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Hindustan Times
05-07-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Can we hack our way through the sizzle?: Mridula Ramesh writes on heat
Summer is over and floods are in the air. But still, let's talk about heat. Paris is on red alert, with the top of the Eiffel Tower shut to visitors this week, amid a heat wave that has seen temperatures reach 41 degrees haze, incidentally, is from light reflecting off clouds of dust carried by strong winds. (AFP) Why? Because while India's summer heatwaves may be over, the planet's heat continues to speak through many tongues. Let's start at the source. The Sun is made up largely of hydrogen, and a little helium. Deep in its core, where temperatures reach 15 million degrees Celsius and pressures are immense, hydrogen nuclei fuse into helium. This helium nucleus has slightly less mass than the four hydrogen nuclei that formed it, and the difference in mass is released as energy. In just one second, the sun releases enough energy to meet humanity's needs for 612,900 years. Only a fraction of that energy reaches the top of the atmosphere above Earth. Then, nearly a third of this energy is either absorbed by the ozone layer or reflected, by the clouds, by aerosols and by shiny surfaces (think deserts and ice sheets). A sliver (with enough energy to last us 4,400 years) reaches the planet's surface, which the planet, in turn, releases as heat. Some of this heat radiates back into space, but a lot of it is trapped by greenhouse gases and clouds. Importantly, the outgoing heat does not quite balance out the incoming solar energy, resulting in a planetary energy imbalance. The gold standard data for checking energy flows at the top of our atmosphere comes from CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System; a project by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA). Their instruments tell us that the energy imbalance has doubled, from 0.5 watt per square metre in the first decade of this millennium to 1.0 watt per square metre in 2013-22. And it's showing: 2024 was the hottest year on record, per NASA, beating 2023, which held the record before it. The planet is currently absorbing as much extra energy as if eight Hiroshima bombs were detonating on its surface every second. That's 'a lot. A lot, a lot', as Rosamund Pike's character puts it, in the 2014 movie Gone Girl. This is not a one-time thing, like the actual Hiroshima bomb was. No, we've been absorbing energy for decades, slowly, invisibly, day and night, everywhere. We are literally sitting in an oven, and ratcheting up the thermostat. Crowds throng a beach in Sale, Morocco, during a heatwave. (AFP) Eight Hiroshima bombs a second. Every second. For the past decade. Let that thought sink in on this pleasant Sunday morning. *** Perhaps we don't register this heating because the oceans have been shielding us by taking up about 90% of it. The rest goes into warming land and air, and melting ice. Periodically, during an El Nino, the ocean belches some of that heat, making the planet hotter, as in 2023. Meanwhile, data from disparate realms — ocean temperatures, ice extent, global air temperatures — all point to the same thing: rising invisible heat. The impacts run deeper than heat exhaustion for humans and rising wet-bulb temperatures. Crops wilt. Wheat, grown today in parts of India it was never suited to, suffers when March feels like May; the grains do not fill out, and shrivel instead. Other botanical immigrants from cooler climes, such as tomatoes, suffer. Monsoons grow fiercer, as warmer air holds more moisture, fuelling intense downpours. Hotter seas supercharge cyclones, battering coastal cities. Human productivity drops. India suffers. The planet suffers. *** This has been going on for a while. Between 1750 and 2019, global surface air temperatures rose by about 1.29 degrees Celsius. According to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, heat trapped by carbon-dioxide (CO2) has driven about 1 degree Celsius of that warming, while other greenhouse gases have added 0.58 degrees Celsius. Offsetting this, the effect of land-use changes and aerosols — think pollution and their effect on clouds — have lowered temperatures by roughly 0.30 degrees Celsius. Given this breakdown, the overarching theme in climate action has been reducing CO2 levels by reducing fossil-fuel use. We have not done too well on that front. *** A rare "roll cloud", a huge horizontal bank, advances from the horizon towards the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean during a heatwave in southwestern Portugal, in June. (AFP) Meanwhile… Over the past decade, CERES data shows that incoming solar energy has not changed, the outgoing heat from Earth has risen a bit, but a lot more of the incoming solar radiation is being absorbed. Why? Simply put, the planet appears to be becoming less shiny. While there is a lot of uncertainty over what is causing this change, an early hypothesis is that shifts in cloud patterns could be at play. Clouds act as both umbrellas, by reflecting sunlight and cooling the planet, and as coats, by absorbing heat and warming the surface. The loss of low-level clouds above the ocean, the umbrellas, could have many causes, ranging from warmer oceans and higher greenhouse-gas levels to less sulphur in ship's exhausts and changes in ocean circulation. If cloud patterns are changing in response to warmer oceans, we can expect the heating to intensify. So, what can we do about it? We circle back to reduced carbon emissions. This is already happening in many places. My own textile factory, for instance, now runs largely on renewable energy, made possible by innovation and policies that have driven costs down. In homes, the LED revolution means we enjoy the same brightness at a fraction of the carbon footprint. Developed country emissions are falling, and India, which is still building much of its infrastructure, is seeing the carbon intensity of its economy falling too. But some, ignoring their own historical emissions, ask: 'When China and India are emitting so much, why should we tighten our belts?' India is not China, whose 2023 emissions were nearly four times that of India. But that nuance is missed by many reeling under the heat – temperatures in Spain touched 47 degrees Celsius last week — and clamouring for change. As a result, an idea once considered taboo in climate circles is gaining traction. A decade ago, a start-up purporting to sell cooling credits by injecting sulphur-dioxide particles into the atmosphere over Mexico would have been unthinkable. While the start-up did draw widespread criticism, within a year, the UK government set up its Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA), which this year began funnelling nearly £60 million into several real-world geoengineering experiments. Proponents of geoengineering support real-world trials because they say data from these are needed to shape global governance. But, going by recent events, 'global governance' may be an oxymoron. Sometimes I wonder what lies beneath the hubris of geoengineers. It's not as though the last human-wrought geoengineering experiments — largescale deforestation and rising greenhouse-gas emissions — have gone so well. And yet, they persist. One experiment involves brightening the clouds over the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Coral reefs, reeling under the combined onslaught of marine heatwaves and acidifying oceans, are the proverbial canary in the coal mine. So, some are trying to cool the reef by brightening clouds above it. But data from small-scale experiments can miss the bigger picture. For one thing, the mechanism of brightening clouds has some cooling and some warming effects, and the net effect is far from certain, as even proponents admit. Second, meaningful cooling may occur only when such efforts are scaled up, and there we run into a problem. Studies suggest that large-scale marine cloud-brightening efforts may impact ozone levels. Talk about borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Another form of geoengineering involves mimicking volcanic eruptions. It is well-known that global temperatures fall after a giant volcano eruption. Indeed, Indonesia's great Mount Tambora explosion in 1815 saw temperatures dip below 0 degrees Celsius in Chennai. But such cooling has collateral damage, the most important, from India's point of view, being its effect on the monsoon. A recent study of 145 years of data found that medium and large tropical volcanic eruptions were followed by two years of poor monsoons, especially in El Nino periods. That is very bad news. The second casualty, multiple studies suggest, is the ozone layer. Now for the third casualty of such action. Innovation and policy that spur carbon action are possible only because there is a strong, consistent signal across governments and corporate leaders that such action is crucial to planet safety. If this signal is short-circuited or diluted, by geoengineering for example, innovation and entire industries will be cut down. Since these often do good things for the environment and human health, those will suffer as well. Indeed, there are already whispers that the climate-tech industry in the US is feeling the pinch. My sense is that some form of geoengineering will be pushed through. Given that the monsoon may be affected, India should get real about its water. There are thousands of waterbodies scattered across the length and breadth of Indian cities (hundreds in Delhi alone; have you visited the Anang Tal Baoli in Mehrauli?). Many are not in great shape. Rejuvenating them and greening the spaces around them would be highly effective in countering heat and making our cities climate-resilient. Whether or not we whiten the skies. (Mridula Ramesh is a climate-tech investor and author of The Climate Solution and Watershed. She can be reached on tradeoffs@
Time of India
12-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Trump plan to kill dozens of NASA missions threatens US space supremacy
NASA 's car-sized Perseverance rover has been roaming the surface of Mars for four years, drilling into the alien soil to collect dirt it places in tubes and leaves on the ground. Engineers designed Perseverance to be the first step in the agency's exploration of the Red Planet. In the future, more robotic spacecraft would arrive to sweep up the capsules and rocket them back to Earth, where scientists could look for signs that Mars once was, or is, a world with life. The wait for answers may be about to get longer. President Donald Trump 's proposed 2026 budget for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration would cancel the planned follow-on mission, potentially abandoning the tubes for decades to Martian dust storms. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like New Container Houses Vietnam (Prices May Surprise You) Container House | Search ads Search Now Undo The White House is calling for a roughly 50% cut to NASA's science spending to $3.9 billion, part of an overall pullback that would deliver the lowest funding level in the agency's history and kill more more than 40 NASA science missions and projects, according to detailed plans released last month. The Trump administration has also left the agency without a permanent leader and without a vision for how America's civilian space policy is going to work with US allies and compete with China and other rivals. The cuts would follow a shift in how the American public thinks about space. NASA has long enjoyed a unique place in US culture, with its exploits celebrated by movies, theme parks and merchandise — but companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX have begun to capture more attention. Live Events For decades, NASA's scientific undertakings have provided critical groundwork for researchers seeking to understand the structure of the universe, study how planets form and hunt for evidence that life might exist beyond Earth. Pictures from NASA craft like the Hubble Space Telescope and the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope have inspired and delighted millions. Now, the agency's position at the vanguard of discovery is facing foreclosure. Among the other programs set to lose funding are a craft already on its way to rendezvous with an asteroid that's expected to pass close to Earth in 2029, and multiple efforts to map and explore the acidic clouds of Venus. Researchers worry that abandoning missions would mean investments made by earlier generations might be lost or forgotten. 'Once you launch and you're operating, then all those costs are behind you, and it's relatively inexpensive to just keep the missions going,' said Amanda Hendrix, the chief executive officer of the Planetary Science Institute, a nonprofit research organization. 'So I'm very concerned about these operating missions that are still producing excellent and really important science data.' The Trump administration's narrower vision for NASA comes as it is seeking to reduce waste and jobs in the US government. Critics have faulted NASA over sluggish management of key programs, spiraling costs and delays. Still, the administration is eager to pour more money into putting people in space. It wants to use $7 billion of the $18.8 billion it would allocate to NASA overall to ramp up efforts to return people to the moon, and invest $1 billion more in sending people to Mars. 'This is a NASA that would be primarily human spaceflight focused,' Casey Dreier, chief of space policy for The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that advocates for space science and exploration, said of the proposed changes. 'This is a NASA that would say, 'The universe is primarily the moon and Mars,' and basically step away from everything else.' There are signs that the administration's proposed cutbacks won't satisfy lawmakers who view space as vital to US interests. Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who leads a committee that oversees NASA, has proposed legislation that would would provide nearly $10 billion to the agency. 'American dominance in space is a national security imperative,' Cruz said in a statement to Bloomberg. 'The Commerce Committee's bill carefully invests in beating China to the Moon and Mars — while respecting every taxpayer dollar. It's rocket fuel for the commercial space companies and NASA that are working to keep America ahead of China in the Space Race.' As Trump's spending proposal moves through Congress, NASA has been left without a strong leader who can press its case after the president withdrew his nomination of billionaire commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman to run the agency. In a recent interview on the All-In Podcast, Isaacman appeared to suggest Trump pulled his nomination because of his close ties to Musk, who had a public falling out with the president. Trump threatened to cancel SpaceX's government contracts amid the row, but has since backed down. 'Stopping Jared from becoming confirmed is only going to hurt NASA's ability to push back on budget cuts,' Jim Muncy, a space consultant and lobbyist with PoliSpace, said before Isaacman's nomination was pulled. Spaceflight Shift For decades, NASA handled every step of launching rockets, probes and people into space, from developing, building and launching vehicles, to running missions. Only the government had the resources and the capacity to shoulder the risks without returning a profit. That all changed in recent years with the emergence of a vibrant US space industry dominated by wealthy entrepreneurs with a passion for spaceflight and the financial wherewithal to withstand repeated failure. Over time, NASA has ceded more design, development and production work to those companies. SpaceX is carrying cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, and sending probes into deep space from a rented launchpad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. After helping to spur the development of SpaceX hardware, NASA is now one of the company's biggest customers. 'This has kind of been the tension with the rise of commercial space,' said Mike French, a consultant for the Space Policy Group . 'NASA has gone from 'We're operating these things; we're building these things' to 'We've gotten really good at buying these things.'' During Trump's presidency, NASA's transformation into an incubator for private industry is likely to gain speed. Throughout its budget proposal, the White House calls for mimicking past programs that have leaned more on outsourcing to the private sector. 'With a leaner budget across all of government, we are all taking a closer look at how we work, where we invest, and how we adjust our methods to accomplish our mission,' NASA's acting administrator, Janet Petro, wrote in a message accompanying the plan. 'At NASA, that means placing a renewed emphasis on human spaceflight, increasing investments in a sustainable plan to return to the Moon for long-term human exploration and accelerating efforts to send American astronauts to Mars.' NASA declined to comment beyond Petro's statement. NASA contracts remain one of the most significant and steady sources of funding for the space industry, which has allowed the agency to set the direction for many businesses. But that balance of power is shifting, and cuts to NASA's funding could cause its leadership to fade. 'NASA would, in a sense, define access and define the culture of spaceflight and define the ambitions of spaceflight,' Dreier said. 'Now, they have competitors for that, and frankly, some of their competitors are laying out more ambitious programs.' Challenging Missions While NASA has evolved into a technical adviser and financial backer for space companies, pure science has remained part of its mission. NASA's transition to more commercial partnerships was started, in part, to free up money to spend on exotic, challenging missions with no obvious near-term commercial rewards. Pulling back is likely to have consequences. Trump's broader push to curtail funding for science — the administration has choked off money for medical, climate and other research — risks eroding an important source of American soft power. After the end of the Cold War-era space race, NASA became a vessel for international cooperation, proving countries with lofty goals can work together. Many of the NASA missions Trump has proposed canceling or pulling away from entailed collaboration with European allies. The prospect of reduced funding is also causing worry about agency talent. Already, NASA is competing with the private space industry for engineers. Shutting down missions could push agency scientists to seek other opportunities. 'Folks are very worried about what they're going to do now with their lives, and where they're going to go,' said Hendrix, the Planetary Science Institute's CEO. The long-term outlook for NASA is difficult to discern. In the coming years, it is expected to continue its Artemis moon program, and start a new program for human exploration of Mars, with commercial companies at the forefront. But the scientific ambitions that long helped define NASA appear likely to become more limited. 'If we elect to say we no longer want to understand our origins, or we no longer want to challenge ourselves to see if there's life out in the cosmos, that is the equivalent of turning our heads down and burying ourselves in our cell phones when we're standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon,' said The Planetary Society's Dreier. 'We miss something more profound and big and deep that we otherwise have no access to in our modern society.'
Gulf Insider
15-05-2025
- Science
- Gulf Insider
Saudi Arabia to Launch First Space Weather Satellite
Saudi Arabia has signed a landmark agreement with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to launch its first satellite dedicated to studying space weather, under the Artemis II deal marks a new milestone in Saudi–US scientific cooperation and reinforces the Kingdom's role in global space exploration during the official visit of US President Donald Trump to Riyadh, the agreement builds upon the broader US–Saudi space cooperation framework formalized in July 2024 and reflects the growing strength of bilateral ties in science, technology, and innovation. The mission, led by the Saudi Space Agency (SSA), underscores Saudi Arabia's commitment to the Artemis Accords — an international framework promoting peaceful and collaborative exploration of the Moon, Mars, and new satellite will collect high-resolution data on solar activity and its effects on Earth's magnetic field, contributing to global efforts to protect astronauts, improve satellite navigation and communications, and enhance space weather forecasting. The initiative falls under the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP), a Vision 2030 realization program aimed at advancing domestic industrial content and building national expertise in strategic technologies. It also aligns with the Kingdom's goal of becoming a knowledge-driven, innovation-led economy and bolstering local talent in the growing space sector. Also read: Elon Musk: Starlink Has Been Approved In Saudi Arabia
Mint
15-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Mint Primer: How do spy satellites work around the world?
Spy satellites may have been used in the lead-up to the terror attack in Pahalgam, reports say. But India also uses such satellites through the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and has ramped up their deployment. How do these sky-borne spooks really work? Also Read | What the US-China trade deal means for IT services cos Are spy satellites common? Yes. Most spacefaring nations have their own surveillance satellites that are operated by government-backed space agencies. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) operates many types of surveillance satellites to do reconnaissance for military operations. In India, Isro's latest spy satellites include the Earth Observation Satellite (Eos) series, launched in 2020. A new Space-based Surveillance-3 (SBS-3) project seeks to put a constellation of surveillance satellites in orbit within the next four years to offer defence support in the interest of national security, Mint reported Monday. Also Read | Can border fight help settle big vs small screen row? How do spy satellites really work? Stationary satellites, which align with the earth's rotation, can be placed above a particular region. Low-earth orbit (Leo) satellites work as a constantly orbiting constellation, but relay information as a chain between each other, and subsequently to a ground station. These satellites have hyperspectral imaging cameras, which capture ultra-high resolution data of what lies below. For spy satellites, their imaging capability should be of the highest possible order—and their data transmissions are typically limited within a geography. To be sure, private surveillance satellite firms also exist. Also Read | This rice is set to make your meal climate-friendly Do private firms offer surveillance too? Sure. One such firm is homegrown satellite operator, Bengaluru-born Pixxel. Data from its satellite constellation can be bought for uses such as disaster management, conservation, etc. US firm BlackSky has been hired by French-Italian firm Thales Alenia Space to build a private surveillance service for Indian defence manufacturer, Nibe Ltd. Can't surveillance satellites be hacked? Theoretically, yes. All surveillance satellites carry sensitive data that is encrypted in various forms such as globally standardized Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), as well as more sophisticated forms. Data encryption is implemented in the broadcast of sensitive satellite data at a ground station level as well, while the satellites themselves would have geolocation restrictions in terms of the range of area within which the data is beamed from them. This is what primarily differentiates them from general-use earth image satellites. So, public-private partnerships next? Why not. India's new SBS-3 spying programme is using private firms to make the satellites. While the contract is closely monitored and controlled by the government and Isro, using private firms gives governments flexibility to make the most of surveillance data through analytics. In the long run, most governments plan to do this, since not every nation has its own satellites, let alone a space programme. Estimates peg the private satellite data industry globally to be worth $15 billion, driven by government contracts.
Saudi Gazette
14-05-2025
- Science
- Saudi Gazette
Saudi Arabia to launch first space weather satellite under Artemis II mission
Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has signed a landmark agreement with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to launch its first satellite dedicated to studying space weather, under the Artemis II mission. The deal marks a new milestone in Saudi–US scientific cooperation and reinforces the Kingdom's role in global space exploration initiatives. Signed during the official visit of US President Donald Trump to Riyadh, the agreement builds upon the broader US–Saudi space cooperation framework formalized in July 2024 and reflects the growing strength of bilateral ties in science, technology, and innovation. The mission, led by the Saudi Space Agency (SSA), underscores Saudi Arabia's commitment to the Artemis Accords — an international framework promoting peaceful and collaborative exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The new satellite will collect high-resolution data on solar activity and its effects on Earth's magnetic field, contributing to global efforts to protect astronauts, improve satellite navigation and communications, and enhance space weather forecasting. The initiative falls under the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program (NIDLP), a Vision 2030 realization program aimed at advancing domestic industrial content and building national expertise in strategic technologies. It also aligns with the Kingdom's goal of becoming a knowledge-driven, innovation-led economy and bolstering local talent in the growing space sector.
