Suchergebnisse

Not all habitats are lush, green rainforests and deep, blue oceans. Visit any corner of Earth - from fiery volcanoes to gloomy caves - and you'll find oodles of living things! What's it like to live your whole life up a reindeer's nostril. How do you find everything you need when your habitat is a cowpat? This book invites readers to explore Earth's weirdest and most wonderful habitats and meet the creatures that call them home. Horrible Habitats is part of the Reading Planet Cosmos range of books from Hodder Education. Cosmos provides a vibrant collection of fiction and non-fiction books that will widen children's reading horizons. Reading Planet books have been carefully levelled to support children in becoming fluent and confident readers. Each book features useful notes and questions to support reading at home and develop comprehension skills. Reading age: 8-9 years.

Read about seven amazing entrepreneurs, from Boulton and Watt, who revolutionised the steam engine, to George Lucas, who transformed film-making. Learn more about the determination and resilience of these incredible people who have created many of the things we rely on and enjoy in our lives today. They continue to inspire many modern entrepreneurs who are equally determined to make their dream a reality. Game Changers: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs is part of the Reading Planet Cosmos range of books from Hodder Education. Cosmos provides a vibrant collection of fiction and non-fiction books that will widen children's reading horizons. Reading Planet books have been carefully levelled to support children in becoming fluent and confident readers. Each book features useful notes and questions to support reading at home and develop comprehension skills. Reading age: 8-9 years.

In this work, we analysed nadir observations of atmospheric infrared emissions carried out by VIRTIS, a high-resolution spectrometer on board the European spacecraft Venus Express. We focused on the ro-vibrational band of CO at 4.3 μm on the dayside, whose fluorescence originates in the Venus upper mesosphere and above. This is the first time that a systematic sounding of these non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) emissions has been carried out in Venus using this geometry. As many as 143,218 spectra have been analysed on the dayside during the period 14/05/2006 to 14/09/2009. We designed an inversion method to obtain the atmospheric temperature from these non-thermal observations, including a NLTE line-by-line forward model and a pre-computed set of spectra for a set of thermal structures and illumination conditions. Our measurements sound a broad region of the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere of Venus ranging from 10-10 mb (which in the Venus International Reference Atmosphere, VIRA, is approximately 100-150 km during the daytime) and show a maximum around 195 ± 10 K in the subsolar region, decreasing with latitude and local time towards the terminator. This is in qualitative agreement with predictions by a Venus Thermospheric General Circulation Model (VTGCM) after a proper averaging of altitudes for meaningful comparisons, although our temperatures are colder than the model by about 25 K throughout. We estimate a thermal gradient of about 35 K between the subsolar and antisolar points when comparing our data with nightside temperatures measured at similar altitudes by SPICAV, another instrument on Venus Express (VEx). Our data show a stable temperature structure through five years of measurements, but we also found episodes of strong heating/cooling to occur in the subsolar region of less than two days. ; J.P. and MA.L-V acknowledge the Spanish MICINN for funding support through the CONSOLIDER program >ASTROMOL> CSD2009-00038 and project AYA2011-23552. J.P. also thanks the JAXA International Top Young Fellowship program, GG thanks CNES postdoc contract and A.P. acknowledges funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant agreement No. 246556. ; Peer Reviewed

Photo shows "clearest image ever taken of Venus."

This research discusses how a cap and trade policy could be established in the US to reduce greenhouse emissions in order to avoid the expected disastrous consequences that these emissions might have on our planet. Cap and trade potentially embodies an effective political compromise that helps protect our planet as well as ensure economic prosperity. Cap and trade sets a limit on greenhouse emissions while allowing business to trade their emissions under free market rules. Cap and trade has been successfully implemented both internationally in Europe, as well as domestically in California. This project looks at implementing a similar model nationally which might lead to advantageous breakthroughs in reducing greenhouse emissions. Moreover, the project discusses the political feasibility and alternative policy pathways and measures that can be taken to pass this policy on a national level.

It is shown that most of the epicenters of marsquakes are located in the zones of extension and fairly large shear stresses associated with the deviation of Mars from hydrostatic equilibrium. Non-hydrostatic stresses in the interior of Venus are calculated for two types of models: an elastic model and a model with a lithosphere of varying thickness (150–500 km) overlying a weakened layer that has partially lost its elastic properties. Numerical modeling of the system of elastic equilibrium equations for a gravitating planet is carried out with a step of 1°×1° in latitude and longitude up to a depth of 480 km – the first phase transition zone in the mantle. The topography and the gravitational field of the planet are the boundary conditions of the problem. Overall, the level of nonhydrostatic stress on Venus is not very high. On the surface and in the crust, the highest shear stresses are observed in the region of the Maxwell Monte on Ishtar Terra. Beneath the Maxwell Monte, shear stresses in the crust reach 80 MPa and compressive stresses, 125–150 MPa, depending on the model. Tensile stresses around this region are about 20 MPa. The highest tensile stresses occur in the regions beneath structures such as Lavinia Planitia, Sedna Planitia, and Aino Planitia.

A detailed analysis is presented of ground-based observations of atmospheric emissions on Mars and Venus under non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) conditions at high spectral resolution. Our first goal is to comprehend the difficulties behind the derivation of wind speeds from ground-based observations. A second goal is to set a framework to permit comparisons with other observations and with atmospheric models. A forward model including non-LTE radiative transfer is used to evaluate the information content within the telescopic beam, and is later convolved with the beam function and a typical wind field to discern the major contributions to the measured radiance, including limb and nadir views. The emission mostly arises from the non-LTE limb around altitudes of 75 km on Mars and 110 km on Venus. We propose a parameterization of the limb emission using few geophysical parameters which can be extended to other hypothetical CO2 planetary atmospheres. The tropospheric or LTE component of the emission varies with the temperature and is important at low solar illumination but only for the emerging radiance, not for the wind determinations since these are derived from the Doppler shift at the non-LTE line cores. We evaluated the sources of uncertainty and found that the forward model errors amount to approximately 12% of the measured winds, which is normally smaller than the instrumental errors. We applied this study to revise a set of measurements extending for three Martian years and confirmed previous results suggesting winds that are too large simulated by current Martian circulation models at equatorial latitudes during solstice. We encourage new observational campaigns, particularly for the strong jet at mid-high latitudes on Mars, and propose general guidelines and recommendations for future observations. © 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. ; M.A.L.-V. was supported by the Spanish MINECO through the CONSOLIDER program ASTROMOL CSD2009-00038 and through the Spanish National Plan project AYA2011-30613-CO2-1. M.A.L.-V. also acknowledges support through the ESA project 4000106548/12/NL/AF devoted to maintenance of the Mars Climate Database and through the project UPWARDS-633127 under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020-Compet-08-2014). L.M. acknowledges support by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Grant to Support the Initiation of International Collaboration SO 879/2-1. ; Peer reviewed

While lightning activity in Venus is still controversial, its existence in Jupiter and Saturn was first detected by the Voyager missions and later on confirmed by Cassini and New Horizons optical recordings in the case of Jupiter, and recently by Cassini on Saturn in 2009. Based on a recently developed 3-D model, we investigate the influence of lightning-emitted electromagnetic pulses on the upper atmosphere of Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter. We explore how different lightning properties such as total energy released and orientation (vertical, horizontal, and oblique) can produce mesospheric transient optical emissions of different shapes, sizes, and intensities. Moreover, we show that the relatively strong background magnetic field of Saturn can enhance the lightning-induced quasi-electrostatic and inductive electric field components above 1000 km of altitude producing stronger transient optical emissions that could be detected from orbital probes.©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. ; This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, MINECO under projects ESP2013-48032-C5-5-R, ESP2015-69909-C5-2-R, and FIS2014-61774-EXP and by the EU through the FEDER program. F.J.P.I. acknowledges a PhD research contract, code BES-2014-069567. A.L. was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's H2020 programme/ERC grant agreement 681257. ; Peer Reviewed

This book is an informal, semi-autobiographical history, from the particular viewpoint of someone who was involved, of the exploration of the Solar System using spacecraft. The author is a Northumbrian, a Liverpudlian, a Californian, and an Oxford Don with half a century of experience of devising and deploying experiments to study the Earth and the planets, moons, and small bodies of the Solar System. Along with memories and anecdotes about his experiences as a participant in the space programme from its earliest days to the present, he describes in non-technical terms the science goals that drove the projects as well as the politics, pressures, and problems that had to be addressed and overcome on the way. The theme is the scientific intent of these ambitious voyages of discovery, and the joys and hardships of working to see them achieved. The narrative gives a first-hand account of things like how Earth satellites came to revolutionize weather forecasting, starting in the 1960s; how observations from space helped politicians like Margaret Thatcher to resolve the ozone layer crisis in the 1980s; and how the threat of climate change is being addressed by scientists today. The narrative extends to deep space missions to explore other worlds, to see how conditions on places as near as our neighbours Venus and Mars, and as far away as the rainy lakelands of Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan or the surface of a comet, relate to the origins of the Solar System and of life on Earth.

For more than twenty years, John Gray's Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus has helped couples deepen their intimacy and rejuvenate their love lives. Men and women, it revealed, communicate so differently, we might as well be from different planets. By learning to speak each other's language, millions of people dramatically improved, even saved, their relationships. But the world has changed. Today, what it means to be a man or a woman is more nuanced and complex than ever. Both men and women are now more free to move beyond the restrictions of traditional gender roles to embrace their authentic selves. But gender freedom shouldn't mean gender blindness. Men and women are still fundamentally different on a hormonal level. Our new needs in today's evolving and stressful fast-paced world—to remain healthy and happy hormonally, and in the context of their relationships—are also fundamentally different. As the roles of men and women evolve, relationships must evolve as well. To meet our new needs, we require a new kind of relationship. In Beyond Mars and Venus, Gray takes the Mars-Venus framework to the next level, helping readers to grow together in love. Through real-life examples and simple exercises, Beyond Mars and Venus shows you how to bring you and your partner closer than ever before

The vertical distribution of sulfur species in the Venus atmosphere has been investigated and discussed in Part I of this series of papers dealing with the variability of SO 2 on Venus. In this second part, we focus our attention on the spatial (horizontal) and temporal variability exhibited by SO 2 . Appropriate data sets – SPICAV/UV nadir observations from Venus Express, ground-based ALMA and TEXES, as well as UV observation on the Hubble Space Telescope – have been considered for this analysis. High variability both on short-term and short-scale are observed. The long-term trend observed by these instruments shows a succession of rapid increases followed by slow decreases in the SO 2 abundance at the cloud top level, implying that the transport of air from lower altitudes plays an important role. The origins of the larger amplitude short-scale, short-term variability observed at the cloud tops are not yet known but are likely also connected to variations in vertical transport of SO 2 and possibly to variations in the abundance and production and loss of H 2 O, H 2 SO 4 , and S x . ; Investigator Sandor was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant no. AST-1312985, and by NASA under Grant nos NNX10AB33G, NNX12AI32G and NNX14AK05G. F.P. Mills also acknowledges partial support under NASA Grant NNX12AI32G to Space Science Institute. The research program was supported in Belgium by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office and the European Space Agency (ESA, PRODEX program, contracts C 90268, 90113, and 17645). Some authors also recognize the support from the FP7 EuroVenus project (G.A. 606798). We acknowledge the support of the "Interuniversity Attraction Poles" program financed by the Belgian government (Planet TOPERS). This research was also supported by a BRAIN research grant BR/143/A2/SCOOP of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. A. Mahieux thanks the FNRS for the position of "chargé de recherche". O. Korablev, D. Belyaev acknowledge support from Roscosmos and the Russian Academy of Science (FANO). E. Marcq, F. Montmessin, F. Lefèvre and A. Stolzenbach acknowledge support from CNES and from the Programme National de Planétologie (PNP) of CNRS/INSU. Co-authors affiliated at IKI and LATMOS/CNRS acknowledge support from the FRRI #10-52-16011 in frames of Russian-French GDRI cooperation. S. Limaye acknowledges support for NASA Participating Scientist for Venus Express Grant # NNX09AE85G. C. D. Parkinson also acknowledges support with funding in part by NASA Grant #NNX11AD81G to the University of Michigan. Limaye acknowledges support for NASA Participating Scientist for Venus Express Grant # NNX09AE85G. The HST observations were obtained through NASA/HST program 12433. Support for this program was provided through a grant from Space Science Telescope Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NAS5-26555. Additional funding for the analysis of the HST observations was provided through funding from the NASA Early Careers Program, NASA Grant NNX11AN81G and the NASA Planetary Atmospheres Program, Grant NNX12AG55G. The authors would additionally like to acknowledge Adriana Ocampo, NASA Headquarters, John Grunsfield, NASA Headquarters, Alan Stern, SwRI, Claus Leither, Space Telescope Science Institute, and Håkan Svedhem, Venus Express Project Scientist for their support in the acquisition of the joint HST-Venus Express Venus Observing Campaign.

Recent observations of sulfur containing species (SO 2 , SO, OCS, and H 2 SO 4 ) in Venus' mesosphere have generated controversy and great interest in the scientific community. These observations revealed unexpected spatial patterns and spatial/temporal variability that have not been satisfactorily explained by models. Sulfur oxide chemistry on Venus is closely linked to the global-scale cloud and haze layers, which are composed primarily of concentrated sulfuric acid. Sulfur oxide observations provide therefore important insight into the on-going chemical evolution of Venus' atmosphere, atmospheric dynamics, and possible volcanism. This paper is the first of a series of two investigating the SO 2 and SO variability in the Venus atmosphere. This first part of the study will focus on the vertical distribution of SO 2 , considering mostly observations performed by instruments and techniques providing accurate vertical information. This comprises instruments in space (SPICAV/SOIR suite on board Venus Express) and Earth-based instruments (JCMT). The most noticeable feature of the vertical profile of the SO 2 abundance in the Venus atmosphere is the presence of an inversion layer located at about 70–75 km, with VMRs increasing above. The observations presented in this compilation indicate that at least one other significant sulfur reservoir (in addition to SO 2 and SO) must be present throughout the 70–100 km altitude region to explain the inversion in the SO 2 vertical profile. No photochemical model has an explanation for this behaviour. GCM modelling indicates that dynamics may play an important role in generating an inflection point at 75 km altitude but does not provide a definitive explanation of the source of the inflection at all local times or latitudes The current study has been carried out within the frame of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) International Team entitled 'SO 2 variability in the Venus atmosphere'. ; Investigator Sandor was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant no. AST-1312985, and by NASA under Grant nos. NNX10AB33G, NNX12AI32G and NNX14AK05G. F.P. Mills also acknowledges partial support under NASA Grant NNX12AI32G to Space Science Institute. The research program was supported in Belgium by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office and the European Space Agency (ESA, PRODEX program, contracts C 90268, 90113, and 17645). Some authors also recognize the support from the FP7 EuroVenus project (G.A. 606798). We acknowledge the support of the "Interuniversity Attraction Poles" program financed by the Belgian government (Planet TOPERS). This research was also supported by a BRAIN research grant BR/143/A2/SCOOP of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office. A. Mahieux thanks the FNRS for the position of "chargé de recherche". O. Korablev, D. Belyaev acknowledge support from Roscosmos and the Russian Academy of Science (FANO). E.Marcq, F. Montmessin, F. Lefèvre and A. Stolzenbach acknowledge support from CNES and from the Programme National de Planétologie (PNP) of CNRS/INSU. C. D. Parkinson also acknowledges support with funding in part by NASA Grant #NNX11AD81G to the University of Michigan. Limaye acknowledges support for NASA Participating Scientist for Venus Express Grant # NNX09AE85G. The HST observations were obtained through NASA/HST program 12433. Support for this program was provided through a grant from Space Science Telescope Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NAS5-26555. Additional funding for the analysis of the HST observations was provided through funding from the NASA Early Careers Program, NASA Grant NNX11AN81G and the NASA Planetary Atmospheres Program, Grant NNX12AG55G. The authors would additionally like to acknowledge Adriana Ocampo, NASA Headquarters, John Grunsfield, NASA Headquarters, Alan Stern, SwRI, Claus Leither, Space Telescope Science Institute, and Håkan Svedhem, Venus Express Project Scientist for their support in the acquisition of the joint HST-Venus Express Venus Observing Campaign.