Listen. Can You Hear...?

The Olympic games are history. Athletes from far and wide have competed for their countries while sports fans often erupted with loud and joyful appreciation for their winning efforts. For every winner, there had to be the loser and, after countless hours of training resulting in a losing effort, athletes and their sports fans were often stunned into silence. Somehow, the sound of silence can be loud.

The Russian hockey team out of  Olympic competition.

With the crisp,quiet winter nights, strange sounds can be heard. Recently, a night winter storm came through our Wisconsin area bringing not snow, but a thunderstorm. The first stroke of lightning was a surprise followed by the usual sound of thunder. One with a scientific mind might wonder “What really is thunder, and can we hear lightning?”

----------------

When it’s very quiet before a storm, sometimes one can almost hear the lightning before the thunder is heard. Lightning is pure electricity, and  several thousand degrees hot. So hot that when it strikes sand, it instantly melts it into glass. When the air around the lightning gets hot rapidly, the expansion makes a concussion wave similar to the air rushing out of a fired gun. Lightning is a huge discharge of electricity, and this electricity shoots through the air, causing vibrations to be formed in two ways: This electrical force passes through the air causing air particles to vibrate. These vibrations are heard as sound.
---------------------

 If you want to listen to lightning,  tune your AM radio to a station or a frequency that isn't "occupied"  and you’ll hear the usual quiet static. When bad weather is approaching and you tune an AM radio to an unused area on the band, you will be able to hear extra bursts of “static” as the storm approaching, since the lightning strikes will make noise. The noisier it becomes, the closer the storm. So, "thunder" might be lightning particles bouncing around. After the storm, there is often silence. In addition to storm energy, the sun provides solar energy, or  radiation  Both play an important part in atmospheric electricity.

--------------------

 For several hundred years, people in Northern Norway have claimed that the Northern Lights make sound!

---------------

 Now researchers in Tromsø will soon be listening. Unni Pia L Unni Pia Løvhaug, professor of space science

University of Tromsø

at the University of Tromsø has stated: "I am very fascinated by all the myths surrounding the Northern Lights, especially in the Sami culture. Several people from the older generations have claimed that they have heard the Northern Lights," 

--------------

One of the words for Northern Lights in Sami is guovssahasat, which means " The light you can hear".  The Danish researcher Sophus Tromholt concluded that it would be impossible to hear the Northern Lights in Norway because because the air is too thin for soundwaves to spread at an altitude of 120 kilometers.However, Løvland has also come across research that shows how meteor showers and northern lights can create Very Low Frequency (FLV) radio waves in the atmosphere that can be translated to sound.
                            Our world is electromagnetically affected.

------------

The ionosphere is a region of the upper atmosphere. Scientists at the University of Tromsø conduct experiments  in Svalbard to study the electrically charged dust particles (dusty plasma) in the middle atmosphere. Studies of the solar wind and its interaction with the Earth's magnetosphere are also part of the space research program in Tromsø.

------------

 Concern is centered around the subject of climate change. One climate experts felt that: "In 30 years, more than two-thirds of the volume of Arctic summer ice has disappeared. Our children will be the first generation in modern history to experience an entirely new ocean opening up. The Arctic has now become a true strategic hot spot at the centre of global interest.”

 -----------------------

Ultraviolet (UV) light is electromagnetic radiation we are unable to view.  An over-abundance of ultraviolet rays reaching the surface is known to cause sunburn, long-term skin damage, and skin cancer.We need our clouds, our ozone layer and a clean atmosphere.

.

When it all works together, correctly.

 Excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is causing drastic changes.In Scandinavia, Norway and the other Nordic countries have all made Arctic development a priority. "The Arctic is changing rapidly. It will be our most important foreign policy area. Climate change is putting Norway under pressure," said Norway's Prime Minister, Erna Solberg.

-------------------

But, on the bright side, things are looking up for the Arctic area halfway between Europe and China. Over the next 30 years, climate change is likely to open up a polar shipping route between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, cutting travel time to Asia by 40% and allowing Russia's vast oil and gas resources to be exported to China, Japan and south Asia much faster.The electromagnetic spectrum is important to understand as a number of environmental issues depend on it. Climatologists  are predicting conditions  which will negatively affect agricultural practices, human health and our livelihoods.

 At the present time, we are able to enjoy clear nightly star-filled skies, while lucky Northern viewers can view the famous Northern lights  in the night’s silence, and perhaps listen to its sound.

Let The Games Begin!

Let The Games Begin!

The Olympic torch has arrived  at Sochi after a long journey interrupted at times while the flame was reignited. While few of us read Russian, the signs say it all.

Athletes from approximately 200 nations will begin competing at the XXII Olympic Winter Games at Sochi, Russia with some events held at a resort settlement of Krasmaya Polyana  February 7- 23, 2014.

The famous five interlocking rings of the Olympic symbol represents the union of the five continents Africa, The Americas ( both North and South), Asia, Europe and Oceania.The ring colors represent colors of participating countries flags including blue, black, red yellow and green.

----------------

As athletes arrive, they, naturally, are displaying their country’s colors. Some wintergear is becoming quite interesting. US athletes are wearing  red,white and blue, and all athletes are gaily attired in normal nationalistic winterwear, while attention seems to be centered on the unusual. Norway has decided to “break the mold”, becoming a focal point of individuality. While Norwegian athletes “wear the colors”, the clothing patterns have been setting records.

-------------------

One unusual Olympic sport has drawn viewers’ attention since 2010.Ten curling teams from around the world will assemble on the “curling sheet” at Sochi to match brooms in an effort to attain Olympic gold and one team has unveiled their new look for the Sochi Olympics.

The Norway Curling Team managed to make curling interesting at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, thanks to their choice of uniform designed by a company called Loudmouth Golf. The Norwegians won the silver medal at those games, and will be donning four new versions of their famously flashy trousers when they compete in Sochi. The Olympics aren't the only event that calls for their signature look; the team has continued to put on patterned trousers at various games and tournaments through the years. Thomas Loevold, Torger Nergaard, Haavard Vad Petersson, Christoffer Svae, and Thomas Ulsrud of Norway posed with their silver medals and their Loudmouth pants, after the Vancouver Olympics' Curling Men's Gold medal game between Canada and Norway on February 27, 2010.

 ----------------

The world curling president Kate Caithness has admitted she was initially shocked by the whole affair, but said she came to embrace the attention Norway received.“I am a traditionalist, I must be honest,” Caithness said. “But after I saw them in Vancouver, I actually liked them. They brought focus to our sport, these crazy pants.

---------------

Thomas Ulsrud, born in Oslo is the “skip” of the five-man team. Ulsrud, 42, calls the shots for the team that began competition in 2007, earning silver, being narrowly defeated by a  Canadian team .They may have lost, but from that time forward, their uniforms became winners!  Team-member Christopher Svae changed the uniform style from the traditional white shirt-dark pant look to something “more striking” and the color-games began! Photos of the Norwegian Curling Team have created a following on their Facebook site entitled “The Norwegian Olympic Curling Team’s Pants” viewed by 539,900 followers at a recent count.

-----------------

While it is doubtful that followers are well-versed on the intricacies and dangers of the icy sport, it has become a popular winter sport,especially in Canada.Closely related to shuffleboard, skill is involved! Teams are comprised of four members: the skip, the lead, the second and the mate. Each member alternates "throwing" stones and sweeping the ice or "sheet" of pebbles( small frozen water droplets added to the surface to increase friction). The goal is to throw your stone as close to "the button"

as you can, and keep the opposing team from getting closer. Of course, one must pay attention to a stone's weight, turn and line while throwing, or he'll fall short of  “right on the button!”players slide their stones across  the ice  “sheet” towards the “house”, a circular target called “the button” which is the center of the target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; After each tries to knock opponent’s rocks away , points are scored for the stones resting closest to the center of the house at the conclusion of each “end”, which is completed after all the stones have been thrown. A game may consist of ten or eight ends.

----------------

An important tool in the sport is a broom! The path of the rock can be influenced by two sweepers with brooms who accompany it as it slides down the sheet, using the brooms to alter the state of the ice in front of the stone. A key part of the preparation of the playing surface is the spraying of water droplets onto the ice, which form pebbles after freezing. The pebbled ice surface resembles an orange peel, and the stone moves over the pebbled ice.The sweeping creates friction  warming the ice, changing the path of the sliding rock. A great deal of strategy and teamwork goes into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation.

A modern stone

An older "Rock"

These “stones”, aka “rocks”weigh between 38 and 44 pounds with a circumference of 36 inches. Not something carelessly dropped on one’s toes while players slide their stones across  the ice  “sheet” towards the “house”, a circular target called “the button” which is the center of the target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; After each tries to knock
opponent’s rocks away , points are scored for the stones resting closest to the center of the house at the conclusion of each “end”, which is completed after all the stones have been thrown. A game may consist of ten or eight ends.

---------------------

Due to the  nature of the sport, spectators are normally quiet and the athletes are polite to their opponents. Trash-talk is not tolerated while compliments after a good effort is normal procedure. Due to this docile and arguably not-interesting facite of the sport, the Norwegians decided to add a bit of excitement to the sporting event. Their change of colorful uniforms brought new interest to the Olympic sport of curling and everyone looks forward to see what the Norwegian curling team will be wearing when they appear at the next Stone-Throwing event! They’re throwing for Olympic gold in 2014!

 Their colorful costumes are already " Number one" in the eyes of the world.

The Norwegian curlers, Christoffer Svae, Torgor Nergard, Havard Vad Petersson and their captain Thomas Ulsrud.