Tracking air pollution disparities -- daily -- from space

Studies have shown that pollution, whether from factories or traffic-snarled roads, disproportionately affects communities where economically disadvantaged people and Hispanic, Black and Asian people live. As technology has improved, scientists have begun documenting these disparities in detail, but information on daily variations has been lacking. Today, scientists report preliminary work calculating how inequities in exposure fluctuate from day to day across 11 major U.S. cities. In addition, they show that in some places, climate change could exacerbate these differences.

The researchers will present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Air pollution levels can vary significantly across relatively short distances, dropping off a few hundred yards from a freeway, for example. Researchers, including Sally Pusede, Ph.D., have used satellite and other observations to determine how air quality varies on a small geographic scale, at the level of neighborhoods.

But this approach overlooks another crucial variable. "When we regulate air pollution, we don't think of it as remaining constant over time, we think of it as dynamic," says Pusede, the project's principal investigator. "Our new work takes a step forward by looking at how these levels vary from day to day," she says.

Information about these fluctuations can help pinpoint sources of pollution. For instance, in research reported last year, Pusede and colleagues at the University of Virginia found that disparities in air quality across major U.S. cities decreased on weekends. Their analysis tied this drop to the reduction of deliveries by diesel-fueled trucks. On weekends, more than half of such trucks are parked.

Pusede's research focuses on the gas NO_2, which is a component of the complex brew of potentially harmful compounds produced by combustion. To get a sense of air pollution levels, scientists often look to NO₂. But it's not just a proxy -- exposure to high concentrations of this gas can irritate the airways and aggravate pulmonary conditions. Inhaling elevated levels of NO₂ over the long term can also contribute to the development of asthma.

The team has been using data on NO₂ collected almost daily by a space-based instrument known as TROPOMI, which they confirmed with higher resolution measurements made from a similar sensor on board an airplane flown as part of NASA's LISTOS project. They analyzed these data across small geographic regions, called census tracts, that are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. In a proof-of-concept project, they used this approach to analyze initial disparities in Houston, and later applied these data-gathering methods to study daily disparities over New York City and Newark, New Jersey.

Now, they have analyzed satellite-based data for 11 additional cities, aside from New York City and Newark, for daily variations. The cities are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. A preliminary analysis found the highest average disparity in Los Angeles for Black, Hispanic and Asian communities in the lowest socioeconomic status (SES) tracts. They experienced an average of 38% higher levels of pollution than their non-Hispanic white, higher SES counterparts in the same city -- although disparities on some days were much higher. Washington, D.C., had the lowest disparity, with an average of 10% higher levels in Black, Hispanic and Asian communities in low-income tracts.

In these cities, as in New York City and Newark, the researchers also analyzed the data to see whether they could identify any links with wind and heat -- both factors that are expected to change as the world warms. Although the analysis is not yet complete, the team has so far found a direct connection between stagnant air and uneven pollution distribution, which was not surprising to the team because winds disperse pollution. Because air stagnation is expected to increase in the northeastern and southwestern U.S. in the coming years, this result suggests uneven air pollution distribution could worsen in these regions, too, if actions to reduce emissions are not taken. The team found a less robust connection with heat, though a correlation existed. Hot days are expected to increase across the country with climate change. Thus, the researchers say that if greenhouse gas emissions aren't reduced soon, people in these communities could face more days in which conditions are hazardous to their health from the combination of NO₂ and heat impacts.

Pusede hopes to see this type of analysis used to support communities fighting to improve air quality. "Because we can get daily data on pollutant levels, it's possible to evaluate the success of interventions, such as rerouting diesel trucks or adding emissions controls on industrial facilities, to reduce them," she says.

The researchers acknowledge support and funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Video: https://youtu.be/SbQ87rZq9MA

#Environment | https://sciencespies.com/environment/tracking-air-pollution-disparities-daily-from-space/

As Energy Costs Bite, Museums Rethink a Conservation Credo

Tight climate controls have become the norm to protect artworks and artifacts. But as heating and electricity prices soar, Europe’s museums administrators are wondering whether the rules need to be so strict.

Since the first public museums were founded in the 18th century, one of their main roles has been to protect the artworks and artifacts they display. More recently, many of these institutions have employed teams of highly trained conservators to ensure their old master paintings don’t crack, their metal sculptures don’t rust and their wooden artifacts don’t get moldy.

Most Western museums have also installed expensive and complex climate control systems to help preserve the works in their care. Those energy-guzzling technologies, including climate monitors, air conditioning units and dehumidifiers, normally whir away unnoticed, 24 hours a day.

But now, a growing awareness of the impact of those systems on the climate has led a number of major institutions to rethink their most fundamental conservation orthodoxies. And since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year sent gas and electricity prices in Europe sky high, turning what seemed like a far-off problem into an immediate danger to museum finances, some of the continent’s biggest museums are beginning to act.

The Guggenheim Bilbao predicts it will save about $21,800 a month, since it decided to allow a slightly wider range of temperatures and humidity levels.Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics, via Getty Images

Over the past year, major museums including the Guggenheim Bilbao, in Spain, and the Rijksmuseum, in the Netherlands, have relaxed their standards and recalibrated their systems to allow a wider range of temperatures and humidity levels in some galleries, saving them thousands of dollars a month. These museums have conducted months of trials that they say prove the changes don’t endanger items in their care.

Yet in the rooms where borrowed items are on show, the old, strict standards still apply. Loan agreements with other museums and private collectors mean those galleries must remain tightly climate controlled, hampering institutions in their quest to drive down energy bills and emissions.

Caitlin Southwick, the founder of Ki Culture, a sustainability consultancy for museums, said that lenders were simply following rules required by risk-averse conservators and insurance companies.

Along with museum administrators, they were passing the buck over who should act first, she added, and this had resulted in a deadlock. “You don’t want to be the conservator who says it’s OK to flip the switch, and all of a sudden your Picassos are melting,” Southwick said.

In 2021, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, the organization that runs many of Berlin’s major museums, announced a goal to become carbon neutral by 2035 — meaning its museums would need to slash their carbon dioxide emissions, including from air-conditioning systems. Gero Dimter, the foundation’s vice president, said that as energy prices soared in Germany last summer, his museums turned down their thermostats to around 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit (19 degrees Celsius). But the foundation’s museums were unable to make that temperature adjustment in some galleries containing loan items, Dimter said. Last year, the city’s Gemäldegalerie museum could not lower temperatures in an exhibition of works by Donatello because of loan contracts, which meant that it was warmer inside that show’s halls than in its big entrance hall. The museum was also having to maintain cozier temperatures for a forthcoming show of work by the 15th-century painter Hugo van der Goes, Dimter added.

The idea that art must be displayed in a climate-controlled environment is relatively new, said Southwick, a former stone conservator at the Vatican Museums. Masterpieces used to hang in unheated churches or palaces, she said. Some of the first museums to adopt climate-control technologies were in the United States, with the Yale University Art Gallery installing a steam-powered heating system in 1874.

Temperature and humidity controls became commonplace after World War II, Southwick added, especially after conservators at the British Museum and the National Gallery, in London, published a series of influential books prescribing the conditions to protect masterpieces in that chilly, damp city. Soon, those ideals “were taken out of context and applied everywhere,” Southwick said, adding that they eventually became the standard for museum loans.

Now, museums in Australia and Nigeria need to meet the same standards as museums in London and Pittsburgh to borrow works, Southwick said, even though the climates in those places are totally different.

Andreas Burmester, a retired director of the Doerner Institute, a scientific organization that conserves paintings owned by the state of Bavaria, in Germany, said that scientists and conservators had been debating for decades whether climate standards in museums could be safely loosened. Ten years ago, there was resistance to change, he said — including from himself. “My motto was ‘stable is safe,’” Burmester said. Today, he added, “the world’s changed” and conservators recognize that museums need to save money to cope with high energy prices.

“The Matter of Time” by Richard Serra, on display in an exhibition celebrating the Guggenheim Bilbao’s 25th anniversary.Ander Gillenea/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Guggenheim Bilbao is on track to save 20,000 euros (or about $21,800) a month, since it decided to allow a slightly wider range of temperatures and humidity levels, said Daniel Vega, one of the museum’s deputy directors. Since October, the Guggenheim has been celebrating its 25th anniversary with an exhibition of works from its own collection — meaning its galleries are now free from loan items. It took the opportunity to roll out the new standards in every gallery in the museum.

Those new standards will remain for future shows, Vega said: Lenders can take them, or leave them. All of the lenders for a forthcoming Joan Miró exhibition said they were happy with the changes, Vega said. But one European museum that had been lined up to send an Oskar Kokoschka painting for an upcoming retrospective was insisting on tighter climate controls. If that museum, which Vega declined to name, did not change its position soon, the Guggenheim would leave the work out of the show, he said.

“We are not going to go back on this strong statement,” Vega said.

Some museum organizations and governments are starting to act, too. In December, the British government, which sometimes acts as the insurer for state-funded museums, suspended minimum temperature requirements for works covered by its art insurance program, to help cash-strapped institutions save money during a cold winter. The suspension, which runs until Mar. 31, was “not expected to produce a negative impact on collections and loan items,” a government spokesman said in a statement. The German Museums Association last year also urged its members to use less air conditioning while energy prices remained high.

Southwick said that if electricity and gas bills stayed elevated, more insurers and museums would follow these moves. Five years ago, Southwick added, she was hopeful that museums would change their stringent climate standards “for the sake of the planet.” Now, she said, they’ve got to change them “for the sake of themselves, too.”

#Environment | https://sciencespies.com/environment/as-energy-costs-bite-museums-rethink-a-conservation-credo/

Bears May Rub Against Trees for Protection From Parasites

In experiments, scientists found that ticks avoid the tar of beech trees, which bears seem to have an affinity toward.

There are many reasons bears shimmy and scratch against trees. Sometimes they communicate by scent-marking trees, other times they’re removing hair and scratching that hard-to-reach itch. A new study posits an additional perk: slathering on nature-made tick repellent.

When bears wriggle against bark, the tree scratching posts leak out tars, resins and saps. The thick tar of beech trees sticks to fur and skin the longest, and it is water-resistant, making it a strong contender for an effective tick repellent.

Agnieszka Sergiel, a bear biologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences and an author of the study published last month in the Journal of Zoology, said animals seldom engage in complex behaviors such as rubbing against trees for a single reason.

“We see plenty of examples among mammals using self-medication,” she said. So, she and her colleagues decided to study whether rubbing against trees could protect bears against parasites.

For years, biologists have observed that brown and black bears have an affinity for certain types of trees — especially beech trees. The trees’ appeal is so strong that scientists use the sticky, strong scents of beech tar to attract bears for studies or to call them inside in zoos.

To test the hypothesis that beech tar is a tick repellent, Dr. Sergiel found herself staring at tube after tube of tar and trapped Dermacentor reticulatus, a widespread hard tick known to feast on bears. She watched to see if the ticks would run away from beech tar on one side and toward safe, plain water at the other end of the tube.

And run they did!

“It was really obvious they hated the beech tar,” said Agnes Blaise, a biologist at the University of Strasbourg in France and an author of the study. “Some were really speedy, running around and hiding under the water.”

The researchers also tested turpentine, a bear attractor, and the ticks despised it as well.

A tick attached to a bear.Taylor Miller

The only ticks that didn’t count, Dr. Sergiel added, were the ones that managed to escape the tube entirely.

“There were some Houdinis,” she said, “but they were good lab animals.”

The researchers focused on ticks for their study because they are geographically widespread and environmentally flexible — and because of climate change, spreading farther and remaining active longer. Ticks are also disease vectors, although scientists are still learning about what pathogens they spread to bears.

The simple result of beech tar not being popular with ticks provides the first experimental evidence supporting the longstanding idea that tree resins could act as a bug repellent.

The researchers “had a nice, tidy experiment that provided some pretty clear evidence” that ticks were avoiding beech tar, said Andrea Morehouse, an independent wildlife biologist in Alberta whose work focuses on bear-human interactions and was not involved in the study. “Repelling parasites is probably not the primary function of tree rubbing, but it certainly could be an additional benefit.”

Hannah Tiffin, an entomologist whose graduate research at Penn State University focused on ticks and bears, hadn’t heard of the idea of tree tar as insect repellent.

“I think it’s a really interesting route to go and could make sense,” she said.

Other animals in the wild use nature-provided bug repellents; for example, Capuchin monkeys studiously rub their fur with citrus and dolphins may treat their skin with coral. Your cat may even use catnip as a mosquito repellent. So it’s perfectly plausible that bears could do so, too, said Dr. Tiffin, who was not involved in the study and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

There’s still a lot to be learned about tar as a tick repellent, Dr. Sergiel noted. Building out the scarce data of parasites found on bears in the wild (including ticks) will be one of the most important steps to furthering this work, the researchers said. Collecting fur and resin samples from bears and testing parasites’ responses to those materials could also be useful, Dr. Tiffin added.

#News | https://sciencespies.com/news/bears-may-rub-against-trees-for-protection-from-parasites/

2023 Space and Astronomy News: What to Expect

As years in space and astronomy go, 2022 is going to be a tough act to follow.

NASA wowed us with cosmic scenes captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The DART mission slammed an asteroid into a new orbit. Artemis I set humanity on a course back to the moon. China finished building a new space station in orbit. SpaceX launched 61 rockets in 12 months. And the invasion of Ukraine imperiled Russia’s status as a space power.

It’s a lot to measure up to, but 2023 is bound to have some excitement on the launchpad, the lunar surface and in the sky. Once again, you can get updates on your personal digital calendar by signing up for The New York Times’s Space and Astronomy Calendar. Here are some of the major events you can expect. Not all of them have certain dates yet, but Times journalists will provide additional information as it emerges. Learn more at nytimes.com/spacecalendar

New Rockets

NASA got its giant Space Launch System off the ground for the first time in 2022, lighting up the night in Florida with an incredible stream of flame as it carried the Artemis I mission toward the moon. That shifted attention to SpaceX, which is building a next generation rocket, Starship, that is also central to NASA’s crewed Artemis III moon landing attempt.

SpaceX cleared a key environmental review that would allow it to launch an uncrewed orbital test flight from South Texas if it met certain conditions. But the rocket wasn’t ready for flight in 2022. The company has not announced a date for a test this year, but regular ground tests of Starship equipment indicate it is working toward one.

The pathfinder first stage of the Vulcan Centaur, a new rocket by United Launch Alliance that will eventually replace that company’s Atlas V.United Launch Alliance

Numerous other rockets may take flight for the first time in 2023. The most important, Vulcan Centaur by United Launch Alliance, will eventually replace that company’s Atlas V, a vehicle that has been central to American spaceflight for two decades. The Vulcan relies on the BE-4 engine built by Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos. The same engine will in turn be used in Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, which may have a test flight late this year.

A number of American private companies are expected to test new rockets in 2023, including Relativity and ABL. They could be joined by foreign rocket makers, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which could test Japan’s H3 rocket in February, and Arianespace, which is working toward a test flight of Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket.

New Lunar Landings

We’re guaranteed at least one lunar landing attempt in 2023. A Japanese company, Ispace, launched its M1 mission on a SpaceX rocket in December. It’s taking a slow, fuel-efficient route to the moon and is set to arrive in April, when it will try to deploy a rover built by the United Arab Emirates, a robot built by Japan’s space agency, JAXA, as well as other payloads.

There could be as many as five more lunar landing attempts this year.

NASA has hired a pair of private companies to carry payloads to the lunar surface. Both of them, Intuitive Machines of Houston and Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh, faced delays in 2022, but may make the trip in the coming months.

They could be joined by three government space programs’ lunar missions. India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission was delayed last year but could be ready in 2023. A Japanese mission, Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, aims to test the country’s lunar landing technologies. Finally, Russia’s Luna-25 mission was postponed from last September, but Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, may try this year.

New Space Telescopes

Scientists in 2019 at work with the European Space Agency’s Euclid spacecraft, which will study energy and dark matter. Its 2022 launch was postponed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.S. Corvaja/European Space Agency

The Webb telescope wowed space enthusiasts and scientists with its views of the cosmos, but we may get new vantages from a variety of orbital observatories.

The most significant may be Xuntian, a Chinese mission setting off later in the year that will be like a more sophisticated version of the Hubble Space Telescope. The spacecraft will survey the universe at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths in an orbit around Earth close to the country’s Tiangong space station.

A Japanese-led mission, XRISM, pronounced chrism, could launch earlier in the year as well. The mission will use X-ray spectroscopy to study clouds of plasma, which could help to explain the universe’s composition. A European space telescope, Euclid, may also launch on a SpaceX rocket after the Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in the spacecraft losing its seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket. It will study the universe’s dark energy and dark matter.

New Planetary Missions

A new spacecraft will head toward Jupiter this year, aiming to become the first to ever orbit another planet’s moon. The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, or JUICE, will launch from an Ariane 5 rocket as early as April 5 to set off to the Jovian system, arriving in 2031. Once it reaches the gas giant, it will move to conduct 35 flybys of three of the giant world’s moons: Callisto, Europa and Ganymede, all of which are believed to have subsurface oceans. In 2034, JUICE will begin orbiting Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system.

Heading closer to the sun will be Rocket Lab, a small launch company that was founded in New Zealand. It aims to use its Electron rocket to send a mission to Venus. The company’s Photon satellite will try to deploy a small probe, built with Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, that will briefly study the planet’s toxic atmosphere. The mission was planned for May, but it is expected to face delays while the company prioritizes missions for its other customers.

A Total Eclipse and a Not-So-Total One

There will be two solar eclipses in 2023.

A total eclipse on April 20 will be more of a Southern Hemisphere event, and the moon will only blot out the sun in remote parts of Australia and Indonesia. (Perhaps not a bad time to be on a boat in parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, too.)

But Americans may get a good show on Oct. 14, when North America will be visited by an annular eclipse. Eclipses of this type are sometimes called “ring of fire” eclipses because the moon is too far from Earth to fully block the sun but creates a ring-like effect when it reaches totality. The eclipse’s path runs through parts of Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas before dipping into Central and South America. Where the weather cooperates, it should be a great solar show and a nice lead up for the April 8, 2024 total eclipse that will cross the United States from southwest to northeast.

#Space | https://sciencespies.com/space/2023-space-and-astronomy-news-what-to-expect/

Ancient Egyptians used exotic oils from distant lands to make mummies

A workshop used for mummification at Saqqara in Egypt contains remnants of the substances used to make mummies, revealing many came from southern Africa or South-East Asia

Humans



1 February 2023

By Michael Marshall

Illustration of the underground embalming workshop in Saqqara in ancient Egypt

Nikola Nevenov

An underground workshop found at an ancient Egyptian burial site contains ceramic vessels with traces of the substances used to make mummies. They include resins obtained from as far away as India and South-East Asia, indicating that ancient Egyptians engaged in long-distance trade.

“We could identify a large diversity of substances which were used by the embalmers,” says Maxime Rageot at the University of Tübingen in Germany. “Few of them were locally available.”

The workshop, dating from around 600 BC, was discovered in 2016 at Saqqara, which was the burial ground of Egyptian royalty and elites for centuries. “It was used as an elite cemetery from the very earliest moment of the Egyptian state,” says Elaine Sullivan at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who wasn’t involved in the study.

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Close to the pyramid of Unas, archaeologists led by Ramadan Hussein, also at the University of Tübingen, found two vertical shafts dug into the ground. One was 13 metres deep and led to the embalming workshop, while the other was 30 metres deep and led to burial chambers. Hussein died in 2022.

It is the first Egyptian embalming workshop to be found underground, says team member Susanne Beck at the University of Tübingen. This may have been to keep the process secret, but it also had the advantage of keeping decaying bodies cool.

In the workshop, the team found 121 beakers and bowls. Many were labelled: sometimes with instructions like “to put on his head”, sometimes with names of embalming substances and sometimes with administrator titles.

Vessels from the embalming workshop

© Saqqara Saite Tombs Project, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.

The researchers chose the nine beakers and 22 bowls with the most legible labels for analysis. They studied the chemical residues left in the bowls to find out what substances had been used during embalming and mummification.

A host of substances, including plant oils, tars, resins and animal fats, were discovered. Two examples were cedar oil and heated beeswax. Many of the substances were known to be used in mummification, but some were new.

One new substance was dammar, a gum-like resin obtained from trees in India and South-East Asia. The name “dammar” is a Malay word.

The team also found elemi: a pale yellow resin resembling honey that comes from trees in the rainforests of South Asia and southern Africa.

The dammar and elemi show that Egyptian embalming drove early globalisation, says Philipp Stockhammer at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, another member of the team. “You really needed to transport these resins over large distances.” It fits with other evidence of long-distance trade at the time.

The ancient Egyptian elite liked exotic goods as much as modern capitalists, says Sullivan. At times when the state was powerful and organised, “we see a great interest in the outside world and in connections to the outside world and bringing those things from the outside world together”.

Stockhammer and Sullivan both say that the substances were transported by chains of traders. “The Egyptians don’t have to be going to the eastern side of India themselves,” says Sullivan.

The researchers were also able to translate two new words. Many texts on mummification refer to antiu and sefet. The former had been tentatively translated as “myrrh” or “incense”, and the latter as “a sacred oil”. However, because they were written on pieces of pottery with residue inside, it was possible to identify them. It turns out antiu is a mixture of oils or tars from conifers. Meanwhile, sefet is an unguent – an ointment or lubricant – containing plant additives.

Many of the substances had antibacterial and antifungal properties, and were combined into elaborate mixtures. For Stockhammer, the complexity of the substances displays “enormous personal knowledge that was accumulated through these centuries of experience of embalming human individuals”.

That fits with textual evidence that priests tasked with embalming were important people with considerable skill, says Sullivan. “They would have needed to have a lot of ritual knowledge and a lot of material knowledge,” she says. The body had to be preserved physically and rites had to be performed correctly according to the Egyptian religion. It was “both a spiritual and physical practice”.

More on these topics:

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Administration Expected to Endorse Limited Drilling in Alaska Project

An environmental review expected soon would effectively signal that the Willow project proceed, according to people familiar with the report.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is expected to propose a scaled-down version of a sprawling oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, according to two people familiar with the decision. The proposal would allow drilling to proceed on a limited basis as part of an $8 billion project known as Willow that climate activists have criticized for years.

The project, led by ConocoPhillips, has the potential to eventually unlock 600 million barrels of crude oil. Opponents say the decision undermines the Biden administration’s promises to cut fossil-fuel use in order to limit the damage from climate change.

The Bureau of Land Management in Alaska is preparing to say that it has selected a “preferred alternative” for development on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska that calls for curtailing the project from five drill sites to three, according to one person who viewed the draft report in recent days, and a second who was independently briefed on the report’s contents. Both requested anonymity to discuss the details of the plan.

The BLM’s action, which is expected in the coming days, is an environmental analysis that includes options that range from permitting five drill sites (the outcome sought by ConocoPhillips) to not allowing drilling at all. It does not represent a final decision by the government, but it would effectively be a recommendation to proceed with a scaled-back drilling operation.

Separately, BLM and White House officials are considering additional measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and environmental harm, such as delaying permitting decisions for one of the drill sites and planting trees, according to one of the two people familiar with the plan.

The Biden Administration’s Environmental Agenda

• Colorado River: The seven states that rely on water from the shrinking river are unlikely to agree to voluntarily make deep reductions in their water use, which would force the Biden administration to impose cuts.
• Mining Ban: A 20-year moratorium on new mining activity for more than 225,000 acres of federal land in Minnesota could deal a fatal blow to a proposed Twin Metals copper-nickel mine.
• Logging in Alaska: The Biden administration banned logging and road-building on about nine million acres of the Tongass National Forest, North America’s largest temperate rainforest.
• A Struggling E.P.A.: Despite an injection of funding, the Environmental Protection Agency is still reeling from an exodus of scientists and policy experts during the Trump administration.

The Interior Department’s final decision is expected to be issued in the next month or so. That decision will ultimately be made in the White House by President Biden’s top advisers, several administration officials said.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The move to allow some drilling is widely considered a balancing act as the Biden administration seeks a middle ground between its climate change goals and pressure from the oil industry, as well as Alaska lawmakers. Willow is a particular priority for Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a moderate Republican who is frequently the most likely senator to break with her party and support Democratic appointees and some policy compromises.

Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska said she was concerned about the impact of climate, while also noting that Alaska relies financially on revenue from taxes on oil and gas.Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

The politics are complex. Mr. Biden has urged oil companies to increase production amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which continues to threaten energy supplies. At the same time, the administration is overseeing $370 billion in wind, solar, electric vehicle and other clean energy investments to pivot the country away from fossil fuels.

To get those projects built, administration officials have said reforms to federal permitting laws are needed. But that effort has become deeply politicized, and some observers said moderate Republican lawmakers like Ms. Murkowski of Alaska might be able to help break a logjam.

“The Democrats’ Senate majority is still fragile, and they need to keep Lisa Murkowski open to voting with the Democrats on fundamental issues like the debt ceiling and budget and appropriations,” said Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University.

Climate activists called the environmental analysis a betrayal of President Biden’s campaign pledge to end new federal oil and gas leases. Over its lifetime, the project is expected to emit 278 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, at a time when scientists say the world must slash its carbon pollution dramatically to avoid catastrophe.

“It is incomprehensible how an administration that is as climate-conscious as this one could even be contemplating letting this project move forward,” said Abigail Dillen, the president of Earthjustice, an environmental group.

Time is also running out this year for drilling to start. ConocoPhillips has said it is hoping for a fast decision from the Biden administration that would allow initial construction to begin this winter. If spring sets in and warmer temperatures begin to melt the frozen roads, it could make it more difficult for crews to pass, and construction would have to be shelved for another year.

ConocoPhilips declined to comment on the environmental analysis until it is formally released.

Willow’s supporters, including Alaska’s congressional delegation, labor unions, building trades and some residents of the North Slope, argue that the project would bring much-needed crude oil to a market that is still seeking alternatives to Russian oil while bolstering America’s energy security. They also point out that it would create about 2,500 jobs and generate as much as $17 billion in revenue for the federal government.

Representative Mary Peltola, a Democrat who is the first Alaska Native in Congress, said she cared about the impact of climate change on Alaska, supported renewable energy and wanted to see fossil fuels phased out. But she also noted that 80 percent of Alaska’s revenues come from taxes on oil and gas operations, which is not income the state can afford to lose.

“Every Alaskan, without exception, can see with their own eyes the impacts of global climate change,” Ms. Peltola said in an interview, citing the growing trend of snowless winters. But, she added, “we still have to pay for education and public safety.”

Willow was initially approved by the Trump administration, and the Biden administration defended the approval in court. The project was then temporarily blocked by a judge, who said the prior administration’s environmental analysis was not sufficient and did not fully consider the potential harm to wildlife or the further impact on climate change.

#Environment | https://sciencespies.com/environment/administration-expected-to-endorse-limited-drilling-in-alaska-project/

Space and Astronomy in February: What to Expect

February’s space events start with a somber memorial.

The first of the month is the 20th anniversary of the Columbia disaster, when seven astronauts died as their space shuttle broke up during a return flight to Earth after 17 days in space. The cause of the accident  was insulating foam that fell off the shuttle’s external fuel tank during its ascent to space. The foam struck the shuttle’s left wing and damaged its heat shielding, which then failed 16 days later during atmospheric re-entry.

The final flight of Columbia was a scientific mission, prioritizing experiments conducted aboard the space shuttle in orbit at a time when the primary mission of many space shuttle missions involved construction and resupply of the International Space Station.

Six American crew members and one Israeli astronaut died in the Columbia descent. Read about them here: Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool and Ilan Ramon.

Journalists for The New York Times also captured the moments when the astronauts’ mission became imperiled and wrote about problems at NASA that contributed to the accident.

Green Light for a Comet

The comet C/2022 E3 (Z.T.F.) has been steadily approaching Earth for the first time in some 50,000 years. On Thursday, Feb. 2, the comet will make its closest approach to our planet, and its green-hued ice ball and tail will be visible from the Earth’s surface.

Even if weather foils opportunities to see the comet that day, there will be more chances to spot it, including on Feb. 10, when its proximity to Mars in the night sky may make it easy to find.

The International Space Station will have a busy month, receiving an empty Russian Soyuz capsule and a SpaceX spacecraft with a fresh crew of four astronauts.Roscosmos State Space Corporation, via Associated Press

Traffic at the Space Station

Late in the month, two spacecraft could pull up to the International Space Station, each with important missions.

The first, as early as Feb. 20, will be an empty Russian Soyuz capsule. The spacecraft’s mission is to provide a trip home for a trio of Russian and American astronauts whose original ride was damaged during what was probably a micrometeoroid strike in December. That crew of astronauts had been expected to return to Earth in March, but may stay in orbit several more months.

The progress of that flight could affect the timing of Crew-6, a launch of four astronauts to the I.S.S. aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vessel that is to replace the four astronauts of Crew-5. Flying aboard Crew-6 are Stephen Bowen and Warren Hoburg of NASA, Andrey Fedyaev of Russia and Sultan Alneyadi, who will be the second astronaut from the United Arab Emirates to visit the station.

New Rocket Progress

The first flights of new rockets (or first flights of existing rockets from new places) will be highlights of 2023.

January had a mixed start on this front. The company Rocket Lab had its first flight from a launchpad on Wallops Island in Virginia after earlier trips from its New Zealand home base. But an attempt by Virgin Orbit to launch the first orbital rocket from England failed. The company ABL Space Systems also experienced an “energetic explosion” during its first launch.

There are other rockets to keep an eye on in February. At the end of January, SpaceX completed a fueling test of Starship, its next generation orbital rocket prototype. The rocket is central to SpaceX’s ambitions of getting to Mars and NASA’s plans to get astronauts back on the moon. The company may next conduct a “static fire” this month — where the 33 engines on the rocket’s booster stage fire while the ship itself is held in place. If that succeeds, it could set up the rocket’s first flight to orbit in March.

Other launchers are also making progress. United Launch Alliance is preparing for the first flight of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket, which could fly during the first quarter of the year from Florida. Another company, Relativity Space, has also been on the launchpad in Florida with its Terran 1 rocket, and its first flight is expected soon.

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Russia to Launch Space Station Rescue Mission to Bring Astronauts Home

The capsule that carried three astronauts to orbit was damaged in December and will be replaced by another Soyuz spacecraft.

The Russian space agency said on Wednesday that it would send an empty Soyuz capsule to the International Space Station in February to replace a damaged spacecraft currently docked there.

“This is the next Soyuz that was scheduled to fly in March,” said Joel Montalbano, the space station program manager at NASA, during a news conference on Wednesday. “It’ll just fly a little earlier.”

The need for a new Soyuz arose after the one docked at the space station started spewing a spray of white particles on Dec. 14. The particles turned out to be coolant from the spacecraft, raising questions about whether part of the capsule could overheat during flight, rendering the craft unsafe to transport astronauts back to Earth.

A still image taken from a NASA video feed showed a spray of coolant emitting from the Soyuz spacecraft.NASA TV, via Reuters

The Soyuz is the only model of spacecraft Russia is using to transport astronauts to and from the I.S.S. The damaged vessel had arrived there in September, taking Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitriy Petelin of Russia and Frank Rubio of NASA to the space station. They had been scheduled to return to Earth in March, but the astronauts will now remain in orbit for several more months.

The next Soyuz, which would have carried three astronauts — two from Roscosmos, the state corporation that oversees Russia’s space industry, and one from NASA — will now launch with its seats empty on Feb. 20. After it reaches the space station, the damaged Soyuz will make a passengerless return to Earth, probably sometime in March. It is set to land at the usual return site in Kazakhstan, carrying some experiments and cargo.

After the leak occurred, astronauts used a camera at the end of a robotic arm on the space station to inspect the leak as engineers on the ground studied the damaged area.

Analysis indicated that with astronauts aboard, temperatures could rise to 100 degrees or hotter with high humidity within the confined space of the compromised Soyuz. That would not only pose dangers to the crew but could cause equipment like the Soyuz’s computer to malfunction.

Until the replacement Soyuz arrives, there is a higher level of risk in case of an emergency — like a large leak that might require an evacuation. The Soyuz and a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule serve as emergency lifeboats for the seven astronauts currently on the station. But officials were measured about the risks.

“I will tell you, there is no immediate need for the crew to come home today, that all the systems are operating,” Mr. Montalbano said.

During the news conference on Wednesday, Sergei Krikalev, executive director of the human spaceflight programs for Roscosmos, said the astronauts would try to remain on the station. In case of a leak, for example, they could close hatches to minimize the leak. But in some situations, the risk of returning in a damaged Soyuz would be lower than the risk of not leaving.

“The Soyuz is not good for nominal re-entry,” Mr. Krikalev said, “but in case of emergency, with extra risk, we are going to use this Soyuz.”

Mr. Montalbano said there had been discussions with SpaceX to see whether, for an emergency evacuation, it would be possible for one of the Soyuz crew to travel back to Earth in the Crew Dragon.

Mr. Krikalev said an investigation concluded that the damage was caused by a micrometeoroid about one millimeter in diameter that was traveling about seven kilometers a second, or more than 15,000 miles per hour. The micrometeoroid hit a radiator on the Soyuz, causing the coolant leak.

The location of the leak, at the end of the Soyuz farthest from the docking port, made it essentially impossible to attempt a repair in space. “You need not only to repair a hole but also to fill the radiator with a liquid, with a coolant,” Mr. Krikalev said. “And the procedure is so difficult and so risky that much less risk would be to just replace the vehicle.”

Mr. Krikalev said that based on the direction and speed, it could not have been a piece of orbital debris from a rocket part or some other human-made object. The question was prompted in part by a Russian antisatellite weapon test in November 2021 that created a debris cloud in orbit, which posed a risk to the space station.

“Some other object on this orbit cannot exist because if it has so high a velocity, it wouldn’t stay on this orbit,” Mr. Krikalev said. “It would leave this orbit.”

Mr. Montalbano said NASA agreed with that conclusion. “We are in the process of getting some additional imagery, but so far we are in concurrence with Roscosmos,” he said.

The shuffling of Soyuz crafts in February and March will also likely lead to NASA adjusting the schedule for other missions to the space station, including the next SpaceX Crew Dragon launch. “We’re going to take the next couple of weeks to kind of lay out the plan,” Mr. Montalbano said.

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