First flights off Lorient

A genuine test laboratory, in the space of six months the Multi70 Edmond de Rothschild has become the perfect guinea pig for Gitana Team’s design office.
After an initial research phase involving T-foil rudders, which was validated by Sébastien Josse’s third place in the Route du Rhum 2014, it’s now time for the second phase of development.
Equipped with asymmetric foils (L-foil to port and C-foil to starboard) and new, more substantial T-foil rudders, the 2015 version of the trimaran fitted out by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild is undergoing her first sea trials offshore of Lorient; the first flights in real conditions."

Full moon today is a Blue Moon: Here's why

The second full Moon of July is just around the corner.

According to modern folklore, it is a "Blue Moon."
NASA

From Space by Geoff Gaherty

On Friday, much of the world will have the opportunity to observe a Blue Moon: A somewhat rare occurrence that doesn't have anything to do with the moon's color.

During most years, the Earth experiences 12 full moons, one in each month.
But some years, such as 2015, have 13 full moons, and one of those "extra" lunar displays gets the label of Blue Moon.
The lunar or synodic month (full moon to full moon) averages 29.530589 days, which is shorter than every calendar month in the year except for February.
Those extra one-half or one-and-one-half days accumulate over the year, causing some years to have 13 full moons rather than 12.

The phenomenon has more significance for astrologers, people who claim they can glean meaning from the movement of the stars, than for scientific astronomers. 

A blue moon traditionally marks a time of change and possibility in the astrological world.

This is only one type of blue moon, however. 

Another definition states that blue moons are “seasonal” and therefore only blue if they are the third of four full moons in one season.
This would mean that the next seasonal blue moon would actually occur on May 26, 2016.

To see what I mean, here is a list of full-moon dates in 2015: Jan. 5, Feb. 3, March 5, April 4, May 4, June 2, July 2, July 31, Aug. 29, Sept. 28, Oct. 27, Nov. 25 and Dec. 25.
In 2016, the first full moon falls on Jan. 23, and each calendar month has only one full moon.

The expression "once in a blue moon" has a long history of being used to describe rare events; but it was also used in the Maine Farmers' Almanac to describe the third full moon in a season that has four (normally, a three-month season will only have three full moons).

The blue moon is the first since August 31, 2012, and won’t be seen again until January 31, 2018.
Next in 2018 : twice the same year

Year    Month    First Full Moon    Blue Moon
2018    January    2nd at 02:25    31st at 13:27

2018    March    2nd at 00:50    31st at 12:35

In 1946, Sky & Telescope magazine published an article that misinterpreted the older definition, defining a Blue Moon as the second full moon in a calendar month.
This has become the most recent and perhaps most widely accepted definition of a Blue Moon.
And hence, the full moon on July 31 is referred to as a Blue Moon, because it was preceded by the full moon on July 2.
By this definition, a Blue Moon occurs roughly once every 2.7 years.
The full moon appears to last for at least the length of one night, but technically speaking, it is an instantaneous event: It occurs when the sun, Earth and moon fall close to a straight line.
It takes place at the same instant everywhere in the world, whether the moon is above or below the horizon.

The full moon on July 31 occurs at exactly 6:43 a.m. EDT (1043 GMT).
So, when you look at the Blue Moon on Friday morning, don't expect to see a different color scheme (although it is possible for the moon to appear to have a bluish hue).
Just be aware that the so-called Blue Moon is a byproduct of the contrast between the calendar month and the lunar month.

Dokdo island: A case study in Asia's maritime disputes

 A map issued by the Japanese Army in 1936, left, shows Dokdo drawn within Korean territory.

But Japanese scholars have argued that for convenience’s sake, Dokdo was depicted near Korea.

A similar map drawn up the next year, right, directly names Joseon, the name of Korea at the time, where Dokdo was categorized.

Provided by Cultivate Korean Culture

From Statfor

This travelogue from the disputed island of Dokdo, also known as Takeshima, was written by a Stratfor analyst traveling in South Korea.

 The Liancourt Rocks, also known as Dokdo or Tokto with the GeoGarage platform (NGA chart)

Dokdo is a small island - really a couple of small islands grouped closely together.
Sparsely vegetated, these jagged remnants of an extinct volcano support a local fisherman's family and a contingent of South Korean police officers.
They also lie at the heart of a historical and geographical controversy between South Korea and Japan. Seoul controls the islets and calls them Dokdo.
Tokyo, however, contests that claim and calls them Takeshima.

(North Korea, too, claims Dokdo, but as an extension of its broader claim over all Korea, and Pyongyang does not contest Seoul's active control.)

In spite of the controversy, visiting Dokdo was not difficult, just time-consuming.
The overnight train from Seoul arrived in Jeongdongjin, on the east coast of South Korea, half an hour before sunrise.
In the pre-dawn light it was easy to see the soldiers as they moved in line abreast formation across the beach down to the edge of the sea, undertaking the morning patrol for suspicious activity.
Although we were over 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the Demilitarized Zone, we were just south of the town of Gangneung.
It was there that in 1996, a North Korean infiltration submarine became stranded offshore and the crew headed inland, eluding South Korean forces for more than a month.

 A South Korean flag flies over the disputed island of Dokdo/Takeshima. (Stratfor)

To get to Dokdo, we took the ferry from Gangneung to Ulleungdo, the farthest east of South Korea's larger islands.
From Ulleungdo, weather permitting, it is another hour-and-a-half ferry ride to Dokdo. For South Koreans, journeying to the island is the pinnacle of patriotic tourism.
Once they disembark, flag-waving visitors remain about 40 minutes on the pier on the easternmost of the two main islets.
The eastern islet also has the police guard station and a helipad.
The western islet hosts the home of a local fisherman, the only permanent resident.

From Ulleungdo to Dokdo is 47 nautical miles, and South Korea considers Dokdo within the jurisdiction of Ulleungdo.
Japan considers what it calls "Takeshima" part of the administrative district of the Oki Islands, around 85 nautical miles away.
But Japan will also be quick to note that Takeshima is only 114 nautical miles from Honshu, the main island of Japan, closer than the South Korean mainland, which is 117 nautical miles away.
Tokyo and Seoul both expend major efforts to explain why they are the rightful owners of the disputed island, and each has its own historical maps and charts, documents and records to wield in debate.

At the moment, South Korea undoubtedly controls Dokdo, but Japan is challenging the legality of that occupation.
Also up for debate is whether the set of islets really even constitute an island, or simply a collection of rocks.
The United States and some other nations, after all, call the islands the "Liancourt Rocks."
The difference between an island and a rock may be open to interpretation, but it has important economic and political implications.
With ample fishing and expectations of sub-sea oil, gas and mineral reserves, this is far from a frivolous dispute, or one merely reflecting centuries of animosity and staunch nationalism.
It matters economically.

Maritime agreements, roughly stated, specify that an island must be visible above the surface at high tide and must be habitable or capable of sustaining economic activity.
The designation "island" grants the entity 12 nautical miles of territorial sea and a 322-kilometer exclusive economic zone, and it can be used in designations of continental shelves.
A rock must also be visible above water at high tide, but it does not need to support human habitation or economic activity.
A rock is granted the same 12 nautical miles of territorial sea but not an exclusive economic zone. Dokdo is home to a small population, but most of its water and food supplies (aside from seafood) are imported. South Korea says this proves it is habitable, but others disagree.

Although the competition between South Korea and Japan is in this case rather tame, Asia is littered with disputed islands, reefs, submerged rocks and shoals.
These tensions are much more significant. Chinese public animosity over Japan's claims on the Senkaku Islands (China calls them Diaoyu) triggered riots, looting and caused some Japanese businesses to leave China.
Vietnam and China have already had several military engagements over the Paracel Islands.
Chinese construction projects on several reefs and islets in the Spratly chain in the South China Sea upset the Philippines and prompted objections from Washington.
And the list continues: most Southeast Asian nations claim overlapping portions of the contiguous seas. International law offers only the most dubious help in resolving these disputes.
Geographic designations that are meant to help distinguish between the different types of landmasses are ambiguous.
This only compounds the dizzying array of competing claims.

On the other side of the Eurasian landmass, Europe is rethinking the legitimacy of borders and even the definition of nations, states and sub-nations.
In Asia, land borders may be porous at places, but they are still fairly well-defined.
It is at sea that territorial boundaries are really being reassessed.
Nationalism plays a role, as does economic security.
Nations need to guarantee access to maritime resources and to the vital trade routes throughout the region.
Asia wraps around the East and South China seas, around the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. And when water is the organizing principle of the continent, the question of who owns an island, rock or reef and even of who is allowed to name a body of water takes on national strategic significance. With a large common sea and nations with an economic ability and necessity to act, maritime competition will only grow more intense.
The flag-waving Korean tourists on Dokdo may seem far less significant than the controversial 3,000-meter (almost 10,000-foot) Chinese runway on Fiery Cross Reef, but it is no less part of a national strategy to secure economic and strategic interests in a rapidly changing region.

Links :

• Bloomberg : How two small rocks stop Japan and South Korea getting along
• GeoGarage blog : Japanese government urges boycott of Google Maps over disputed islands
• Dokdo Takeshima Island blog
• Tokdo or Takeshima? The International Law of Territorial Acquisition in the Japan-Korea Island Dispute

Mass slaughter of pilot whales in the Faroe islands

This footage released by Sea Shepherd conservation campaigners shows a mass slaughter of pilot whales in the Faroe islands. 

From The Guardian

Faroese villagers have slaughtered about 250 pilot whales in the past 24 hours according to Sea Shepherd activists monitoring the traditional summer hunts in the north Atlantic islands.

No escape: Fishing boats and speed boats encircle the whales, leading them to the beaches and waiting huntsmen

The whale pods, which migrate past the islands in July and August, were herded by flotillas of small boats on to two beaches where villagers waded into the water to kill them with lances.

Massacre: The annual grindadráp takes place at the Faroe Islands, where whaling is not illegal but remains controversial

Seven protesters, mainly from European countries, have been arrested this week for allegedly interfering with the the traditional community hunts, known as “grindadráp”.

Pool of blood: The killing scree was carried out at two beaches, Bøur and Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands

Amsterdam-based direct action group Sea Shepherd, which has 36 people on two boats close to the islands and a further 20 supporters on Faroese islands, claimed on Friday that the Danish navy was helping the Faroese whalers.

Although the islands are self-governing, they are financially dependent on Denmark.

“It was perfectly clear that the Danish navy ships Triton and Knud Rasmussen were present to guard one grindadráp, and that the slaughter [only] proceeded with the full consent of the Danish navy,” said Wyanda Lublink, captain of the Sea Shepherd boat Brigitte Bardot.

“How Denmark – an anti-whaling member nation of the European Union, subject to laws prohibiting the slaughter of cetaceans – can attempt to justify its collaboration in this slaughter is incomprehensible,” he said.

Tórshavn / Nólsoy in the GeoGarage platform (NGA chart)

Footage from the hunt suggests that 111 pilot whales were killed on a beach at Nólsoy and a further 142 near the capital Tórshavn.

Carnage: The pilot whale is not an endangered species and has been hunted annually in the Faroe Islands

Whaling in the Faroes has been practiced for hundreds of years and is regulated by the Faroese authorities.

Around 800 pilot whales and some dolphins are killed annually.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Whales butchered in bloody seas: Faroe islanders say it’s tradition, others protest / Whaling in Faroe Islands, grindadrap

Marine plankton brighten clouds over Southern Ocean

Satellites use chlorophyll’s green color to detect biological activity in the oceans.

The lighter-green swirls are a massive December 2010 plankton bloom following ocean currents off Patagonia, at the southern tip of South America.

Image via NASA

From NASA

New research using NASA satellite data and ocean biology models suggests tiny organisms in vast stretches of the Southern Ocean play a significant role in generating brighter clouds overhead. Brighter clouds reflect more sunlight back into space affecting the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth’s surface, which in turn has implications for global climate.
The results were published July 17 in the journal Science Advances.
The study shows that plankton, the tiny drifting organisms in the sea, produce airborne gases and organic matter to seed cloud droplets, which lead to brighter clouds that reflect more sunlight.

"The clouds over the Southern Ocean reflect significantly more sunlight in the summertime than they would without these huge plankton blooms," said co-lead author Daniel McCoy, a University of Washington doctoral student in atmospheric sciences.
"In the summer, we get about double the concentration of cloud droplets as we would if it were a biologically dead ocean."

 Tiny ocean life contribute to clouds directly, by being lofted up with sea spray, and indirectly, by producing sulfurous gas.Daniel McCoy / University of Washington
Daniel McCoy / University of Washington

Although remote, the oceans in the study area between 35 and 55 degrees south is an important region for Earth's climate.
Results of the study show that averaged over a year, the increased brightness reflects about 4 watts of solar energy per square meter.

McCoy and co-author Daniel Grosvenor, now at the University of Leeds, began this research in 2014 looking at NASA satellite data for clouds over the parts of the Southern Ocean that are not covered in sea ice and have year-round satellite data.
The space agency launched the first Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), instrument onboard the Terra satellite in 1999 to measure the cloud droplet size for all Earth's skies.
A second MODIS instrument was launched onboard the Aqua satellite in 2002.

 Marine stratocumulus clouds stretched across the southern Indian Ocean in this image taken by NASA's Aqua satellite in early March 2013.

Clouds reflect sunlight based on both the amount of liquid suspended in the cloud and the size of the drops, which range from tiny mist spanning less than a hundredth of an inch (0.1 millimeters) to large drops about half an inch (10 millimeters) across.
Each droplet begins by growing on an aerosol particle, and the same amount of liquid spread across more droplets will reflect more sunlight.

Using the NASA satellite data, the team showed in 2014 that Southern Ocean clouds are composed of smaller droplets in the summertime.
But that doesn't make sense, since the stormy seas calm down in summer and generate less sea spray to create airborne salts.

 Wave clouds form over Île aux Cochons in the Southern Ocean.

The new study looked more closely at what else might be making the clouds more reflective.
Co-lead author Susannah Burrows, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Lab in Richland, Washington, used an ocean biology model to see whether biological matter could be responsible.
Marine life can affect clouds in two ways.
The first is by emitting a gas, such as dimethyl sulfide released by Sulfitobacter bacteria and phytoplankton such as coccolithophores, which creates the distinctive sulfurous smell of the sea and also produces particles to seed marine cloud droplets.
The second way is directly through organic matter that collects at the water's surface, forming a bubbly scum that can get whipped up and lofted into the air as tiny particles of dead plant and animal material.

 The exact boundaries of the Southern Ocean are as up in the air as its many clouds.

Credit: NASA

By matching the cloud droplet concentration with ocean biology models, the team found correlations with the sulfate aerosols, which in that region come mainly from phytoplankton, and with the amount of organic matter in the sea spray.
"The dimethyl sulfide produced by the phytoplankton gets transported up into higher levels of the atmosphere and then gets chemically transformed and produces aerosols further downwind, and that tends to happen more in the northern part of the domain we studied," Burrows said.
"In the southern part of the domain there is more effect from the organics, because that's where the big phytoplankton blooms happen."
Taken together, these two mechanisms roughly double the droplet concentration in summer months.
The Southern Ocean is a unique environment for studying clouds.
Unlike in other places, the effects of marine life there are not swamped out by aerosols from forests or pollution.
The authors say it is likely that similar processes could occur in the Northern Hemisphere, but they would be harder to measure and may have a smaller effect since aerosol particles from other sources are so plentiful.

Links :

• Scientific American : Tiny Ocean Plants Geoengineer Brighter Clouds