, at 6:10 UTC we had magnitude 6.0 at depth of 22.7 km (14.1 miles).

The earthquakes moderate depth and the location of both epicenters, on the ocean, should have reduced the intensity making both of them “harmless”. A tsunami is not possible because the magnitudes are not big enough to create one.

Canary Islands Wildfires Continue to Rage

Spanish authorities evacuated a town of 1,800 residents on the Canary Islands on Tuesday, after three days of firefighting efforts failed to prevent a raging wildfire from reaching it. 
Residents were evacuating from the town of Vilaflor, south of the Teide national park that spans the centre of the Spanish island of Tenerife, as flames reached parts of the town. 
Emergency services "are evacuating residents from Vilaflor due to the advance of the fire from the east," the regional government said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Colorado woman lost her life while driving to work after sinkhole opens up overnight and swallows her car

Drought widens, unlikely to yield through October

A double-barreled dose of bad news came out Thursday: Not only did the drought worsen over the last week, but it's likely to widen and intensify through the end of October, according to the seasonal outlook prepared by government forecasters. 
"Unfortunately, all indicators (short and medium-term, August, and August-October) favor above normal temperatures," the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center said in its Seasonal Drought Outlook released Thursday. 
"We don't see a reason to say it will improve," Kelly Helm Smith, a specialist at the National Drought Mitigation Center, told reporters. "I'm in the Midwest," she said, referring to her office at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, "it's really unpleasant."