Friday, January 31, 2020

Scientists unveil highest resolution images of the sun ever captured

By Lauren Fox, AccuWeather staff writer
ASTRONOMY Updated Jan. 30, 2020 5:56 PM




In new videos from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the sun's surface can be seen close-up in the highest resolution yet.
The footage was taken with the NSF’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, one of the federal agency's most powerful telescopes that is perched at the top of Haleakala Observatory on the Hawaiian island of Maui. It shows details of the sun’s surface that are as small as Manhattan Island -- the most granular features to ever be captured of the sun’s surface.
The movie, which was released this week, was captured at a wavelength of 705 nanometers for 10 minutes, reveals "unprecedented detail of the sun’s surface" and "will enable a new era of solar science and a leap forward in understanding the sun and its impacts on our planet," the NSF said in a statement.
Scientists have been able to capture photos of the sun's surface in the past, but never at this resolution. (NSO/NSF/AURA)
The movie shows images of cells pulsing due to the rising, cooling and sinking of hot plasma, a process known as convection. Each plasma cell is the size of Texas, according to Thomas Rimmele, the telescope's director.
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“It’s like if you watch a pot of boiling water," Rimmele told AccuWeather. "You see these convection cells in the boiling water change over time, and this is what you see on the sun as well.” 
He said scientists have been able to capture photos of the sun's surface in the past, but never at this resolution. This telescope, however, is the first to provide ongoing measurements of magnetic fields in the sun’s atmosphere.
Corey Powell, science writer and co-host of the Science Rules podcast shared the video on Twitter, saying, "Even at this fine resolution, the scale is enormous."
One of the biggest challenges that comes with studying the sun, according to Rimmele, is how much heat the telescopes collect, as they are essentially giant magnifying glasses directing heat into a very small area. To mitigate the effects of this, they must use thermal control techniques like producing swimming pools full of ice at night to cool down the telescope during the day. They also have seven-and-a-half miles of pipes running through the facility to help keep the massive instrument cool.
The Inouye Telescope holds the world’s largest mirror for a solar telescope at 13 feet. The telescope also has the largest aperture — an opening that allows light to travel through — of any solar telescope.
With the sensitivity of this telescope, scientists will be able to see the magnetic fields at a much smaller scale and measure them "very precisely," which will eventually help to build models similar to weather models on earth that could predict solar events.
He called the videos "just the tip of the iceberg" of magnetic fields.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope holds the world’s largest mirror for a solar telescope and the largest aperture. (NSO/NSF/AURA)
“We use technology everywhere, it's very much impacted by space weather, and space weather originates on the sun and with its magnetic field,” Rimmele said.
When solar activity hits Earth, it can lead to disruptions in everyday life in ways like delaying air travel and interfering with GPS services and satellites.
“We live in the outer atmosphere of the sun and, if the sun has a hiccup like one of these solar eruptions, it impacts us," he said.
The physics behind solar eruptions, Rimmele said, is what the scientists are after, which will help in learning more about the impacts on Earth.
The telescope project began more than a decade ago and, over the next eight months, will go through a testing period. According to the National Solar Observatory (NSO), the telescope will not be up to its full capabilities for months — possibly years — but even now it has been able to provide the highest resolution images of the sun ever taken.
The telescope has an expected lifespan of 44 years, and according to NSO, “It promises to revolutionize our understanding of the sun forever.”
In a tweet heralding the photos, the NSF said the telescope will "collect more information about our sun during the first 5 years of its lifetime than all the solar data gathered since Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sun in 1612."
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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Global leaders' top five biggest risks 'for the first time' all focus on one concern

By John Roach, AccuWeather staff writer
SEVERE WEATHER Updated Jan. 30, 2020 12:52 PM



World Economic Forum (WEF) President Borge Brende singled out a first in his organization’s annual Global Risks Report. One category – environmental concerns – dominates the focus of the WEF’s multi-stakeholder community of more than 750 global experts and decision-makers who took part in the latest Global Risks Perception survey.
It is “the first time in the survey’s history that one category has occupied all five of the top spots,” Brende notes in his preface to the 2020 Global Risks Report.
Extreme weather events with major damage to property, infrastructure and loss of human life heads the top five global risks in terms of likelihood. The list also includes failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation, human-made environmental damage and disasters, major biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, and major natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and geomagnetic storms.
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Volunteers walk under the wind and rain from Hurricane Dorian through a flooded road as they work to rescue families near the Causarina bridge in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
The report was among the key talking points of world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, who gathered in Davos, Switzerland, last week for roundtable discussions highlighting these concerns.
“There is mounting pressure on companies from investors, regulators, customers and employees to demonstrate their resilience to rising climate volatility,” John Drzik, Chairman of Marsh and McLennan Insights, said in a related WEF story. “Scientific advances mean that climate risks can now be modeled with greater accuracy and incorporated into risk management and business plans.”
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That determination resonates with those involved with corporations’ outlooks on environmental risk assessment and concerns.
“The latest WEF Global Risks 2020 Report corresponds with what I hear from corporate leaders today who are taking weather risks seriously and actively mitigating those risks and liabilities with our services,” said AccuWeather’s Jonathan Porter, vice president of Business Services and general manager of Enterprise Solutions. “These companies range from Fortune 100 firms to small businesses. The Global Risks reports add urgency to business leaders to make sure they are operating in a way that is compliant with industry best practices, enhancing safety and minimizing risks. Too much is at risk from a liability and reputation standpoint for companies to attempt to manage the aftermath of weather-related incidents when it’s better to develop a proactive, site-specific plan based on actionable weather insights.” 
“AccuWeather already offers many services that allow companies to prepare for severe weather events, actually saving lives, increasing profits and protecting property,” said AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers. “These forecasts of severe weather are provided to companies globally and have been touted as the most accurate available from any source."
In the near future, AccuWeather will be announcing additional specific climate forecast services that will allow companies to plan for climate change decades in advance so they will be able to properly prepare with the appropriate resources and within the reasonable range of what is likely to occur based on various ranges of risk around temperature, flooding, rains, snow, water-level rise, and all types and frequency of weather events.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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Welcome to April! ... errr ... make that February

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
WINTER WEATHER Updated Jan. 31, 2020 3:23 AM
Springlike warmth is projected to build across the nation's heartland as February begins before it shifts into the eastern part of the United States early next week. The warmth amid an already mild winter may have many checking the calendar and pondering whether the season will make an early transition.
The upcoming surge of warmth is forecast to bring both daytime and nighttime temperatures of 10 to 25 degrees above average.
During late January and early February, high temperatures typically range from the upper teens over the northern tier of the Midwest and Northeast to the lower 70s F in South Texas to the upper 70s in South Florida. Nighttime lows generally range from below zero near the Canada border to the lower 60s in South Florida.
At peak, temperatures are predicted to climb into the 40s over the upper Great Lakes and the upper 30s in northern New England to the middle 70s along the upper Gulf Coast and the 80s in parts of South Texas and the Florida Peninsula.
Some records dating back to the mid-1900s and earlier could be challenged as far north as the Upper Midwest. On Sunday, the record of 51 set in 1992 in Chicago and 43 in 1991 in Houghton Lake, Michigan, are among the records that may be surpassed.
The warmth will be truncated over much of the central and northern Plains and the Upper Midwest as colder air from west-central Canada is forecast to sprawl southeastward over this sector later Sunday and Monday.
The warmth will last the longest in the Southeast, but at least a few days of well-above-average temperatures are in store for the mid-Atlantic.
Highs in Washington, D.C., will be in the 50s on Sunday, the 60s during Monday and Tuesday, and may still flirt with 60 on Wednesday.
Even when some cooler air filters to the Atlantic coast later next week, temperatures should be no worse than average and may still be 5 to 10 degrees above average for many locations.
The colder air expected to slice into the Central States during the first part of next week may be a sign of even more brutal Arctic air that could take root later in the month.
"We are anticipating that a strong push of Arctic air will take place into the U.S. during the second and third week of February in response to a displacement or weakening of the polar vortex during the first week of February," AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.
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When the polar vortex, a pool of bitter air that often sits over the North Pole during winter, weakens or becomes elongated, the frigid air that is normally locked up above the Arctic Circle can eventually break loose and move southward.
There is at least one factor working against a large sweep of frigid air into the Eastern states, especially across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic.
An area of high pressure at most levels of the atmosphere has persisted in the southwestern Atlantic this winter -- and it has been helping to pump mild air up the Eastern Seaboard. Indications are that this pattern may continue during much of February.
"For this reason, we expect the upcoming big discharge of Arctic air to target the interior West and northern Plains initially, where it might be more persistent as February progresses," Pastelok said.
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"While much colder air could work into the Eastern states during the middle to latter parts of February, there is some uncertainty as to how long-lasting and/or severe this may be, depending in part on the persistent area of high pressure over the southwestern Atlantic," Pastelok said.
The last significant polar vortex shift was during mid- to late-November, which triggered the cold outbreak from late November to early December.
Even though a few major Arctic outbreaks in years past have reached much of the United States, it is rare for the entire Lower 48 states to be cold all at the same time. Typically, cold air will punch into one-third to two-thirds of the contiguous states as other regions remain warmer than average. So, if cold air were to sprawl over the Western and Central states, there would be a tendency for the East or the Southeast to remain warmer for a longer period of time.
"No matter what, we do not see a six- to eight-week outbreak of Arctic air, which is usually what happens with a polar vortex shift, but rather seven- to 14-day cold episodes or shorter," Pastelok said.
"There can still be a couple of days and nights where cold air sneaks its way into the Southeast with a frost or hard freeze and that could be a problem with the leaf-out and blossoming running two to three weeks ahead of schedule," he added.
The warmth coming early next week is likely to increase that leaf-out anomaly.
The spread of colder air into the Central States and perhaps the Northeast could set up an active storm track as February progresses. Depending on which side of the temperature contrast zone places end up would determine where areas of heavy snow, ice and rain occur.
Snowfall has generally been close to average over the heartland with a few pockets of below-average snowfall in cities such as Chicago.
Much of the northern tier of the Central States has received above-average snowfall thus far with near- to above-average snow for the northern tier of the Northeast. However, a definitive snow-drought has persisted over much of the central Appalachians to the mid-Atlantic and southern New England coasts.
A mere 0.3 of an inch of snow has fallen on Philadelphia, compared to a seasonal average close to 9 inches by the end of January. Perennial snow spots such as South Bend, Indiana; Erie Pennsylvania; Cleveland and Buffalo, New York; have had 25 to 50% of average snowfall thus far.
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Very few cities have received above-average snowfall. You have to go to northern New England to find snow totals that are well above average.
At least for skiers, snowmobilers and snow lovers in general, there is still some hope for more of the white stuff in some of the snow-starved zone if the cold press and storm track pans out. But even if winter storms take an ideal path, there is no guarantee that storms will bring all snow.
In the meantime, home and business owners are saving on their heating bills from the Central and Eastern states with temperature departures from average during January ranging from 1 to 10 degrees in positive territory.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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Man missing at sea for nearly 2 weeks found alive in life raft off Washington coast

  One of two men missing at sea for nearly two weeks was found alive on Thursday by a Canadian fishing boat in a life raft in Canadian water...