Aerosols from Chile’s Calbuco volcano reach Africa

A bright orange glow at sunset on May 3, 2015 – 5:42 p.m. – as captured in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The unusual colors are typical of volcanic sunsets, in this case due to aerosols from Chile’s Calbuco volcano. Photo by Peter Lowenstein.

Animation of the sulfur dioxide plume from Calbuco volcano in Chile, crossing the Atlantic from April 22 to April 28.

Last week, EarthSky published a series of photos of dramatic sunsets in Brazil, caused by the April 22 eruption of Chile’s Calbuco volcano. On Sunday afternoon – May 3, 2015 – Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe sent us the photos in this post. He said that the aerosols from this volcanic eruption have now crossed the South Atlantic and are causing dramatic sunsets in African skies. He wrote:

I have been keeping a close lookout for the past few days and this evening witnessed the first spectacular volcanic sunset in the skies to the west of Mutare.

I attach three images taken over a twenty minute period which show the development of a bright orange glow at 5:42 p.m., red, magenta and purple crepuscular rays at 5:46 p.m. and then a diffuse lilac-purple glow at 6:07 p.m. just before dark.

These were taken using my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 compact camera in sunset mode with wide angle zoom.

I think these may be the first pictures of a Calbuco volcanic sunset to be taken outside South America.

Thank you, Peter!

Red, magenta and purple crepuscular rays at sunset on May 3, 2015 – 5:46 p.m. – in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Photo by Peter Lowenstein.

By 6:07 p.m. on May 3, the most vivid red and orange colors were gone, but this beautiful lilac-purple glow lingered in the twilight sky.

Dramatic sunset colors from a volcano in one part of the world can persist for many months and be seen across the globe. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, its afterglows persisted to varying degrees for about 18 months after the initial explosion, according to Stephen F. Corfidi at NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center.

Bottom line: Vivid sunset colors, caused by the eruption of Calbuco volcano in Chile on April 22, have now reached Africa. Photos taken May 3, 2015 by Peter Lowenstein in Zimbabwe. How far will the aerosols from this volcano spread, and how long will they persist?

Image via NASA on Twitter.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1K52VMW

A bright orange glow at sunset on May 3, 2015 – 5:42 p.m. – as captured in Mutare, Zimbabwe. The unusual colors are typical of volcanic sunsets, in this case due to aerosols from Chile’s Calbuco volcano. Photo by Peter Lowenstein.

Animation of the sulfur dioxide plume from Calbuco volcano in Chile, crossing the Atlantic from April 22 to April 28.

Last week, EarthSky published a series of photos of dramatic sunsets in Brazil, caused by the April 22 eruption of Chile’s Calbuco volcano. On Sunday afternoon – May 3, 2015 – Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe sent us the photos in this post. He said that the aerosols from this volcanic eruption have now crossed the South Atlantic and are causing dramatic sunsets in African skies. He wrote:

I have been keeping a close lookout for the past few days and this evening witnessed the first spectacular volcanic sunset in the skies to the west of Mutare.

I attach three images taken over a twenty minute period which show the development of a bright orange glow at 5:42 p.m., red, magenta and purple crepuscular rays at 5:46 p.m. and then a diffuse lilac-purple glow at 6:07 p.m. just before dark.

These were taken using my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 compact camera in sunset mode with wide angle zoom.

I think these may be the first pictures of a Calbuco volcanic sunset to be taken outside South America.

Thank you, Peter!

Red, magenta and purple crepuscular rays at sunset on May 3, 2015 – 5:46 p.m. – in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Photo by Peter Lowenstein.

By 6:07 p.m. on May 3, the most vivid red and orange colors were gone, but this beautiful lilac-purple glow lingered in the twilight sky.

Dramatic sunset colors from a volcano in one part of the world can persist for many months and be seen across the globe. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines in 1991, its afterglows persisted to varying degrees for about 18 months after the initial explosion, according to Stephen F. Corfidi at NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center.

Bottom line: Vivid sunset colors, caused by the eruption of Calbuco volcano in Chile on April 22, have now reached Africa. Photos taken May 3, 2015 by Peter Lowenstein in Zimbabwe. How far will the aerosols from this volcano spread, and how long will they persist?

Image via NASA on Twitter.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1K52VMW

2015 SkS Weekly Digest #18

SkS Highlights

Inoculating against science denial by John Cook generated the highest number of comments of the articles posted on SkS during the past week. Matthew England's The climate 'hiatus' doesn’t take the heat off global warming garnered the second highest number of comments.

Toon of the Week

 

Hat tip to I Heart Climate Scientists

Quote of the Week

“For Francis, his uniqueness as an authority resides in the quite remarkable moral capital he’s built up from the start,” Morrill* says. “People in governments – and not just Christian and Catholics, but people in the UN and other bodies – people have made a judgement perceiving his personal moral authority and wisdom and knowledge of our times. That is what bears the authority – there’s the objective moral authority of the papacy, but this other authority, I think, that is making all the difference.” 

*Bruce Morrill, the Edward A. Malloy professor of Catholic studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn., who is also a Catholic priest.

Pope Francis and climate change: why Catholic skeptics are so alarmed (+video) by Harry Bruinius, Christian Science Monitor, Apr 28, 2015 

SkS in the News

The Austin Monitor article, Zimmerman rejects briefing by climate scientist, documents an exchange between an Austin City Coucilman and Prof Katharine Hayhoe about the vlidity of climate science. Per the article, 

Hayhoe referred him to a website called skepticalscience.com, saying that it has answered every major question about climate science. 

SkS Spotlights

The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is an international partnership of countries highly vulnerable to a warming planet. The Forum serves as a South-South cooperation platform for  participating governments to act together to deal with global climate change.

Coming Soon on SkS 

• Week 1 of the Denial101x MOOC (John Cook)
• The DENIAL101x temperature tool (Kevin C)
• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #19A (John Hartz)
• Pause in global warming optimism needed, new research shows (Dana)
• World's plants and soils to switch from carbon sink to source by 2100, study shows (Robert McSweeney)
• Guest post (John Abraham)
• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #19B (John Hartz)
• 2015 SkS Weekly Digest #19 (John Hartz) 

Poster of the Week

 

SkS Week in Review

• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #18B by John Hartz
• President Obama's Anger Translator on Climate Change by Guest Author
• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #18A by John Hartz
• Overlooked evidence - global warming may proceed faster than expected by Dana
• The climate 'hiatus' doesn’t take the heat off global warming by Matthew England
• Heartland takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level by John Abraham
• Inoculating against science denial by John Cook
• 2015 SkS Weekly Digest #17 by John Hartz

97 Hours of Consensus: Matthew England

Matthew England's bio page

from Skeptical Science http://ift.tt/1bTbS0P

SkS Highlights

Inoculating against science denial by John Cook generated the highest number of comments of the articles posted on SkS during the past week. Matthew England's The climate 'hiatus' doesn’t take the heat off global warming garnered the second highest number of comments.

Toon of the Week

 

Hat tip to I Heart Climate Scientists

Quote of the Week

“For Francis, his uniqueness as an authority resides in the quite remarkable moral capital he’s built up from the start,” Morrill* says. “People in governments – and not just Christian and Catholics, but people in the UN and other bodies – people have made a judgement perceiving his personal moral authority and wisdom and knowledge of our times. That is what bears the authority – there’s the objective moral authority of the papacy, but this other authority, I think, that is making all the difference.” 

*Bruce Morrill, the Edward A. Malloy professor of Catholic studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn., who is also a Catholic priest.

Pope Francis and climate change: why Catholic skeptics are so alarmed (+video) by Harry Bruinius, Christian Science Monitor, Apr 28, 2015 

SkS in the News

The Austin Monitor article, Zimmerman rejects briefing by climate scientist, documents an exchange between an Austin City Coucilman and Prof Katharine Hayhoe about the vlidity of climate science. Per the article, 

Hayhoe referred him to a website called skepticalscience.com, saying that it has answered every major question about climate science. 

SkS Spotlights

The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) is an international partnership of countries highly vulnerable to a warming planet. The Forum serves as a South-South cooperation platform for  participating governments to act together to deal with global climate change.

Coming Soon on SkS 

• Week 1 of the Denial101x MOOC (John Cook)
• The DENIAL101x temperature tool (Kevin C)
• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #19A (John Hartz)
• Pause in global warming optimism needed, new research shows (Dana)
• World's plants and soils to switch from carbon sink to source by 2100, study shows (Robert McSweeney)
• Guest post (John Abraham)
• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #19B (John Hartz)
• 2015 SkS Weekly Digest #19 (John Hartz) 

Poster of the Week

 

SkS Week in Review

• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #18B by John Hartz
• President Obama's Anger Translator on Climate Change by Guest Author
• 2015 SkS Weekly News Roundup #18A by John Hartz
• Overlooked evidence - global warming may proceed faster than expected by Dana
• The climate 'hiatus' doesn’t take the heat off global warming by Matthew England
• Heartland takes climate foolishness to a Biblical level by John Abraham
• Inoculating against science denial by John Cook
• 2015 SkS Weekly Digest #17 by John Hartz

97 Hours of Consensus: Matthew England

Matthew England's bio page

from Skeptical Science http://ift.tt/1bTbS0P

Weekend Diversion: Disney’s Game of Thrones (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]

“When I was a kid, my world was five streets long. I never got away, except in books. I lived a thousand lives through books.” –George R.R. Martin

If you aren’t enthralled by Game of Thrones (or for you bibliophiles, A Song of Fire and Ice), have I ever got an introduction for you. First, enjoy the Forte Tenors sing their tribute to the title theme of the show — in high Valyrian — along with a spectacular spectacle of a music video:

And then imagine this spectacular world… in the Walt Disney Universe!

Image credit: Fernando Mendonça, of Bran Stark with Hodor.

Quite fantastically, two Brazilian artists — Fernando Mendonça and Anderson Mahanski — have teamed up in a venture they call Combo Estúdio, where their greatest achievement has been to create an ongoing series of Game of Thrones scenes and characters, reimagined as “Disneyfied” versions.

Image credit: Anderson Mahanski and Fernando Mendonça, of Arya Stark and the Hound (Sandor Clegane).

Go enjoy the whole thing at Starts With A Bang, and have a great weekend!

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1KF0p0W

“When I was a kid, my world was five streets long. I never got away, except in books. I lived a thousand lives through books.” –George R.R. Martin

If you aren’t enthralled by Game of Thrones (or for you bibliophiles, A Song of Fire and Ice), have I ever got an introduction for you. First, enjoy the Forte Tenors sing their tribute to the title theme of the show — in high Valyrian — along with a spectacular spectacle of a music video:

And then imagine this spectacular world… in the Walt Disney Universe!

Image credit: Fernando Mendonça, of Bran Stark with Hodor.

Quite fantastically, two Brazilian artists — Fernando Mendonça and Anderson Mahanski — have teamed up in a venture they call Combo Estúdio, where their greatest achievement has been to create an ongoing series of Game of Thrones scenes and characters, reimagined as “Disneyfied” versions.

Image credit: Anderson Mahanski and Fernando Mendonça, of Arya Stark and the Hound (Sandor Clegane).

Go enjoy the whole thing at Starts With A Bang, and have a great weekend!

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1KF0p0W

Take Denialism 101 [denialism blog]

John Cook, of Skeptical Science fame, has created an online course through the University of Queensland and edX, on denialism and climate change. Easy to access and free to take, I found it simple to join from their facebook page, and if you don’t want to join you can still see the lectures from their Youtube channel.

Having gone through the materials so far I have to say Cook nails it. His graphic depicting the 5 tactics is very clear and easy to understand.

Also I think he has done a great job of making clear that the problem isn’t one of education, facts or knowledge. The problem is the way we think, and how our ideology skews what we are willing to believe, setting us up to fall for denialist arguments. That combined with the series of high-quality experts from Oreskes to Mann makes for a really excellent introduction to the problem from real experts in the field.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1GI1dyh

John Cook, of Skeptical Science fame, has created an online course through the University of Queensland and edX, on denialism and climate change. Easy to access and free to take, I found it simple to join from their facebook page, and if you don’t want to join you can still see the lectures from their Youtube channel.

Having gone through the materials so far I have to say Cook nails it. His graphic depicting the 5 tactics is very clear and easy to understand.

Also I think he has done a great job of making clear that the problem isn’t one of education, facts or knowledge. The problem is the way we think, and how our ideology skews what we are willing to believe, setting us up to fall for denialist arguments. That combined with the series of high-quality experts from Oreskes to Mann makes for a really excellent introduction to the problem from real experts in the field.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1GI1dyh

Obligatory Age of Ultron Comments [Uncertain Principles]

So, Kate and I hired a babysitter last night, and went to see the new Avengers movie. You might not have heard of it, it’s kind of obscure…

(There will be some mild SPOILERS below; if you’re intensely opposed to that sort of thing, don’t read the rest of this…)

So, I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a big mistake to watch this excellent video about Jackie Chan’s style yesterday morning:

(in a sorta-kinda related vein, this Max Gladstone blog post is also very interesting…)

Having watched that video in the morning, and its discussion of how Jackie Chan’s fight choreography and directing contrasts with the American equivalents, because I spent a lot of the fight scenes thinking “Yeah, I can’t tell what the hell is going on here…” And, you know, I realize this is a stylistic choice and in some sense the Hong Kong style as just as much an artifice, and that in this case the rapid-cutting style is forced in part by the fact that 80% of the combatants are CGI robots. But, in the end, noticing all the rapid cutting kind of undercut the spectacle…

So, anyway, the actual movie was… fine. It’s a comic-book movie, and I don’t really expect more from those than expensive spectacle. I can’t quite decide whether it helps that the filmmakers are aware of the absurdity of some of these scenarios, and hang the occasional lampshade on it (“…and I have a bow and arrow.”), or if that just makes it worse that they don’t bother to fix the stupider bits.

Having grumbled about the handling of SCIENCE! in the previous installment, I will note that they get a half-point bonus this time out for nodding in the direction of specialization. They actually bring in an outside expert for some things, and in one scene Tony Stark admits that Bruce Banner is better at bioscience than he is. Which brings them up to, like 1.5/10 on the movie portrayal of science scale…

Of course, as I’m a huge nerd, I did inadvertently retcon one of the bits that made no sense, namely how they ended up over the ocean so that people falling down after the final battle landed in water. Which you could sorta-kinda try to attribute to the Earth’s rotation– that is, as the giant rock is boosted straight up, it continues rotating at the speed of the surface, which is not fast enough to keep pace with a point directly below it as the altitude increases. So, the Earth turns under it, and if you take their Ruritanian setting to be a Balkan country, that would carry you out over the Aegean Sea after a bit.

Of course, I suspect this doesn’t actually work, because all the characters can still breathe at maximum altitude (including the non-super-powered Avengers and the civilians they’re trying to save), and thus they aren’t high enough for the speed difference to add up to much. Also, this is a universe where in the first Captain America movie it takes, like, fifteen minutes to fly from somewhere in the Alps into the remote Arctic, so maybe Marvel Europe is just a tiny archipelago of island nations.

At a much more general level, I remain pretty down on the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe project. Admittedly, this opinion is enhanced this morning by the fact that the two guys sitting to my left in the theater were big Marvel fanboys, and their delighted exclamations over tie-ins to other movies and comics got steadily louder and more distracting over the course of the movie. But ultimately, I’ve never been a comic-book guy, so the stuff that the massive tie-in structure adds for comic-book fans holds little appeal for me. Certainly not enough to make up for the problems it inflicts on the movie, which packs eight pounds of…plot into a five-pound bag. The need to find character moments for all of the over-stuffed cast makes the movie way too busy, and the need to tie into whatever grand cosmic plot is supposed to be going on without further bogging the movie down leads to thuddingly awful scenes like Thor’s highly abbreviated Infinity Stones infodump.

Strip out the cosmic stuff, cut the team in half, and you have the elements of a really good movie here. Working within the strictures of the Marvel universe, though, it maxes out at… fine. It’s very good for what it is, but what it is isn’t a thing I particularly want.

In other “not what I want” movie news, the set of godawful trailers inflicted on us before this included one for the Superman vs. Batman movie. And, you know, grimdark is as much a valid stylistic choice as the cornball platitudes that form the core of the Marvel movies, but if we must have comic-book movies built around these opposing aesthetics, I’d really kind of like some that don’t dive headfirst into self-parody.

Anyway, those are my reactions, for what little they’re worth. Thus, I have met the statutory requirements to keep my blogging license for another year…

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1IC1eIP

So, Kate and I hired a babysitter last night, and went to see the new Avengers movie. You might not have heard of it, it’s kind of obscure…

(There will be some mild SPOILERS below; if you’re intensely opposed to that sort of thing, don’t read the rest of this…)

So, I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a big mistake to watch this excellent video about Jackie Chan’s style yesterday morning:

(in a sorta-kinda related vein, this Max Gladstone blog post is also very interesting…)

Having watched that video in the morning, and its discussion of how Jackie Chan’s fight choreography and directing contrasts with the American equivalents, because I spent a lot of the fight scenes thinking “Yeah, I can’t tell what the hell is going on here…” And, you know, I realize this is a stylistic choice and in some sense the Hong Kong style as just as much an artifice, and that in this case the rapid-cutting style is forced in part by the fact that 80% of the combatants are CGI robots. But, in the end, noticing all the rapid cutting kind of undercut the spectacle…

So, anyway, the actual movie was… fine. It’s a comic-book movie, and I don’t really expect more from those than expensive spectacle. I can’t quite decide whether it helps that the filmmakers are aware of the absurdity of some of these scenarios, and hang the occasional lampshade on it (“…and I have a bow and arrow.”), or if that just makes it worse that they don’t bother to fix the stupider bits.

Having grumbled about the handling of SCIENCE! in the previous installment, I will note that they get a half-point bonus this time out for nodding in the direction of specialization. They actually bring in an outside expert for some things, and in one scene Tony Stark admits that Bruce Banner is better at bioscience than he is. Which brings them up to, like 1.5/10 on the movie portrayal of science scale…

Of course, as I’m a huge nerd, I did inadvertently retcon one of the bits that made no sense, namely how they ended up over the ocean so that people falling down after the final battle landed in water. Which you could sorta-kinda try to attribute to the Earth’s rotation– that is, as the giant rock is boosted straight up, it continues rotating at the speed of the surface, which is not fast enough to keep pace with a point directly below it as the altitude increases. So, the Earth turns under it, and if you take their Ruritanian setting to be a Balkan country, that would carry you out over the Aegean Sea after a bit.

Of course, I suspect this doesn’t actually work, because all the characters can still breathe at maximum altitude (including the non-super-powered Avengers and the civilians they’re trying to save), and thus they aren’t high enough for the speed difference to add up to much. Also, this is a universe where in the first Captain America movie it takes, like, fifteen minutes to fly from somewhere in the Alps into the remote Arctic, so maybe Marvel Europe is just a tiny archipelago of island nations.

At a much more general level, I remain pretty down on the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe project. Admittedly, this opinion is enhanced this morning by the fact that the two guys sitting to my left in the theater were big Marvel fanboys, and their delighted exclamations over tie-ins to other movies and comics got steadily louder and more distracting over the course of the movie. But ultimately, I’ve never been a comic-book guy, so the stuff that the massive tie-in structure adds for comic-book fans holds little appeal for me. Certainly not enough to make up for the problems it inflicts on the movie, which packs eight pounds of…plot into a five-pound bag. The need to find character moments for all of the over-stuffed cast makes the movie way too busy, and the need to tie into whatever grand cosmic plot is supposed to be going on without further bogging the movie down leads to thuddingly awful scenes like Thor’s highly abbreviated Infinity Stones infodump.

Strip out the cosmic stuff, cut the team in half, and you have the elements of a really good movie here. Working within the strictures of the Marvel universe, though, it maxes out at… fine. It’s very good for what it is, but what it is isn’t a thing I particularly want.

In other “not what I want” movie news, the set of godawful trailers inflicted on us before this included one for the Superman vs. Batman movie. And, you know, grimdark is as much a valid stylistic choice as the cornball platitudes that form the core of the Marvel movies, but if we must have comic-book movies built around these opposing aesthetics, I’d really kind of like some that don’t dive headfirst into self-parody.

Anyway, those are my reactions, for what little they’re worth. Thus, I have met the statutory requirements to keep my blogging license for another year…

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1IC1eIP

Air Force of the Future to Include Hot Cyber Jobs

In the future, the U.S. Air Force’s core missions will probably not change, but the way they are carried out will, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III (Photo: Scott M. Ash/U.S. Air Force)

Welsh, speaking to the Defense Writers Group on April 8, said the Air Force’s missions include air and space superiority, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike and command and control.

Those missions “are what the joint force requires to be successful,” the general said.

Hot Jobs
New technologies, new methods and new domains will change the way airmen do their jobs, Welsh said.

“The hot jobs will probably be in the cyber domain [and] they will be in remotely piloted aircraft,” he said.

The remotely piloted aircraft career field is growing leaps and bounds, the general said. Airmen currently working in this field, he said, are figuring out what the technology can do and how it can be worked into today’s and tomorrow’s service.

“Many of them came in to do this, which is a change from 10 years ago,” Welsh said. “They are really excited about the potential and what it brings.”

These airmen are working to figure how to work remotely piloted aircraft with manned aircraft, he said, and they are the ones figuring how microminiaturization technology can be used and what it will bring to the table.

Building on Air Force Traditions
But there will be more traditional jobs, too, Welsh said with a smile.

“We’re going to get the same kind of people who we’ve gotten for years,” the general said. “They want to fly the F-22, the F-35, the X-wing fighter. Those people still want to come do this and we’ll have options for them in the future.”

Some of the systems the Air Force has in the current inventory will still be in use in 2035, but what is carried aboard these platforms will bring new capabilities to the service, the joint force and the nation, Welsh said.

“A lot of how the Air Force looks will depend on what the budget looks like and what the economy looks like,” he said. “It could look a lot more robust, it could look a lot more modern, or it could look like it does today. The danger is that we settle for that. That won’t be good for us.”

Story and information provided by DoD News
Follow Armed with Science on Facebook and Twitter!
———-

Disclaimer: The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense. For other than authorized activities, such as, military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation sites, the Department of Defense does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this DoD website.

from Armed with Science http://ift.tt/1I7zn4e

In the future, the U.S. Air Force’s core missions will probably not change, but the way they are carried out will, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III (Photo: Scott M. Ash/U.S. Air Force)

Welsh, speaking to the Defense Writers Group on April 8, said the Air Force’s missions include air and space superiority, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike and command and control.

Those missions “are what the joint force requires to be successful,” the general said.

Hot Jobs
New technologies, new methods and new domains will change the way airmen do their jobs, Welsh said.

“The hot jobs will probably be in the cyber domain [and] they will be in remotely piloted aircraft,” he said.

The remotely piloted aircraft career field is growing leaps and bounds, the general said. Airmen currently working in this field, he said, are figuring out what the technology can do and how it can be worked into today’s and tomorrow’s service.

“Many of them came in to do this, which is a change from 10 years ago,” Welsh said. “They are really excited about the potential and what it brings.”

These airmen are working to figure how to work remotely piloted aircraft with manned aircraft, he said, and they are the ones figuring how microminiaturization technology can be used and what it will bring to the table.

Building on Air Force Traditions
But there will be more traditional jobs, too, Welsh said with a smile.

“We’re going to get the same kind of people who we’ve gotten for years,” the general said. “They want to fly the F-22, the F-35, the X-wing fighter. Those people still want to come do this and we’ll have options for them in the future.”

Some of the systems the Air Force has in the current inventory will still be in use in 2035, but what is carried aboard these platforms will bring new capabilities to the service, the joint force and the nation, Welsh said.

“A lot of how the Air Force looks will depend on what the budget looks like and what the economy looks like,” he said. “It could look a lot more robust, it could look a lot more modern, or it could look like it does today. The danger is that we settle for that. That won’t be good for us.”

Story and information provided by DoD News
Follow Armed with Science on Facebook and Twitter!
———-

Disclaimer: The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense. For other than authorized activities, such as, military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation sites, the Department of Defense does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this DoD website.

from Armed with Science http://ift.tt/1I7zn4e

Full moon up all night on May 3-4

Tonight – May 3, 2015 – the May 2015 full moon counts as the second full moon after the March 20 equinox. In North America, we often call this particular full moon the Flower Moon, Milk Moon or Planting Moon.

In the Southern Hemisphere, this full moon could possibly be called the Frosty Moon. After all, the March equinox is the Southern Hemisphere’s autumn equinox.

Help support EarthSky! Visit the EarthSky store for to see the great selection of educational tools and team gear we have to offer.

Although the moon will appear full all night long tonight, the full moon really happens at a well-defined instant, turning precisely full on May 4, at 3:42 Universal Time. At US time zones, that means the moon turns full this evening, on May 3, at 11:42 p.m. EDT, 10:42 p.m. CDT, 9:42 p.m. MDT or 8:42 p.m. PDT.

Share your photo of this full moon on Facebook, Twitter or G+ with the hashtag #earthskyfullmoon.

Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!

Day and night sides of Earth at the instant of the May 2015 full moon (May 4 at 3:42 Universal Time). The shadow line running through North America represents sunset (May 3) and the shadow line crossing Europe and Africa depicts sunrise (May 4). Image credit: EarthView

As evening deepens, watch for the planet Saturn to follow the moon over the eastern horizon by early-to-mid evening – and then for Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, to follow Saturn into the sky before your bedtime. The moon will be closer to Saturn tomorrow night, on May 4.

At the vicinity of full moon, the moon resides pretty much opposite the sun in Earth’s sky. So watch for the moon to rise in the east-southeast around sunset on May 3, climb highest up for the night around midnight and to sit low in the west-southwest before sunrise May 4.

Bottom line: Look for the full moon to light up the nighttime from dusk until dawn on the night of May 3-4.

EarthSky astronomy kits are perfect for beginners. Order today from the EarthSky store

Donate: Your support means the world to us

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1Pftbpv

Tonight – May 3, 2015 – the May 2015 full moon counts as the second full moon after the March 20 equinox. In North America, we often call this particular full moon the Flower Moon, Milk Moon or Planting Moon.

In the Southern Hemisphere, this full moon could possibly be called the Frosty Moon. After all, the March equinox is the Southern Hemisphere’s autumn equinox.

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Although the moon will appear full all night long tonight, the full moon really happens at a well-defined instant, turning precisely full on May 4, at 3:42 Universal Time. At US time zones, that means the moon turns full this evening, on May 3, at 11:42 p.m. EDT, 10:42 p.m. CDT, 9:42 p.m. MDT or 8:42 p.m. PDT.

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Day and night sides of Earth at the instant of the May 2015 full moon (May 4 at 3:42 Universal Time). The shadow line running through North America represents sunset (May 3) and the shadow line crossing Europe and Africa depicts sunrise (May 4). Image credit: EarthView

As evening deepens, watch for the planet Saturn to follow the moon over the eastern horizon by early-to-mid evening – and then for Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, to follow Saturn into the sky before your bedtime. The moon will be closer to Saturn tomorrow night, on May 4.

At the vicinity of full moon, the moon resides pretty much opposite the sun in Earth’s sky. So watch for the moon to rise in the east-southeast around sunset on May 3, climb highest up for the night around midnight and to sit low in the west-southwest before sunrise May 4.

Bottom line: Look for the full moon to light up the nighttime from dusk until dawn on the night of May 3-4.

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