::: Satellite Discoveres- Eye in the Sky :::

::: Gigantic Concentric Circles Found in Italy

Last July 2007 an excavation for a new hospital Sant'Anna near Como Italy uncovered a "double concentric circle of ancient stones".  It may date back to 3000 BCE and "the site is a "highly articulated prehistoric structure that could be either an ancient astronomical observatory or a sacred space," according to Stefania Iorio, Archaeological Superintendent of the region."  The diameter of the circles is around 229 feet and they are divided by a pathway of paved stones. 

The site is a rare site with no similar examples in Northern Italy. Giancarlo Frigerio, chairman of the Società Archeologica Comense theorizes that it may be an ancient tumulus.  What makes this tumulus so unusual is size since it covers an area of approximately 13,000 feet, over 2 miles, while other tumuluses found in the same region average a diameter of 13-16 feet. Tumulus is Latin for mound or small hill that was typically a man-made, mound formation erected over a grave site.

There are now plans to protect the area and create a park where visitors can access the site.

News Source: Archaeo News

 

::: Radical New Lab Fights Disease using Satellites

"Jan. 16, 2008: A group of atmospheric research scientists at NASA's National Space Science and Technology Center felt a little like they were in a foreign country when they first met with University of Alabama at Birmingham's School of Public Health representatives to discuss an unusual partnership.

"When we first got together, it was as if we were speaking entirely different languages," says NASA's Dale Quattrochi.

But very soon both parties began to realize how NASA satellite data could translate into vital public health information.

"We started seeing how it was really a great fit. It was wonderful. The lights clicked on!" Quattrochi said.

In the past 50 years, satellites have revolutionized weather forecasting and communications, so why not human health?

The scientists from UAB and NASA realized that rocket science could be focused down to the level of microbiology and public health and yield huge advances in both. That "ah-ha" moment sparked idea after idea about ways to combat public health problems with satellite data.

One of their best ideas was to teach public health students, the researchers and medical personnel of the future, to harness the power of satellite imagery to study and fight modern-day disease. This idea led UAB to create a remote sensing lab – in fact the first U.S. dedicated remote sensing lab for medical and public health use – to do just that.

Students at the lab take "cross-training" courses with NASA/NSSTC scientists such as Dr. Dale Quattrochi, Dr. Jeff Luvall, Dr. Douglas Rickman, Dr. Mohammad Al-Hamdan, Dr. William Crosson, and Mr. Maurice Estes as guest lecturers and invited experts. Many of the NASA/NSSTC scientists have been appointed as adjunct professors at the UAB School of Public Health. And the innovative research performed from the lab is cutting edge.

"This lab and the studies it supports will help both our own generation and future generations," says NSSTC's Jeff Luvall. "This is a turning point in public health. Who knows where it will lead?"

Studies sponsored by the lab have already led to critical research in fighting malaria. Infrared imagery from satellites is helping scientists locate warm standing water – fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes. Then the problem areas can be treated effectively and precisely, stopping the spread of malaria. Other researchers at the lab are using satellite imagery to correlate cases of West Nile virus with nearness to tire dumps -- another favorite breeding ground for the virus-carrying mosquito.

Remote sensing has even proven valuable in tracking environmental influences on childhood asthma. Satellite data are revealing pollution levels and other environmental factors where the children live to find out whether these factors might be triggering asthma attacks. Children can then be given asthma therapy to protect them from the effects.

Another study is seeking links between the environment and cardiovascular diseases, including stroke. UAB has been working on a large study called REGARDS, short for Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke. The study, funded by the National Institute of Health, sampled over 30,000 people across the U.S. with in-home surveys which included taking their blood pressure and blood samples and administering a detailed health questionnaire. The survey focused mostly on African-Americans because that group has been shown to have a higher risk of contracting the conditions the study examined – cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and stroke – to name a few.

"Both UAB and NASA want to understand, using NASA satellite data on air quality, heat indexes, temperature, humidity, and other environmental elements, how the environment is influencing the diseases and conditions targeted by REGARDS," explains Quattrochi. "This study's findings could help health officials with environmental exposure and health recommendations."

Many other studies are planned or in progress, including investigations about how water affects dental health and about the correlations between lead, mercury, and pesticides with health problems in mothers and babies overseas.

Just imagine how thrilled a designer of one of the first satellites from 50 years ago would be to learn that satellites in space are now combating health problems and saving lives.

That's good news in any language."

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::: Satellite Images Reveal Huge Cracks in Beaufort Sea Caused by Ice Melting

Giant fractures have been spotted via satellite imagery of an area West of the Beaufort sea.  The Canadian Ice Service monitors glaciers for any signs of environmental damage or change.  The fractures have occurred between December of '07 and January of '08 have caused concern among scientists.  The fractures are very large and can be viewed in satellite image animations available at the Environment Canada website.

• Animation Link 
  

The fractures are more than 100 kilometers across and have occurred in a matter of weeks.  "This melting phenomenon may be tied to the loss of the Arctic ice last summer that "stunned" scientists as the ice retreated 40 percent below normal to the lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979."

According to David Berber, a climate specialist at the University of Manitoba, the ice isn't the only thing that's changing in the Arctic, the storm tracks are also changing as as weather systems are drawn in over the open water.  If this ice melt trend continues, scientists predict the Arctic could be ice free in the summer months by 2020, plus or minus 10 years.  "That means Arctic summer ice, which has capped the planet for more than a million years, might be gone by 2010, says Barber."

"The implications extend far beyond the Arctic, and the possibility of shipping routes opening in the North. Weather across the Northern Hemisphere is impacted by what happens in the Arctic and the northern ice plays a critical role in controlling Earth's thermostat. Arctic ice reflects close to the 95 per cent of solar radiation that hits it. Once the ice melts away, seawater absorbs the heat instead, later releasing it back to the atmosphere, a process that will speed global warming."

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::: Mysterious stone circle found on Miami River bank

This stone circle reminds me of the numerous formations seen in Florida from satellite imagery and the possibility that many of these circular features could have been artificial in origin seems to have been overlooked by archaeologists.  Perhaps the more circles they uncover, the more curious they will be concerning the numerous circular formations seen from space in Florida in the Everglades, in the Florida Keys, in the Bahamas and the famous North Carolina bays.  Although meteorites have been theorized to have caused these types of formations in the South East US and the Bahamas, no meteoric evidence has yet been found near any of the circles or large NC bay features.

Miami Circle Web Site

From CNN:

Archeologists divided over origin

MIAMI (Reuters) -- In the shadows of this modern city's gleaming towers, under the remains of a blighted apartment block, archeologists digging through the rubble of centuries have uncovered a mysterious circle in stone.

The circle, formed of dozens of holes bored into the limestone bedrock with rudimentary tools and located just a few steps from the mouth of the Miami River, is a startling window into Florida's pre-Columbian history in the heart of a bustling metropolis, archeologists say.

A cache of artifacts including shells, beads and pottery shards has persuaded some experts that the circle is likely the foundation of a Tequesta Indian building at the site of one of Miami's first trading posts founded by northern settlers.

But another, more intriguing theory has been advanced: that the circle is a celestial calendar, perhaps made by a breakaway band of Mayas, the sophisticated Central American Indians who lived in the Yucatan, Belize and northern Guatemala.

"It looks like Stonehenge in negative. Instead of stones, holes," T.L. Riggs, a surveyor who has studied Mayan culture, said.

READ MORE...

 

:::Satellite Images of Arctic Summer Ice Anomaly Shocks Scientists; 'Unlike Anything Observed'

Interesting story from 2006:

Paris, France (Sep 20, 2006 19:12 EST) Satellite images acquired from 23 to 25 August 2006 have shown for the first time dramatic openings – over a geographic extent larger than the size of the British Isles – in the Arctic's perennial sea ice pack north of Svalbard, and extending into the Russian Arctic all the way to the North Pole.

Observing data from Envisat's Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument and the AMSR-E instrument aboard the EOS Aqua satellite, scientists were able to determine that around 5-10 percent of the Arctic's perennial sea ice, which had survived the summer melt season, has been fragmented by late summer storms. The area between Spitzbergen, the North Pole and Severnaya Zemlya is confirmed by AMSR-E to have had much lower ice concentrations than witnessed during earlier years.

Mark Drinkwater of ESA's Oceans/Ice Unit said: "This situation is unlike anything observed in previous record low ice seasons. It is highly imaginable that a ship could have passed from Spitzbergen or Northern Siberia through what is normally pack ice to reach the North Pole without difficulty.

"If this anomaly trend continues, the North-East Passage or 'Northern Sea Route' between Europe and Asia will be open over longer intervals of time, and it is conceivable we might see attempts at sailing around the world directly across the summer Arctic Ocean within the next 10-20 years."

During the last 25 years, satellites have been observing the Arctic and have witnessed reductions in the minimum ice extent – the lowest amount of ice recorded in the area annually – at the end of summer from around 8 million km² in the early 1980s to the historic minimum of less than 5.5 million km² in 2005, changes widely viewed as a consequence of greenhouse warming.

Satellite observations in the past couple of years have also shown that the extent of perennial ice is rapidly declining, but this strange condition in late August marks the first time the perennial ice pack appears to exhibit thinner and more mobile conditions in the European sector of the Central Arctic than in earlier years.

Both sets of images were taken by two different satellite instruments – ASAR on the left and AMSR-E on the right. In the coloured AMSR-E images, ice cover, or the concentration of ice, is represented by the colour. Pink represents pack ice and the colour blue open water. Intermediate colours orange, yellow, and green indicate lower ice concentrations of 70%, 50% and 30%, respectively. In the ASAR images, ice cover is represented by the uniform grey area which extends radially-outwards from the North Pole, represented by the central black hole.

The set of images on the top were both acquired on 24 August 2005, while the bottom left ASAR image was acquired on 23 August 2006 and the AMSR-E on 24 August 2006. In 2005, the uniform grey area in the ASAR image and the pink colour in the AMSR-E image are both consistent all the way around the pole (black hole), indicating pack ice with 100% ice concentration.

However in 2006 there is a significant extent of leads – fractures and openings in the sea-ice cover – just below the pole in both the ASAR image, seen as splashes of dark grey and black, and the AMSR-E image (with British Isles shown for scale), seen by the high concentration of yellow, orange and green colours, signifying low ice concentrations.

In the last weeks, what was open water has begun to freeze, as the autumn air temperatures over the Arctic begin to fall. Although a considerable fraction of darker leads can still be seen in the area using ASAR, the AMSR-E sensor no longer shows openings.

ASAR is an active microwave instrument which sends periodic radar pulses toward the Earth and measures the signals return. AMSR-E is a passive microwave instrument which does not send radar pulses down but receives radiation naturally emitted from the Earth. Passive microwave data contain a certain amount of ambiguity in interpretation of ice types, particularly in mid summer during melting. However, this ambiguity is removed in high resolution active microwave data.

Though the reason for the considerable change in the ice pack configuration is still unknown, it is likely due to the stormy weather conditions in August that characterised the month.

The effect stormy conditions have on ice is illustrated in this ASAR image, taken on 25 August 2006, as the ice in the red circle is divergent as a consequence of a low pressure system centred on the North Pole.

"As autumn freeze-up begins, the current pattern will undoubtedly precondition the ice situation in the Central Arctic for the subsequent ice season," Drinkwater said.

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