July 22 - Total Solar Ecplise

On july 22 wednesday morning the total solar eclipse of this century is going to occur. This infact is the longest duration solar eclipse of this century. This eclipse is of special interest for the scientists and general public as its path of totality passes through thickly populated regions of west, central, east and north-east India.The maximum duration of totality of 6 minutes 44 seconds occurs at 8:05 a.m. in the North Pacific Ocean where the width of the path is about 258 km. The 'rest of the path does not pass through major land areas.

Consequently, it provides a rare opportunity to view and study this grand spectacle of nature. The partial phase of the eclipse will be visible throughout the country. In general, the partial phase can be seen in the regions of eastern Asia and Pacific Ocean. Considering the Earth as a whole, the eclipse begins at 5:28 a.m. when the shadow of the Moon touches the Earth at local sunrise at a point in the Arabian Sea close to the western coast of India.

The eclipse ends at 10:42 a.m. when Moon's shadow finally leaves the Earth at local sunset at a point in the South Pacific Ocean. At approximately 6:23 a.m., the central path of the eclipse will touch the Earth at sunrise at a point in the Gulf of Khmbhat in the Arabian Sea near the southern coast of Gujarat. At this time, the path of totality will be about 200 km wide and the duration of totality at the central line will be about three minute 30 seconds.

The shadow crosses over central India, passes through south-east of Nepal, crosses North Bengal, southern part of Sikkim, most of Bhutan and north-western tip of Bangladesh. Then the shadow enters Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, touches Myanmar and enters China.

Tree Plantation Drive by TATA Motors!

Tata Motors is looking forward to start a huge tree plantation drive across India and other south Asian countries on World Environment Day that falls on friday. 'The tree plantation drive is part of its endeavour to constantly improve its carbon footprint,' the spokesperson said, adding that the company has set itself a target of planting 200,000 saplings across over 1,100 locations in India and abroad this year, beginning June 5.

Tata Motors has already planted over 10 million trees.'This massive campaign is driven across the company - at plant locations, offices and its dealerships, authorised service centres, and spare parts distributors.' 'This massive campaign is driven across the company - at plant locations, offices and its dealerships, authorised service centres, and spare parts distributors.' In addition, the firm is also organising a free PUC (Pollution Under Control) check-up for its commercial vehicles Friday at over 100 service centres across the country. As part of the PUC check, emission related components would be checked and rectified.

It is great to know that even the business oriented companies are coming forward to spend their precious time on environmental issues. Let us wish their campaign to be a great success!

Melting Greenland

Due to increase in global temperature Greenland is melting at a faster rate and so it seems that it may drive more water to the coastlines of North eastern united states and Canada. If the Greenland melt continues to accelerate, we could see significant impacts this century on the northeast U.S. coast from the resulting sea level rise. Major northeastern cities are directly in the path of the greatest rise.

"To assess the impact of Greenland ice melt on ocean circulation, Hu and his coauthors used the Community Climate System Model, an NCAR-based computer model that simulates global climate. They considered three scenarios: the melt rate continuing to increase by 7 percent per year, as has been the case in recent years, or the melt rate slowing down to an increase of either 1 or 3 percent per year.

If Greenland's melt rate slows down to a 3 percent annual increase, the study team's computer simulations indicate that the runoff from its ice sheet could alter ocean circulation in a way that would direct about a foot of water toward the northeast coast of North America by 2100. This would be on top of the average global sea level rise expected as a result of global warming. Although the study team did not try to estimate that mean global sea level rise, their simulations indicated that melt from Greenland alone under the 3 percent scenario could raise worldwide sea levels by an average of 21 inches.

If the annual increase in the melt rate dropped to 1 percent, the runoff would not raise northeastern sea levels by more than the 8 inches in the earlier study in Nature Geoscience. But if the melt rate continued at its present 7 percent increase per year through 2050 and then leveled off, the study suggests that the northeast coast could see as much as 20 inches of sea level rise above a global average that could be several feet.