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jcmarchi · 7 months

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NASA’s ‘Occult’ Science For Weather Forecasters - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/nasas-occult-science-for-weather-forecasters-technology-org/

NASA’s ‘Occult’ Science For Weather Forecasters - Technology Org

Radio occultation, pioneered by NASA for other planets, offers cheaper, better Earth weather data.

Spire Global currently has the most radio occultation satellites in orbit, having outfitted 40 of its Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver (LEMUR) satellites with radio receivers capable of the technique. Credit: Spire Global Inc.

Halfway through 2020, there was almost no aspect of modern life that hadn’t been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and weather forecasts were no exception. Weather agencies rely in part on data from atmospheric sensors on commercial aircraft, most of which were grounded.

So Vienna, Virginia-based Spire Global Inc. offered weather agencies atmospheric data its constellation of small satellites was collecting by a technique, relatively new to weather forecasters, called radio occultation. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts accepted the offer.

PlanetIQ’s radio occultation satellites are aimed at maximizing signal-to-noise ratios, as well as the number of atmospheric profiles they can gather per day. Image credit: PlanetIQ Inc.

“They assimilated it into their models and found that our radio occultation data was able to make up for the lack of in-situ data from airplanes,” said Vu Nguyen, radio occultation orbit scientist at Spire.

This method of atmospheric sounding wasn’t entirely new to weather scientists, though not much radio occultation data had been available previously. But it was already ancient history to researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the technique was pioneered and first used to gather data on the Martian atmosphere from the Mariner spacecraft in the 1960s.

Only now, however, is the technique poised to improve accuracy and reduce costs of atmospheric modeling for weather forecasts, with further implications for other Earth sciences.

One of GeoOptics’ CICERO (Community Initiative for Cellular Earth Remote Observation) satellites is depicted in low-Earth orbit. Advantages of radio occultation include an ability to see through clouds and high vertical resolution, meaning it can distinguish the altitudes of phenomena it observes. Credit: GeoOptics Inc.

Accurate weather prediction helps protect lives, health, and property and has significant benefits for industries such as agriculture, energy, construction, and transportation. Weather and atmospheric data is also foundational to understanding and predicting long-term trends in climate change.

Radio occultation is the observation of changes to a radio signal from a spacecraft as it passes behind a planetary body. As the signal’s path to a distant observer moves closer to the planetary surface, it passes through – or is “occulted” by – the planet’s atmosphere, which bends the signal.

The degree of this refraction, as well as other effects on the signal, reveal information about the atmosphere’s temperature, pressure, and moisture.

After sounding the Martian atmosphere, JPL scientists used the technique to characterize the atmospheres of the rest of the solar system’s planets and a few of their moons. But observing Earth with radio occultation would be trickier.

For one thing, both the transmitter and receiver have to be off the planet being observed. To take readings from other planets, the receiver could sit on Earth. But to observe our own atmosphere, the receiver would have to be in space, and receivers of the day were large and heavy.

A bigger challenge was that, for the data to add to existing knowledge of Earth’s atmosphere, a large number of signals and receivers would be needed.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory pioneered radio occultation in the 1960s, with the help of Stanford University, to gain the first information about Mars’ thin atmosphere by analyzing signals from the Mariner IV space probe after they had passed through the Martian air. Credit: NASA

GPS Guides Radio Occultation Home

By the late 1980s, though, these problems were resolving themselves. Advances in computing power produced smaller receivers, and a multitude of new space-based radio transmitters were being placed in Earth orbit as the U.S. Air Force launched the first GPS satellites.

In 1988, JPL scientist Thomas Yunck wrote the first proposal for using GPS signals to gather radio occultation data for Earth weather and climate observations.

The technique offered clear advantages over the technology that still dominates atmospheric observation from space. The signals are not blocked by clouds, and because they pass horizontally through the atmosphere at a series of different altitudes, they can produce more accurate, detailed vertical profiles of the air than any other satellite technology.

Because they aren’t subject to drift or bias, they can be used to calibrate other types of sensors. And GPS radio receivers were already smaller and cheaper than the instruments on traditional weather satellites, such as passive infrared and microwave sounders.

Yunck’s proposal caught the attention of researchers at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), who successfully lobbied their sponsoring organization, the National Science Foundation, to fund a demonstration of the concept.

The GPS/MET instrument, adapted by UCAR and partners from an existing JPL receiver, was placed on NASA’s Microlab 1 minisatellite and launched in 1995. JPL helped modify the receiver’s software and analyze the experiment’s results, which, although limited, resoundingly proved the feasibility of the approach.

NASA then sponsored five more demonstrations mounted on satellites already scheduled for launch, testing more capable receivers and laying the groundwork for the first constellation of radio occultation satellites.

COSMIC-1 (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate), a group of six small satellites launched in 2006, was funded by the Taiwanese space agency, spearheaded by UCAR, and supported by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and others.

Over the next 14 years, COSMIC-1 produced millions of atmospheric profiles, and most major weather agencies started working these into their models.

By the time COSMIC-2 launched in 2019, a few companies had already put the first commercial radio occultation satellites into orbit. Although the commercial market for this data was barely emerging, there were clear incentives for companies to enter the field.

The advent of CubeSats and other small satellites had helped reduce the cost of putting radio occultation equipment into space to a fraction of the cost of legacy weather-observation systems.

An Industry Emerges

“With a tiny, $40,000 instrument, you can get results 10 to 20 times more accurate than with traditional instruments costing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Yunck, who in 2006 founded the company GeoOptics Inc. of Pasadena, California, to advance commercial radio occultation.

GeoOptics’ CICERO (Community Initiative for Cellular Earth Remote Observation) constellation, launched between 2018 and 2022, now comprises four satellites, all equipped with a receiver that JPL engineers modified specifically for the project.

Rob Kursinski, a former colleague of Yunck’s, also worked on radio occultation and other GPS-based projects at JPL for decades before he cofounded PlanetIQ Inc. of Golden, Colorado, in 2015 to commercialize the technology. PlanetIQ started collecting radio occultation data in 2021 after its first satellite failed in orbit a year earlier.

The company now has two operational satellites, with plans to expand to a constellation of 20 in the next few years. Kursinski said PlanetIQ will emphasize getting the most out of each of its spacecraft, with a higher number of atmospheric profiles per day reducing the cost per profile, and with a high signal-to-noise ratio enabling readings from the lowest mile or so of the atmosphere, which has proven challenging with radio occultation.

Spire currently has by far the most radio occultation satellites in orbit, with about 40 of its 100-plus Low Earth Multi-Use Receiver (LEMUR) satellites using the technique to collect atmospheric data.

Nguyen, radio occultation scientist with the company, noted that the data, while inexpensive to acquire, can have an outsized impact on the accuracy of weather forecasts, especially when it’s gathered from areas where there’s a shortage of information from other sources, like over oceans where weather balloons are scarce.

Spire is now the first vendor to sell radio occultation data to NASA. Through the agency’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition program, NASA first validated the company’s data and now purchases it and makes it available to authorized researchers.

All three companies are expanding capabilities to use signals not only from the United States’ GPS constellation but also from the European, Russian, and Chinese global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), multiplying the number of atmospheric soundings a given satellite can make.

NOAA started purchasing commercial radio occultation data in 2021, from Spire and GeoOptics, and doubled its order in 2022. Both companies also sell the data to the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. And GeoOptics picked up an early commercial customer with the new weather services start-up Climavision.

While the market for selling weather data to private customers remains “embryonic,” Yunck said, a few commercial weather services are emerging and purchasing raw data, while companies like his are developing the ability to turn their own data into informational products for sale to many industries.

“A third of the world’s industry uses weather data,” he said. “They want to know what’s going to happen next week, next month – how the climate’s going to change in the next 10 years.”

Divining the Future of Occultation Arts

Today, radio occultation still accounts for just a sliver of the data most weather agencies use, but Kursinski said he expects it to become the dominant source of weather data before long. Even a handful of the soundings can dramatically improve forecast accuracy because they provide precise information with high vertical resolution on temperature, pressure, and water vapor, in clear and cloudy conditions, well beyond other space-based methods, he said.

“You can also use that to correct biases in other observations and reduce the uncertainty you assign to that data, which makes everyone else’s data more accurate and useful.”

“The impact on weather forecasting is astonishing,” said Yunck. “When radio occultation is available in large numbers, it will raise forecasting accuracy to new levels.” He noted that this will include long-term predictions of climate change. “It’s a vital new addition to a growing armada of space observatories rapidly improving our understanding of the planet. That’s why I got into it.”

All the companies also noted that radio occultation will improve climate studies because it’s the easiest way to collect accurate temperature readings from the upper atmosphere.

Additional possibilities for Earth science stem from the fact that the same receivers on the same satellites can use GNSS signals for more than just radio occultation. All three companies are working on using techniques that NASA helped pioneer to analyze satellite navigation signals reflected from Earth’s surface for applications like determining soil moisture and wind speeds over oceans.

Spire is using the reflected signals to map sea ice, while GeoOptics is mapping the planet’s gravity field with the help of GNSS signals.

The companies also use the same equipment to map activity in the planet’s ionosphere, where electrons affect and can interfere with communications and navigation, selling this data to the Air Force and others.

Another longtime colleague of Yunck and Kursinski’s who is still at JPL, Thomas Meehan, a flight software engineer, said NASA is now working to use radio occultation to detect and analyze heavy rainfall, especially over oceans, where data is sparse, and to improve understanding of the lower atmosphere.

Meehan pointed out that JPL’s work over the last 40 years, building the highly accurate receivers and complex positioning software that let satellites and ground stations process and correct navigation signals, laid the foundation for all this work and more.

“What NASA did was take a complex system and put the pieces in place to let science happen at a very low cost, without always knowing what we were solving,” Meehan said. “It was all for potential applications, and NASA understood that. To me, it’s just a massive success story.”

Source: NASA

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coastalsteelstructures · 10 months

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Filtering Non-serious Prospects: Addressing Quote Request Overload in Steel Construction

Businesses that manufacture or construct steel buildings daily are fielding inquiries about pricing, customization, and construction timeframes. Steel buildings have numerous uses, whether for an indoor horse riding arena or covered riding arena, an industrial manufacturing warehouse, farming, agricultural buildings, or even aircraft hangars.

Know More: https://coastalsteelstructures.com/filtering-non-serious-prospects-addressing-quote-request-overload-in-steel-construction/

#covered riding arena #Steel Aircraft Hangars #Agriculture Metal Buildings #hangar kit #Agricultural Steel Buildings

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markettrend24 · 2 years

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Agricultural Aircrafts Market In-depth Analysis till 2028 |Thrush Aircraft, Grob Aircraft, Boeing, Embraer, Cessna, and Dynali

Global Agricultural Aircrafts Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022-2028 This report studies the Agricultural Aircrafts Marketwith many aspects of the industry like the market size, market status, market trends and forecast, the report also provides brief information of the competitors and the specific growth opportunities with key market drivers. Find the complete Agricultural Aircrafts market…

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#Agricultural Aircrafts forecast #Agricultural Aircrafts Industry #Agricultural Aircrafts Market #Agricultural Aircrafts price #Agricultural Aircrafts report #Agricultural Aircrafts research #Agricultural Aircrafts share #Agricultural Aircrafts trends #Covid-19 Impact Analysis

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northgazaupdates · 4 months

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7 February 1024

Journalist Mohammed Ahmed visits the farming sector of Beit Lahiya to review the condition of agriculture in the north Gaza Strip. A full English translation is kindly provided by Instagram user faridaek;

I am here in the Beit Lahia area, at the extreme northwest of Beit Lahia city. Beit Lahia is known as the food basket of North Gaza Strip. Many locals and farmers have reached their farms in the past two days, after the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the area. However, the situation is still dangerous. Upon our arrival at these places, one of the areas was targeted by an F-16 aircraft, very close to the locations where the farmers who had left this land and headed into North Gaza Strip were. Some farmers are still in this area, trying to salvage something from the land. The crops that were planted before this war on the Gaza Strip are mostly carrots, potatoes, and onions, as they are grown in the ground.

Many of these farms were destroyed during the ground invasion and by the incursion of machinery, including the F-16 aircrafts, which spared none of the lands. All the vegetables in this place were damaged; the crops will not reach maturity.

Source: Mohammed Ahmed on Instagram

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A post shared by Moh Ahmed (@moh_ahmed87)

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workersolidarity · 3 months

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[ 📹 Scenes of widespread destruction following a series of firebelts launched by Israeli warplanes targeting the Abu Fovea family home in the Al-Shaboura neighborhood of Rafah city, in the south of the Gaza Strip.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏠💥🚑 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES COMMIT 9 NEW MASSACRES AGAINST PALESTINIAN FAMILIES ON 139TH DAY OF GENOCIDE

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), on the 139th day of Israel's ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, committed a total of 9 new massacres of Palestinian families resulting in the deaths of more than 97 civilians and wounding another 132 over the previous 24-hours. The Israeli army continued to launch violent strikes against civilian homes and vehicles across the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air.

In northern Gaza, where a broken hellscape is nearly all that remains of great ancient towns and cities that were once densely populated by Palestinian families, IOF airstrikes targeted several civilian residences that were still standing, including the Odeh, Yassin, Al-Irqan and Nasser Family homes, killing at least 20 civilians and wounding dozens of others in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood southeast of Gaza City.

Civil Defense and ambulance personnel say they were unable to reach the sites of Israeli bombings, including that of the Arhaim and Naeem family homes in Al-Zaytoun as intense Israeli airstrikes and shelling continues in the area and invading Israeli soldiers occupy several positions nearby.

Also in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, the Israeli occupation murdered journalist Ihab Nasr and his wife, targeted in their home in an airstrike. Nasr's children were also wounded in the airstrike, leaving them with burn injuries.

The body of Ihab Nasr was transported to Al-Shifa Medical Complex, while his wife's body remained buried under the rubble of their family home.

Israeli aircraft also bombarded two civilian residences in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Occupation warplanes also targeted the Qatifan family home in the Al-Sabra neighborhood in central Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of 7 Palestinians and wounding several others, mostly children.

IOF jets also launched a series of violent airstrikes on Palestinian homes in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City, killing several civilians and wounding dozens of others.

In the Central Gaza Strip, intense firebelts launched by Israeli aircraft and artillery has killed upwards of 50 civilians across the area and wounded scores of others.

IOF warplanes bombed the Al-Daalis family home in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, resulting in 17 deaths among Palestinian civilians.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes also targeted a tract of agricultural land near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, causing casualties to four civilians, including three children, who were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

Occupation artillery shelling and bombing also targeted the Al-Daalis family home in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, resulting in the deaths of at least 17 civilians.

Simultaneously, occupation aircraft also bombarded civilian residences in the Al-Maghazi, Nuseirat and Al-Bureij Refugee Camps, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding dozens of others.

At the same time, the Israeli occupation shifted most of the focus of their ire onto the southern Gaza Strip, where intense airstrikes and firebelts targeted civilian homes and vehicles cross the south, mostly in Rafah and Khan Yunis.

Israeli occupation forces launched dozens of strikes targeting the city of Rafah, which remains under the threat of an Israeli ground invasion. Occupation jets began the day by bombing agricultural lands located north of Rafah city, opposite of Dar al-Fadila in the Khirbet al-Adas region, where luckily, no casualties were reported, followed by the bombing of farm lands near the Salah al-Din Gate on the border with Egypt, where one civilian casualty was reported.

Following those strikes, the Israeli army bombed a civilian residence belonging to the Youssef Al-Hassi family in Rafah City, resulting in at least one death of a civilian.

At the same time, Israeli artillery and aircraft bombed a civilian home belonging to the Khaled Abu Azoum family in the Shaboura Camp in central Rafah, where at least one casualty was transported to a local hospital.

Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes bombarded the home of the Hajj Yousef family in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood west of the city of Rafah, while Israeli aircraft bombed a civilian vehicle in Rafah, killing at least one Palestinian.

At the same time, for the fifth consecutive day, the Israeli occupation army occupied the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, in the south of Gaza, while occupation artillery shelling continues to target in the vicinity of Al-Amal Hospital, also in Khan Yunis. Nasser Hospital has also been under siege by Israeli army vehicles and tanks for 32 consecutive days, with intense shelling of the surrounding neighborhood a daily occurrence.

Several violent firebelts were also dropped on the Qaizan, Al-Najjar, Al-Batn and Al-Samin neighborhoods of Khan Yunis, while airstrikes and artillery shelling in the area goes on with violent continuity.

In Rafah, Israeli occupation warplanes bombed several civilian homes and a mosque in the city, resulting in the deaths of seven Palestinian civilians and wounding several others.

Israeli fighter jets repeatedly bomb the border areas of the city of Rafah, while Israeli naval gunboats continue shelling the tents of displaced Palestinian families along the coast.

As a result of Israel's ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the endlessly rising death toll has reached in excess of 29'410 civilians killed, mostly women and children, and another 69'465 wounded since the start of Israeli aggression on Gaza, beginning October 7th, 2023.

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

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girlactionfigure · 2 months

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🔅Wed morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( Update 1 of 2 )

🔻AIR ATTACKS..

.. North - Hezbollah

ROCKETS at Gesher HaZiv, Nahariya, Sa'ar, Hanita, Ya'ara, Metzuba, Shlomi, Betzet, Lehman

ROCKETS at Margaliot

ROCKETS at Even Menachem, Zarit, Netua, Fassuta, Shomera, Shtula

ROCKETS at Alkosh, Matat, Netua, Fassuta, Hurfeish

Interceptions without alarm reported over the Kinerret

.. South East - Iranian Shia Militias of Iraq

SUICIDE DRONE at Kushi Rimon

.. South West - Hamas

ROCKETS at Kissufim

▪️TERROR - KOCHAV YAIR.. ramming attack - 4 policemen were injured and the terrorist was shot dead.

▪️VIOLENT ANTI-GOVT PROTESTS JERUSALEM.. MK Zeev Elkin: Hard pictures in Jerusalem. There is no place for breaking the law and harming the police! There is no place for police violence and excessive use of force! Please stop! We are not enemies to each other. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran are the enemies! We are in the middle of a war against a murderous enemy who wants to destroy all of us, the supporters of the government and its opponents.

Head of Shin Bet.. “The violent discourse on the Internet and some of the scenes we saw tonight in Jerusalem, go beyond the accepted rules of protest, harm the ability to maintain public order, may lead to violent friction with the security forces, hinder them from fulfilling their duties and even harm secure individuals.

There is a clear line between a legitimate protest and a violent and illegal protest. This is a worrisome trend that may lead to dangerous areas that should not be reached."

And our enemy watches Al Jazeera and laughs.

▪️IDEAS.. Head of Yisrael Beitenu, former Minister of Defense, MK Avigdor Lieberman:

"The Israeli government must make two immediate decisions:

1. In the security field, there is no justification for purchasing aircraft for a total amount of approximately NIS 35 billion. It is impossible for militias in sandals to be able to launch cruise missiles and UAVs (suicide drones) towards Israel, while in order to attack in Yemen, the Israel needs to put an entire squadron into the air for a flight thousands of kilometers south.

Therefore, instead of purchasing airplanes for approximately 35 billion shekels, you can purchase airplanes for approximately 20 billion shekels, and invest 10 billion shekels in establishing an effective missile force that will meet the security challenges, and five billion shekels to strengthen the land army.

2. In the economic field, we must immediately bring to Israel about a quarter of a million foreign workers, who are needed in the construction, industry, agriculture and hotel industries.

After almost half a year of war, it's time to change mindsets.”

( Update 2 of 2 )

🔻AIR ATTACKS..

.. North - Hezbollah

ROCKETS at Alkosh, Matat, Netua, Fassuta, Hurfeish

▪️CEASEFIRE LEAKS.. The Lebanese Al Mayadeen from a "senior source in the resistance": The new proposal submitted by Israel today does not provide an answer to the main issues that Hamas insists on and therefore there is no progress in the talks.

Al-Arabiya: Israel showed some flexibility proposing establishing 3 safe crossings to the north of the strip, but demanded health checks on the hostages in return.

▪️MORE INFO ON ARAVAH DRONE ATTACK.. At around 1 a.m., a suspected drone flying from the eastern direction entered Israeli airspace in the Arabah region, just north of Eilat, according to the IDF.

The "suspicious aerial target" set off sirens at a popular roadside store in the area.

The IDF says it fired an interceptor missile at the target, although it is not clear if it was shot down. (Fabien)

▪️MORE INFO ON THE RAMMING ATTACK.. a 26-year-old man from the Arab city of Tira rammed his vehicle into four cops near the town of Kochav Yair, police say. One of the officers was seriously wounded.

The assailant then fled to a nearby West Bank checkpoint, where he allegedly tried to stab the guards there. The guards at the Eliyahu Crossing returned fire, killing the suspect.

His family: our son has mental disorders. It was not on a nationalistic basis.

▪️IRANIAN SHIA MILITIA SAYS ATTACKED HAIFA? The Shia militias in Iraq claim: We attacked the airport in Haifa early in the morning with a UAV. No such attack.

▪️PASSOVER ECONOMY.. Min. Of Economy found a 32% gap between expensive and discount grocery chains on the ‘average basket of Passover foods’. It also noted an overall 4% increase from last year.

#Israel #October 7 #Hamas Massacre #Gaza #Israel/HamasWar #Real Time Updates

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typosandtea · 5 hours

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Vertibirds. 🚁⚙️🗡️🪽

So every wastelander and his dog know that the fallout 4 vertibirds crash more than settlements need help. But why is that? Here's my 2 caps on the matter. (Or: Bethesda doesn't understand aviation very well I think)

( So uh this is way longer than I expected, I was possessed🚁☢️:] )

TLDR: Horrific conditions for aviation, the difficulties of wasteland heavy maintenance, inexperienced pilots AND mechanics, and the WORST damn instrument layout I’ve ever seen

The Vertibird is designed as a fictional tilt rotor VTOL/STOL(Vertical/Short Take Off and Landing) aircraft which makes a ton of sense in the wasteland where suitable runways are rarer than hens teeth. One of Bethesda's primary visual design influences for the vertibird I suspect is the bell boeing v-22 Osprey.

This funky creature \/

This photo is from the Wikipedia page >Here< [ID: a photo of a v22 osprey aircraft in flight as seen from below and to the right, the aircraft is a medium tilt rotor aircraft with very large propellers, the aircraft is current in vertical take off or landing with the engines pointed straight up. The landing gear is extended, the aircraft is painted in air-force grey with the faint decal “marines” and the American army star on horizontal stripes and the squadron and registration barley visible on the empennage. The cargo and forward doors are open and a soldier is hanging out the front. End ID]

Now the Osprey has a bit of a reputation among people I’ve met who’ve flown in them, I've personally been told things like "if it's not leaking hydraulic fluid, that means you're out of fluid" and "its terrifying to fly in".

My screenshot. [ID: A screenshot of a fallout 4 vertibird, seen from front left in flight over bushland. the Player is manning the minigun and Paladin Danse is a Passenger. End ID]

Looking at the Vertibirds themselves we can make a few assumptions here.

The shape of the cowling and the noise they make indicates that the engines are some form of turboprop engine, likely requiring liquid fuel akin to Avtur(Aviation turbine fuel). Confirmed by the Instruments visible in the cockpit.

The most weight efficient way to move big parts is hydraulics so, they likely have complex hydraulic systems for wing positioning / AOA(Angle Of Attack) / engine angle. Likely also for landing gear since they have retractable gear in fallout 4.

That the BoS has modified them from the original design at least partially, allowing attachment to the Prydwen, likely other modifications too.

I strongly suspect that they have an APU(Auxiliary Power Unit) in the aft fuselage / empennage somewhere, since they have a massive air intake scoop on the top fuselage, they can self start their primary engines which either requires a ridiculous amount of electricity / amps or a source of bleed air. Bleed air is the most likely candidate for self start and is reasonably common on real turbine aircraft, APUs also allows for ground power without having primary engines running. Also confirmed by the instruments in the cockpit.

All of these points are well and good and common in aviation, even modifications (ie. STOL kits, survey aircraft, agricultural mods, skiis, ect). But modern aviation has some advantages that the BoS doesn't have: access to new off the shelf parts, proper verified documentation, proper test processes & facilities, and experienced personnel.

Don't get me wrong, I think Proctor Ingram is awesome, very knowledgeable and practically a miracle worker (especially with that one terminal entry about an engine failure field recovery she pulls off!!), but one chief engineer cannot maintain an entire fleet AND the Prydwen, she comments on how things are breaking often on the ship that she is very busy! Training of new engineers takes *years* to even get to basic level! Ingram can’t train anyone she is too busy keeping everyone in the air 24/7! So who is training all of these scribes? There must be a huge amount of time teaching and supervising even simple tasks! Even at their best the BoS wouldn’t be able to hope to be near the prewar standards of training! Even Ingram or other senior scribes would not be thaaaaat experienced, 10 years is not a long time to completely learn a new aircraft and implement systems & processes of maintenance. The point here is that there are inexperienced scribes maintaining these aircraft.

WOLRDS BEST CHEIF ENGINEER ❤️ \/

My Screenshot. [ID: A screenshot of proctor Ingram from fallout 4, she is standing in the Liberty prime control area. She is smiling. She is wearing her usual modified power armour frame. Preston is visible in the background with a clipboard and pen, he is wearing woody’s outfit from toy story. End ID]

Heavy maintenance in the wasteland, especially in an active combat zone would be an absolute nightmare, are the poor scribes doing overhauls on the flight deck?? Not really possible, so the BoS must have a ground facility at the airport somewhere. Also side note where is the rest of Boston airport? There is more to an airport than a terminal and 1 runway, where are all the hangars?? Likely underwater but still, no ruins??

Back to maintenance, aircraft need a huge amount of care, way way way more than cars do. light civilian aircraft IRL need a full inspection every 100 hours of flight time, which adds up incredibly quickly! For example if you have a one hour commute twice a day that’s MR(Maintenance Release) hours reached in 50 days! You legally cannot fly out of hours. And a service for small aircraft takes about 3 personnel / 2 days and that’s without any major repairs or ADs (Airworthiness Directives) to address! $$$$! Aircraft operating in adverse conditions also need additional maintenance, and coastal areas like Boston, are considered adverse conditions since the salt air corrodes aluminum and steel like nothing else! Corrosion untreated will damage your aircraft and if left too long can destroy the structural integrity of aluminum parts. The spars of aircraft are aluminum often!

My photo. [ID: The inside of a Cessna 172 wing trailing edge is shown looking inboard at the aft root rib, which is primer green, it is backlit by torchlight, the fuselage and a orange scat hose are visible behind it, it has 3 irregular shaped holes in it, 2 are by design but the third medium sized hole in the center of the image is eaten away by corrosion. End ID]

Vertibirds, between being shot at constantly and having a complex deign with a lot of precision moving parts will need a lot of repairs; moving parts means lots of upkeep, grease and inspections! The BoS by 2287 must have some sort of manufacturing back in capital, they cannot still be using old parts from the enclave after 10 years of maintenance, that’s a lot of grease, paint and hydraulic fluid!!!

The BoS must also have a refinery of some kind because Avtur is a refined fuel with some important additives like biocide. Manufacture and storage of fuel is very important since fuel contamination will bring down an aircraft! (and has multiple times IRL! :[ ). Water, microbes, and algae are real dangers to engines, with free water being the most common. Poorly sealed tanks or improper fuel storage combined with a incomplete or missed pre-flight inspection can lead to fuel starvation, since water is heavier than fuel and tank outlets are at the bottom of the tank. If you loose an engine on a twin, may God help you.

This image is from Concordia Bioscience >Here< [ID: A photo of a sample of pale yellow Jet fuel in a clear container, the sample is contaminated with water and microbes and has separated into layers with water at the bottom, then microorganisms, and then Fuel at the top, the image is labeled as such. End ID]

Getting to the most likely crash reasons now (finally), In my opinion that is inexperienced pilots and; a horrific instrument layout.

While there must be some lancers in the BoS that have been flying for the whole 10 years that they’ve had Vertibirds, I think that is likely the exception not the rule, even if they crashed a fraction of the time that do in game that’s still A LOT of downed aircraft!

Experience is only gained in practice, and unfortunately for the BoS they are (self-declared) at war so resources are thin and safe zones are thinner. I suspect that there are a lot of very inexperienced pilots without the time for the experienced pilots to really teach.

Linking to my final point, experience on an airframe itself is also important, you want to be familiar with your aircraft, even among a group of the same model aircraft they will each have quirks, like slightly different instrument layouts, slightly different handling/feel i.e. "this one flies heavier / slower" (at least that's my experience with smaller civilian aircraft) I imagine that the apocalypse did nothing for improving manufacturing tolerances!

FINAL AND MOST DAMNING POINT:

Experience can only help lancers so much when veritibirds have such a strange instrument panel layout:

My screenshot. [ID: a screenshot of a instrument panel from a Fallout 4 vertibird. it is slanted on a approximately 30 degree angle. End ID]

A bit weird looking yeah? For reference Pilot is left seat and copilot is always right seat, this applies globally even in right hand drive countries.

lets take a closer look:

My Screenshots. [IDs: Three screenshots of the same Instrument panel as above, but zoomed in using a sniper rifle scope to get a better look. The first screen shot is the pilots side, the second the center, and the third the copilots side. End ID]

All righty! So reading from top to bottom, then left to right we have:

On the pilots side: A Rotor%RPM gauge, a VOR(Very high frequency Omni-directional Range) indicator, a DG(Directional Gyro), a HSI(Horizontal Situation Indicator), and then a huge AI(Attitude Indicator),

In the center section we have: presumably light clusters (likely master warnings & cautions, gear indicators, and other status lights), a second VOR gauge, likely magnetic compass as they are usually top centre (though I can’t see it being at all accurate with all of the steel around!), the engine instruments cluster, and the APU status / control panel at the bottom. unsure of what the 3 clusters of horizontal buttons are suppose to be other than input of some kind?

In the Engine cluster: Torque%, XMSN(transmission) oil temp / pressure dual gauge, a gas producer % RPM gauge with small integrated single percent dial (like having a seconds dial on your watch for accuracy) meaning the engines have free turbines (compressor not attached to the power turbine), a dual load / fuel psi gauge, a dual engine oil pressure and temperature gauge, fuel quantity in pounds, a turbine output temperature gauge (the hottest part of your engine), and a clock.

On the copilots side: a second Rotor%RPM dual gauge, a third VOR indicator, Airspeed in Knots and MPH, a RMI(Radio Magnetic Indicator) which uses VOR and ADF(Automatic Direction Finder) on compass, a second DG, a second HSI, and a teeny tiny altimeter right in the outboard corner.

the 4 instruments on the lower copilots panel are completely unlabeled

some things of note that are from game limitations:

most of the engine instruments don't have needles at all

the DGs and the RMI use the same background asset, resulting in the DG wrongly having 'VOR' and 'ASI' on its face, DGs are self contained air driven instruments that work on gyroscopic precession, not any outside data input.

all of the instruments with a compass face all say north despite this vertibird not quite facing north.

the AI is showing wings level despite this vertibird being crashed and on a ~30 degree angle

there are not engine controls at all not even flat assets, only flight controls.

There are a lot of instruments here and most of them are reasonably OK read individually, BUT there at least 1 key instrument missing and the layout outs emphasis on completely the wrong things:

WHERE IS THE VERTICAL SPEED INDICATOR(VSI)????? That's a pretty important gauge in a VERTICAL take off / landing aircraft!!!!!!!!!! It's one of the basic six pack!!! how was it omitted??? Speaking of the six pack why is there only one ASI and Altimeter?? and why are they tiny and ON THE COPILOTS SIDE ONLY???? the altimeter is LITERALLY the furthest instrument from the pilot in a vertibird, it should be right in front of the pilot!!! the easy to miss altimeter would make IFR(Instrument Flight Rules) flying incredibly dangerous! Also why are there four VOR based navigational instruments? VOR IS GROUND BASED NAVIGATION!!! unless the BoS has rebooted the multiple ground beacons for them to navigate from that's THREE dead instruments taking up space on the panel! the RMI is slightly more useful as ADF can tune to commercial radio frequencies, though these would need to be strong!

These poor inexperienced lancers are having to look all over the whole unnecessarily crowded cockpit for basic information that should be right in front of them, causing reaction delays and possible confusion. That delay could be the difference between whether or not they are flying home today.

-> Bethesda doesn't understand what half the instruments do and while they did a good job with most of the assets, in their quest to make it retro-future / visibly different from actual aircraft, they have completely destroyed any use of logic in the layout.

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Thanks for reading! Here’s a video of me yeeting Danse with the ‘Get out of my face mod’ as compensation haha

My Video. [ID: a video capture from fallout 4 in first person. It is night and is at oberland station facing the water treatment plant. The player is wearing power armour and the HUD is visible. The player is very close to Paladin Danse, he turns away from them and they shove him with the voice line “stay out of my way”. Danse flys a long way away while rag-dolling. The Gamer’s laughter can be heard while Danse is flying. The player follows Danse’s fall with the crosshairs. The player then walks backwards. End ID]

#they look cool and faster than a chopper that’s for sure #big disclaimer: I am not American or military I haven't seen a Osprey up close. and all of my experience is light fixedwings #If you know more about Ospreys or I've made other mistakes please correct me !!#oh yeah real brain rot days #been thinking about this for a long while #this catastrophe of a train of though was kicked off a when I decided to zoom in on the dash a vertibird out of curiosity and discover that #they have actual gauges that corresponding to real ones. just in the worst layout I’ve ever seen it’s so counterintuitive #Typos’ tea time #fallout 4 #fo4 #bos #brotherhood of steel #vertibird #fictional aviation

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theaceofwords · 1 day

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Like. We do very much all understand that Russia is trying to interfere in all western elections, right? Russia, China, and Iran have ideological and territorial goals which they cannot realise in the existing global status quo.

Russia wants Ukraine (and really I think they want as much of Europe as they can get). They want to own it, stomp out everybody who fights back, and force them all to speak Russian. But they know also that the EU (and, I guess, NATO, the e bugs of the situation) will supply Ukraine with weapons as long as they keep fighting (which I also think is monstrous, frankly, but that's another thread).

China's government wants Taiwan. The US has been one of Taiwan's most vehement allies (which. you know. not always a good thing), but until recently it was taken as a simple fact that any move China made towards Taiwan would get stomped into the channel by the nearest US aircraft carrier.

Iran's leadership wants more regional control--they sponsor a variety of, let's say passionate nongovernmental activists, throughout the surrounding nations, and their current government is pretty strongly opposed to "modern" (Western) values like freedom of speech, human rights, etc. They're also pretty boxed-in by nations which are propped up by oil money, mostly US oil money.

These nations are coordinating. We know this for a fact; in the most obvious example, Russia is using Iranian drones and Chinese manufacturing to supply its ongoing violence against Ukraine. They all understand that their foreign policy objectives are perfectly compatible, and in fact more than compatible, are mutually reinforcing--because the cases of Ukraine and Taiwan are analogous, these industrial/agricultural centers which are not ostensibly part of regional alliances but which have been trying to join the modern world for decades.

But here's the thing. Now we have these hard-right political movements brewing throughout Europe and the Americas. Not by accident--hard-right groups are coordinating and sharing notes in south, central, and north America, as well as in the EU. And these hard-right political parties are not at all interested in the status quo of Western force projection--they take an isolationist, authoritarian view of foreign policy where the great powers do what they like and the small countries deal with it and are absorbed.

Russia, China, Iran, and the smaller, shittier nations that work with them (the governments of which are shut out of the modern world largely for being such shitbag authoritarian despots that even the US can't swallow working with them)--these nations all recognize that their best chance to achieve their goals is to help the hard right win in Europe. In America. Everywhere. Anywhere they can get someone into party who, like Trump, will refuse to honor treaties with Ukraine and Taiwan--who will go on record saying that he doesn't give a shit about Europe, that the US should pull out of NATO.

This is the state of the world. Do you understand that this is the state of the world? This is why Russia/China are pushing such massive disinformation on the internet, why there is so much pro-PRC and pro-Russian brigading on reddit and Twitter and Tumblr. It's not because they're nebulously evil Red Threats that we think are malevolent for no reason. They have extremely specific policy goals which they cannot achieve without a shift in the current world order. This means they have a strong interest in changing the world order as quickly and radically as possible.

These relationships are not the matter of speculation. These are not my personal conspiracy theories, they are facts. The A to B in this situation is extraordinarily clear.

The internet is not a neutral ground. There are hostile actors here who have decided that the internet is one of the best means by which to realise goals which are antithetical to free, open, and civilized society. You cannot take information here at face value. You must do your own research, confirm facts across multiple sources with different interests, draw and hold your own convictions and change your opinions when the evidence dictates it.

And above all else, do not be taken in by the idea that the world is awful and nothing can be done to save it. That nihilism is being pushed upon you. If you believe the world can do nothing, there is no point in defending Ukraine. If you believe the world is beyond saving, there's no reason to recognize Taiwan. If you believe both sides are awful, there is no point to pressing for Palestinian statehood.

Apathy does not serve a brighter tomorrow--because the world never remains good. It is made good every day by the effort of billions. The world we live in is the result of centuries of people giving their lives to push the needle further to peace. To international cooperation and understanding.

Get your head in the game. It's the only game going around here. You're playing whether you like it or not, so you might as well know who you're playing against.

#politics

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nocternalrandomness · 3 months

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Air Tractor AT-802A Air Tanker taxis to the runway at the Boise Tanker Base

#Air Tractor #AT-802 #Air Tanker #firefighting aircraft #agricultural aircraft #water bomber #aerial firefighting #plane spotting #airplane #plane

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workingclasshistory · 2 years

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On this day, 27 October 1940, Japanese planes dropped grain over Ningbo, China during World War II. Two days later, bubonic plague broke out in the city killing 97 people. After the war Japanese military officials confirmed that they had carried out a biological attack, under the supervision of Unit 731. Unit 731 was one of several biological warfare teams which carried out many attacks on China, killing tens of thousands. Some aircraft sprayed bubonic plague, while others dropped ceramic containers full of plague-infested fleas. Elsewhere, reservoirs, wells, livestock and agricultural land were deliberately infected with pathogens including cholera, dysentery, typhoid and anthrax. These continued to kill after the war ended – up to 30,000 in 1947 alone. In addition to aerial attacks, they conducted horrific human experiments, mostly on Chinese communists and partisans, but also on some Russians and other Westerners. Subjects were infected with diseases, frozen alive, dismembered, gassed, raped and more. Hundreds were killed each year after the unit was set up in 1932. Its scientists even published papers publicly in peer-reviewed journals, claiming that the experiments discussed were on non-human primates. Towards the end of the war, all the prisoners and Chinese labourers in the unit were murdered, and Japanese troops tried to destroy all evidence by blowing up the base. Officers and scientists who were captured by the USSR were put on trial for war crimes and sentenced to periods of 2 to 25 years imprisonment in Siberian gulags. However, the US claimed the trials were "communist propaganda," and gave immunity to scientists in exchange for their data, including the sadistic head of Unit 731, Shiro Ishii. The USSR also soon established a biological weapons facility using research from the Unit. Some of the Unit's scientists given immunity continued experimenting on Japanese civilians without their consent, deliberately infecting patients with typhus for example. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2119763184875487/?type=3

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aimeedaisies · 7 months

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The Princess Royal’s Official Engagements in October 2023

02/10 As President of the Riding for the Disabled Association visited Avon Riding Centre, to mark its 40th Anniversary. 🐴🥳

03/10 Held two Investiture ceremonies at Windsor Castle. 🎖️

With Sir Tim As Patron of the Minchinhampton Centre for the Elderly, visited Horsfall House, Minchinhampton. 👵🏻👴🏻

04/10 In Cornwall Princess Anne visited;

Origin Coffee in Porthleven. ☕️

Camborne School of Mines at the Penryn Campus of University of Exeter, in Penryn. 🔨

St Ewe Free Range Eggs Packing Centre in Truro. 🥚

05/10 As Colonel of The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons), attended a Household Cavalry Medal Parade at Powle Lines, Picton Barracks in Wiltshire. 🫡

07/10 With Sir Tim Attended the Scotland vs Ireland Rugby World Cup match at the Stade de France in Paris. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇫🇷🏉

09/10 As Patron of Livability, visited Livability Millie College in Poole. 🏫

As Patron of UK Youth, visited Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre in Bransgore. 🧗‍♀️

10/10 Attended a Future of UK Food Systems Seminar held by Crops for the Future at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge. 🚜

As Commandant-in-Chief (Youth) of St. John Ambulance, opened the new Ambulance Hub in Castle Donington. 🚑

11/10 Held two investiture ceremonies at Windsor Castle. 🎖️

Unofficial, Sir Tim attended the opening of the New Zealand Liberation Museum, Te Arawhata, in Le Quesnoy, France. 🇫🇷🇳🇿

As Patron of Scots in London Group attended a Reception at St Columba’s Church of Scotland. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Attended a Blue Seal Club Dinner at the Cavalry and Guards Club in Piccadilly, London. 🤵‍♂️

12/10 As Patron of the Campaign for Gordonstoun, chaired a Cabinet Meeting at the Lansdowne Club, London. 🏫

As Patron of English Rural Housing Association, attended a Parish Council Rural Housing Conference at Eversholt Hall, Bedfordshire. 🏡

Visited the Aircraft Research Association in Bedford. ✈️

As Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order, attended Evensong and a Reception at The King’s Chapel of the Savoy, London. 🎶

14/10 Sir Tim represented Princess Anne, Patron of the Wiltshire Horn Society, at a dinner on the occasion of their centenary. 🐑

15/10 As Member of the International Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the International Olympic Committee Members Election Commission, attended the first day of the 141st International Olympic Committee Session in Mumbai, India. 🇮🇳

16/10 As Member of the International Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the International Olympic Committee Members Election Commission, attended the second day of the 141st International Olympic Committee Session in Mumbai, India. 🇮🇳

Attended an IOC Reception at Jio World Centre. 🌏

17/10 As Member of the International Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the International Olympic Committee Members Election Commission, attended the third day of the 141st International Olympic Committee Session in Mumbai, India. 🇮🇳

Visited the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Bombay 1914-1918 Memorial at the Indian Sailors’ Home, in Mumbai. 🪖

Attended a reception at the residence of His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for South Asia and Deputy High Commissioner for Western India in Mumbai. 🌏

Unofficial Sir Tim attended a memorial service for Lord Lawson (former Chancellor of the Exchequer) at St. Margaret’s church in Westminster ⛪️

19/10 Hosted a Reception with the King, Queen and the Duchess of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace to thank those who contributed to and were involved with the State Funeral of The late Queen Elizabeth II and with the Coronation of Their Majesties. 🥂

With Sir Tim, As Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps attended the launch of the Corps History Book at the National Army Museum in London. 📚

With Sir Tim, As Patron of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, attended the Trafalgar Night Dinner at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London. 🤵‍♀️🤵‍♂️

20/10 Opened Cutbush and Corrall Charity almshouse accommodation in Maidstone.

Opened the Royal British Legion Industries Centenary Village, Greenwich House, in Aylesford, Kent.

As Patron of the Butler Trust, visited HM Prison Elmley.

24/10 Held an Investiture at Windsor Castle. 🎖️

As President of the English-Speaking Union of the Commonwealth, delivered the Evelyn Wrench Lecture at Dartmouth House in London. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

25/10 In Scotland Princess Anne visited;

The International Society for Optics and Photonics Photonex Exhibition at Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow. 🔍

As President of Victim Support Scotland, visited the National Office-West in Glasgow. 🫂

Peter Equi and Sons Limited Ice Cream Manufacturer. 🍦

26/10 Opened the National Honey Show at Sandown Park Racecourse in Esher, Surrey. 🍯 🐝

As Royal Patron of the Security Institute, this afternoon attended the Annual Conference at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. ⛓️

With Sir Tim As President of the Royal Yachting Association, attended a 50th Anniversary of the Yachtmaster Scheme Dinner at Trinity House, London. 🛥️🍽️

27/10 Held an Investiture at Buckingham Palace. 🎖️

31/10 In Scotland;

As Patron of the Moredun Foundation, attended a Conference at Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, in Penicuik. 🧬

As Royal Patron of the Leuchie Forever Fund, attended a Reception to launch Leuchie House’s new strategy in Edinburgh. 🏡

As Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, held a Chancellor’s Dinner at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. 👩‍🎓

Total official engagements for Anne in October: 47

2023 total so far: 400

Total official engagements accompanied by Tim in October: 6

2023 total so far: 81

#a busy bee #princess anne #princess royal #tim laurence #timothy laurence #unofficial engagement count 2023 #october 2023

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