Eos, Vol. 94, No.

9, 26 February 2013

In Brief telescopes cannot detect these small objects

in the daylight. He noted that scientists are
looking into possible infrared detection from
PAGES 87–88 Antarctica’s environment more than 100 space for these types of NEOs.
million years ago have been quarried by During the NASA teleconference, Bill
Parts of Antarctica’s King George station staff for construction purposes. “The Cooke, lead for the Meteoroid Environments
Island are littered with trash A report very distinctive beach ridges of this region Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
released 7 February by ecologists from have great scientific potential, for example for in Huntsville, Ala., said that NASA has
Germany’s Friedrich Schiller University Jena the study of palaeobiology and palaeoecol- recognized that asteroids and meteors “pose
reveals that parts of King George Island, a ogy, the palaeoclimate or hydrology,” the a bigger problem than anybody anticipated a
logistical hub for international research in report states. “Quarrying these beach ridges decade ago.” He said that Earth intercepts
Antarctica, are home to open pits of trash, continued in all three seasons of the study about 80 tons of meteoritic material from
decaying field huts, and other forms of period.” Although some areas of the Fildes millimeter-sized objects daily and that rocks
pollution. Peninsula where fossils are found are the size of the Chelyabinsk meteor arrive
The report, “Current ecological situation of protected, the quarry sites lie outside these about once every 50–100 years. —RS
the Fildes Peninsula region and management designated zones. “The loss to science from Free “Cook Book” for gridding
suggestions,” documents how the permanent the total excavation of these areas must be bathymetric data The International
research stations on the island’s Fildes considered to be very great,” the report adds. Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the
Peninsula—three Chilean, one Chinese, one The full text of the report is available at General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans
Russian, and one Uruguayan—have led to http://www.umweltdaten.de/publikationen/ (GEBCO) program of the United Nations
“a genuine waste problem,” according to lead fpdf‐l/4424.pdf. —MK Educational, Scientific and Cultural
author Hans‐Ulrich Peter. Largest meteor since Tunguska event Organization’s Intergovernmental
The report describes how a large amount of explodes above Russian city The meteor Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO IOC)
the trash on the ice‐free peninsula was buried that disintegrated in the atmosphere above have created a free manual to help users
prior to 1998 when the Protocol on Chelyabinsk, Russia, on 15 February, injuring prepare quality bathymetric grids from
Environmental Protection to the Antarctic more than 1000 people and causing wide- available data points. The new “IHO‐IOC
Treaty entered into force and committed its spread property damage from the shock wave, GEBCO Cook Book,” released last year and
signers to protecting Antarctic biodiversity, is the largest such incident since the 1908 available at http://www.gebco.net, provides
ecology, and sites of geological interest. These Tunguska event in Siberia, according to Paul step‐by‐step instructions, screenshots,
piles of buried trash are being exposed by Chodas, research scientist in the Near‐Earth command lines, and snippets of code applied
solifluction—a process by which soil Object (NEO) program office at NASA’s Jet on actual data, to guide users through the
saturated with water from melting frost oozes Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. process of gridding data.
downslope. During a 15 February teleconference, Chodas To “grid data” means to take all the data
However, Peter and colleagues have said it was an “incredible coincidence” that points on a surface within a grid cell and
documented more recent pollution. For asteroid DA14 passed safely by Earth on the assign them a representative number value
example, of 220 sites identified to have large same day as the Chelyabinsk meteor; the that serves to aggregate surrounding points.
amounts of litter, about 22% were freshly 45‐meter‐wide asteroid sped by the planet at Gridding quality‐controlled, cleaned data aids
dumped. The trash included 200‐liter drums a distance of just 27,700 kilometers away on its in the creation of accurate maps of bathym-
that had been “lost” in the countryside, car closest approach. He stressed that the meteor etry or elevation. Data in gridded form are
batteries, oil cans, and canisters with legible was not related to DA14. The meteor “was advantageous because they can easily be
labels attesting to their contents: aircraft fuel, coming from the wrong direction and at a viewed and analyzed on computers.
disinfectants, and antifreeze, among other completely different velocity,” he said, noting The manual’s instructions are divided into
pollutants. that the orbit of the meteor went out to the three parts. “The first enables beginning users
The permanent scientific stations were asteroid belt while the orbit of DA14 “is very to easily produce a grid from xyz data by
visited by more than 900 tourists last year, but Earth‐like, it does not go out so far.” following provided examples,” explained
it is the researchers and staff of these stations, According to preliminary results from the Karen Marks, chief editor and chairperson of
who number between 100 and 300 people European Space Agency (ESA), the meteor the “Cook Book” working group. “The second
depending on the season, who contribute to that exploded over Chelyabinsk at about 3:20 gives a more in‐depth look at topics related to
most of the new pollution and adverse GMT entered the atmosphere at 20 degrees preparing and processing data and gridding
environmental effects, according to the report. above horizontal in a northeast- to -southwest techniques, and the third focuses on
“Particularly problematic here is that, based trajectory at an entry speed of more than advanced topics such as data uncertainties
on empirical evidence, a large proportion of 64,000 kilometers per hour. When the and error models.”
station staff regard the Antarctic environment meteor, estimated at 17 meters in diameter Links in the appendices give Web sites from
as being insensitive and not really worth before atmospheric entry, exploded at an which multibeam data, which can be gridded
protecting,” the report states. “Moreover, not altitude of 15–25 kilometers, it released about into maps, are publicly available for down-
all station members, including scientists, 500 kilotons of kinetic energy, corresponding load. However, “The methods described in the
receive sufficient training with respect to to 30 times that of the Hiroshima bomb, ESA ‘Cook Book’ don’t have to be limited to
behavioural guidelines and environmental noted in a 19 February press release. The bathymetry—people can take any type of
issues.” event “is a strong reminder of why we need data and grid them however they want using
Staff with open access to vehicles have continuous efforts to survey and identify this tool,” Marks noted.
been seen to go off‐road, tearing up fragile near-Earth objects,” stated Thomas Reiter, The manual will be continually maintained
mosses and disturbing seal pupping locations ESA’s director of human spaceflight and and amended as better techniques and
and penguin nests. During 3 years of intense operations. software are developed to meet changing user
observation in the mid‐2000s, “the minimum Chodas said that NASA has found about needs. Scientific contributions to the guide
distances from animal colonies recom- 95% of large NEOs, most of which pose no are encouraged, and feedback can be sent to
mended by the Antarctic Treaty Parties were hazard, with its 15 year Space Guard Survey. Karen.Marks@noaa.gov. —MK
regularly and clearly transgressed,” the report However, he said that the Chelyabinsk
states. meteor was not detected in advance. “It
In addition, sites of fossil discoveries— literally came out of the dayside of the —MOHI KUMAR and R ANDY S HOWSTACK , Staff
including rare leaf imprints—that document planet,” he said, adding that Earth-based Writer

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