Arctic

The dramatic retreat of a glacier in the Arctic has just revealed a spectacular “graveyard” of prehistoric whales

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The Arctic is is melting at a dizzying rateas we have repeated on many occasions, and in doing so, it is giving us back time capsules that had been under the ice for millennia. The last of these findings seems to be taken from a fiction novel, since it has revealed an authentic prehistoric cemetery of whales that has come to light after the fracture of a glacier in less than two decades. How it looked. This is where the expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Institute of Russia (AARI) intervenes, which had as its original objective the study of permafrost in the region. However, upon arriving at the area, the researchers found a big surprise. As detailed by the researcher himself Nikita Demidov, satellite images and measurements on site confirmed that a large local glacier had split dramatically in a period of less than 20 years. And this fracture exposed a marine terrace hidden under the ice, revealing an unusual concentration of whale skeletons. And the best thing is that, thanks to being buried under the ice, have been preserved in an exceptional way. What were they doing there? In reality, the presence of this “cemetery” is not a coincidence, but experts point out that these remains are the key to understanding extreme paleographic events. Specifically, they indicate the existence of very rapid changes in sea level that occurred thousands of years ago. And the truth is that behind this there is a large amount of bibliography. A study published in 1995 already analyzed the postglacial emergence in the western area of ​​Franz Josef Land, using radiocarbon dating dating back to 10,400 years ago. The warm-up. The rapid decline observed by Demidov fits perfectly with recent scientific literature, since a study published this same 2025 in it Journal of Glaciology on the balance of glacier masses in the archipelago between 1991 and 2022 empirically confirms the acceleration of melting linked to climate change. You have to wait. Despite the spectacular nature of the images and the dissemination of the news through the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the scientific community calls for caution. Currently, the origin of the data is an institutional statement from AARI itself and if we search scientific databases, there is no academic article that has been reviewed that specifically details this finding. And the next step for Demidov and his team will be to analyze the remains in the laboratory, date the bones precisely and publish their conclusions so that the international scientific community can evaluate them. Until then, the whale cemetery on Wilczek Island remains a monumental and silent witness to the abrupt changes of the Earth; both those that occurred millennia ago, and those that we are causing today. Images | Pascale Amez In Xataka | In the remote Svalbard archipelago there is something that confuses and fascinates scientists in equal measure: a glacier that “beats”

imitate Russia in the Arctic

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While millions of tourists enjoy a privileged climate in Gran Canaria, the infrastructure that supports the island operates on the verge of collapse. The island’s electrical system, isolated and without connection to the mainland, operates with minimum safety margins, dangerously approaching what technicians call “energy zero”: a total blackout. The threat is not theoretical. The neighboring island of La Gomera had a blackout a couple of weeks ago due to the destabilization of the El Palmar thermal power plant, but the inhabitants still remember 2023 in which they spent 37 hours in the dark. Faced with a structural power deficit and a demand that is close to 550 megawatts (MW) at peak times, a technical proposal has emerged that breaks all taboos in Spain: bringing floating nuclear reactors to the Port of La Luz to guarantee electricity and water to the island. Urgency and the fossil “patch.” The energy situation of Gran Canaria is critical. It is estimated that the island has a firm power deficit—safe energy that does not depend on whether it is sunny or windy—of between 120 and 140 MW. Current thermal power plants, based on fuel oil and gas, are aging and the network lacks robust support. To avoid the blackout, the Government of the Canary Islands has chosen a solution emergency: hire a powership of 125 MW. It is a thermal power plant installed on a ship (Shark class) that will dock in the port of Las Palmas to burn fossil fuels and cover that gap. The study that supports it. It is in this context where the Peter Huber Center of the University of the Hespérides emerges. Through a study signed by experts Manuel Fernández Ordóñez and Daniel Fernández Méndez, direct criticism is launched at the current management: he powership It is a “patch” that perpetuates pollution, increases CO2 emissions in a dense urban environment and maintains dependence on imported fossil fuels. Their alternative is radically different: betting on floating nuclear reactors. According to the authors“we are not talking about an experimental technology, but rather an evolution of light water reactors that have been operating safely for decades on military ships and icebreakers.” The glass ceiling of renewables. Here lies the technical core of the debate. If the Canary Islands have plenty of sun and wind, why consider nuclear energy? The answer lies in network stability. Despite the efforts, the contribution of renewables to the energy mix of the Canary Islands has been stagnant at around 20% for four years. Although 2024 aimed for a clean production recordthe technical reality is stubborn: the island electrical grid, being small and isolated, needs an “inertia” that wind and solar energy cannot provide on their own. Without a firm power base, when renewables rise a lot, the system becomes unstable and energy must be dumped to avoid failures. Currently, the big bet to solve this It is Chira Falls: a reversible hydroelectric plant that will function as a 200 MW “megabattery.” This pharaonic work, scheduled to be operational by 2027, will pump water to store excess renewable energy and release it when necessary. However, the Hesperides University study argues that, even with storage, the system still needs a constant generating “backbone” that does not emit CO2. They argue that a 100 MW reactor would provide that fixed power and the auxiliary services (frequency and voltage control) necessary so that, paradoxically, more renewables can be installed without the risk of pulling down the grid. As Manuel Fernández explained in an interview: “The only reliable alternative to fossil fuels in the Canary Islands is nuclear.” Much more than electricity. The proposal goes beyond turning on light bulbs; It strikes a chord with survival on the islands: water. The water-energy nexus The Canary Islands are one of the places in the world most dependent on desalination. More than 70% of the water for human consumption comes from the sea, and these desalination plants devour between 10% and 12% of all the electricity generated on the islands. “The water security of Gran Canaria is strongly coupled to its electrical security,” the study says. While experimental pilots are tested like the DesaLIFE projectwhich seeks to desalinate using wave energy to supply some 15,000 people, the nuclear option presents a brute force solution. A reactor generates electricity and an immense amount of waste heat. According to the report1 MW of electricity can desalinate between 4,000 and 6,000 cubic meters of water per day. A single 70 MW nuclear ship, partially dedicated to this task, could cover a gigantic fraction of the water demand of all of Gran Canaria. The Russian mirror in the Arctic. The proposal is not based on futuristic plans, but on a tangible reality that operates today: Akademik Lomonosov. It is the first modern commercial floating nuclear power plant. It has been docked in Pevek (Russia) since 2020, supplying electricity and heating in extreme weather conditions. Its technology is two KLT-40S reactors (derived from icebreakers) that generate 70 MW. In 2024, it reached an operating factor of more than 94%. Russia is already working on the next generation (RITM-200M), which will offer about 100 MW with a useful life of 60 years. Regarding the logistics of powership fossil, which requires the constant docking of tankers with fuel, a floating reactor is recharged every 3 or 4 years. This would shield the island from the volatility of oil prices. The small print. To understand real viability, you have to look at the global context. Although Russia now leads the market and uses it as a geopolitical tool, the US was a pioneer in operating the nuclear ship Sturgis in the Panama Canal between 1968 and 1976. Today, Western companies such as Westinghouse or Seaborg are trying to regain ground against Chinese (ACP100S) and Russian designs. The “B side” is social rejection. Greenpeace has come to qualify these projects like “Chernobyl on ice”. The study defends security through “defense in depth” design (double hull, passive systems). However, analysts warn of specific … Read more

monitor every move of Russia and China in the Arctic

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First World War II and then the Cold War turned Greenland into a magnificent surveillance platform belonging to Denmark but granting the United States a VIP pass that it now wants to switch to annexation. Because that piece of frozen land (less and less) has rare earthsbut the most attractive thing has always been its strategic location. Old radars are not enough. The melting of Greenland has opened new sea routes that Russia and China have welcomed with open arms. the advantages it offers compared to traditional routes. Of the 15 military bases that the US had in Greenland in 1945, now only one remains: the Pituffik Air Base or Thule. And a problem: outdated and insufficient systems to monitor what happens there, such as acknowledged the Pentagon first and the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies after. So they have gotten to work to solve it: the United States Department of Defense agency responsible for the development of cutting-edge technologies for military use (DARPA) has requested a new technology collected in Frosty. This program aims to develop new radars that operate reliably in the harsh Arctic environment. DARPA is seeking proposals capable of detecting aerial targets at least 75 kilometers away with a detection probability greater than 90%. The coveted new polar “silk road”. The launch of this new radar is important because it would mean having a real lookout in the Arctic and on the new route that has appeared so that the great world powers can gain commercial and military advantage. China has already made clear what do you want be a “great polar power”“. The immediate advantage is reduce shipping times to Europe from up to 50 days to less than half (on its route through Suez). This recent academic article In its security report, the United States Coast Guard reviews other possible risks such as the expansion of its fishing grounds, access to natural resources for scientific cooperation and mentions the existence of its advanced fleet of modern icebreakers and Chinese submarines capable of operating under the ice. Spoiler: With current technology, they are difficult to detect from the surface. For Russia, the new passage route that is being opened is a threat to the current North Sea route, which operates under its jurisdiction. Furthermore, Greenland is part of the GIUK bottleneck (shared with the United Kingdom and Iceland) that its northern fleet must pass through to reach the open waters of the Atlantic, at the gates of the United States. We are talking about nuclear submarines as advanced as the Borei-A class and the Yasen-M. Also at stake is the sovereignty of the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain range that links it to Greenland, which could eventually give it exclusive rights to vast hydrocarbon reserves. And that’s without talking about the massive rare earth deposits The technical challenge of being so far north. The northern lights are very beautiful, but they generate a huge amount of electromagnetic noise when they occur. Since the Earth’s magnetic field lines also converge at the North Pole, the ionosphere is unstablegenerating scintillation that corrupts the GPS signal and absorption in the polar cap. In short, conventional radars not only fall short, but sometimes also go blind. The DARPA wish list. What the US agency wants It is essentially transforming the electromagnetic chaos of the Arctic into a detection tool with a brain in the form of processing software with advanced algorithms that dynamically “filter” interference from geomagnetic storms to isolate potential threats. Furthermore, it would not be a single giant antenna, but rather a mesh of small mobile nodes that share data to triangulate targets. These are the radars you request: A passive environmental noise radar that does not simply emit a signal and wait for the bounce, but uses natural radio frequency noise from the environment to detect objects. That is, it does not treat noise as an interference, but as a source. If a ship passes through that noise, it generates a disturbance that can be detected. Radars Over-the-Horizon that, unlike line-of-sight ones, which travel in a straight line and collide with the curvature of the Earth, these are capable of bouncing waves off the ionosphere to be able to detect objects beyond the Earth’s curvature. They are indicated to detect maritime vessels or aircraft flying at low altitude, thus evading conventional radars. An externally illuminated radar with high-power transmitters located at great distances as power sources, like Alaska’s HAARPwhich allows objects to be illuminated indirectly. For when. As mark your roadmapthe receipt of industry proposals for the tender ended on January 30 and the next 18 months will focus on algorithm development, offline implementation and laboratory testing. Between 2027 and 2028, the integration of the software into real hardware would take place, with field tests in Point Barrow and Poker Flat, Alaska. Therefore, to see this new and ambitious radar network in action we will have to wait until 2028. In Xataka | Russia and China already had an advantage over the US in the Arctic. After Greenland, it has multiplied In Xataka | Now that Europe has sent its troops to Greenland, a question emerges that no one wants to ask: what happens if the US invades it? Cover | JoAnne Castagna / US Army Corps of Engineers (Public domain)

China has turned the Arctic into its own “Panama Canal.” And that explains the US obsession with Greenland

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It seems like it was centuries ago, but until not too long ago the Arctic was seen as an inhospitable territory, more associated with school maps and scientific expeditions than with great power disputes. However, accelerated thaw and the changes in routes navigation have turned that apparently marginal region into one of the most sensitive spaces on the geopolitical board, one where decisions made today can define the economic and military balance of the coming decades. Stop being peripheral. Yes, for decades, the Arctic was a space remote, frozen and secondary in global geopolitics, a natural border that separated blocks rather than connecting them, but accelerated thaw has transformed that white void into a strategic corridor where trade, resources and military deterrence overlap. What was once a physical boundary is now an emerging highway that shortens thousands of kilometers between Asia, Europe and North America, and that simple climate change is reordering strategic priorities of the great powers at a speed that has caught many governments off guard. China and the Polar Route. China has identified before anyone else the potential of these new routes and has integrated them into its long-term vision as a “Polar Silk Road”conceived as a functional equivalent to the Panama Canal or the Suez Canalbut under much more flexible conditions because the rules are not yet set. Chinese research vessels, experimental freighters and icebreakers they are already browsing through the High North, collecting oceanographic data, mapping seabeds and testing routes that reduce by half travel times between Asia and Europe, while establishing a presence that, as happened in the South China Sea, begins as scientific and commercial and ends up having inevitable military implications. Submarines, data and war under the ice. The most disturbing element for Washington and its allies is not only trade, but the underground: The Arctic Ocean offers ideal conditions for underwater warfare, with layers of water, variable salinity, and natural noise making sonar detection difficult. The dives of Chinese research submarines under the ice, together with the deployment of “civilian” vessels that in practice function as covert military platforms, point to a clear objective: break the historic American submarine superiority and prepare the ground so that, in the future, Chinese nuclear submarines can operate near the North American continent with greater freedom and less risk. The Sino-Russian alliance. Chinese expansion in the Arctic is amplified by its understanding with Russiawhich provides experience, technology and access to already exploited routes along its northern coast, while receiving in return key industrial and technological support to sustain its war in Ukraine. This axis turns the Arctic into a space where two nuclear powers They coordinate in their own way air, naval and potentially submarine patrols, opening the door to a scenario that was unthinkable during the Cold War: Asian forces with the capacity to rapidly project themselves towards the Atlantic without passing through easily monitored bottlenecks. Greenland as a hinge. In this context, Greenland stops being a frozen and sparsely populated island and become the hinge that controls the eastern flank of the Northwest Passage, the gateway from Europe to that future Arctic highway. Whoever has decisive influence over Greenland can monitor, condition or even block maritime and submarine traffic in one of the most sensitive routes of the 21st century, in addition to housing radars, airports and key sensors for the defense of the American continent. The emergencies. Here comes the Trump’s renewed interest to take over Greenland, which does not respond to an eccentricity or a nineteenth-century imperial impulse, but rather to the recognition of an emerging strategic vulnerability. Washington watches how Beijing advances in the Arctic the same way he did in other settings: arriving early, coming to the table when the rules do not yet exist, and securing positions which then become almost impossible to reverse, which explains the pressure on Denmark, the enlargement of icebreaking capabilities and closer integration of the High North into NATO planning. No locks. In summary, and unlike the Panama Canal, the Arctic is not a closed infrastructure nor regulated by consolidated treaties, but rather a space under construction where the early presence defines future power. For the United States to allow China to consolidate a dominant position on these routes would be to accept that its geographic and naval advantage can be eroded without a single shot, simply by letting the ice melt and others write the rules. Greenland thus appears as the last piece of a bigger puzzle: one where it is not about buying or invading an island, but about deciding who controls trafficsecurity and the balance of power in the next great axis of global trade and war. Image | RawPixel In Xataka | A document clarifies “the Greenland thing” since 1951. Hitler’s Germany made an agreement possible for the US to do whatever it wants In Xataka | The gold of the 21st century is not in Venezuela: China and Russia know it and that is why the US wants Greenland no matter what

We believed that drones would dominate any war. The Arctic is proving just the opposite

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For decades, drones occupied a secondary place in armed conflicts. They existed, they were used in very specific operations and almost always under centralized control, but they did not define the rhythm of a war. That changed with Ukraine. There, unmanned systems became an everyday, cheap and ubiquitous tool.integrated into the way of fighting. That experience has reinforced the idea that modern warfare will inevitably be a drone war. The problem is that this conclusion only works in certain scenarios. And the Arctic is beginning to demonstrate, quite forcefully, that not all battlefields accept the same technological rules. The growing interest in the Arctic does not respond to a technological fad, but to a profound change in the geopolitical situation. The melting ice is opening sea routesfacilitating access to resources and altering natural barriers that for decades made it difficult to operate in that region. In that context, NATO military forces have intensified exercises and deployments in the High North, aware that Russia has a clear advantage in the region. Cold that changes everything. The extreme temperatures of the Arctic impose different rules than other military scenarios. Components designed to function normally fail when the cold changes their physical properties. Rubber loses elasticity, aluminum and other metals become more brittle, and lubricants thicken to compromise the movement of key parts. It only takes one system freeze to knock out an entire platform or immobilize a convoy. It is not a specific problem, but a chain of effects that begins with the thermometer and ends with operation. The sky also gets in the way. Added to the problems on land is another less visible, but equally decisive, factor. At extreme latitudes, magnetic storms and auroras interfere with radio signals and satellite navigation systems. It is not just about losing precision, but about seeing the positioning and synchronization data that support communications, sensors and modern weapons altered. In an environment where visual orientation is already complicated by snow and lack of landmarks, any additional distortion makes navigation an unstable task and, in some cases, directly impracticable. When they are also bothering your signal. Added to this natural degradation is an additional problem: jamming and other interferences that are not always directed at the target that ends up suffering them. In the Arctic, the planet’s own geometry works against it, since from high latitudes there are fewer satellites available as part of them are hidden by the curvature of the Earth. That makes any interference have a greater impact. In northern Norway, regulator Nkom registered six GPS failures in 2019 and 122 in 2022, and since the end of 2024 it has stopped counting them due to their frequency. These limitations are not theoretical. On a polar exercise in CanadaUS Army Arctic off-road vehicles broke down after 30 minutes because the hydraulic fluids had solidified in the cold. Under these same conditions, Swedish soldiers received night vision devices valued at $20,000 that failed because they could not withstand temperatures of -40°C. The lesson for planners is an uncomfortable one. Operating in the High North requires assuming sudden failures and that logistics, more than technology on paper, ends up setting the real pace of any deployment. Rethink technology and procedures. Faced with this scenario, the response is not only to manufacture more resistant equipment, but to distinguish between technological limits and operational limits, a common separation in analyzes of the use of UAS in Arctic environments. Some problems can be mitigated with redesigns, from materials and power sources to more robust navigation alternatives. Others require changes in the way we operate: planning missions assuming signal losses, reducing external dependencies and training to work with incomplete information. All of this explains why the Arctic does not support simple translations from other recent war theaters. In Ukraine, small and cheap drones, supported by constant digital linkshave shown their usefulness in an environment with infrastructure, human density and many more references. In the High North, that ecosystem does not exist. According to the approach included in the tests described, the drones there would have to incorporate de-icing systems, a more robust propulsion for the wind and operate with another type of fuel. Far from being a perfect laboratory for digital warfare, the Arctic is forcing us to rediscover physical limits that are not negotiated. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro | US Navy In Xataka | Satellite images have revealed that China has gathered its most important aircraft carriers. And that can only mean one thing

An “invisible” Russian submarine has set off alarms in the Arctic. Europe’s response: Atlantic Bastion

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The launching of the Khabarovskthe new and ultra-quiet Russian submarine capable of deploying nuclear torpedoes Poseidonhas reactivated a fear that had been latent for decades in cities like London: the possibility that the naval balance of the Atlantic is once again tilting in favor of Moscow. The response from the United Kingdom has been forceful, and it is called Atlantic Bastion. Submarine warfare. Although the public image of the Russian threat usually revolves around research vessels like Yantarsuspected of mapping and potentially manipulating underwater cables and pipes, European specialists know that what is truly disturbing lies much further down. Russia has spent decades reducing the acoustic signature of its submarines to levels that they border on invisibilitycombining new propulsion systems, composite coatings and virtually undetectable cooling pumps. In this environment, where silence is power, a ghost submarine with nuclear capacity alters not only the sea routes, but the very heart of the strategic infrastructures that connect Europe with the world. UK reinvents itself. Faced with the resurgent threat from Khabarovskthe Royal Navy has launched what they have called as Atlantic Bastiona plan designed to restore British strategic advantage in its own and allied waters. Its origin is not new and it we have counted before: the United Kingdom has been monitoring the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap (GIUK gap) since before the creation of NATO, and the Second World War already demonstrated that controlling that maritime corridor was essential to prevent enemy forces from slipping into the North Atlantic. But what used to be destroyers and acoustic sweeps is becoming a hybrid framework that combines Type 26 frigates equipped with new generation sonar, aircraft P-8 Poseidon capable of patrolling thousands of kilometers and, above all, swarms of underwater drones equipped with artificial intelligence. According to the Ministry of Defensethis architecture aims to detect, classify and follow any enemy submarine that tries to penetrate British or Irish waters, and to do so constantly, autonomously and with an unprecedented range. The algorithms arrive. The core of the project will be Atlantic Neta distributed network of autonomous underwater gliders equipped with acoustic sensors and guided by artificial intelligence systems capable of recognize sound signatures with a level of precision that until a few years ago was little less than the preserve of science fiction. Unlike the SOSUS of the Cold War, based on gigantic fixed hydrophones placed on the seabed, the new generation will be mobile, expandable and adaptable to the routes and behaviors of increasingly soundproof submarines. The ultimate ambition is to deploy hundreds of cheap, persistent units that together create aa surveillance mesh much harder to evade. The metaphor is revealing: if finding a silent submarine is like searching for a needle in an oceanic haystack, modern technology makes it possible to exponentially multiply the number of searching hands. Khabarovk The technological challenge of hunting shadows. However, even with this technological revolution, experts warn that detecting new Russian submarines will continue to be an extremely complex undertaking. Since the 1980s, Moscow has drastically reduced lacoustic emissions of its fleet, which requires combining passive and active sensors and complex configurations such as bistatic sonar, where one vessel emits a pulse and another collects the echo. These techniques require coordination, multiple platforms, and significant sensor density, something that Atlantic Bastionaims to provide but it is still far from being deployed on a full scale. The arrival of the Type 26 frigates, designed to be the flagship of British anti-submarine warfare, is fundamental to this purpose, as is the cooperation with Norway and other allies that are also strengthening their capabilities in the North Atlantic. The Russian Bastion Puzzle. Even if Atlantic Bastion managed to limit the presence of Russian attack submarines in the Atlantic, there is one dimension that no Western system can solve: Russian strategic submarines already they don’t need to abandon its own bastion in the Arctic to threaten Europe or the United States. Its intercontinental ballistic missiles can hit targets thousands of kilometers without moving from the Barents Sea or the White Sea, protected by layers of defenses and favorable geographical conditions. There they play a hiding place lethal where the West cannot penetrate without significantly escalating the conflict. The paradox is clear: the United Kingdom can reinforce its waters and monitor every meter of the GIUK gapbut it cannot deny the Russian nuclear capacity deployed in its natural refuge, a reality that frames the entire British effort within a logic of containment rather than domination. An underwater chess. If you want, Atlantic Bastion ultimately represents the recognition that underwater competition has returned with a vengeance, now fueled for digital capabilitiesdistributed sensors and autonomous platforms that transform the nature of ocean surveillance. The North Atlantic once again becomes a stage silent maneuvers where Russia and the United Kingdom measure their technological resistance in an environment reminiscent of the Cold War, but with algorithms and autonomy as new weapons. A career that is not decided by great battles, but by the ability to listen better, process faster and anticipate invisible movements. In this theater of shadows, the advantage is not whoever shoots the most, but rather whoever is able to detect first (already happens in Ukraine). Thus, Atlantic Bastion aspires to return that capacity to the British, although the contest that is opening now does not look like it will be brief nor simple: In the depths of the Atlantic, the prelude to the next era of strategic rivalry between Russia and the West is underway. Image | SEVMASH/VKONTAKTE In Xataka | A Russian submarine has appeared off the coast of France. And Europe’s reaction has been surprising: have a laugh In Xataka | Russia’s most advanced nuclear submarine was a secret. Until Ukraine has revealed everything, including its failures

the arctic cold returns this week

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You only have to look at the thermometers to be tempted to think that the “polar cold episode” has passed. And it would be logical to think so: temperatures have risen in almost the entire peninsula and this Monday a storm is sweeping the peninsula and leaving water in the entire northwestern quadrant. However, it is a tremendous mistake. And we don’t say it, AEMET says it. What is going to happen? As I say, according to the Agency“throughout the last week of November, masses of cold air will arrive again from high latitudes.” But the issue is more nuanced than it seems: the rain is going to persist until Wednesday-Thursday and, through the door that this storm will open, a mass of arctic air is going to burst through. What comes next is complicated. After all, this “polar” episode has been a little more moderate than expected, but only by a matter of luck. Finally, meteorological chance moved the intrusion of air to the east and the result speaks for itself. Last week (TropicalTidBits) As explained M. Herrerawhat you see in the image is colder than in January in the central Mediterranean and warmer than in July in the eastern Mediterranean. If that finger of cold air had drifted further toward our position, we would have had a much worse time. Logical uncertainties. What we know is that “the last week of November will be colder than usual for the time of year in most of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.” But there are many factors at play. We do not know for sure what the real impact will be. There are things we do know. Because as we know, this type of cold air intrusion does not have much rain associated with it and, behind that front“it looks like we will be back in meteorological misery for a few days.” This makes for a bad end to November and a beginning to December that doesn’t look good at all. Above all, because the shadow of sudden stratospheric warming still there. In fact, during these days, the surprise has been that the warming has been very very strong and, although the consequences are not clear (they never are), the possibility that we will experience a very cold blow in December. Be that as it may, the main problem remains the same as always: yes, the rains of recent weeks They have helped us increase the dammed waterbut the trend is very worrying (we are using water much faster than in previous years) and if the winter is bad, the spring is going to be complicated. And a lot. Image | TropicalTidBits In Xataka | The two most important weather models in the world are discussing whether Santander is going to freeze next week. And the cold is winning

The danger is not when, it is the Arctic

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The recent crossing of threats between Putin and Trump has revived a tension that seemed buried from the hardest years of the cold war. The Russian president ordered his senior commanders to prepare plans to resume nuclear tests after Trump’s statements on social networks, in which he announced that the United States would resume its tests “immediately.” If so, nuclear weapons experts are clear about how long it would take for Russia to carry out a “real” test. The nuclear ghost. Although the intention of the North American president seemed more political than technical (referring to tests of launch systems and not to real detonations), in Moscow the interpretation it was another: The Ministry of Defense assumed that Washington seeks to reopen the nuclear race and recommended Putin to be ready for “full tests” in the Arctic field of Novaya Zemlya. It we count: that gesture, accompanied by recent demonstrations of the Russian arsenal (since the Burevestnik missile nuclear propulsion to intercontinental torpedo Poseidon), symbolizes the disappearance of the last brakes in the atomic dialectic between the two powers. The end of the agreements. The current climate is the result of years of system erosion of gun control. Russia suspended its participation in the New START treaty in 2023, while the historic INF agreement, which banned intermediate-range missiles, had already been abandoned by both countries in 2019. Despite maintaining some technical respect for launch limits, the absence of verification and transparency has turned the arsenals of Washington and Moscow (5,177 and 5,459 warheads, respectively) in a field of permanent suspicion. The Putin’s orderMore than a technical step, it represents a political message: that Russia will not allow the United States to monopolize the symbolic gesture of resuming tests that, if carried out, would break the taboo in force since 1990 and the spirit of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The Kremlin itself seems to have assumed that the return to “eye for an eye” logic It is part of the new post-Ukraine order, where shows of force count as much as victories on the battlefield. Satellite image showing tunnel construction at the Novaya Zemlya nuclear weapons test site in Russia. Russian viability: the Arctic. To the big question, nuclear security experts agree that Russia could carry out a real test within a margin of weeks or monthsdepending on the degree of instrumentation and preparation desired. Hans Kristensenof the Federation of American Scientistsestimates that an improvised detonation (without complex data collection) could be carried out quickly, although without significant scientific or military value. On the contrary, a complete, “real” test, with sealed tunnels, sensors and wiring, would require at least half a year of jobs in Novaya Zemlyawhere underground works have continued discreetly for years. Jon Wolfsthalfrom the American Federation of Scientists, gives the key: seasonal limitations, since the extreme arctic weather would allow trials of this caliber only in summer or early fall. However, both he and other analysts agree that the purpose would be mainly political (show parity with Washington) more than scientific. The great uncertainty. Most experts consulted on TWZ He stressed that neither Russia nor the United States have a technical or military need to resume nuclear testing. Both have extensive arsenals and advanced simulation programs that guarantee the reliability of their weapons without resorting to detonations. Daryl Kimballof the Arms Control Associationremember that Washington has made 1,030 historical tests and Moscow 715and that any new trial would be “purely for show,” an irresponsible act with no tangible benefit. Stephen Schwartz added that the United States maintains a structural advantage thanks to its arsenal maintenance program, valued in 345,000 million of dollars, and that Russia, although it could act with fewer environmental or political obstacles, would gain nothing beyond fueling the spiral of distrust. Still, Russian infrastructure on Novaya Zemlya, modernized in recent years, demonstrates a capacity to respond quickly if tension turns into action. A new deterrent. Beyond of personal confrontation between Putin and Trump, the real risk lies in precedent. A single test (even if it is underground and of low power) would be enough to break three decades of tacit consensus and open the door to new tests by, for example, China, North Korea or other actors seeking to legitimize themselves as nuclear powers. The gesture would have a huge symbolic power: demonstrate that powers can rewrite the rules of nuclear balance when they consider it necessary. In that sense, the experts’ warnings are clear: what is a rhetorical escalation today could become a tangible competition tomorrow, with unforeseeable global consequences. As Wolfsthal pointed out“this is what an arms race looks like: action, reaction, and a slope that costs much more to go down than to go up.” Echoes of the Cold War. The exchange between Moscow and Washington Not only does it resurrect the shadow of the nuclear confrontation, but it redefines its scenario: it is no longer fought in secret offices or under the logic of the balance of terror, but in televised broadcasts and social media posts. The threat of detonating atomic bombs again in the 21st century reveals a dangerous mix of geopolitical nostalgia and spectacle politics. Deep down, both know that no country can “win” a nuclear race. And yet, the temptation to show power, to regain influence and to project invulnerability to their respective audiences could be enough to reignite the powder keg. most feared on the planet. The silence of thirty years underground could be broken by a simple click on a social network. Image | Ministry of Defense of Russia In Xataka | The US and Russia have agreed on nuclear weapons: the time has come to take them out and see if they work In Xataka | In 1950 two scientists wondered if a 10 gigaton nuclear bomb was possible. Your results are hidden under lock and key

6,400 panels north of the Arctic Circle

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The world is immersed in the Renewable Energy Revolution. China is the Great powerin Europe we are seeing The sorpasso of renewables And even states like Texas have Uploaded to wind and photovoltaic car. However, there is a region in which bet on solar panels It looks like a contradiction: the Arctic. The reason? With a sun that for much of the year is up to the horizon, traditional panels sound like a waste. The trick is to stand up. And in the city of Troms the largest installation of bifacial solar panels in the world has just finished. Tromsøterminalen. North of the Arctic Circle is the city of Tromsø. Is at the upper limit of Norway And in a storage installation the world installation record of vertical photovoltaic units has just been exceeded, known as VPV. The roof of the trumsøtermine has hostel 1,600 VPV units that, in total, have 6,400 individual solar panels. It covers an area of ​​about 2,670 square meters and the installed capacity is 320 kWp. As they point in Interesting Engineeringthe CEO of Over Easy Solar (Norwegian company that He was in charge of the installation) comments that it is the vertical solar system located on a larger roof in the world. Too many ‘asterisks’, but the truth is that the orientation is impressive responds to a need. Vertical panels. Northern Norway has some Very capricious solar patterns. Focusing in Tromsø, from May to July there is a period known as the ‘midnight sun’. The sun remains visible 24 hours a day with different intensity, but there is also the opposite phenomenon: the ‘polar night’. From the end of November to mid -January, the star barely rises above the horizon. Depending on the area in Norway, there are between two and four months of continuous sunlight and another two to four at polar night. Traditional panels could not capture virtually anything when the sun affects too sharp angles, and that is where the VPV come out. If a traditional panel would reach 485 kWh yields in suitable conditions in this region, verticals can generate up to 55% more energy: about 750 kWh per year. Sun … and snow. In the winter months, that difference can become three or four times higher, but in addition to being more suitable to capture the sun when it is in the horizon line, these vertical solar panels take advantage of the Albano effect caused by the snow that accumulates between the ranks of panels and reflects the sunlight. That is: VPVs are capturing light from both the sun and what is reflected in the snow. It is estimated that this can increase energy production by more than 30% and, obviously, the advantage of vertical orientation is that snow does not accumulate on top of the panels, facilitating so much cleaning (The snow either Dust are enemies of photovoltaic plates) as ensuring a more continuous production. Tromsø is not the first system of this type and, in fact, is inspired by the success of the 1,200 VPV units installed a few years ago at the Oslo Ullevaal Stadium. In addition, it is an easy installation to perform (it was installed, according to The company, in four days for three people) and the CEO of Over Easy Solar trusts that that of tromsøterminate is an example for other cities of extreme latitudes. Although, really, they are not only useful in these conditions and there are already those who explore this solution on roads or in the Agrovoltaic facilities. Scalability. In fact, Over Easy is performing tests in which they measure the production of vertical panels not in extreme areas: but in one of the paradises of the photovoltaic: Spain. In the video below we see how a cluster of these panels produces on a roof in Elche: And that is on a roof is interesting because a problem that solar panels can have is their measured weight in kg/m². A traditional panel can weigh Between 15 and 25 kg/m² taking into account both cells and structure, hardware and other units. The one installed in the trumsøterminalen has a weight of 11 kg/m², which facilitates both the assembly work and the being able to fill roofs with panels. Images | Over Easy In Xataka | Something unpublished has just happened in Norway: there are already more electric cars circulating in total than gasoline

The Arctic cold was the ideal barrier against invasive species. Now that barrier is falling

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The Arctic Ocean is one of the hot points as far as climate change is concerned. Separated from the surface by polar ice, this ocean is a place with its own characteristics that go beyond its icy temperature. The barrier falls. A new study headed by researchers at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) He has found evidence of the arrival of an invasive species of Percebe to the waters of the Canadian Antarctic. This has led the team to conclude that the barrier that previously represented the low temperatures of the polar ocean is falling. Amphibalanus Impherevisus. The species in question is a type of Balánido sometimes known as bay’s percebe (Amphibalanus Impherevisus). These crustaceans are disturbed in a distant way with the common perclabes (Cornucopia policipes), but its presence is considered a problem and not A food source. The species has already become a regular of the waters of Europe and the Pacific Ocean, where it causes problems when attached to ships, pipes and infrastructure of different types. However, until now it had remained absent in the waters of the Canadian Arctic. EADN. The detection of the invasive species was carried out thanks to the study of the bars coding of the Environmental DNA (Edna). Living beings are leaving our genetic imprint in our environment: detached cells, waste and other biological remains. This technique allows to detect the presence of a species (or several) without finding a single specimen, only through environmental samples, in this case, water. The details of the study were Published in an article In the magazine Global Change Biology. Climate change, the great suspect. The Arctic is one of the regions most affected by climate change. There are two factors, both related to the increase in temperatures in this region, which have contributed to the expansion of this percebe. The first factor is the increase in maritime traffic of the Arctic associated with the thaw and the opening of new routes. Generally, the team explains, these invasive species usually arrive in the ships of the ships or in their ballast tanks. The second factor is that the waters of the Canadian Arctic no longer present such hostile conditions for the proliferation of foreign species. “Climate change is really in the nucleus of this problem. The ships are increasing in number because the reduction of sea ice has opened new nautical routes. It adds to this that the invasive species that the ships bring to the Arctic also are more likely to survive and establish populations due to the warmest temperatures of the water,” explained in a press release Elizabeth Boyse, who led the study. An issue to clarify. According to the team responsible for the study, there are still details to corroborate with respect to the spread of this species in the Canadian Arctic, starting to know if the DNA detected responded to larvae in transit or a more stable and fruitful population. To know this type of detail, it will be necessary to complement the study with other techniques, such as direct observation of animals. In Xataka | A group of Dutch came up with watering the Arctic could be a good antidote against thaw. It is working Image | Ansgar Walk, CC by-SA 3.0

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