Saturday, October 5, 2013

Shackleton Death or Glory - Rough Seas


From Discovery

Six men, one tiny wooden boat, and the most dangerous feat of survival in the history of exploration.
Can they repeat the extraordinary achievements of Sir Ernest Shackleton, sail 800 nautical miles of the roughest ocean on earth, with no engine, 100 year old clothes, no GPS, and then climb a deadly mountain range?


Advert for the original expedition

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton led an expedition to cross Antarctica on foot for the first time.
But disaster struck before reaching the continent.
His boat was crushed in sea ice and Shackleton and his 27 men were marooned.
They took refuge on nearby Elephant Island, but facing slow death from starvation and exposure, Shackleton and five hand-picked crew, fought through hurricane force winds and the unmerciless stormy seas in a 22 foot wooden lifeboat, to reach the only possible help  1,500 km away on the Stromness Whaling station in South Georgia.
Against all the odds Shackleton and his men survived 16 days at sea and made the crossing.
But the gruelling mission didn't end there; they then they had to scale  an unchartered mountain range to reach their destination, where Shackleton successfully raised the alarm, rescue all his men and return home a hero.

The intrepid crew of Shackleton Epic land the Alexandra Shackleton
at Peggoty Bluff, South Georgia.
Picture: Jo Stewart / Shackleton Epic 

This incredible feat of leadership and endurance has elevated Shackleton to legendary status in the world of exploration, with his epic adventure having never been repeated - until now.

World leading explorer Tim Jarvis and a crew of five men, will attempt to follow Shackleton's  incredible journey in Shackleton: Death or Glory.
Using exactly the same equipment and clothing as used a century before, Tim and his crew will take themselves beyond the point of no return to find out how Shackleton pulled off such an incredible feat in such atrocious conditions.

Links :

Friday, October 4, 2013

Japanese government urges boycott of Google Maps over disputed islands

Sea of Japan
The "Liancourt Rocks" with NGA nautical maps,
>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<
also known as Dokdo or Tokto (독도/獨島, literally "solitary island") in Korean,
and Takeshima (たけしま/竹島?, literally "bamboo island") in Japanese,
are a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan.
Sovereignty over the islets is disputed between Japan and South Korea.

From FoxNews


Japan has asked local authorities and state-run universities not to post Google maps on their websites because some of them use non-Japanese names for disputed islands, Japan Times reports said last Saturday.

 search with 'Takeshima' japan name leads to "Liancourt Rocks" in Google Maps

search with 'Dodko' korean name also leads to "Liancourt Rocks" in Google Maps

A panorama image of the Liancourt Rocks (from Panoramio),
displaying Dodko, Island of Korea
Right side: Eastern Island (lighthouse located here);
Left side: Western Island.


 Liancourt Rocks (Hornet island)
Japan and Korea map (1912) by W. & AK. Johnson
David Rumsey collection

The disputed territory includes the South Korean-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea,
and the Japan-held Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, claimed by China as the Diaoyus, the Sports Nippon tabloid reported.

Senkaku/Diaoyu islands diplomatic/territorial conflict, solved the Apple Maps way:
Double the islands, give one to each party

The Russian-held islands off Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido, referred to by Japan as the Northern Territories, are also included, the paper said.

In notices issued earlier this year the Tokyo government said that "some registrations in the electronic maps on the home pages are incompatible with Japan's stance", Kyodo News agency reported.
It said the government recommends that public bodies use maps compiled by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, but it was unclear if they have followed the request because Google maps are apparently more convenient.

Links :

Lampedusa, the Italian Island thousands are dying to reach

The small island of Lampedusa, a tree-less corner of Italy, is the southernmost tip of the European Union : so the back door into Europe for many migrants
>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

From Time (by Nate Rawlings)

A boat carrying 450 African immigrants caught fire early on Oct. 3, then capsized, spilling its passengers into the Mediterranean. (see video of the wreck)
Italian rescuers saved more than 150 people, but at least 114 died, including a pregnant woman and two children, according to reports from local media.

The ship sank off the coast of Lampedusa, a rocky Italian island that has been at the center of Europe’s illegal-immigration troubles for more than a decade.
The island lies closer to mainland Africa — only 80 km from the Tunisian coast — than Italy, making it a key gateway for migrants searching for a way into Europe.
Lampedusa’s 6,000 residents are often outnumbered by thousands of migrants housed in improvised camps on the island.


Refugees from Libya, Somalia and scores of other countries have fled to Lampedusa, many with the aid of smugglers, to navigate the dangerous and sometimes deadly passage.
Over the years, thousands have died trying to reach Italian and Maltese shores: between 1994 and 2012, nearly 6,500 people died in the Canal of Sicily, according to Fortress Europe, an observatory that tracks migrant deaths.

 Lampedusa is the largest of the 3 Pelagian islands,
this name means Island of high sea

In 2009, overcrowding at the island’s temporary reception center led to criticism from the U.N. Refugee Agency.
Two years later, during the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Libya, nearly 50,000 migrants made their way to the island, leading Italy to sign an agreement with the post–Muammar Gaddafi government in Libya — itself a major destination for migrant labor — to try and prevent migrants from traveling to the island.

Refugees who make it to Lampedusa can apply for asylum in Italy, but many are sent back home. Some spend months on the island waiting for their case to progress.
As their plight drew the ire of international agencies, hundreds continued to die off Lampedusa’s coast.
In 2011, a boat in distress was left drifting in the Mediterranean for two weeks; only nine aboard survived, while more than 60 perished.

 Mens aids struggling Lybyan refugees
"People say 'why are we coming this way?'
We do it because we don't have [any other] solution.
Because it's the only way."
said Tareke Brhane who made two dangerous attempts to reach Mediterranean island of Lampedusa and now works with the aid organization Save the Children

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe investigated the incident, finding a “catalog of failures” by authorities from Libya, Malta, Italy and NATO.
So far this year, the U.N. Refugee Agency estimates that 8,400 migrants entered Italy and Malta, nearly double the number from the first six months of 2012.
The number of refugees pales in comparison with the tens of thousands who fled during the Arab Spring, but the Syrian civil war has led to a spike in migrants from that country.
In July, Pope Francis visited the island, saying Mass for the migrants and condemning the “global indifference” to their plight.
Only hours before the Pope landed on Lampedusa, a small boat carrying 166 African migrants reached the island’s port.

After the latest ship disaster, a spokesman for the U.N. Refugee Agency commended the swift action of the Italian Coast Guard, but said he was dismayed at the number of refugees still perishing at sea.
Maurizio Lupi, Italy’s Transport Minister, said in a statement that while countries need to rescue distressed boats, they also need to do more to “stop the traffickers of death who exploit the hope of the poor. It is a duty which we must take on, which the international community and in particular the European Union must take on.”

Links :
  • CNN : Italy shipwreck: Scores dead after boat sinks off Lampedusa island 
  • CNN : Lampedusa's boat people: One man's story (2011)
  • The Telegraph : Lampedusa a 'tragedy' for Europe: up to 350 feared dead

Thursday, October 3, 2013

US public services "shutdown" but NOAA nautical charts still publicly displayed on the Cloud with the Marine GeoGarage




NOTE : most NOAA sites down, but actually nautical charts remain operational :
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov



Seafloor scours hint at ancient Arctic ice sheet

A bathymetric map of the Arctic's Arlis Plateau, with sets of different streamlined glacial lineations. The arrow marks the flow direction of ancient ice sheets.
Credit: Frank Niessen, Alfred Wegener Institute
 
From LiveScience (by Becky Oskin)

Traces of immense prehistoric ice sheets discovered

When deep ice sheets chilled most of North America and Europe 20,000 years ago, Alaska and eastern Siberia remained remarkably ice-free, providing passage for America's first humans.


A map of the Arctic showing the location of the thick East Siberia ice sheet.

But before the explorers arrived, during earlier Pleistocene ice ages, an ice sheet more than half a mile (about 1 kilometer) thick jutted into the Arctic Ocean from Siberia, a new study finds.
Seafloor surveys near Wrangel Island (off the coast of Siberia) and the Arlis Plateau revealed deep scratches carved by glaciers and preserved in the seafloor.
There is more than one set of glacial grooves, and the researchers think at least four ice sheets existed, going back as far as 800,000 years.

"We knew of such scour marks from places like the Antarctic and Greenland," geologist Frank Niessen of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany said in a statement.
"They arise when large ice sheets become grounded on the ocean floor and then scrape over the ground like a plane with dozens of blades as they flow. The remarkable feature of our new map is that it indicates very accurately right off that there were four or more generations of ice masses, which in the past 800,000 years moved from the East Siberian Sea in a northeasterly direction far into the deep Arctic Ocean," said Niessen, the lead study author.

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

The ancient traces cover an area the size of Scandinavia.
The discovery is unique in the Arctic because the continental ice sheets in Greenland, Europe and North America never extended offshore, the researchers said.
[Photos of Melt: Glaciers Before and After]

"Previously, many scientists were convinced that mega-glaciations always took place on the continents — a fact that has also been proven for Greenland, North America and Scandinavia," Niessen said in the statement.

Though the scratches and glacial deposits preserved in the seafloor suggest there were four glaciations in this region of the Arctic, the researchers haven't yet matched the sediments with global coolings recorded in ice cores or ocean records.
But they can confirm that there was no big ice patch about 20,000 years ago, when scientists think the Bering Land Bridge, or Beringia, provided a refuge for animals during the great chill.

"With the exception of the last ice age 21,000 years ago, ice sheets formed repeatedly in the shallow areas of the Arctic Ocean," Niessen said.
"Our long-term goal is to reconstruct the exact chronology of the glaciations so that with the aid of the known temperature and ice data, the ice sheets can be modeled," Niessen said.
"On the basis of the models, we then hope to learn what climate conditions prevailed in Eastern Siberia during the ice ages and how, for example, the moisture distribution in the region evolved during the ice ages."

The findings were published Aug. 11 in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Geneq introduces sub-meter GNSS receiver for the Apple iPad and iPhone


From LBSzone

Fully authorized and approved by Apple, the iSXBlue II GNSS implements an Apple proprietary Bluetooth authentication feature allowing the NMEA GNSS data to replace the internal GPS location of the iPad or iPhone.
Furthermore, a free SDK (software development kit) is available from Geneq to further utilize all the features of the iSXBlue II GNSS.

The iSXBlue II GNSS uses both GPS and GLONASS with SBAS (WAAS/EGNOS/MSAS/GAGAN) to attain 30cm/1 ft (RMS) accuracy in real-time using free SBAS corrections.
In addition to Apple iPads and iPhones, it connects wirelessly to any smartphone, handheld, tablet computer or notebook computer that is Bluetooth-compliant.

“The iSXBlue II GNSS is the first high-accuracy GNSS receiver in the world for the Apple iPad and iPhone, “ said Jean-Yves Lauture, product engineer, “and by implementing both GPS and GLONASS with SBAS, it provides iPad and iPhone users real-time, sub-meter accuracy around the world.”

The iSXBlue II GNSS builds on the success of the proven SXBlue II GNSS that was designed to optimize SBAS performance under tree canopy and in rugged terrain.
With the ability to track 55 satellites (31 operational GPS, 24 operational GLONASS), the SXBlue II GNSS uses between 12 and 19 satellites in view at any time, providing superior performance when working under and around tree canopy, buildings and rugged terrain.

The next-generation iSXBlue II GNSS is the same, small, palm-sized unit as the SXBlue II GNSS and utilizes a small 2.7” diameter GNSS antenna.
The unit is completely waterproof (submersible), dustproof and ruggedized, with an IP-67 rating.
Its Class 2 Bluetooth 2.0 has a typical range of 15 meters, and is Apple-approved.
The internal, rechargeable, field replaceable Li-Ion battery has on-board LEDs let the user know how much battery life is left.
The operating temperature range of the iSXBlue II GNSS is -40°C (-40°F) to 85°C (185°F).

In addition to the built-in long-range Bluetooth transceiver, the iSXBlue II GNSS also has a standard DE-9 RS-232 port and a USB Type B port whose outputs are fully programmable up to 10Hz standard, and a 20Hz option.
Other optional features are L1 RTK for <2cm accuracy="" and="" base="" br="" output.="" real-time="" rtcm="" station="">
There is no need for post-processing or other sources of differential corrections as the iSXBlue II GNSS uses WAAS (North America), EGNOS (Europe), MSAS (Japan) and GAGAN (India) satellite corrections.
Users receive real-time, 30cm/1 foot positioning all day long.

The iSXBlue II GNSS is targeted at GPS/GIS mapping professionals in industries such as forestry, utility, agriculture, environmental and other natural resource industries in addition to local, state and federal government users.

About Geneq Inc.
For more than 40 years, Geneq has been a leading supplier of testing and measuring instruments in various fields of application.

For 20 years, Geneq has provided professional GPS mapping receivers and software products world-wide.
You can visit the SXBlue GPS website.

An unarmed approach to piracy


 Intelligence solution relaying information about piracy and other serious maritime crime,
presented on digital nautical charts

From MaritimeProfessionnal

Technology might allow some ships to leave the guns at home.
That doesn’t mean they will be defenseless.

The changing seascape of global piracy indicates that the technology to share and integrate information may prove to be as important for safe navigation as military support.
Modern piracy is here to stay.
And it’s no longer confined to the Gulf of Aden.
The latest hotspot is West Africa, where the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea is seeing a spike in the number of attacks.
Vulnerable areas include the waters off Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Cameroon and Lagos.

A Paradigm \Shift in Global Piracy

According to Arild Nodland, CEO at Bergen Risk Solutions (BRS), global piracy is changing.
Somali piracy might still be the foremost threat in the minds of shipowners and operators, but a glance at the incident map will show it becoming less common.
According to Nodland, the decline in Somali piracy has been achieved by containment and deterrence tactics.

With piracy moving from Somalia to the Gulf of Guinea and further offshore, the pirates’ strategies are changing. “Nigerian pirates are using motherships.
They are using some of the same methods as the Somalian pirates,” said Nodland.

Not only is there a change in the pirates’ modus operandi, but also in their choice of targets, with kidnappings taking a backseat role.
Recently, there has been a rise in the number of oil-product tanker hijackings, according to Nodland.
Rather than kidnapping people, pirates hijack a tanker, steal the fuel cargo, transfer it onto a local tanker and get away with it.
“It’s an enormously lucrative trade,” Nodland said.


But it’s not just Africa that’s at risk.
Piracy is global.
In recent years countries from India and Indonesia to Peru and the Philippines have seen vessel hijackings and armed robbery in their waters.
Besides costing the shipping industry billions each year, piracy today puts the lives and wellbeing of thousands of seafarers at risk.
Piracy is all about armed robbery, assault, murder and even torture.

Armed guards onboard ships have proven to be an effective measure against piracy.
But what about complementary e-navigation based solutions that can help seafarers to avoid confrontation entirely?

South China Sea , 1 Sept 2010

E-Navigation to Combat the Piracy Threat

Research and the use of data can go a long way towards avoiding the scourge of the seas.

For Nodland, getting information out of Nigeria is a challenge, because “the oil companies and government tend to keep a lid on things. But we have an excellent network in the country that enables us to provide good data on maritime security,” he adds.

BRS uses Jeppesen’s Piracy Update software to help customers identify, understand and manage the risks associated with crime at sea.
It is based on intelligence from recognized and authoritative sources on global sea piracy.
BRS gathers, verifies and uploads this information five times a day during the week and once on weekends.

Piracy Update is used by mariners aboard vessels, as well as by owners, operators and insurers ashore.
Several national navies use it too.
Another feature of the software is the inclusion of weather information.
This is important because pirates can’t operate in certain weather conditions.



 “The challenge is not lack of information but too much of it,” says Nodland.
“So one needs a system that can process then disseminate what is timely and relevant. Piracy Update’s filtering function allows us to select incidents and time frames that are relevant to our customers’ requirements.”

BRS uses Piracy Update every day to locate high-risk areas and to communicate this knowledge to customers.
“We use it when producing risk assessments for clients with a long-term outlook, such as drilling and seismic operators – and we use it to assist clients with a much shorter term requirement, for example ships in transit in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean,” said Nodland.

Piracy Update in Action

One example where Piracy Update helped provide valuable insight to lawyers, insurers, the owner, charterers and other parties involved, was when 14 hijackers armed with AK-47s and knives approached a 73,400-dwt Greek oil tanker on October 6, 2012.
The vessel was in the region to carry out two ship-to-ship transfers off Abidjan.
It had 30,000 tons of gas oil on board.
Before the second operation took place, the ship switched off all lights and sailed directly south without explanation.
A total of 24 Greek and Filipino crew were on board the vessel.
The vessel was forced to steam southeast and then northeast towards Nigeria.
Three days later the ship met a waiting vessel and the hijackers offloaded 2,600 metric tons of gasoline.
The vessel was released some 50 NM east of Lagos on October 9.

“Piracy Update quickly established a good overview of the geographical situation and also immediately showed us that this was an atypical attack, as it was carried out 350 nautical miles west of the pirates’ usual hunting grounds,” says Nodland.
“That made us uncertain at first; but when we used Piracy Update to compare this hijacking with what we knew about similar incidents, in terms of the modus operandi, type of ship being hijacked and cargo carried, we were soon able to tell the client what had happened, what the risks were to their vessel, cargo and crew, and what was likely to happen next.”

“When we plotted distances and calculated the ship’s speed from the point she was hijacked to where the pirates were likely to take her, we could also provide the owners with a rough timeframe for how long the hijacking was going to last,” said Nodland.

Piracy Update is delivered by Jeppesen and integrated with its other products — electronic navigation charts, ports database, weather and wave forecasts — allowing Nodland’s team to quickly plan a safe seaborne medical evacuation, which was thankfully unnecessary.
That said; Nodland emphasizes, “It is not a miracle tool. It cannot tell you where the pirates will take a hijacked ship, for example. So we rely on good intelligence analysts and experienced area specialists as well.”
Piracy Update may not be a miracle, but it does provide a sound technology that supports a non-military approach to combating modern piracy.

Links :

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Brazil DHN update in the Marine GeoGarage



4 new charts and 4 charts have been updated since the last update 

  • 21300   DO CABO NORTE AO CABO MAGUARI    NEW
  • 1641   DA ENSEADA DO MAR VIRADO AO PORTO DE SÃO SEBASTIÂO
  • 1645   CANAL DE SÃO SEBASTIÃO
  • 1910   DA ILHA DE CORAL AO CABO DE SANTA MARTA GRANDE
  • 2104   CANAL SÃO GONÇALO DA BARRA A PELOTAS    NEW
  • 4101B   DE MANGABAL À ILHA DO COMANDAÍ    NEW
  • 4103B   DA COSTA DO ITUQUI À ILHA DO MEIO    NEW
  • 4106B   DA ILHA GRANDE EVA A MANAUS
note : 2 charts withdrawn
  • 200  DA ILHA DE MARACÁ À ILHA DO MACHADINHO
  • 210  PROXIMIDADES DA BARRA NORTE DO RIO AMAZONAS 
Today 426 charts (470 including sub-charts) from DHN are displayed in the Marine GeoGarage
Don't forget to visit the NtM Notices to Mariners (Avisos aos Navegantes)

Benjamin Leigh Smith: The forgotten explorer of the frozen north

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<
Among the geographical features named for him are a kapp (cape) and breen (glacier) in Svalbard, a sound in Franz Josef Land, as well as Ostrov Li-Smita (Leigh-Smith Island), lying east of Hooker Island in the Franz Josef Land. 

From BBC

He was one of the most intrepid explorers of the 19th Century, leading five expeditions to the Arctic and surviving for 10 months after his ship was crushed between two ice floes.
But 100 years after his death, Benjamin Leigh Smith is now largely forgotten.

Somewhere in the Arctic Ocean, about halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, there's an archipelago where Benjamin Leigh Smith's name marks its easternmost point.
The likes of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Sir Henry Morton Stanley were superstar explorers, men who earned great renown and who had sought great renown.
On the other hand, Leigh Smith was a modest man.
The cape and adjacent glacier bearing his name (Kapp Leigh Smith and Leighbreen) are some of the few lasting tokens of his historic expeditions.
Unlike so many of his contemporaries, even unlike today's explorers, he never sought fame for discovering new places.
He didn't publish any detailed account of his explorations and he shunned public appearances, often sending someone else in his place.

Born in 1828, the Briton was one of the first explorers to take ships to the high Arctic, where extensive sea ice - the thin frozen surface of the ocean, a few metres in thickness - made conditions very hostile.

 The crew of the Eira (Benjamin Leigh Smith, second left)

"He saw and mapped areas and islands that were being observed for the first time," says Prof Julian Dowdeswell, director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge University.
"The high Arctic had much more sea ice a century ago than it does now, which made navigating through it difficult.
"He received the Patron Gold Medal - one of the two highest awards the Royal Geographical Society gives - for his achievements, so was hugely eminent," he says.
As well as his advances in scientific exploration, Leigh Smith was at the centre of a survival feat that is arguably a match for the later exploits of the much more famous Shackleton.

In 1881, Leigh Smith's purpose-built research vessel Eira was crushed between two ice floes and sank off another Arctic archipelago, Russian Franz Josef Land, north of Siberia.
The crew survived for 10 months in makeshift huts, living off provisions salvaged from the ship and hunting walrus and polar bear.
Leigh Smith then led a voyage of escape in boats with sails made from table cloths, before they were ultimately rescued.
Every single man survived.
"This remarkable Arctic journey was executed with as much grace as that of Shackleton 40 years later," says Peter Capelotti, author of Shipwreck at Cape Flora: The Expeditions of Benjamin Leigh Smith, England's Forgotten Arctic Explorer.
"His leadership was so successful that the veteran Arctic whaling captain David Gray was moved to call him the very model of 'quiet, cool, thoroughbred English pluck'," he says.
When it came to accepting medals for his achievements, however, Capelotti says Leigh Smith "always begged off".
"Explorers as a rule are self-obsessed people who love to talk about themselves, but not this one. He once told his brother-in-law that if Queen Victoria herself asked to see his Arctic photographs, he would send his expedition photographer around to the palace with them."

 The Eira in Franz Josef Land

Capelotti puts part of Leigh Smith's low profile down to his family background.
While he came from a wealthy family, his father, who was an MP, never married his mother, an unusual and potentially scandalous situation.
And although he studied law at Jesus College, Cambridge, he couldn't get a degree immediately because it was difficult for anyone but practising members of the Church of England to gain degrees at the time.
"He was always at odds with upper society," says Capelotti. "He didn't fit in."
Leigh Smith's great-great-great niece Charlotte Moore, who lives in Sussex, agrees.
"He was both establishment but also separate because he was illegitimate and from a dissenting family, so he never received a knighthood or got that kind of honour, which is probably a factor in why his story is not better known," she says.

In fact, it was only after Leigh Smith's father died, and another man left him money, that he embarked on his first expedition to the Arctic, according to Moore.
"The first one was a sporting cruise really. All polar expeditions were from the Royal Navy, but Ben wanted to do a private non-naval expedition, so he hired a ship.
"Then he realised he was interested in the scientific side of Arctic exploration and brought back specimens for the British Museum and Kew. He even brought back live polar bears for London Zoo," she says.


By his fourth expedition, Leigh Smith's enthusiasm for Arctic exploration was so advanced that he had his own vessel - Eira - specially built.
He also named a lot of the places he mapped after friends and family.
"Mabel Island is named after a niece, Amabel. And the hut the 25 shipwrecked crew made out of driftwood, rocks and masts of ships on his last expedition was named Flora Cottage after his cousin Florence Nightingale," says Moore.
With the famous nursing pioneer for a first cousin and a father active in the campaign against the slave trade, Leigh Smith came from an outspoken family.
He was also overshadowed by his sister Barbara, a leading feminist and activist for women's rights, which may be part of the reason why he didn't like to talk about his accomplishments, according to Capelotti.

But Moore says although Leigh Smith was a private man of few words when it came to his expeditions, with his log books a "bare record - simple, factual and unemotional", he was seen as a forceful character in the family home.
"In my family he's seen as both a hero and a villain. His Arctic stuff is heroic, but he tried to prevent the marriage of one of his nieces and laid down rules over that.
"They did marry after they were 21, but the same forceful character that led people to safety at sea could apparently be uncomfortable within the family and the feud with Ben went on for many years. At the same time, people were in awe of him."

Links :

Monday, September 30, 2013

IPCC climate report: humans 'dominant cause' of warming


NASA | IPCC Projections of Temperature and Precipitation in the 21st Century
New data visualizations from the NASA Center for Climate Simulation and NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio show how climate models -- those used in the new report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- estimate how temperature and precipitation patterns could change throughout the 21st century.
For the IPCC's Physical Science Basis and Summary for Policymakers reports, scientists referenced an international climate modeling effort to study how the Earth might respond to four different scenarios of how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases would be emitted into the atmosphere throughout the 21st century.

From BBC

A landmark report says scientists are 95% certain that humans are the "dominant cause" of global warming since the 1950s.

The report by the UN's climate panel details the physical evidence behind climate change.
On the ground, in the air, in the oceans, global warming is "unequivocal", it explained.
It adds that a pause in warming over the past 15 years is too short to reflect long-term trends.
The panel warns that continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all aspects of the climate system.
To contain these changes will require "substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions".

 Projections are based on assumptions about how much greenhouse gases might be released
After a week of intense negotiations in the Swedish capital, the summary for policymakers on the physical science of global warming has finally been released.
The first part of an IPCC trilogy, due over the next 12 months, this dense, 36-page document is considered the most comprehensive statement on our understanding of the mechanics of a warming planet.
It states baldly that, since the 1950s, many of the observed changes in the climate system are "unprecedented over decades to millennia".
Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth's surface, and warmer than any period since 1850, and probably warmer than any time in the past 1,400 years.
"Our assessment of the science finds that the atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amount of snow and ice has diminished, the global mean sea level has risen and that concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased," said Qin Dahe, co-chair of IPCC working group one, who produced the report.


The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was founded 25 years ago to provide authoritative assessments on the emerging problem of climate change.
Since its first report in 1990, the IPCC has issued increasingly complex follow-ups about every six years.
The climate models that feed into the assessments have grown bigger and better, but researchers have not succeeded in reducing some key uncertainties about climate change.
Where the reports have grown most firm is in declaring that humans are causing the world to warm.

Speaking at a news conference in the Swedish capital, Prof Thomas Stocker, another co-chair, said that climate change "challenges the two primary resources of humans and ecosystems, land and water. In short, it threatens our planet, our only home".
Since 1950, the report's authors say, humanity is clearly responsible for more than half of the observed increase in temperatures.
But a so-called pause in the increase in temperatures in the period since 1998 is downplayed in the report.
The scientists point out that this period began with a very hot El Nino year.
"Trends based on short records are very sensitive to the beginning and end dates and do not in general reflect long-term climate trends," the report says.
Prof Stocker, added: "I'm afraid there is not a lot of public literature that allows us to delve deeper at the required depth of this emerging scientific question.
"For example, there are not sufficient observations of the uptake of heat, particularly into the deep ocean, that would be one of the possible mechanisms to explain this warming hiatus."
"Likewise we have insufficient data to adequately assess the forcing over the last 10-15 years to establish a relationship between the causes of the warming."
However, the report does alter a key figure from the 2007 study.
The temperature range given for a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere, called equilibrium climate sensitivity, was 2.0C to 4.5C in that report.
In the latest document, the range has been changed to 1.5C to 4.5C.
The scientists say this reflects improved understanding, better temperature records and new estimates for the factors driving up temperatures.

Rising tide (Nature)

In the summary for policymakers, the scientists say that sea level rise will proceed at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past 40 years.
Waters are expected to rise, the document says, by between 26cm (at the low end) and 82cm (at the high end), depending on the greenhouse emissions path this century.
The scientists say ocean warming dominates the increase in energy stored in the climate system, accounting for 90% of energy accumulated between 1971 and 2010.
For the future, the report states that warming is projected to continue under all scenarios.
Model simulations indicate that global surface temperature change by the end of the 21st Century is likely to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to 1850.

Prof Sir Brian Hoskins, from Imperial College London, told BBC News: "We are performing a very dangerous experiment with our planet, and I don't want my grandchildren to suffer the consequences of that experiment."

 Links :

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Barge sailing (extract form Stem van het water / The Voice of the Water)


A barge skipper who also acts as a captain
during the annual ‘skûtsjesilen’ race (Frisian sailing boat)

Amazing Dutch barge sailing in the late 1960's, extracted from the Bert Haanstra documentary 'Stem van het water' (The Voice of the Water)