Latest news with #Ouranos
CNET
30-06-2025
- Science
- CNET
This Astronomy AI App Can Pinpoint the Best Moonlit Nights. How to Use It
I recently traveled to go stargazing and was amazed at how vivid the night sky was. This inspired me to find ways to view it more often at home. (Due to a smog-infested sky in LA, I cannot see stars. I can, though, see the moon.) After looking for apps that could both educate me and provide details on the night sky, I found Ouranos, an astronomy weather app that uses artificial intelligence to analyze astronomical data in your location. Considering the Moon is Earth's "natural satellite," I was curious about ways to tap into its functionality -- especially knowing that each phase is visible without a telescope and will likely appear even despite human-made air pollution. What is Ouranos, and how does it use AI? Ouranos was created by software engineer company Pleiode in 2022 and announced pretty casually by its founder through the Cloudy Night forum. There's both a free version of Ouranos and a paid version, which is roughly $2/month -- or a $30 one-time unlimited fee -- that unlocks 16-day extended forecasts, cloud and 15-minute forecasts, planet visibility graphs, astronomical events and an interactive light pollution map. Ouranos' main use is determining when sky conditions are optimal for viewing, saving you the time of comparing data yourself. (Not that I was doing that anyway.) Its AI algorithm helps generate these insights, noting when and where to observe. If you're looking for personalized forecasts and predictions, its AI can help generate this for you and provide information based on your specific weather conditions with generated output. It can also help make sure you don't miss any full moons, supermoons or moon eclipses. For more on stargazing, here's how to use AI to find a celestial constellation. For those interested in Ouranos's AI usage in comparison to data rights, there's not much information on its own data privacy regulations, though there was info on what it doesn't allow from its users. Ouranos didn't immediately respond to a request for more information on this. How to use Ouranos to track moonlit nights Ouranos / Screenshot by CNET Using Ouranos to track your next sky-viewing session is pretty simple -- and it even includes tips to help you get the most out of your observation. Ouranos is available on the iOS App Store and Google Play. There's no sign-up required, and its free version has a decent amount of capabilities. Be sure to allow location access to enable accurate weather and planet/Moon sightings. On the home screen, you can check out features like current weather, sky quality, cloud cover, transparency, humidity and wind conditions. You can tap Best Times for AI-guided star and moongazing windows, and also check Moon and planet timings, plus light pollution levels. (Ouranos Pro users can also view moon phase and illumination, a 16-day extended forecast, and local rise and set times.) This is most useful for Moon observation based on timing, current environment and current light pollution maps -- ideal for Moon watchers or those who like the educational component of viewing and tracking the Moon. Should you use Ouranos? If you love watching the Moon or planning nights under the stars -- without much effort -- Ouranos absolutely helps with that.I like that it doesn't overwhelm you with data, and the learning curve isn't steep. It gives you just enough to step outside with more intention and a better understanding of the viewing process. Ouranos / Screenshot by CNET But if you're seeking education around finding and naming constellations or why moon phases are considered waxing or waning, Ouranos is probably too basic. This app serves more to optimize the process of preparing for Moon gazing, with additional information about sky clarity, moonlight and its presence in a sea of sky pollution. Beyond all the self-development-adjacent talk about what moon phases represent, I see the Moon as a scientific discovery with shifts that can at least inspire us to look outward and observe nature's systematic, if cyclical, process. And now, with AI, you can check in on its cycle at every point within its phase, wherever you are in the world.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Quebec's clay-rich soil raises landslide risk — even with no significant slope
A landslide that swallowed a home and left a 300-metre crater in the middle of a rural road in central Quebec on Wednesday has left many wondering how it could have happened. Usually when people think of landslides, they think of a slope with rocks and debris rushing down and not a seemingly flat expanse of land appearing to collapse in on itself. As it happens, however, the type of landslide that hit Sainte-Monique, Que., on Wednesday is quite common in southern Quebec, due to the province's topography and its soil. Simon Legault, a science communicator with Ouranos — Quebec's climatology and climate change innovation hub — explained that most of the St. Lawrence Valley is covered in clay. "So what we mostly see in southern Quebec is just like a muddy slide or just soil that loses consistency or becomes a little bit more liquefied and just slowly drifts into the lower land around," he said. According to data on the Quebec government website, around 100 landslides and incidents of unstable ground are reported to municipal authorities each year and are more frequent in the spring and fall, or during extreme meteorological events. Extreme weather makes land less stable For Philippe Gachon, a professor at Université du Québec à Montreal's geography department, what stands out in Wednesday's event is the landslide's magnitude which "has rarely been seen in recent years in Quebec." In a phone interview with The Canadian Press, Gachon pointed to clay as being a landslide risk and added the land has become less stable due to more extreme weather conditions. Clay can become unstable due to excessive rain or extreme dryness, he explained — and Quebec has seen both in recent years. "Clay doesn't like when there's too much water, and it doesn't like it either when there isn't enough water because it has a tendency to fracture," he said. As extreme weather becomes more common, he says it's vital to better understand the entirety of the water cycle in the province, which he said is vulnerable to hydrological "whiplash" due to alternating periods of extreme wet and dryness. "It's clear that with climate change, we're going to face events we've never experienced before, certain phenomena we've never seen before in history," he said. Climate change increases risk, expert says Legault also believes climate change is likely to increase the risk of landslides in the future. Over the next decades, he says the province is expected to see more rain, and an earlier onset of the spring thaw, allowing more water to penetrate into the ground. "Water is a factor that can contribute to ground movement or landslide because you need to have more water, or an excess of water inside the ground that causes that liquefaction," he said. The higher risk of landslides, however, doesn't necessarily mean increased frequency, he said, "depending on how we adapt the terrain." Currently, estimates show that 40 per cent of reported landslides are linked to "poor practices associated with human activities that affect slope stability," according to Ouranos' website. "We have natural landslides, but we sometimes have populations that are just modifying slopes," Legault said. Things like building a structure on top of a hill, excavating at the bottom of a slope, building something that would direct more water toward a slope or cutting trees, are all examples of activities that could contribute to increasing the risk of landslides. Legault said municipal and provincial authorities are working to better understand the lay of the land to know where risks are highest. This work must continue, he said, and it's important that the population knows the risks as well.
