Earth & Space Weather

Kids dress their best for drought-affected farmers

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ABC, By: Lucy Barbour, 12/17/2013

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An early childhood school in Canberra is giving drought-affected farmers a big Christmas present this year. It raised more than $500 to buy hay bales for graziers in far west New South Wales and in Queensland. About 350 children from the Southern Cross Early Childhood School have dressed up as farmers for the day and brought along a gold coin donation as part of the 'buy a bale' initiative.

 

The school's principal, Jennie Bailey, says the idea came about after a colleague showed her photographs of bare paddocks in Roma, in Queensland. "They were just absolutely barren, with no feed for the cattle or the horses," she said. "And then we saw this 'buy a bale' day come up and we thought, 'What a fantastic way to support our Aussie, Australian fellows'." Ms Bailey says the response from the school community has been "overwhelming".

 

Earthquake Report for 12/16/2013

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By: USGS

www.earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/

23 earthquakes

 

    3.5 74km SSE of Akutan, Alaska 2013-12-16 14:30:27 UTC-05:00 35.9 km

    3.3 88km NW of Sand Point, Alaska 2013-12-16 13:26:37 UTC-05:00 184.0 km

    2.7 34km SSW of Ferndale, California 2013-12-16 11:57:47 UTC-05:00 9.0 km

    2.8 34km SSW of Ferndale, California 2013-12-16 11:56:22 UTC-05:00 8.3 km

    3.8 19km NW of Caldwell, Kansas 2013-12-16 10:09:53 UTC-05:00 5.0 km

    5.2 Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge 2013-12-16 07:28:32 UTC-05:00 10.0 km

    4.9 Southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge 2013-12-16 07:08:14 UTC-05:00 10.0 km

    5.6 157km WSW of Te Anau, New Zealand 2013-12-16 07:07:24 UTC-05:00 11.0 km

Winter Storm Electra: Schools, Roads Remain Closed in Northeast and Midwest

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By: Associated Press, 12/16/2013

Winter Storm Electra caused at least eight deaths and continued to snarl traffic and close schools Monday despite the system exiting off the East Coast. The Missouri State Patrol confirms that the storm contributed to four deadly crashes on Friday and Saturday. Drivers in the path of the storm faced slick road conditions from snow and ice and multiple accidents were reported on roadways throughout the Midwest and Northeast. "Winter Storm Electra was a fairly typical winter storm," said weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen. "One area of low pressure brought snow to the Midwest Saturday before the storm transferred its energy to an offshore low Sunday. The Northeast got the heavier totals with over a foot from eastern New York to northern New England. All in all, the storm behaved as predicted with few, if any, surprises."

 

For more on this story visit www.wunderground.com

Another Supervolcano To North America’s List

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By: Volcanodiscovery.com, 12/16/2013

Geologists form Brigham Young University in Utah have found evidence of a massive supervolcano near the Utah-Nevada border. They say it erupted around 30 million years ago at some 5,000 times greater than the Mount S. Helens eruption in 1980. They measure deposits from the eruption at 13,000 feet thick. Talk about leaving a mark! They used several techniques to confirm its existence including radiometric dating and chemical analysis of minerals. They say it was such a large eruption that it would have blocked out the sun for a while and had a catastrophic impact on the mammals, reptiles, and plant life living on Earth at that time.

 

For more on this story visit www.redorbit.com

~ Space Weather Update~ Inside a Solar Wind Stream Wind Speed 485

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CHANCE OF STORMS: NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% chance of polar geomagnetic storms on Dec. 15th when a pair of CMEs could deliver rapid-fire glancing blows to Earth's magnetic field. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras mixed with bright moonlight. Aurora alerts: text, voice

CHINA LANDS ON THE MOON: Move over USA and Russia. China has joined the club of nations that has landed on the Moon. On Saturday, Dec. 14th, at 9:41 p.m. Beijing local time, China's Chang’e-3 lunar lander touched down in Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows. Hours later, a lunar rover named the Jade Rabbit ("Yutu" in Mandarin Chinese) emerged for a historic mission of exploration:

The six-wheeled, 260-lb rover is equipped with a Chinese-made nuclear battery expected to last for more than 30 years. The rover also has expandable solar arrays to absorb the sun’s energy during the day and retract at night to cover and protect equipment from temperatures of minus 170 degrees Celsius. Onboard sensors include a ground-probing radar, cameras, and a soil sampler.

Historic Snowfall in The Middle East

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By: Tom Gardner, 12/13/2013

Icy blast: The Western Wall compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel, today was covered with snow as temperatures plunge below zero

It's a festive scene that's adorned countless Christmas cards... and, for once, the Holy Land actually became a snow covered winter scene. The ancient city of Jerusalem, which normally basks in fierce heat, was dusted with a light covering of snow during a freak blizzard. And snow fell on the streets of Egypt for the first time in 112 years as one of the worst winter storms to hit the Middle East in living memory set in. The rare sight of pristine white precipitation greeted stunned residents of Cairo this morning who took to social media to express their shock at the unsettling weather in the usually sweltering capital.

 

For more on this story visit www.dailymail.co.uk

Northeast Snow Storm Piles On

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AP, By: Mark Scolforo, 12/15/2013

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — At this rate, the Northeast will be tired of winter before winter even arrives. Another shot of wintry weather moved through Ohio and Pennsylvania on Saturday as it headed into New England, hampering travel by car and airplane and complicating shoppers' plans less than two weeks before Christmas. Nearly a foot of snow was reported in parts of central Pennsylvania late Saturday as the sprawling storm moved into New England, where the National Weather Service warned Maine could see near-blizzard conditions Sunday due to heavy snow and strong winds before the storm moves out.

 

For more on this story visit www.huffintonpost.com

~Space Weather Update~ Solar Wind Speed at 599.9 We are Moving Fast

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METEOR SHOWER PEAKING: The International Meteor Organization is reporting Geminid rates between 100 and 200 per hour (ZHR) on Dec. 14th. This means the shower is peaking. Check the realtime photo gallery for Geminid photos from around the world. And if it's dark where you are, be alert for meteors! [sky map] [meteor radar]

Last night, NASA's network of all-sky meteor cameras detected 67 Geminid fireballs over the United States. One of them flew over the New Mexico observatory of amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft. Click to see--and hear--the fireball:

The soundtrack of Ashcraft's fireball movie is the echo of a distant TV transmission bouncing off the ionized trail of the disintegrating meteoroid. "By radio I could tell there was a strong display of meteors all through the night," says Ashcraft. "We were lucky that some Geminid fireballs appeared through holes in our cloudy skies."

Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery

Geminid Sky Shower Strikes This Weekend

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National Geographic, By: Andrew Fazekas, 12/13/2013

As darkness falls this weekend, look toward the heavens for a gem of a sky show from one of the year’s best meteor showers, peaking overnight on December 13 and 14. The annual Geminid meteor shower promises colorful shooting stars and fireballs–but with the moon in the way this year, it’s all a matter of timing, say astronomers. “The moon is a waxing gibbous around peak and will tend to wash out the fainter objects, but still, the Geminids are one of the top showers, so we can expect a pretty good show,” said Geza Gyuk, astronomer at Adler Planetarium in Chicago. All in the fullest of bloom!

 

For more information visit www.nationalgeographic.com

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