World’s largest floating wind farm will be installed in Scotland with oil money

Offshore wind has come a long way in recent years, in large part because of how heavily the UK has invested in the technology. But most of this development has been with conventional wind technology, which requires that the turbines be mounted to the seafloor or lakebed in relatively 

shallow water.

The world’s largest floating offshore wind development will be installed off the coast of Peterhead after the application has been granted a marine licence by the Scottish Government. It is expected that the Hywind Scotland development could power up to 19,900 houses.

Norwegian Statoil propose developing a pilot park of five floating 6 MW turbines which is to be located approximately 25km off the coast of Peterhead with a generating capacity of 135GWh of electricity each year.

Unlike conventional turbines, Hywind turbines will be attached to the seabed by a three-point mooring spread and anchoring system. The turbines will be connected by an inter-array of cables and an export cable will transport electricity from the pilot park to shore at Peterhead.

“The ability to leverage existing infrastructure and supply chain capabilities from the offshore oil and gas industry create the ideal conditions to position Scotland as a world leader in floating wind technology.”

“Successfully developing floating turbines could enable Scotland to secure even more clean energy from offshore wind in the future. With the right political support for offshore wind and other renewable technologies, Scotland is well placed to become the EU’s first renewable electricity nation by 2030.Floating turbines have many attractive benefits, according to Renewable Energy World.

Another benefit is that floating platforms can generally be commissioned and assembled at the quayside, without the need for heavy-lift jackup or dynamic positioning (DP) vessels, further reducing the cost and risk of deployment activities.

“Eliminating offshore lifting operations also provides for decreased weather window restrictions on installation.” 

The fact that foundations are not necessary with floating technology also means that piling activities and sea life disturbance can be minimized—greatly reducing negative environmental impacts. Moreover, reduced geotechnical requirements mean that core sampling is only needed to test the seabed ahead of appropriate anchor selection, as opposed to the necessity of core sampling at every pile site.

According to research from the Carbon Trust, floating wind turbines could reduce the price of offshore wind to less than $150 megawatt-hours (MWh), and larger projects such as Hywind may drop the price even lower to $130-145 MWh. The current average price is $172 MWh.

“Floating wind represents a new, significant and increasingly competitive renewable energy source,” A key advantage of using floating wind platforms is that they allow developers access to previously inaccessible waters where there is stronger yet less turbulent winds—helping to reduce the overall cost of wind energy.


http://ecowatch.com/2015/11/03/floating-wind-farm-scotland
http://www.offgridquest.com/energy/wind-power
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk

Friends!!!Do U want to know RECENT observations about OUR MAIN SOURCE of LIFE&ENERGY--SUN!!!

ESA'S FLEET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Depicts: ESA Solar System missions

Copyright: ESA

This poster depicts the fleet of ESA spacecraft that are exploring the Solar System.

Depicts: ESA astrophysics missions

Copyright: ESA

This poster depicts the astrophysics missions of ESA and their observational coverage across the electromagnetic spectrum.

http://sci.esa.int/education

SDO - Mission Overview

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will be taking a closer look at the Sun, the source of all Space Weather. Space Weather affects not only our lives here on Earth, but the Earth itself, and everything outside its atmosphere (astronauts and satellites out in space and even the other planets).
The Sun, our closest star, is still a great mystery to scientists. SDO will help us understand where the Sun's energy comes from, how the inside of the Sun works, and how energy is stored and released in the Sun's atmosphere... yes, the Sun has an atmosphere! By better understanding the Sun and how it works, we will be able to better predict and better forecast the "weather out in space" providing earlier warnings to protect our astronauts and satellites floating around out there.

Many satellites share a ground system (place on the ground where they send data and photographs) and have recording systems to save the data collected until they can talk to their ground station. Because SDO has no recording system and will be collecting so much data, the SDO mission has to build its very OWN ground station. For this to be possible, SDO has to be placed in a geosynchronous orbit (GEO). This means that it will rotate at the same speed as the Earth and will always be directly above and in constant communication with its ground station in New Mexico.


Hefty Prominence Eruption Observed by SDO
watch the VIDEO
https://youtu.be/QdXB07FAJpk

A mass of solar material gathered itself into a twisting mass, spun around for a bit, then rose up and broke apart over a 10-hour period on Oct. 13, 2015. Prominences are unstable clouds of gas tethered above the surface of the sun by magnetic forces. 

Coronal Hole Front and Center

Fast Solar Wind Causes Aurora Light Shows

The dark area across the top of the sun in this image is a coronal hole, a region on the sun where the magnetic field is open to interplanetary space, sending coronal material speeding out in what is called a high-speed solar wind stream. The high-speed solar wind originating from this coronal hole, imaged here on Oct. 10, 2015, by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, created a geomagnetic storm near Earth that resulted in several nights of auroras. This image was taken in wavelengths of 193 Angstroms, which is invisible to our eyes and is typically colorized in bronze.

NASA's SDO Sees Sun Emit Mid-Level Flare Oct. 1


NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the lower right limb of the sun – at 8:12 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1, 2015. The image is a blend of three wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light that have been colorized.

Credits: NASA/SDO

SDO Views Active Region Loops

Credit: NASA/SDO

NASA's SDO Captures Image of Mid-Class Solar Flare

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the lower right hand side of the sun – on Sept. 28, 2015. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extraordinarily hot material in flares and which is typically colorized in red.

Credits: NASA/SDO

SDO Sees 3 Coronal 'Holes'

Coronal holes are areas where the sun's magnetic field lines extend out into space and don't return to the sun.  This creates what's called an open magnetic field, which is a source of solar particles streaming off the sun, known as the solar wind.

NASA's SDO Catches a Double Photobomb

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of Earth and the moon transiting the sun together on Sept. 13, 2015. The edge of Earth, visible near the top of the frame, appears fuzzy because Earth’s atmosphere blocks different amounts of light at different altitudes. On the left, the moon’s edge is perfectly crisp, because it has no atmosphere. This image was taken in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 171 angstroms. Though this light is invisible to our eyes, it is typically colorized in gold.

Credits: NASA/SDO

SDO Captures Images Of Mid-Level Solar Flares

NASA's SDO captured images of three mid-level solar flares March 7-9, 2015, all from the same active region on the surface of the sun, sunspot AR2297. This image of the flares shows a wavelength of EUV light that highlights the intense heat of a solar flare and that is typically colorized in teal.

Credits: NASA/SDO

NASA's SDO Shows Moon Transiting the Sun

The moon partially obscured the view of the sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, on Nov. 22, 2014. This lunar transit was visible only from SDO's point of view.

Credits: NASA/SDO

This animated gif shows how the moon passes in between NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the sun, partially obscuring the view.

Credits: NASA/SDO

By blending different SDO wavelengths, we can get an enhanced image of the sun. The left image was taken in 304 wavelength, the middle in 171 wavelength, and the right shows the blended result.

Credits: NASA/SDO

SUNRISE Offers New Insight on Sun's Atmosphere

The right image shows an image captured by the Sunrise balloon-borne telescope of a region of the chromosphere in close proximity to two sunspots. It serves as a close up of the left images, which were captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The images were taken on July 16, 2013.

Credits: NASA/SDO/MPS

Two images of the chromosphere as captured by the Sunrise solar observatory that flew on a NASA balloon in July 2013. On the left a typical pattern can be seen: dark areas surrounded by bright rims. On the right, the images show bright, stretched structures on the edges of the darker sunspots.

Credits: MPS

Why NASA Studies the Ultraviolet Sun

Spacecraft record solar activity as a binary code, 1s and 0s, which computer programs can translate into black and white. Scientists colorize the images for realism, and then zoom in on areas of interest.

Credits: NASA/Karen Fox

Four of the telescopes on the Solar Dynamics Observatory observe extreme ultraviolet light activity on the sun that is invisible to the naked eye.

Credits: NASA/SDO

The Solar Dynamics Observatory observed a solar flare (upper left) and a coronal mass ejection (right) erupting from the sun’s limb in extreme ultraviolet light on August 6, 2010.

Credits: NASA/SDO

FRIENDS!!!!! The Sun, our closest star, is still a great mystery to scientists help us understand where the Sun's energy comes from, how the inside of the Sun works, and how energy is stored and released in the Sun's atmosphere to better predict and better forecast the "weather out in space" providing earlier warnings to protect our astronauts and satellites floating around out there!

For more information
http://www.nasa.gov/content

Watch Fascinating Illusions and Pareidolia--Top 10 Weirdest Mars Illusions and Pareidolia

Pareidolia  is a psychological phenomenon involving a stimulus (an image or a sound) wherein the mind perceives a familiar pattern where none actually exists.

Pareidolia can cause people to interpret random images, or patterns of light and shadow, as faces. A psychological phenomenon that stimulates a vague perception is known as Pareidolia. The word ‘Pareidolia’ comes from the Greek language and it means ‘wrong image’. It can be anything that triggers the brain to misperceive the most random image in our surroundings, which can be as random as seeing a face in the clouds, a rabbit in the moon or hearing a hidden message when a recorded audio is played in reverse. Such strange coincidences are inevitable and are impossible to resist.

This occurrence was first associated with psychotic people, but today scientists describe it as a natural tendency of human beings to search for meanings in our environment, since they are hardwired in our brains. Our brains have the ability to distinguish a face from any irrelevant objects in just one-fifth of a second. This activity is performed in an area of the brain called the fusiform gyrus, which arouses the need to recognize familiarly acquainted images. Sometimes, these illusions can be so convincing that people are compelled to turn illusions into delusions.

Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations, the "man in the moon", the "moon rabbit", and hidden messages within recorded music played in reverse or at higher- or lower-than-normal speeds.

Top 10 Weirdest Mars Illusions and Pareidolia

Ever since Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli described his discovery of canals on Mars in 1877 and American astronomer Percival Lowell started to map them, we humans have been fascinated with the Red Planet. Although the canals were nothing more than a case of mistaken identity and our technology has come a long way since Schiaparelli and Lowell's telescopes, Mars continues to serve up its fair share of illusions, hoaxes and misunderstandings.In the case of Mars, pareidolia makes us see bigfoot, parrots, flowers and faces in the otherwise barren orange landscape.

10) A Volcanic Elephant

"The Mars Elephant" -- NASA Mars Reconnassance Orbiter (HiRISE), 2012 NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. OF ARIZ

9) Rolling Stones Logo

Rolling Stones Logo -- NASA Mars Reconnassance Orbiter (HiRISE), 2011 NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. OF ARIZ.

8) The "Morchid"

The Mars Flower' -- NASA Mars Science Laboratory, 2012 NASA/JPL-CALTECH

7) The Smiling Crater

The Smiling Crater" -- NASA Mars Global Surveyor, 1999 NASA

6) A Dead Parrot

"The Mars Parrot" -- NASA Mars Global Surveyor, 2002 NASA/JPL-CALTECH

5) Alien Artifacts

Alien artifacts? -- NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, 2008 NASA/JPL-CALTECH

4) Bigfoot! (Littlefoot?)

"Mars Bigfoot" (a.k.a. "Mars Yeti") -- NASA Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, 2008 NASA/JPL-CALTECH

3) The Tree-Lined Hills of Mars

Trees on Mars? -- NASA Mars Reconnassance Orbiter (HiRISE), 2011 NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. OF ARIZ.

2) Mars Rat, Possibly a Gopher

The Mars Rat" -- NASA Mars Science Laboratory, 2012 NASA/JPL-CALTECH

1) The Face of Mars

'The Face of Mars' -- NASA Viking 1 Orbiter, 1976 NASA/JPL-CALTECH

                            FRIENDS!!!!! Are they FASCINATING??????

So, the next time you see a face in your soup or a horse in the clouds, be sure it is nothing, but a Pareidolia occurring to you!

For more best Pareidolia images taken from our surroundings, which will definitely bring a smile on your face!!!!!
VISIT
http://www.fiboni.com/2013/09/pareidolia-illusions-at-their-best/


Ref;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia
http://news.discovery.com/space/history-of-space

FACEBOOK WILL BEAM INTERNET FROM SATELLITES TO AFRICA IN 2016

Until now, Facebook’s mission to beam internet connectivity to the world through its Internet.org philanthropic organization has been largely limited to piggy-backing on existing wireless networks on the ground. Sure, Facebook has tested Aquila, its experimental laser internet drone. But a huge announcement today by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg marks the first real piece of hardware that will bring internet to previously unconnected regions: a new satellite. That's right, Facebook is going to space.
In partnership with EutelSat, a satellite company with a current fleet of 39 machines orbiting our planet, Zuckerberg says Facebook will work to bring broadband internet to large swaths of sub-Saharan Africa by 2016.
That's right, Facebook is going to space.
The two companies will be using new hardware from Spacecom, specifically the AMOS-6 satellite, which is still under construction at the moment. When completed and launched (planned for 2016), the AMOS-6 will be able to transmit 36 high-throughput beams ranging from 26.5 to 40 GHz (Ka band) to Africa, and three 12-18 GHz (Ku band) beams to the Middle East and Europe.
As Zuckerberg writes: "to connect people living in remote regions, traditional connectivity infrastructure is often difficult and inefficient, so we need to invent new technologies."
However, the Spacecom website lists the satellite as launching over sub-Saharan Africa in Q4 of 2015, although the Facebook and EutelSat will use “the entire broadband payload” of the satellite. (We’ve reached out to Spacecom and will update when they get back to us.)
EutelSat already covers parts of Sub-Saharan Africa with lower-output Ku band satellites, but the partnership with Facebook will allow them to “step up” their involvement in the area. They already have three additional launches planned for 2016, which will put geostationary satellites over Brazil and Latin America.
Partnering with established satellite providers is a smart initial step for Facebook and Internet.org in their quest to expand online connectivity, if only because existent telecom satellite technology has been more time-tested than the whole "laser internet" drone idea. But the effort is undoubtedly ambitious, and, once again highlights the fact that Facebook has quickly evolved far beyond its social networking origins. After all, getting more people online means more potential users of Facebook's main website, and other consumer-facing products (Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus).

REF:
http://www.popsci.com