A new study by researchers at University of California-Davis finds that velociraptors had night vision that helped them stalk their prey at night.

The study reverses conventional wisdom that dinosaurs were active by day while early mammals scurried around at night, said Ryosuke Motani, professor of geology at UC Davis and co-author of the report.

“It was a surprise, but it makes sense,” he said.

Plant-eating dinosaurs also had some limited night vision, likely to satisfy their round the clock appetite, while flying dinosaurs, like birds, were active only during the day, the researchers said.

The study also sheds light into how ecology influences the evolution of animal shape and form over tens of millions of years, said Motani and collaborator Lars Schmitz, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Evolution and Ecology at UC Davis.

Motani and Schmitz inferred the dinosaur’s daily habits by studying their eyes.

Dinosaurs, lizards and birds all have a bony ring known as a “scleral ring” in their eye, something lacking in mammals and crocodiles.  Schmitz and Motani measured the inner and outer dimensions of this ring, plus the size of the eye socket, in 33 fossils of dinosaurs, ancestral birds and pterosaurs. They also obtained the same measurements in 164 living species.

Day-active, or diurnal, animals have a small opening in the middle of the ring. In nocturnal animals, the opening is much larger, while cathemeral animals, those active both day and night, tend to be in between.

The size of these features is affected by a species’ environment as well as by ancestry.  For example, two closely related animals might have a similar eye shape, something controlled by ancestry, even though one is active by day and the other by night.

By analyzing 164 living species, the researchers were able to confirm that eye measurements are quite accurate in predicting whether animals are active by day, by night or around the clock.

Next, the scientists applied the technique to fossils from plant-eating and carnivorous dinosaurs, flying reptiles called pterosaurs, and ancestral birds.

The measurements revealed that the large, plant-eating dinosaurs were active day and night, likely because they had to eat most of the time, except for the warmest hours of the day when they needed to avoid overheating.

Modern megaherbivores like elephants show the same activity pattern, Motani said.

Velociraptors and other small carnivores were night hunters, the study revealed. 

The researchers were not able to study large carnivores such as Tyrannosaurus rex, because there are no fossils with sufficiently well-preserved scleral rings.

Flying creatures, including early birds and pterosaurs, were mostly day-active, although some of the pterosaurs were apparently night-active.

The ability to separate out the effects of ancestry gives researchers a new tool to understand how animals lived in their environment and how changes in the environment influenced their evolution over millions of years, Motani said.

The study was published online April 14 in the journal Science.

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Image 1: Close-up of the eye socket and ring of the dinosaur Protoceratops, active by day and night. Credit: Ryosuke Motani and Lars Schmitz

Image 2: The small carnivorous dinosaur Juravenator starki was nocturnal. Credit: Ryosuke Motani and Lars Schmitz

Image 3: The pterosaur Scaphognathus crassirostris was a day-active archosaur, evidenced by its eye. Credit: Ryosuke Motani and Lars Schmitz

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Archaeologists have made the first three-dimensional topographical map of ancient monumental buildings long buried under centuries of jungle at the Maya site “Head of Stone” in Guatemala.

The map puts into 3-D perspective the location and size of Head of Stone’s many buildings and architectural patterns, which are typical of Maya sites: 70-foot-tall “triadic pyramid,” an astronomical observatory, a ritual ball court, numerous plazas and also residential mounds that would have been the homes of elites and commoners, according to archaeologist Brigitte Kovacevich, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

The map situates the primary buildings relative to one another and also places them within the context of the site’s hills and valleys in the Central Lakes agricultural region of north-central Guatemala.

The buildings date from 800 B.C. to 900 A.D., says Kovacevich, an expert in Meso-American cultures and co-leader of an international scientific team that has been granted permission by the Guatemalan government to work the site, which has never before been excavated.

Movement to understand early periods, how kingship developed

Known for its far-reaching state-level government, Maya civilization during the “Classic” period from 200 A.D. to 900 A.D. consisted of huge monumental cities with tens of thousands of people ruled by powerful kings, palaces, pyramidal temples and complex political and economic alliances, Kovacevich says.

The ancient culture at its peak during the Classic period has been well-documented by archaeologists studying the civilization’s large urban centers, such as Tikal, which was one of the most powerful and long-lasting of the Maya kingdoms.

In contrast, “Head of Stone,” called “Holtun” in Maya, is a modest site from the “Pre-Classic” period, 600 B.C. to 250 A.D., she says. The small city had no more than 2,000 people at its peak. Situated about 35 kilometers south of Tikal, “Head of Stone” in its heyday preceded the celebrated vast city-states and kingship culture for which the Maya are known.

By excavating a small city, Kovacevich says, the archaeologists hope to understand early Maya trade routes and alliances, the importance of ritual for developing political power, how political power emerged, and how kingship lines evolved and solidified.

“There is a movement toward a greater understanding of these early periods, with smaller sites and common people,” says Kovacevich, an assistant professor in SMU’s Anthropology Department. “Little is known about how kingship developed, how individuals grabbed political power within the society, how the state-level society evolved and why it then was followed by a mini-collapse between 100 A.D. and 250 A.D.”

Kovacevich presented “‘Head of Stone’: Archaeological Investigation at the Maya Site of Holtun, Guatemala” during the 76th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Sacramento, Calif., March 30 to April 3.

Besides Kovacevich, archaeologists on the team and co-authors of the paper are Michael G. Callaghan, University of Texas at Arlington; Patricia R. Castillo, Universidad San Carlos, Guatemala; and Rodrigo Guzman, Universidad del Valle, Guatemala. The 3-D topographic map expands surveys from 1995 and 2002 by Guatemalan archaeologist Vilma Fialko and Guatemala’s Institute of Anthropology and History, which were documented by Fialko and archaeologist Erick M. Ponciano.

Situated in a patch of rainforest on defensible escarpment

Head of Stone today sits in a patch of rainforest surrounded by cow pastures and cornfields on a limestone escarpment, which would have made it highly defensible, Kovacevich says.

Holtun’s structures “” more than 100 of them “” now are overgrown with a thin layer of centuries-old jungle foliage and soil. The site is about one kilometer long and half a kilometer wide, or almost three-quarters of a mile long and one-third of a mile wide. The large mounds protruding here and there from the jungle floor signal to archaeologists the familiar building arrangements customary at a Maya site, Kovacevich says.

As with most Maya sites, looters have tunneled into many of the important structures. Kovacevich and her colleagues will dig more tunnels to further explore the buildings with the help of Guatemalan experts skilled at working Maya sites.

Key structures: “E Group,” residential group

The 3-D mapping has confirmed an “E Group,” a key Maya architectural structure. Holtun’s “E Group” dates from 600 B.C. to 600 A.D. and consists of stair-step pyramids and elongated buildings that likely served as astronomical observatories central to Maya rituals. A stepped pyramid to the west of a long narrow building directly oriented north-south served as the observational structure and was related to veneration of sacred ancestors, Kovacevich says.

“From the observational structure you can see the sun rising at the different solstices throughout the year, which is very important agriculturally, to know the timing of the seasons and when to plant and when to harvest,” she says. “So the people creating this are harnessing that knowledge to show their followers and constituents that they possibly are even controlling the change of seasons.”

Adjacent to the “E Group” are four structures that face one another around a central patio. The pattern usually indicates a residential group, where cooking and food processing were carried out on the patio, Kovacevich says.

“The closeness of the residential structure to the “E Group” suggests these were very early elites, and possibly kings,” she says. “Kingship was just being established during this period.”

The Maya often left offerings to their ancestors, such as jade or ceramics, at the base of structures.

Triadic pyramid represents Maya mythology?

Besides the “E Group,” a triadic pyramid dating from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. sits at the north end of the site. As is typical at Maya sites, three pyramids about 10 feet tall sit atop a high platform that rises about 60 feet from the jungle floor, Kovacevich says. One of the pyramids faces south, flanked on either side by the other two, which face inward around a central patio. The platform sits atop “” and obscures “” an earlier sub-structure platform, buried underground and decorated with monumental masks that are visible from the looters’ tunnels.

“Some archaeologists argue that this configuration represents elements of Maya mythology: the three hearthstones of creation that were set down by the gods to create the first home and hearth, thereby civilizing humanity,” Kovacevich says. “Re-creation of that by the people at Holtun would show piousness and connection to ancestors.”

During the Classic period, kings were typically buried in Maya pyramids. During the Pre-Classic period, however, that isn’t the case and they were typically buried in their residence. It’s possible an early king of Holtun was buried in one of the residential structures, Kovacevich says.

“Ancestors are buried beneath the floor and kept very close and venerated,” she says. “The more ancestors a residence has, the more times the family redoes their floor, making a new floor, and so their mound gets higher and higher. A person with more ties, more ancestors, has more status.”

Another familiar structure is a ball court, signified by two long mounds that are exactly parallel, said Kovacevich.

“Those are the two sides of the ball court, and the ball would have been bounced in the center off of the sides,” she said. “Almost all Maya sites had a ball court.”

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2 interlocking rings of DNA are only visible through the scanning force microscope

Creating artificial structures from DNA is the objective of DNA nanotechnology. This new discipline, which combines biology, physics, chemistry and material science makes use of the ability of the natural DNA-strains’ capacity for self assembly. Smileys or small boxes, measuring only 10s of nanometers (10 one-billionths of a meter) were created from DNA in a drop of water. Prof Alexander Heckel and his doctoral student Thorsten Schmidt from the “Cluster of Excellence for Macromolecular Complexes” at Goethe University were able to create two rings of DNA only 18 nanometers in size, and to interlock them like two links in a chain. Such a structure is called catenan, a term derived from the Latin word catena (chain). Schmidt, who got married during the time he was working on the nano-rings, believes that they are probably the world’s smallest wedding rings.

From a scientific perspective, the structure is a milestone in the field of DNA nanotechnology, since the two rings of the catenan are, as opposed to the majority of the DNA nanoarchitechtures that have already been realized, not fixed formations, but ““ depending on the environmental conditions ““ freely pivotable. They are therefore suitable as components of molecular machines or of a molecular motor. “We still have a long way to go before DNA structures such as the catenan can be used in everyday items”, says Prof Alexander Heckel, “but structures of DNA can, in the near future, be used to arrange and study proteins or other molecules that are too small for a direct manipulation, by means of auto-organization.” This way, DNA nano-architectures could become a versatile tool for the nanometer world, to which access is difficult.

In the manufacture of DNA nano-architecture, the scientists take advantage of the pairing rules of the four DNA nucleobases, according to which two natural DNA strands can also find each other (in DNA nano-architecture, the base order is without biological significance). An A on one strand pairs with T on the other strand and C is complementary to G. The trick is to create the sequences of the DNA strands involved in such a manner as to ensure that the desired structure builds up on its own without direct intervention on the experimenter’s part. If only certain parts of the strands used complement each other, branches and junctions can be created.

As reported by Schmidt and Heckel in the journal “Nano Letters” (online advance publication, dx.doi.org/10.1021/nl200303m), they first created two C-shaped DNA-fragments for the catenans. With the help of special molecules that act as sequence-specific glue for the double helix, they arranged the “Cs” in such a ways as to create two junctions, with the open ends of the “Cs” pointing away from each other (see images). The catenan was created by adding two strands that attach to the ends of the two ring fragments, which are still open. Thorsten Schmidt dedicated the publication to his wife Dr Diana Gonçalves Schmidt, who also appreciates the work on scientific level, since she was also a part of Alexander Heckel’s work group.

Since they are much smaller than the wavelengths of visible light, the rings cannot be seen with a standard microscope. “You would have to string together about 4000 such rings to even achieve the diameter of a human hair”, says Thorsten Schmidt. He therefore displays the catenans with a scanning force microscope, which scans the rings that have been placed on a surface with an extremely fine tip.

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Image Caption: The world’s smallest wedding rings are built up by two interlocked DNA-strands. Credit: Alexander Heckel

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• Goethe University Frankfurt
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Scientists are baffled by the continuing numbers of dead baby bottlenose dolphins washing up on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.

406 dolphins were found either stranded or dead between February 2010 and April 2011, prompting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to designate the deaths as an “unusual mortality event” (UME). The agency defines such events as a stranding incident that is unexpected or involves great losses of any marine mammal population.

Blair Mase, the agency’s marine mammal investigations coordinator, told CNN: “This is quite a complex event and requires a lot of analysis.”

Mase said NOAA is working with several agencies to determine not only why the dolphins are turning up dead in such large numbers but also why the mammals are so young. “These were mostly very young dolphins, either pre-term, neonatal or very young and less than 115 centimeters,” Mase said.

A number of factors could be at play including harmful algal blooms, infectious diseases, water temperatures, environmental changes, and human impacts. “The Gulf of Mexico is no stranger to unusual mortality events,” Mase noted.

Much sensitivity surrounding marine life has come about since last year’s BP oil disaster that spewed millions of barrels of crude oil in the Gulf waters.

As recently as two weeks ago, scientists documented a dead dolphin with oil on its remains, said Mase. Since the start of the oil spill on April 20, 2010, a total of 15 bottlenose dolphins have been found with either confirmed or suspected oil on their carcasses. Nine oiled dolphins have been found since the gushing oil well was capped.

But of those nine, one was found with oil that did not match that of samples from the Deepwater Horizon.

Mase said the dolphin deaths could be completely unrelated to the oil spill. “Even though they have oil on them, it may not be the cause of death,” she said. “We want to look at the gamut of all the possibilities.”

Scientists are also concerned over the number of sea turtles that are being stranded. Similar to the dolphin deaths , an abnormally high number of turtles have also been found floating close to shore or washed up along the Gulf coast shores.

“The vast majority of these are dead, with states in moderate to severe decomposition,” Barbara Schroeder, NOAA Fisheries national sea turtle coordinator, told CNN’s Vivian Kuo.

The majority of the turtles found have been Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles, but some have been loggerheads, which along with the Kemp’s are endangered.

“Since January 1st, we’ve had just under 100 strandings,” said Schroeder. “About 87 of those have been documented since the middle of March.”

Necropsies were performed on about a third of the turtles, Schroeder said. Seven of them showed indications that they had been in accidents with watercrafts, while another displayed injuries consistent with being caught on a hook.

The others appeared to have died by drowning near the bottom of the Gulf, either from forced submergence or an acute toxic event.

Tissue samples from both turtles and dolphins are being documented due to the civil and criminal litigation ongoing with BP, according to Dr. Teri Rowles, a coordinator with NOAA Fisheries Stranding Program.

“We are looking at what is the impact of the oil spill and the response activities to the oil spill event, and what impact they had on the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem,” said Rowles. “We did not say that the dolphins have died because of the oil, just that they have come back with oil on them.”

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• NOAA

After a dramatic decline in their numbers last spring, a survey by the Royal Society for the Protection of Bird’s (RSPB) called “Big Garden Birdwatch” found small bird numbers bouncing back.

The winter of 2009 and 2010 was one of the coldest in 30 years, and experts feared the worst for small birds. However, the RSPB’s survey shows some of the species that were devastated by the long, harsh winter returning.

More than half a million people participated in counting birds in their garden for an hour on January 29 and 30. Over 70 species were recorded in 300,780 gardens.

“We expected last year’s trend to continue, and we were really concerned that this decline in small birds would continue,” says Richard Bashford, project manager of the Big Garden Birdwatch. Despite the U.K.’s coldest winter in 100 years, Bashford was surprised by the increase in small birds.

The survey saw U.K.’s smallest birds, the goldcrests, doubled in numbers. Long-tailed tits increased by a third, and coal tits by a quarter. 7,000 waxwings were recorded in almost 1,000 gardens. These birds flew in from Scandinavia in an influx known as a “waxwing winter” that only occurs every few years, reports AFP.

“We knew this was going to be a bumper year for waxwings as we’d had so many reports from all over the UK. But the Big Garden Birdwatch is the first indicator of exactly how many were seen in gardens, and we’re pleased that so many people got to enjoy sightings of these beautiful birds,” says Mark Eaton, a scientist at the RSPB and co-author of the survey.

A good breeding season shows the house sparrow at the top of the list in the number spotted in gardens. This is followed by the starling, the blackbird, the blue tit, the chaffinch, the wood pigeon, the great tit, the goldfinch, the robin, and rounding up the top 10 list is the collared dove.

Although house sparrows are at the top of the list, their numbers are far lower than the first Birdwatch survey that took place in 1979. Starling numbers have also fallen by three quarters since the first survey, reports AFP.

On the other hand, the blue tits, wood pigeons and collared doves are spotted in greater numbers than the original survey. In addition, the goldfinch, which was not spotted in 1979, is now eighth on the top ten list.

“It appears that many may have had a decent breeding season and have been able to bounce back a little. But we mustn’t be complacent. Another hard winter could see numbers back down, so it’s important everyone continues to feed their garden birds,” says, Sarah Kelly, Big Garden Birdwatch coordinator.

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A new study funded by NASA has found that Amazon forests are losing their greenness due to last year’s record-breaking drought.

“The greenness levels of Amazonian vegetation — a measure of its health — decreased dramatically over an area more than three and one-half times the size of Texas and did not recover to normal levels, even after the drought ended in late October 2010,” Liang Xu of Boston University and the study’s lead author said in a statement.

Researchers used computer models to predict that climate change could cause some of the rainforests to be replaced by grasslands or woody savannas.  This change would release carbon stored in the rotting wood into the atmosphere, which could inevitably accelerate global warming.

An international team of scientists used over a decade’s worth of satellite data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission.

The team used these instruments to produce detailed maps of vegetation greenness declines from the 2010 drought.

The researchers first developed maps of drought-affected areas using thresholds of below-average rainfall as a guide.  They then identified vegetation using two different greenness indexes as surrogates for green leaf areas and physiological functioning.

The maps found that the 2010 drought reduced the greenness of about 965,000 square miles of vegetation in the Amazon, which is over four times the area affected by the last severe drought in 2005.

“The MODIS vegetation greenness data suggest a more widespread, severe and long-lasting impact to Amazonian vegetation than what can be inferred based solely on rainfall data,” Arindam Samanta, a co-lead author from Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc. in Lexington, Mass, said in a statement.

The 2010 drought brought record water levels in rivers across the Amazon basin, including the Rio Negro.

“Last year was the driest year on record based on 109 years of Rio Negro water level data at the Manaus harbor. For comparison, the lowest level during the so-called once-in-a-century drought in 2005, was only eighth lowest,” Marcos Costa, coauthor from the Federal University in Vicosa, Brazil, said in a statement.

The team also used the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX) in their research.  The scientists used NEX to obtain a large-scale view of the impact of the drought on the Amazon forests.

“Timely monitoring of our planet’s vegetation with satellites is critical, and with NEX it can be done efficiently to deliver near-real time information, as this study demonstrates,” study coauthor Ramakrishna Nemani, a research scientist at Ames, said in a statement

The study will be published in Geophysical Research Letters, which is a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

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Image 1: NASA satellite sensors, such as MODIS, showed an average pattern of greenness of vegetation on South America: Amazon forests which have very high leaf area are shown in red and purple colors, the adjacent cerrado (savannas) which have lower leaf area are shown in shades of green, and the coastal deserts are shown in yellow colors. Image Credit: Boston University/NASA

Image 2: Red and orange identify areas where satellite measurements indicated reduced Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (first index of greenness) of the Amazon forest during the 2010 drought. Image Credit: Boston University/NASA

Image 3: Red and orange identify areas where satellite measurements indicated reduced Enhanced Vegetation Index (second index of greenness) of the Amazon forest during the 2010 drought. Image Credit: Boston University/NASA

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Warmer air is only part of the story when it comes to Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet. New research by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) highlights the role ocean circulation plays in transporting heat to glaciers.

Greenland’s ice sheet has lost mass at an accelerated rate over the last decade, dumping more ice and fresh water into the ocean. Between 2001 and 2005, Helheim Glacier, a large glacier on Greenland’s southeast coast, retreated 5 miles (8 kilometers) and its flow speed nearly doubled.

A research team led by WHOI physical oceanographer Fiamma Straneo discovered warm, subtropical waters deep inside Sermilik Fjord at the base of Helheim Glacier in 2009.  “We knew that these warm waters were reaching the fjords, but we did not know if they were reaching the glaciers or how the melting was occurring,” says Straneo, lead author of the new study on fjord dynamics published online in the March 20 edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.

The team returned to Greenland in March 2010, to do the first-ever winter survey of the fjord. Using a tiny boat and a helicopter, Straneo and her colleague, Kjetil VÃ¥ge of University of Bergen, Norway, were able to launch probes closer to the glacier than ever before””about 2.5 miles away from the glacier’s edge. Coupled with data from August 2009, details began to emerge of a complicated interaction between glacier ice, freshwater runoff and warm, salty ocean waters.

“People always thought the circulation here would be simple: warm waters coming into the fjords at depth, melting the glaciers. Then the mixture of warm water and meltwater rises because it is lighter, and comes out at the top. Nice and neat,” says Straneo. “But it’s much more complex than that.”

The fjords contain cold, fresh Arctic water on top and warm, salty waters from the Gulf Stream at the bottom. Melted waters do rise somewhat, but not all the way to the top.

“It’s too dense,” Straneo says. “It actually comes out at the interface where the Arctic water and warm water meet.”  This distinction is important, adds Straneo, because it prevents the heat contained in the deep waters from melting the upper third of the glacier. Instead, the glacier develops a floating ice tongue””a shelf of ice that extends from the main body of the glacier out onto the waters of the fjord. The shape of the ice tongue influences the stability of the glacier and how quickly it flows.

In addition, the team found that vigorous currents within the fjord driven by winds and tides also play a part in melting and flow speed. “The currents in the fjord are like waves in a bath tub,” Straneo says. “This oscillation and mixing contribute to heat transport to the glaciers.”

The March 2010 trip marked the first time the researchers were able to observe winter-time conditions in the fjord, which is how the system probably works nine months out of the year.

“One surprise we found was that the warm waters in the fjord are actually 1 degree Celsius warmer in winter, which by Greenland standards is a lot,” Straneo says. “It raises the possibility that winter melt rates might be larger than those in the summer.

“Current climate models do not take these factors into account,” she adds. “We’re just beginning to understand all of the pieces. We need to know more about how the ocean changes at the glaciers edge. It’s critical to improving predictions of future ice sheet variability and sea level rise.”

Co-authors of the work include Ruth Curry and Claudia Cenedese of WHOI, David Sutherland of University of Washington, Gordon Hamilton of University of Maine, Leigh Stearns of University of Kansas, and Kjetil VÃ¥ge of University of Bergen, Norway.

 Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation, WHOI’s Ocean and Climate Change Institute Arctic Research Initiative, and NASA’s Cryosperic Sciences Program.

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Image 1: Using a tiny boat and a helicopter, the research team returned to Greenland in March 2010, to do the first-ever winter survey of Sermilik Fjord at the base of Helheim Glacier. During the trip, they were able to launch probes closer to the glacier than ever before””about 2.5 miles away from the glacier’s edge. (Fiamma Straneo, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Image 2: WHOI physical oceanographer Fiamma Straneo lowers a Conductivity/Temperature/Depth Recorder (CTD) into Sermilik Fjord in March 2010. (Kjetil Vage, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

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• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
• Nature Geoscience

In an RV nicknamed after an urban assault vehicle, scientists from NASA’s Langley Research Center traveled cross-country this month for an experiment with eco-friendly jet fuel.

The Langley team drove 2,600 miles (4,184 km) from Hampton, Va., to meet up with other researchers at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

Researchers are testing the biofuel on a NASA DC-8 to measure its performance and emissions as part of the Alternative Aviation Fuel Experiment II, or AAFEX II. The fuel is called Hydrotreated Renewable Jet Fuel.

“It’s made out of chicken fat, actually,” said Langley’s Bruce Anderson, AAFEX II project scientist. “The Air Force bought many thousands of gallons of this to burn in some of their jets and provided about 8,000 gallons (30,283 liters) to NASA for this experiment.”

Anderson and his team will test a 50-50 mix of biofuel and regular jet fuel, biofuel only, and jet fuel only. The jet fuel is Jet Propellant 8, or JP-8, a kerosene-like mix of hydrocarbons.

Two of the team members headed west in a specially equipped 32-foot (9.75 m) van on loan from Langley’s Aviation Safety Program. It’s dubbed “EM-50” by researchers after the urban assault vehicle used in the 1981 comedy “Stripes” with Bill Murray.

Collaborative Effort

Three more researchers from Langley flew to the experiment, and researchers from Dryden and NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio have key roles as well. The effort includes investigators and consultants from private industry, other federal organizations, and academia. In all, 17 organizations are participating in AAFEX II.

“This is going to be a lot of hard work,” said Anderson.

Glenn researchers shipped instruments that will be used to measure particulate and gaseous emissions.

“AAFEX II will provide essential gaseous and particulate emissions data as well as engine and aircraft systems performance data from operation of the DC-8 on a fuel produced from a renewable resource,” said Glenn’s Dan Bulzan, who leads clean energy and emissions research in NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project.

“NASA Dryden is excited to continue contributing to the study of alternative fuels for aviation use,” said Frank Cutler, NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory project manager. “These tests will assess exhaust emissions generated by modern turbine aircraft engines using man-made fuels.”

In 2009, researchers in the AAFEX I project tested two synthetic fuels derived from petroleum-based coal and natural gas.

Testing is being done at a time when the U.S. military has set a goal of eventually flying its aircraft using 50 percent biofuel. The Air Force is currently engaged in certifying its fleet to operate on a 50-percent blend of the same fuel being tested in AAFEX II. Some military cargo and fighter planes already use alternative fuels.

“The use of alternative fuels, including biofuels, in aircraft is a key element for substantially reducing the impact of aviation on the environment and for reducing the dependency on foreign petroleum,” said Glenn’s Ruben Del Rosario, manager of NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project, which is conducting the tests.

The tests are funded and managed by the Fundamental Aeronautics Program of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in Washington.

Michael Finneran, NASA Langley Research Center

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Image Caption: NASA’s DC-8 at Dryden Flight Research Center’s Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. Credit: NASA Dryden/Tom Tschida

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Local participation in forest management may simultaneously promote biodiversity and sustainable resource use for household livelihoods

Contrary to popular belief, the biodiversity of a tropical forest may be conserved while its resources are used to support local household livelihoods, according to a new study published in the March 25 issue of Science. But biodiversity and resource use are most likely to successfully co-exist in forests that are managed under systems that receive inputs from local forest users or local communities.

These study results imply that one important way for governments to simultaneously promote biodiversity and forest-based livelihoods is to formalize the rights of local people to contribute to rulemakings on the management and use of local forests.

This study, which was partially funded by the National Science Foundation, was conducted by a team led by Lauren Persha of the University of Michigan.

Forest policy decentralization reforms that transfer ownership and management responsibilities to local forest user organizations have already been introduced in more than two-thirds of the developing world. However, this approach’s effectiveness has been questioned because of its potential to enable elites to dominate resource use and because of potential weaknesses in links between local decision-makers and larger governing bodies.

But despite such criticism, the Persha team found that forest management inputs from local forest users and communities may promote the growth of forests that are biologically diverse and support local household livelihoods. The researchers attribute the dual success of local inputs to their potential for generating rules that support sustainability and accommodate specific local forest conditions. Such rules thereby help foster forests that support local livelihoods over the long term and so gain legitimacy and relevance.

Study results also indicate that larger tropical forests are more likely to simultaneously support biodiversity and forest-based livelihoods than are smaller tropical forests. But for a given forest size, the probability of achieving such dual success is higher in forests where local forest users or local communities maintain a formal role in management.

Nevertheless, the researchers say that their findings are particularly relevant for small forest patches in human-dominated landscapes, which–when supporting local livelihoods–face the most difficult conservation challenges.

The results of the study challenge some scholarly research that has depicted the conservation of tropical forests and resource use to support livelihoods as mutually exclusive. However, these previous studies tended to focus on either social outcomes or ecological outcomes–not on these two potential outcomes together.

By contrast, this study is the first study to identify which social, ecological and governance factors simultaneously promote biodiversity and forest-based livelihoods. Also, the study, which is based on data from 84 sites in six countries in East Africa and South Asia, is only one of a few studies that identifies factors that may promote biodiversity or forest-based livelihoods across multiple countries, instead of just in specific locations and specific contexts.

“One thing that is clear is that overcoming forest governance challenges is central to maintaining the diverse benefit flows of tropical forest,” said Persha. “The effort involved in funding and collecting data on the scale of this research, across so many sites and countries, is substantial–but also vital for generating a more solid evidence base to help decision-makers construct better policies for forest sustainability to meet multiple social and ecological goals.”

Team member Arun Agrawal of the University of Michigan added: “Interdisciplinary research requires giving up entrenched disciplinary biases. We are glad to see the most prestigious research journals in the world recognizing the need for such research and making it possible to pursue such work.”

“This study illustrates how research on coupled natural-human systems can inform governance policies for land use and resource management that enhance both ecological and economic sustainability,” said Alan Tessier, an NSF program director.

“This article builds on research supported by a diverse set of NSF programs,” noted Thomas Baerwald, another NSF program director. “And it demonstrates how increased knowledge about the complex interactions between people and the natural environment can help address societally significant problems.”

It is vitally important to find ways to conserve tropical forests because over one billion people depend on them for their livelihoods. In addition, tropical forests currently store more than 500 billion tons of carbon–more than all of the carbon that is currently stored in the atmosphere. If these tropical forests were lost, their vast stores of carbon would be released into the atmosphere and potentially impact climate in significant ways.

—

On the Net:

• National Science Foundation
• Science
• University of Michigan

Japanese Earthquake And Tsunami Updates

UPDATE: Wednesday, 16 March 2011 6:10am CST

Japanese authorities have been desperately trying to prevent an environmental catastrophe at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex some 140 miles north of Tokyo. 

Workers at the facility have been scrambling to keep the radioactive cores of the reactors from evaporating, which would lead to overheating and possibly a dangerous meltdown.

The tsunami that hit Japan following the devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake knocked out the backup diesel generators required to cool the facility’s fuel rods, triggering the current crisis.

In the latest in a series of setbacks, Japan ordered workers to withdraw from the complex on Wednesday due to a spike in radiation levels.  The spike was apparently the result of a release of pressure that had accumulated in the No. 2 reactor, officials said.

Steam and pressure build up in the reactors as workers frantically scramble to cool the fuel rods.  This leads to controlled pressure releases through vents and, at times, uncontrolled explosions.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the workers had no alternative but to withdraw from the most dangerous areas.

“The workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now,” said Edano.

“Because of the radiation risk we are on standby.”

Just hours before the Fukushima workers were evacuated, another fire broke out at the facility’s No. 4 reactor, sending low levels of radiation as far away as Tokyo, and generating fresh fears that the crisis may be deepening.

Hajimi Motujuku, a spokesman for the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the outer housing of the containment vessel at the No. 4 unit erupted in flames early Wednesday.

However, Japan’s nuclear safety agency said that fire and smoke could no longer be seen at Unit 4, although it was unable to confirm that the blaze had been put out.

Officials are also considering having helicopters dump water onto the facility’s No. 3 reactor in a desperate effort to cool its fuel rods.  An earlier explosion had damaged the reactor’s roof.

However, Edano spoke cautiously about such a move, warning of the risks involved.

“It’s not so simple that everything will be resolved by pouring in water. We are trying to avoid creating other problems,” he said.

“We are actually supplying water from the ground, but supplying water from above involves pumping lots of water and that involves risk. We also have to consider the safety of the helicopters above.”

By late Wednesday local time, radiation levels had decreased, although it was not clear whether workers had been allowed back in.

A core team of 70 experts have been working around the clock to contain the crisis, rotating in and out of the facility to minimize their radiation exposure.

Meanwhile, officials in Ibaraki prefecture, just south of Fukushima, said radiation levels were about 300 times normal levels late Wednesday morning, the Associated Press reported.  While those levels are unhealthy for prolonged periods, they are far from lethal.

Millions of people have been left with little food, water or heat in the aftermath of the quake.  Some half a million people are now in temporary shelters, while more than 11,000 people are officially listed as dead or missing. 

Most officials expect that number to rise.

In an exceptionally rare address, Emperor Akihito, 77, expressed his condolences and encouraged the nation not to give up.

“It is important that each of us shares the difficult days that lie ahead,” said Akihito, for whom Japan’s citizens have tremendous respect.

“I pray that we will all take care of each other and overcome this tragedy.”

He also expressed his concerns about the ongoing nuclear crisis.

“With the help of those involved I hope things will not get worse,” he said.

The government has ordered some 140,000 people in the vicinity of the nuclear complex to stay indoors. Slight amounts of radiation were detected in Tokyo, triggering a panicked rush to purchase food and water.

There are six reactors at the Fukushima facility.  Reactors 1, 2 and 3 automatically shut down when the quake hit, but have each been rocked by explosions in the following days.

Units 4, 5 and 6 were not operating at the time of the quake, but still have nuclear fuel that must be kept cool.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency estimated that 70 percent of the rods have been damaged at the No. 1 reactor, while Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that 33 percent of the fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor were damaged.  The cores of both reactors are thought to have partially melted.

“We don’t know the nature of the damage,” said Minoru Ohgoda, spokesman for Japan’s nuclear safety agency.

“It could be either melting, or there might be some holes in them,” the AP quoted him as saying.

Scores of flights to Japan have been cancelled or rerouted as air travelers avoid Tokyo out of fears of radiation exposure.  On Wednesday, France urged its citizens in Tokyo to either leave Japan altogether, or move to the southern part of the country.

UPDATE: Tuesday, 15 March 2011 12:05pm CST

The US Geological Survey (USGS) has raised the magnitude of the deadly earthquake that struck offshore northern Japan on Friday to 9.0 from 8.9. Japanese authorities have also arrived separately at the same measurement. Revised measurements of magnitude are common after earthquakes as recorded data is analyzed and refined.

“This magnitude places the earthquake as the fourth largest in the world since 1900 and the largest in Japan since modern instrumental recordings began 130 years ago,” Reuters is reporting from a USGS statement.

The updated magnitude of the quake to 9.0 reveals the quake was 1.5 times more powerful than the previous measurement of 8.9. This makes the quake the fourth largest in the world since 1900 behind the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra quake in 2004, AP reports.

Updated death toll estimates are 3,373 people dead and 6,746 others unaccounted for in Japan from the immediate quake and resulting tsunami, Local media reports and estimated 530,000 evacuees are now recovering in approximately 2,600 shelters near quake-hit areas.

Food, drinking water, medicine and fuel shortages are reported in quake-hit areas. Communications and other infrastructure disruptions are being felt as rescue and recovery efforts continue, Xinhua News Agency is reporting.

UPDATE: Monday, 14 March 2011 11:50am CST

NASA Imagery Of Japan Quake – http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/japanquake/index.html

UPDATE: Monday, 14 March 2011 6:05am CST

The US Geological Survey (USGS) claims the Friday’s 8.9 magnitude quake along the northern coast of Japan has moved the island nation eastward by an estimated 8 feet. The tectonic shift was a result of “thrust faulting” along the boundary of the Pacific and North America plates, according to the Paul Earle of the USGS.

The North American plate is pushed by the Pacific plate at the rate of about 3.3 inches per year, however an earthquake large enough can provide a shove that is able to displace the plates with dramatic results. Similar movements had been recorded for the recent Indonesian and Chilean earthquakes, Earle continued.

“With an earthquake this large, you can get these huge ground shifts,” Earle said. “On the actual fault you can get 65 feet of relative movement, on the two sides of the fault.”

A tsunami resulted from this earthquake that inundated populated areas of Japan’s northeastern coast, washing away anything along low-lying areas in what Prime Minister Naoto Kan said was an “unprecedented national disaster.”

A 9.1 magnitude quake in December 2004 near the coast of Sumatra caused a tsunami that killed an estimated 228,000 people. In February 2010, an 8.8 quake off the coast of Chile killed more than 500.

No similar ground shift was noticed from the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti last year. “A magnitude 7.0 is much smaller than the earthquake that just happened in Japan,” he said. “We’ve had aftershocks (in Japan) larger than the Haiti earthquake.”

“We know that one GPS station moved, and we have seen a map from GSI (Geospatial Information Authority) in Japan showing the pattern of shift over a large area is consistent with about that much shift of the land mass,” explained Kenneth Hudnut, a USGS geophysicist told CNN.

NASA scientist Richard Gross reported that the earth’s rotation was also affected. Initial estimates show the rotation of the planet has shortened by approximately 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second), and also shifted Earth’s figure axis by about 6.5 inches. These are not time scales that would be noticeable by people but can be read by satellites, Gross told CBS News.

UPDATE: Saturday, 12 March 2011 6:40am CST

Although imperceptible to humans, days will be a tiny bit shorter after Friday’s magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Japan.

NASA geophysicist Richard Gross calculated that the Earth’s rotation accelerated by 1.6 microseconds because of the shift in mass caused by the massive quake — the fifth strongest since 1900.

That change in rotation speed is slightly more than the one caused by last year’s earthquake in Chile.   However, an even larger earthquake in Sumatra in 2004 caused a 6.8-microsecond shortening of the day, the Associated Press reported.

UPDATE: Friday, 11 March 2011 1:35pm CST

A 6.2 magnitude quake has struck the mountainous Nagano area in Central Japan, apparently on a different faultline than the 8.9 magnitude quake.

Also, CNN reports that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, roughly 160 miles north of Tokyo, “remains at a high temperature” because it “cannot cool down.”

Japan’s Kyodo News Agency reports that Trade Minister Banri Kaieda said that a small radiation leak could occur at the plant.

UPDATE: Friday, 11 March 2011 12:50pm CST

During a press conference earlier this afternoon, President Barack Obama said that he told Japanese Prime Minister Naota Kan that the US is ready to offer whatever help they can as the Asian country attempts to recover from this morning’s massive earthquake.

Also, according to Reuters, Obama told reporters that “his administration is closely monitoring the tsunami threat to the United States” and that the Prime Minister told him that there was currently no leak at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

UPDATE: Friday, 11 March 2011 12:35pm CST

As reported earlier, an estimated 3,000 people were evacuated from the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

According to Reuters, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano had stated that a cooling system for a nuclear reactor was not working, and the issue appeared to be under control.

Now CNN.com has posted an update to the story, and according to Edano, the reactor at the plant “remains at a high temperature” and that they have been unable to get it to “cool down.”

“There is no radioactive leakage at this moment outside of the facility,” he said. “At this moment, there is no danger to the environment.” However, the CNN.com Wire Staff reports that the radiation level was rising in a turbine building within the plant.

UPDATE: Friday, 11 March 2011 12:15pm CST:

Reports of the tsunami’s impact on Hawaii and the West Coast of the US mainland are trickling in. The Associated Press says that, despite reports of flooding on Maui and watery roadways on Hawaii’s big island, the post-earthquake waves “didn’t immediately cause major damage after devastating Japan and sparking evacuations throughout the Pacific.”

“Initial reports from U.S. civil defense officials and residents of coastal communities suggested the force of the tsunami, a giant wall of water, had dissipated as it sped across the Pacific Ocean toward North America,” Peter Henderson of Reuters said. “Tidal surges in the Hawaiian island chain were generally little higher than normal, officials said, and there were no reports of injuries or severe inland property damage.”

However, as James Song and Mark Niesse wrote, “Scientists and officials warned that the first tsunami waves are not always the strongest and said residents along the coast should watch for strong currents and heed calls for evacuation.”

“The tsunami warning is not over,” Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie said, according to the AP. “We are seeing significant adverse activity, particularly on Maui and the Big Island. By no means are we clear in the rest of the state as well.”

At 8:30am CST, President Barack Obama received a briefing on this morning’s earthquake and the resulting tsunamis, as he spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate via telephone and met with Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security John Brennan, National Security Advisory Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, Senior Advisor David Plouffe, Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, National Security Staff Senior Director for Resilience Richard Reed and National Security Staff Director Asian Affairs Daniel Russel in person.

According to a White House media advisory released this afternoon, “The senior officials provided the President with an update on the evolving situation stemming from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan early this morning including the actions being taken to assist U.S. states and territories that could be affected by the tsunami, as the President directed earlier this morning ““ as well as the work being done to be prepared to assist the people of Japan.”

“The US government continues to monitor the situation closely throughout the Pacific region,” the press release added. “To support potentially impacted areas in the United States, the federal government remains in close contact and coordination with state and local officials, and stands ready to support them. The government’s message to the public is simple: listen to the instructions of state and local officials. We urge everyone in the regions who could be impacted to listen to a NOAA Weather Radio and their local news to monitor for updates and directions provided by their local officials.”

According to Patricia Zengerle and David Morgan of Reuters, “The U.S. Defense Department was preparing American forces in the Pacific to provide relief after the quake, which generated a tsunami that headed across the Pacific Ocean past Hawaii and toward the west coast of the U.S. mainland.”

To put into perspective just how severe an earthquake this was, consider this Twitter post from USGS Nebraska: “The Richter scale is exponential, logarithmic. An 8.9 like today’s is about 8,000 times stronger than the recent serious quake in New Zealand.”

That earthquake, which hit the city of Christchurch on February 22, was 6.3 in magnitude. There are 166 confirmed deaths as a result of that disaster, and as reported by CNN.com, the Kyodo News Agency, and now by Reuters as well, the death toll for Friday morning’s earthquake is expected to surpass 1,000.

UPDATE: Friday, 11 March 2011 11:20am CST:

CNN.com’s live blog is reporting that a dam in Fukushima prefecture had broken and that “scores” of homes in the region had been washed way. They also say that the Defense Ministry has confirmed that approximately 1,800 homes have been destroyed there.

They also state that the Kyodo News Agency has reported that they expect the death toll from Friday morning’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake to surpass 1,000.

UPDATE: Friday, 11 March 2011 10:50am CST:

Russell Goldman and Lyneka Little of ABC News report that, in addition to Oregon, residents in northern California have “reported seeing the tell-tale sign of an impending tsunami–the waterline quickly withdrawing from the beach prior to large incoming waves.”

In an article posted at 8:19 Pacific Time, the Los Angeles Times’ L.A. Now blog reported that “Southern California beaches are expected to be hit within a half-hour with unusual ripple currents” resulting from the earthquake-caused tsunami.

“Most beaches are likely to see 1- to 3-foot waves starting around 8:30 am [local time], said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada-Flintridge. Unlike typical waves, the force of the current is expected to build slowly and could last up to a half-hour,” they added.

Furthermore, Japan’s National Police have told CNN.com that “at least 133 people were killed, 722 were injured and 530 were missing” following the earthquake, in addition to the 200 to 300 bodies that were discovered “in the coastal city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture following the subsequent tsunami that struck that area. The death toll is likely to rise.”

According to Reuters, tsunami warnings have been lifted for Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, and alerts are no longer in effect for Australia, New Zealand and Guam.

UPDATE: Friday, 11 March 2011 10:00am CST:

Jaymes Song and Mark Niesse of the AP are now reporting that the first tsunami waves have reached the US mainland, with high water reaching Port Orford, Oregon at 7:30am PST on Friday. Residents living near the coast of Oregon, California, and Washington had previously been evacuated. An approximately five-foot wave had also been spotted at Shemya in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, Song and Niesse said.

Andrew Marshall of Reuters is reporting that tsunami warnings had been lifted for Guam, Indonesia, and Taiwan. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reports that warnings remained in effect for Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.

Reuters is also reporting, via their live blog, that NHK is confirming that the death toll in Japan had now risen above 300, with several hundred others missing.

CNN.com had confirmed that “a spokesman for the U.S. military bases in Japan said all service members were accounted for and there were no reports of damage to installations or ships.”

AP Reporters Jaymes Song and Mark Niesse now report that the tsunami waves that hit the beaches of Hawaii early Friday morning “didn’t cause any major damage.”

Finally, Jesse McKinley and Timothy Williams of the New York Times are reporting that waves from the tsunami “were projected to arrive at the Northern California coast at about 7:15 a.m. local time, and hit the San Francisco Bay Area at about 8 a.m., the National Weather Service said.”

“Officials in Southern California closed beaches as a precaution, prohibiting swimming, surfing and fishing off the coast,” McKinley and Williams said. “Experts said that they did not expect flooding and did not call for mandatory evacuations. But they warned that there could be large waves and unusual changes in the currents for several hours.”

“Several schools in the beach areas also planned to close Friday,” the New York Times writers continued, adding that authorities told them that wave surges “could reach three to seven feet along the California, Oregon and Washington coasts” and three-feet in Southern California.

UPDATE: Friday, 11 March 2011 9:35am CST:

A televised CNN report states that all US military personnel in Japan have been accounted for.

Reuters reporter Ross Chainey, via their live earthquake coverage blog, is reporting that White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley “says fears about the tsunami on Hawaii and California seem to have passed,” and that Bristol University Seismology Professor George Helffrich tells BBC News “the speed at which the tsunami waves move across the ocean is around 1km every four seconds.”

ABC News reporters Akiko Fujita, Leezel Tanglao, and Jessica Hopper are reporting that the quake itself has been called the fifth largest ever recorded by the USGS. They note that the tremors lasted five minutes–far longer than the devastating 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California, which had a duration of just six seconds–and bent the famed Tokyo tower landmark.

As of 9:20am CST, Canada had issued tsunami advisories for parts of British Columbia, according to Reuters.

UPDATE Friday, 11 March 2011 09:15am CST:

ABC News Channel 25 out of Waco, Texas is reporting that the tsunami, which initially hit Hawaii approximately two hours ago, had caused damage to docks, and that the waves are “leaving fish in parking lots near the beach.”

They add that a Tsunami Warning is in effect for coastal areas of California, Oregon, and Alaska–meaning that residents in those areas should immediately move to safer locations inland and towards higher ground–and that several other west coast areas were under a less-serious Tsunami Advisory.

According to CNN.com, the earthquake’s epicenter was located approximately 231 miles away from Tokyo, and between 60,000 and 70,000 people were being evacuated to shelters in the Sendai area. Fires had been reported in 80 different areas, the CNN Wire Staff added, and more than 20,000 people were left stranded at the Narita and Haneda airports.

UPDATE Friday, 11 March 2011 08:55am CST:

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that death toll of a massive 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan early Friday morning is now in the hundreds.

According to the AP’s Malcolm Foster, “Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai. Another 88 were confirmed killed and 349 were missing. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of the disaster.”

Meanwhile, according to AP reporters Jaymes Song and Mark Niesse, 3-foot high tsunami waves from the earthquake had begun hitting the Hawaii islands of Oahu and Kauai early Friday morning. Song and Niesse now report that waves nearing 6 feet high had been recorded on the island of Maui, and that Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist said that it did not appear that they would cause “major” damage, but that he was positive there would be “some damage” there.

“Roadways and beaches were empty as the tsunamis struck the state, which had hours to prepare,” Song and Niesse said. “Residents in coastal areas of Hawaii were sent to refuge areas at community centers and schools while tourists in Waikiki were moved to higher floors of their high-rise hotels.”

Furthermore, they report that “Waves are predicted to hit the western coast of the United States between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. EST Friday” and that evacuations had been ordered “in parts of Washington and Oregon.”

“The US Geological Survey [USGS] said the 2:46 p.m. quake was a magnitude 8.9, the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s, and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world,” Foster said, adding that more than 50 aftershocks had been recorded.

In the wake of the disaster, American President Barack Obama pledged his aid to Japan.

According to AP reporter Julie Pace, Obama has declared that the United States “stands ready to help” those affected by the earthquake, and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be ready to help those in Hawaii, as well as any other state ultimately affected by the tsunamis.

“FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said tsunami warnings and watches have been issued for the U.S. territories of Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands, and coastal areas in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington,” Pace said. “Fugate urged people living in those areas to monitor their local news for instructions from their state and local officials, and evacuate if ordered to do so. And the Coast Guard said it was making preparations to provide support where necessary.”

As reported previously, Bloomberg writers Stuart Biggs and Aaron Sheldrick said that the earthquake “shook buildings across Tokyo and unleashed a tsunami as high as 10 meters, engulfing towns along the northern coast.”

Furthermore, Tokyo Electric Power told the Bloomberg reporters that over 4 million homes were without power, and in a nationally televised briefing in the wake of the disaster, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that “major damage” had occurred in an area located north of Tokyo.

In a live blog updating the situation in real time, Mark Kolmar of Reuters posted that the Kyodo news agency is reporting that “8,000 defense force troops have been dispatched for quake relief.”

The US State Department has issued a travel alert, noting that airports in Tokyo were currently closed and asking all Americans to avoid non-essential travel to Japan, Pace is reporting. The agency added that public transportation was also closed in Tokyo and interrupted in many other locales, and that US citizens currently in Japan should “contact family and friends in the United States to confirm their well-being at the earliest opportunity.”

Meanwhile, many other nations are continuing to brace themselves for the resulting tsunamis.

“The Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea were among more than 20 countries bracing for a possible tsunami, after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center raised an alert,” Biggs and Sheldrick had warned earlier Friday, adding that AP reports stated that “The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for the entire U.S. west coast.”

Roig and Barut said that the tsunami warnings also extended from Mexico south through the Pacific coast of South America, and Kolmar had also posted that warnings had been issued for “the coastal areas of California and Oregon from Point Concepcion, California to the Oregon-Washington border; the coastal areas of Alaska from Amchitka Pass, Alaska (125 miles W of Adak) to Attu, Alaska; the coastal areas of California from the California-Mexico border to Point Concepcion, California; and the coastal areas of Washington, British Columbia and Alaska from the Oregon-Washington border to Amchitka Pass, Alaska (125 miles W of Adak).”

As they have with other disasters in the past, Google has established an online “Person Finder” for those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. According to Benny Evangelista of the San Francisco Chronicle, “The Person Finder page can be found at http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/ and it is available both in English and Japanese.”

Earlier today, Reuters had reported that residents near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been told to evacuate. They have since learned from Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano that a cooling system for a nuclear reactor was not working.

Reuters is also reporting, via the Kyodo news agency reports that a ship carrying a crew of 100 people had been swept away by the tsunami. More details on that when they become available.

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Image 1: Image of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 before and after explosion. Credit: Wikipedia   

Image 2: Ground rupture caused by the Sendai Earthquake 2011. Credit: Danny Choo/Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)  

Image 3: Map of the Senadai Earthquake 2011 Credit: Wikipedia   

Image 4: These images show the effects of the tsunami on Japan’s coastline. The image on the left was taken on Sept. 5, 2010; the image on the right was taken on March 12, 2011, one day after an earthquake and resulting tsunami struck the island nation. Credit: German Aerospace Center (DLR)/Rapid Eye  

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On the Net:

• West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center
• Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
• Google Person Finder
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• US State Department
• USGS Earthquake Information

On Tuesday, Germany announced the temporary shutdown of seven of its oldest nuclear reactors pending a safety review.

“We are launching a safety review of all nuclear reactors … with all reactors in operation since the end of 1980 set to be idled for the period of the (three-month) moratorium,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement.

Germany said 10 years ago that it would be nuclear-free by 2020, which has since been postponed until the mid-2030s by Merkel’s government.

Japan’s government said that radiation levels near the Fukushima nuclear plant reached levels harmful to humans.  It has advised people to stay indoors after two explosions and a fire at the facility Tuesday.

Four of the six reactors at the Japanese plant have overheated and sparked explosions since Friday’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake.

“After this moratorium, which will run until June 15… we will know how to proceed,” Merkel said in a statement after crisis talks in Berlin took place with premiers of German states where there are nuclear plants.

She said that Berlin would use the time to discuss what to do with radioactive waste, boosting renewable energies, and international safety standards for nuclear power.

“Safety standards in Germany are one thing, they are important, but safety standards in Europe, being able to compare then, and international safety standards are also important,” Merkel said.

Germany’s older plants include one in Bavaria, two near Frankfurt and two in Baden-Wuettemberg.

ARD published a surveyed on Tuesday that had 53 percent of respondents saying all reactors should be taken out of service as soon as possible.

The poll showed that 70 percent thought that an accident similar to that in Japan could happen in Germany, and 80 percent want Merkel to reverse the government’s extension of operating times.

German citizens have been uneasy about the safety of nuclear power, with shipments of nuclear waste regularly attracting angry protests.

Germany relies on nuclear power for 23 percent of its energy needs.  It is the first European country to take these measures after explosions at Japan’s Fukushima plant sparked safety concerns.

Guenther Oettinger, the European Union energy commission, said in an interview with ARD television that Germany’s move raises the prospect of a nuclear-free Europe.

“It has to raise the question of whether we in Europe, in the foreseeable future, can secure our energy needs without nuclear power,” he said.

Tornado Alley features never-before-captured tornado footage as scientists seek to understand the structure and origin of tornadoes, and how they can be forecasted more accurately

On March 10, at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Giant Screen Films presented the world premiere of Tornado Alley, a film that documents the effort to understand the origins and evolution of tornadoes.

The film features never-before-seen footage of Sean Casey, star of the Discovery Channel program Storm Chasers and a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded team of scientists from the recently concluded VORTEX2 tornado research mission. The teams pursue tornadoes in “Tornado Alley,” a region in the center of the United States that is home to Earth’s most violent and destructive tornadoes.

As Casey’s team seeks to capture ground-breaking footage of a tornado from point-blank range, the VORTEX2 team strives to understand the origin and structure of tornadoes. VORTEX2 is the largest and most ambitious tornado research project to date.

The researchers hope to use their findings to improve the ability to predict when and where tornadoes will strike, ensuring greater safety to those in harm’s way.

In Tornado Alley, leading researchers Joshua Wurman, Karen Kosiba and Don Burgess represent a team of more than 100 international VORTEX2 participants, who traveled throughout the Plains region of the United States in 2009-2010, using cutting-edge weather measurement instruments to collect scientific data during the life cycle of a tornado.

The scientists deployed more than 40 scientific vehicles, including the radars, tornado pods, instrumented vehicles, deployable arrays of weather stations, laser disdrometers, and unmanned aerial system, and mobile weather balloon launchers.

“Currently, the average lead time, the time between a tornado warning and the tornado occurring, is just 13 minutes, and the false alarm rate is 70 percent,” said Wurman. “In order to increase warning times, in order to reduce the false alarm rate, VORTEX2 hopes to learn the differences between which storms will make tornadoes, and which ones will not, and which storms will make the worst, most violent and potentially killer tornadoes.”

Kosiba explained that to obtain information about the tornadoes, VORTEX2 used 11 different radars to study various components of the storms. As part of that, the Center for Severe Weather Research operated three NSF-funded Doppler on Wheels (DOW) mobile radars that from the ground collect high-resolution radar data of the inside of the storm.

Tornado Alley also features another radar called DOW7 that takes data in the rear and flank of the storm and provides three-dimensional wind and precipitation maps of the potentially tornado-like regions of storms. DOW7 has a crew of four team members, including Kosiba and Wurman. Each team member focuses on a specific task, for example, driving, navigating, operating the radar and coordinating other radars and teams which deploy weather stations called “tornado pods” in front of the tornadoes.

Some of the special features of the DOW7 include a 56-foot mast that extends its radio range to more than 30 miles at times. DOW7 also has 14 monitors connected to more than 15 different computers so that the team can look at weather forecasts and radar data, track their teams, and communicate with other VORTEX2 teams via the internet.

Yet, working inside of the DOW7, let alone in the midst of a tornado, proves to be no simple feat. “We have to be extremely ambitious, getting instruments to just the right places at the right times,” said Wurman. “But at the same time, we have to be extremely cautious, keeping all of the teams and vehicles-some led by over 80 students participating in VORTEX2-safe from not only the tornado, but lightning, flooding, 100 mph thunderstorm winds, softball sized hail, and of course, the tornado.”

To safely capture up-close footage of the tornado, Casey and his team travel in the TIV-2, a seven-ton, armored “tornado intercept vehicle” that was engineered and built by Casey. Casey carries a 92-pound IMAX camera that belonged to his father to film the inside of a tornado. The TIV-2 also carries weather instruments, the data from which Wurman and his team use with DOW data to map tornado winds.

While Tornado Alley depicts several tornados, its climax features a tornado intercept in Goshen County, Wyo., on June 5, 2009.

In order to find this particular tornado, Wurman explained how VORTEX2 made forecasts for where storms might form that day. “We drove to locations east of the Wyoming Rockies, specifically the Cheyenne Ridge,” said Wurman.

“When the forecast storms started propagating off of the Ridge, VORTEX2 drove towards the most prominent storm and began setting up its array of DOW radars [and other instrumentation]. About 22 minutes after we set up the first DOW, a tornado formed and moved into our array, allowing VORTEX2 to collect data during the entire lifecycle, from before birth, as it intensified and through the death of the tornado,” he said.

Tornado Alley will open nationally on March 18th in IMAX and other Large Format Theaters. The Tornado Alley Movie website has more details.

In addition to showing in theaters, Tornado Alley will promote an outreach campaign in which Sean Casey and the TIV will visit museums across the country and additional support from NSF will send DOW radar trucks and VORTEX2 scientists on tour to demonstrate the DOW’s research tools, tornado pods and to engage audiences with the exciting and innovative aspects of tornado research.

Tornado Alley is a collaboration of award-winning producers Giant Screen Films, Graphic Films and Sean Casey, with support from the Giant Dome Theater Consortium, a newly founded partnership comprised of seven leading museum institutions.

NSF’s Informal Science Education program provided funding for VORTEX2 in partnership with NSF’s Physical and Dynamic Meteorology program and the special programs of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section.

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Image Caption: The newest Doppler-On-Wheels (DOW) observing the Goshen County, Wyoming tornado on June 5, 2009. The DOWs and VORTEX2 observed this tornado from before birth, through its intensification, until its dissipation. A scientist engaged in photogrammetry research stands behind the DOW. Credit: Herb Stein / CSWR

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On the Net:

• NSF
• Tornado Alley Web site
• VORTEX2 Web site