Weather!

[Chris Peterson]

Yesterday the weather here in Malmö was nice, and I was out walking in the parks downtown, taking many pictures with my fairly simple mobile phone.

Hmm. Springtime in Malmö. Here's Springtime in Guffey. Yesterday at 9am, today at 9am.
_

[Zenonion0]

Just in time for most of us to say "Finally spring", just for mother nature to take it all away, I think she might do that a couple more times this year, I remember it last a few years back, she did the same thing in the middle of spring

[Orca]

Ann - that's a really nice picture. It's cool that it was picked up by your local news. Two questions:
1. Is that a historic cemetery? Or perhaps historic plots the city has grown around? It's always interesting in older cities to find remnants of the past.
2. Are there a lot of waterways for paddle boating? That looks like fun...

Chris - without context I would have guessed that bottom picture was the dead of winter. That said, I suppose I shouldn't complain about a couple of "April morning ice scrapings" we had early this month. In the PNW we'll have some "perfect spring days" - that is, 65 - 70 and blue skies. But generally speaking, spring is a pretty consistent 45 - 55, mostly overcast with off/on precipitation.

[Ann]

Ann - that's a really nice picture. It's cool that it was picked up by your local news. Two questions:
1. Is that a historic cemetery? Or perhaps historic plots the city has grown around? It's always interesting in older cities to find remnants of the past.
2. Are there a lot of waterways for paddle boating? That looks like fun...

Chris - without context I would have guessed that bottom picture was the dead of winter. That said, I suppose I shouldn't complain about a couple of "April morning ice scrapings" we had early this month. In the PNW we'll have some "perfect spring days" - that is, 65 - 70 and blue skies. But generally speaking, spring is a pretty consistent 45 - 55, mostly overcast with off/on precipitation.

Malmö started out as a fishing village in about the 12th century, when the Strait of Öresund was teeming with fish, and the demand for fish was very high in Catholic Europe, where people typically ate fish on Fridays. And because of its geography, Malmö was an excellent fishing port.

The oldest building in Malmö is S:t Peter's Church (Petrikyrkan). It was finished in the early 14th century.

Malmö became rather important in the 16th century, when Jörgen Kock was mayor of Malmö and also the mint master of Denmark. (Malmö belonged to Denmark back then.)

Jörgen Kock's house from 1525 is one of the oldest buildings in Malmö:

The exterior of Jörgen Kock's house from 1525. Note the little madonna in the niche in the wall. When this house was built, Jörgen Kock and other dignitaries of Denmark had just proclaimed that Denmark was a Protestant country, and no one was allowed to worship the Madonna any more. Ah, but Jörgen Kock wanted a madonna for himself.

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Part of the interior of Jörgen Kock's hourse. This was the dining hall, and now it is a nice restaurant.

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I like this map of 16th century Malmö:

Malmö in the 16th century, surrounded by a city wall. In the upper part of the picture is the Strait of Öresund, full of warships. The castle, which also served as a fortress, is at far left. The big church is Saint Peter's Church. Malmö is called Elbogen, which means - as you might have guessed - the Elbow.

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The cemetery where I took the picture was built in 1820, so it is 200 years old. Before this cemetery existed, people were buried in a churchyard near Saint Peter's Church, and wealthy and important people were buried underneath the floor of the church! The stench on hot days was terrible!

Do we have a lot of waterways? Only downtown:

The blue stuff is the waterways. The old cemetery is the rather big green square at lower left, just below the street name 'Stora Nygatan'.

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Ann

[Orca]

Ann - thanks for the information, Malmö sounds like an interesting place. I have always been fascinated by the depth of history in so many places around the world. I had a boss that grew up in England and told me about walking along Roman roads or near Norman ruins. You read in the news about farmers digging in fields or construction workers in London finding artifacts from various periods.

While there were Native cultures here long ago, US history on the West Coast doesn't go that far back. Most of the older/established towns and cities in my state were founded in the first half of the 1800s. For us, any building that is more than, say, 120 years old is "old." Folks in Boston or New York would say, "hold my beer," and show us buildings that are 300+ years old. Across Europe they'd say, "hold my beer," and show off buildings that are 600+ years old. In Greece they'd say, "hold my beer" and show us structures from antiquity.

[Orca]

I went to a concert in Portland a couple of months ago. Walking from the parking space I walked past a large tree and noticed this plaque in front of it:

The city has grown all around the tree; it's flourished and become quite large. Which is pretty neat...nice work, Sylvester!

[Rauf]

I went to a concert in Portland a couple of months ago. Walking from the parking space I walked past a large tree and noticed this plaque in front of it:


PXL_20240211_205553559 (1).jpg


The city has grown all around the tree; it's flourished and become quite large. Which is pretty neat...nice work, Sylvester!

Wow. Do you have a picture of the tree itself?

[Fred the Cat]

I went to a concert in Portland a couple of months ago. Walking from the parking space I walked past a large tree and noticed this plaque in front of it:


PXL_20240211_205553559 (1).jpg


The city has grown all around the tree; it's flourished and become quite large. Which is pretty neat...nice work, Sylvester!

Wow. Do you have a picture of the tree itself?

Originally from that neck of the woods, I was curious too.

[Rauf]

I went to a concert in Portland a couple of months ago. Walking from the parking space I walked past a large tree and noticed this plaque in front of it:


PXL_20240211_205553559 (1).jpg


The city has grown all around the tree; it's flourished and become quite large. Which is pretty neat...nice work, Sylvester!

Wow. Do you have a picture of the tree itself?

Originally from that neck of the woods, I was curious too.

Thanks! Btw, it mentions that "based on its species and history, it will probably be there for another 100 years."
Why 100 years? What will happen after that?

[Chris Peterson]

Wow. Do you have a picture of the tree itself?

Originally from that neck of the woods, I was curious too.

Thanks! Btw, it mentions that "based on its species and history, it will probably be there for another 100 years."
Why 100 years? What will happen after that?

Well, they have a lifespan of a few hundred years, depending on conditions. Maybe it will be there for another 200. But not forever.

[Rauf]

Originally from that neck of the woods, I was curious too.

Thanks! Btw, it mentions that "based on its species and history, it will probably be there for another 100 years."
Why 100 years? What will happen after that?

Well, they have a lifespan of a few hundred years, depending on conditions. Maybe it will be there for another 200. But not forever.

Yes, but why a tree can't live forever? I mean, some have been living for more than a millennia. Why this tree can't live that long?

[Chris Peterson]

Thanks! Btw, it mentions that "based on its species and history, it will probably be there for another 100 years."
Why 100 years? What will happen after that?

Well, they have a lifespan of a few hundred years, depending on conditions. Maybe it will be there for another 200. But not forever.

Yes, but why a tree can't live forever? I mean, some have been living for more than a millennia. Why this tree can't live that long?

DNA gets damaged over time, toxins accumulate over time. Some pest, parasite, or disease will eventually win. And evolution doesn't favor organisms that don't die and make room for future generations.

[Peter87]

And evolution doesn't favor organisms that don't die and make room for future generations.

Yes, it is a very powerful theory, evolution, to be able to derive such a conclusion, for it apparently would apply to every living organism, or are there any exceptions?

[Rauf]

Well, they have a lifespan of a few hundred years, depending on conditions. Maybe it will be there for another 200. But not forever.

Yes, but why a tree can't live forever? I mean, some have been living for more than a millennia. Why this tree can't live that long?

DNA gets damaged over time, toxins accumulate over time. Some pest, parasite, or disease will eventually win. And evolution doesn't favor organisms that don't die and make room for future generations.

How can evolution favor an organism's death?

[Chris Peterson]

Yes, but why a tree can't live forever? I mean, some have been living for more than a millennia. Why this tree can't live that long?

DNA gets damaged over time, toxins accumulate over time. Some pest, parasite, or disease will eventually win. And evolution doesn't favor organisms that don't die and make room for future generations.

How can evolution favor an organism's death?

In the big picture, no species can evolve for long if the old versions aren't eliminated. You need reproduction for adaptation and evolution, and you can't have reproduction without death in any system with limited resources.

[Rauf]

DNA gets damaged over time, toxins accumulate over time. Some pest, parasite, or disease will eventually win. And evolution doesn't favor organisms that don't die and make room for future generations.

How can evolution favor an organism's death?

In the big picture, no species can evolve for long if the old versions aren't eliminated. You need reproduction for adaptation and evolution, and you can't have reproduction without death in any system with limited resources.

OK, let's say that hypothetically, some genetic mutations have made it possible for a certain species to live for thousands of years. How can evolution stop them and make room for others?

[Chris Peterson]

How can evolution favor an organism's death?

In the big picture, no species can evolve for long if the old versions aren't eliminated. You need reproduction for adaptation and evolution, and you can't have reproduction without death in any system with limited resources.

OK, let's say that hypothetically, some genetic mutations have made it possible for a certain species to live for thousands of years. How can evolution stop them and make room for others?

Evolution has no agency. Some species do live for thousands of years. A long-lived species is likely to be less able to deal with environmental change. So if a change occurs, the entire species may go extinct! And if it reproduces at a high rate, it will likely consume all the available resources.

[Rauf]

In the big picture, no species can evolve for long if the old versions aren't eliminated. You need reproduction for adaptation and evolution, and you can't have reproduction without death in any system with limited resources.

OK, let's say that hypothetically, some genetic mutations have made it possible for a certain species to live for thousands of years. How can evolution stop them and make room for others?

Evolution has no agency. Some species do live for thousands of years. A long-lived species is likely to be less able to deal with environmental change. So if a change occurs, the entire species may go extinct! And if it reproduces at a high rate, it will likely consume all the available resources.

I see.. Aren't we reproducing at a high enough rate? Maybe that's the reason we are depleting some of the Earth's natural resources?

[Orca]

I went to a concert in Portland a couple of months ago. Walking from the parking space I walked past a large tree and noticed this plaque in front of it:


PXL_20240211_205553559 (1).jpg


The city has grown all around the tree; it's flourished and become quite large. Which is pretty neat...nice work, Sylvester!

Wow. Do you have a picture of the tree itself?

Originally from that neck of the woods, I was curious too.

Rauf, the first image on the page you linked - that is in fact the specific tree in question! In one of the pictures you can clearly see the plaque I shared in my earlier post:

[AVAO]

Scientists discover unique X-pattern in Earth’s upper atmosphere
https://watchers.news/2024/07/14/scient ... atmosphere | Original release July 14, 2024

The X-Pattern Merging of the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly Crests During Geomagnetic Quiet Time – F.I Laskar et al. – AGU’s JGR Space Physics – April 2024

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[...]
Researchers have discovered a giant X in Earth's atmosphere and are puzzled. So far, there are only guesses about the origin of the letter in the sky.

A NASA satellite has discovered fascinating and unexpected patterns in Earth's ionosphere. These remarkable observations show huge, X-shaped plasma condensations and smaller, C-shaped plasma bubbles forming above the equator. Surprisingly, these structures occur not only during geomagnetic disturbances such as solar storms, but also during quiet periods. The cause of these phenomena remains unsolved.

Importance of the ionosphere
The ionosphere, which begins at an altitude of about 80 kilometers, plays a crucial role as a shield against cosmic radiation and supports global telecommunications. Thanks to the charged particles and plasma in this atmospheric layer, radio waves are reflected, enabling long-distance communication. However, this layer is not homogeneous; the Earth's magnetic field and solar wind cause denser zones known as the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA).

Gigantic "X chromosome" in space
Fazlul Laskar and his team at the University of Colorado discovered an unusual deformation of these EIA bands while analyzing data from NASA's GOLD satellite (Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk). This geostationary satellite monitors the ionosphere with UV spectrographs to study the effects of solar storms. "This is an unexpected structure for geomagnetically quiet conditions," explains Laskar. The team discovered a giant X pattern that merged the two parallel bands of the EIA into one X chromosome and stretched across half the Earth.

Stability of the structure
Closer investigations revealed that these deformations occur not only during geomagnetic disturbances, but also during quiet periods. Typically, these X patterns appear shortly after sunset and remain stationary for about two hours without moving noticeably. "The EIA-X appears to remain stable for a long time," the researchers report.

Causal research
The formation of this X-structure is still a mystery. Previous deformations of the EIA bands were mostly caused by extreme geomagnetic events such as solar storms or the pressure waves of the Tonga eruption in January 2022. However, Laskar and his team suspect other influences: "Our investigations show that these are not the only processes that can deform the EIA bands."

Simulations with the atmospheric climate model WACCM-X point to disturbances in the electric field of the ionosphere as a possible cause. A key factor appears to be a significant downward flow of charged particles between two positively charged zones. "We suspect that large-scale waves in the lower atmosphere such as tidal waves and planetary waves play a leading role," say Laskar and colleagues.

Unexplained C-shaped bubbles
In addition to the X-pattern, the researchers found another unusual plasma pattern: paired C-shaped plasma bubbles. These mirror-image structures are only about 640 kilometers apart. "The fact that two oppositely shaped ionospheric bubbles are so close to each other has never been observed before," says Deepak Karan of the University of Colorado. How these bubbles form also remains a mystery.

Complexity of the Earth's atmosphere
"The fact that we find differently shaped bubbles close to each other tells us that the dynamics of the Earth's atmosphere are obviously even more complex than we expected," comments Jeffrey Klenzing of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. These discoveries underscore the need for further research to better understand the complex processes in the ionosphere.

With the new findings from the GOLD satellite, scientists are continuing their efforts to unlock the secrets of our atmosphere. This research could not only improve our understanding of the ionosphere, but also have practical applications for telecommunications and satellite technology.
[...] Source: www.focus.de

... video
... paper