Heatwave in Russia

Heatwave in Russia

Posted August 9, 2010

download large image (1 MB, JPEG)acquired July 20 - 27, 2010

Share this image

In the summer of 2010, the Russian Federation had to contend with multiple natural hazards: drought in the southern part of the country, and raging fires in western Russia and eastern Siberia. The events all occurred against the backdrop of unusual warmth. Bloomberg reported that temperatures in parts of the country soared to 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit), and the Wall Street Journal reported that fire- and drought-inducing heat was expected to continue until at least August 12.

This map shows temperature anomalies for the Russian Federation from July 20–27, 2010, compared to temperatures for the same dates from 2000 to 2008. The anomalies are based on land surface temperatures observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)on NASA’s Terra satellite. Areas with above-average temperatures appear in red and orange, and areas with below-average temperatures appear in shades of blue. Oceans and lakes appear in gray.

Not all parts of the Russian Federation experienced unusual warmth on July 20–27, 2010. A large expanse of northern central Russia, for instance, exhibits below-average temperatures. Areas of atypical warmth, however, predominate in the east and west. Orange- and red-tinged areas extend from eastern Siberia toward the southwest, but the most obvious area of unusual warmth occurs north and northwest of the Caspian Sea. These warm areas in eastern and western Russia continue a pattern noticeable earlier in July,and correspond to areas of intense drought and wildfire activity.

Bloomberg reported that 558 active fires covering 179,596 hectares (693 square miles) were burning across the Russian Federation as of August 6, 2010. Voice of America reported that smoke from forest fires around the Russian capital forced flight restrictions at Moscow airports on August 6, just as health officials warned Moscow residents to take precautions against the smoke inhalation.

1. References

2. Iosebashvili, I. (2010, August 4). Death toll rises as Russian fires rage. Wall Street Journal. Accessed August 6, 2010.
3. Shatalova, E., Kolesnikova, M. (2010, August 6). Moscow inundated by smoke as Russian heartland burns. Bloomberg. Accessed August 6, 2010.
4. Voice of America. (2010, August 6). Smoke from Russian fires forces flight restrictions in Moscow. Accessed August 6, 2010.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, based on MODIS land surface temperature data available through the NASA Earth Observations (NEO) Website. Caption by Michon Scott.

Instrument:

Terra - MODIS

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=45069

Blast hits Russia's largest coal mine, 11 dead

By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 10 mins ago

MOSCOW – Two explosions tore through Russia's largest underground coal mine, killing 11 workers and injuring 41 others, an emergency services ministry official said Sunday. Another 84 people remained in the mine, including rescue workers.

Ministry spokeswoman Elena Chernova said on state news TV channel Rossiya-24 that rescue work had been suspended after the second blast, which happened early Sunday morning; it was not clear when it might resume.

The first blast, believed to have been caused by methane, hit the Raspadskaya mine in western Siberia just before midnight Saturday and the second about 3 1/2 hours later. There were 359 workers below ground at the time of the first explosion, Chernova said.

The second blast destroyed the main air shaft and caused more injuries, and there is a risk of more explosions, said Aman Tuleyev, the governor of the west Siberian region of Kemerovo, according to the state news agency ITAR-Tass.

"The rescue work will continue when the atmosphere in the mine is restored, but to conduct rescue work now means to send people to die," Tuleyev was quoted as saying.

The mine, the Raspadskaya, produces about 8 million tons (8.8 million short tons) of coal a year, according to the company's website.

The Kemerovo region is about 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) east of Moscow.

There was no immediate information on what set off the blast. Mine explosions and other industrial accidents are common in Russia and other ex-Soviet republics, and are often blamed on inadequate implementation of safety precautions by companies or by workers themselves.

In December, nine people were killed in an explosion at an iron-roe mine in the Urals Mountains region that was blamed on faulty transportation of explosives.

---

Associated Press Writer Peter James Spielmann in New York contributed to this report.

Eds: CORRECTS location of Kemerovo to 3,000 kilometers sted 300 east of Moscow. For global distribution.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100509/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_mine_blast

Russia may send spacecraft to knock away asteroid

AFP – Russian Soyuz TMA-17 is set to blast off to the International Space Station. Three astronauts from Japan, …

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer – 28 mins ago

MOSCOW – Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent its collision with Earth — a collision NASA considers highly unlikely — the head of the country's space agency said Wednesday.

Anatoly Perminov said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, telling Golos Rossii radio that it would invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project once it is finalized.

When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated the chances of it smashing into Earth in its first flyby in 2029 were as high as 1-in-37, but have since lowered their estimate.

Further studies ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) above Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.

In October, NASA lowered the odds that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 from a 1-in-45,000 as earlier thought to a 1-in-250,000 chance after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path. It said another close encounter in 2068 will involve a 1-in-330,000 chance of impact.

"It wasn't anything to worry about before. Now it's even less so," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Without mentioning NASA conclusions, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said.

"People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people," Perminov said.

Scientists have long theorized about asteroid deflection strategies. Some have proposed sending a probe to circle around a dangerous asteroid to gradually change its trajectory. Others suggested sending a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its momentum, or using nuclear weapons to hit it.

Perminov wouldn't disclose any details of the project, saying they still need to be worked out. But he said the mission wouldn't require any nuclear explosions.

Hollywood action films "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon," have featured space missions scrambling to avoid catastrophic collisions. In both movies space crews use nuclear bombs in an attempt to prevent collisions.

"Calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision without destroying it (the asteroid) and without detonating any nuclear charges," Perminov said. "The threat of collision can be averted."

Boris Shustov, the director of the Institute of Astronomy under the Russian Academy of Sciences, hailed Perminov's statement as a signal that officials had come to recognize the danger posed by asteroids.

"Apophis is just a symbolic example, there are many other dangerous objects we know little about," he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_asteroid_encounter

Russian nightclub fire death toll reaches 112

Play VideoAFP – Death toll rises in Russian nightclub blaze

• Play VideoVideo:Russian nightclub fire kills at least 106 News 8 San Diego

AP – People lay flowers outside the Lame Horse nightclub where a fire broke late Friday, in Perm, about 700 …

By MANSUR MIROVALEV, Associated Press Writer – 56 mins ago

PERM, Russia – Shocked residents of the Urals city of Perm laid carnations Sunday at the snowy scene of a cordoned-off nightclub where officials say at least 112 people died in a fire.

The blaze, in the early hours of Saturday, was thought to be sparked by fireworks that shot into the decorative twig ceiling of the Lame Horse nightclub during a pyrotechnics show. Nearly 100 were killed on the spot, and some 130 were hospitalized, many in critical condition.

Many victims were trapped in a panicked crush for the exit as they attempted to escape the flames and thick black smoke.

Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Darya Kochneva said Sunday the latest victim was a man who died of severe burns in a Moscow hospital where he was flown for treatment after the fire.

Mourning residents are indignant over what they call negligence on the part of the club's management, which President Dmitry Medvedev also criticized in a nationally televised videoconference on Saturday.

Officials said club managers had ignored repeated demands from authorities to change the interior to comply with fire safety standards. Authorities quickly arrested two registered co-owners of the club, its managing director and two other suspects. One other suspect was injured in the fire and remains in critical condition.

Medvedev demanded that lawmakers draft changes to toughen the criminal punishment for failing to comply with fire safety standards.

Enforcement of fire safety standards is infamously poor in Russia and there have been several catastrophic blazes at drug-treatment facilities, nursing homes, apartment buildings and nightclubs in recent years. Thenation records up to 18,000 fire deaths a year, several times the per-capita rate in the United States and other Western countries.

Monday has been designated a national day of mourning, with entertainment events and television programscancelled.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091206/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_nightclub_fire