October 3, 2013 • 27 mins
The US has developed some great equipment for peering into deep space that can also be used to great effect when trained on Earth. Now NASA is using satellites to track natural processes around the globe in an effort to better predict natural disasters like hurricanes and volcanoes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the all New Toyota Corolla. Welcome
to Stuff you should know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's
Charles Bryant Chuckers. You might know him. An Sure, there's
(00:20):
a w in there somewhere at sure for the Wayne. Yeah,
named after Wayne coyn Right, No, we talked about that before. Yeah, John, Wayne,
how are you doing. I'm great, man, Um, I am
all over this NASA activity. Oh yeah, yeah, good because
(00:43):
it seems like i'll we hear about NASA these days
is how they're having to shut down uh space programs, Right,
that's the other stuff is cool. Well, that's the impression
I have is that they're kind of taking their um,
their field of vision the mountain to outer space and
turning it planet word towards Earth. Why not, That's where
all the people are that are buying Big Max. Right. Well,
(01:06):
if if space exploration is going private, you got the
Elon Musk's and the Richard Branson's of the world saying
we got this, NASA, you go do something else with
all of your high tech remote sensing equipment, then it
makes sense that NASA would say, Okay, we'll become the
watchdog guardian of the planet. And that's what they've they've become. Plus, also,
(01:29):
if you're the United States using NASA's remote sensing equipment
on Earth, is a dynamite cover for intelligence gathering? Well yeah,
I mean you have all sorts of satellites carrying out
different functions, but really all of them are taking pictures
of the Earth, highly detailed ones too. You want to
(01:49):
know about Russian troops formation as NASA yet of volcano? Sure?
If you want to know what kind of sand way? Uh,
Julian Assange had today, asked NASA, Well, that's NASA. Everyone
knows that what Juna fish is, That what his thing is.
(02:10):
Sure every day, that's how he keeps his white main white.
Him and Michio Kaku. Yeah, the white mullet. Actually it's
not so mellody. It's just more of a main main
for sure. Both of them have a main, a big
helmet of hair. So chuck um. But I guess the
question we've posed today I feel like we need to
(02:32):
answer is can NASA predict natural disasters? I think we
can go ahead and answer and say not yet. Right,
But now that again, they've kind of mothballed space exploration
to an extent. I mean we're still hitting Mars. Yeah, yeah,
we're not. They're not mothballing it, but they're they're they've
reached the point where they're like, Okay, we've got all
(02:52):
this really good equipment, let's start monitoring Earth a little
more because there's a lot of questions we have. Um. Now,
they've reached this point where since the beginning of twenty
one century, they've started conducting missions. They have planned ones
that are just being started now, some that are coming
in the next couple of years, and from all this
data they'll be able to analyze it and start to
(03:13):
be able to predict natural disasters. So they have this
whole like toolbox. I guess if you wanted to go
into like corporate buzz speak of of programs and missions
that they're carrying out that will help them predict natural
disasters pretty soon. That's right, not the low hanging fruit, right,
they're just trying to reach out and play together with
(03:34):
the Earth in the same in the same space, in
the same space. Maybe Java storm boy at the corporate talk, Yeah,
we shunned that at all costs here, Um, all right,
so let's talk about this. We talked about remote sensing.
That is UM basically detecting energy reflecting from something UM
(03:55):
when it's pointed out in space, like when you're looking
for new planets, it's pointed out in space. When you
pointed on Earth, it's a heck of a lot closer, right,
And to get more detail. And they're they're using different
kinds of UM detectors. They're detecting different kinds of energy
I should say, like microwave, radiation, X rays. It's not
just like using your peepers. That information can be translated
(04:19):
into something we use our peepers to look at, but
for they can use this equipment to sense all sorts
of different stuff. Yeah. And like you said, it's UM.
It's like mounted on aircraft or it's part of a
satellite or is a satellite and um, yeah, it's all up.
They're looking back at you right now, yes, the wave. Yeah,
or it's looking at the Earth where we're just the
(04:40):
insignificant tiny specs crawling around on the Earth. Yeah. And
this is this is a kind of a big deal.
You know, it makes sense, it's sensible what they're doing.
It's a smart thing. To do with NASA's department, but
it also really is, um, we're at the threshold of
like a really big change in our understanding of our planet,
(05:02):
you know, Like I think there's kind of a lot
of assumptions that people make about our understanding of the
planet that are just totally incorrect. Like, for example, I
would have guessed that meteorologists and climatologists knew how tropical
storms form. They do not, uh, And from using things
like well, there's actually a project that was carried out
(05:22):
in the summer of two thousand ten UM that was
dedicated to studying this is called grip genesis and rapid
intensification processes. And for a couple of a couple of months,
some NASA scientists flew around on a Gulf Stream jet
and took really precise measurements of what they believed were
(05:44):
the beginnings of tropical storms to see how they form exactly. Yeah,
And the goal with pretty much everything that we're going
to talk about today is early detection. Because you can't
stop a hurricane, you can't stop a volcano or an earthquake.
But like the old saying, that's right, but if you
know it's coming, then you can get people out of
(06:05):
the way. You can thwart some of them to some degree. Yeah,
Like anybody can point to a hurricane be like, oh,
there's a hurricane. By then it's a little too late.
If you can point to the very beginnings the cradle
of the hurricane, the formation of a tropical storm. Now
you're talking about time that you have to warn people,
like you, guys need to get out of here. Yeah.
(06:26):
And there is one really cool program they've had going
since two thousand two called GRACE. There's gonna be a
lot of acronyms today, by the way, the UM the
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, this is my favorite one.
It's it's really cool basically what they're doing. All right, Well,
let's step back a minute. Let's talk about Newton. Okay,
(06:48):
gravity depends on the mass of an object. In the
case of polar ice caps, the mass is changing. So
if the mass is changing, the gravity is changing. Right.
So when when the polar ice caps melt and turn
to water and then flow towards the equator, um they
are often so big that they left it in depression
(07:10):
on the Earth's surface. Once they're gone, that depression could
be filled in the mantle can fill back in in
the area, changing the mass in that particular part of
Earth and hence changing the gravity. Right, Yeah, it's one
estimate has between two thousand and ten and two thousand
and eleven UM, the Greenland ice Shield lost two hundred
and twenty four giga tons of mats. So not only
(07:34):
is that going to change the land formation in the mass,
it's gonna make the sea level rise at a rate
of about point seven millimeters a year. That's going to
change the makeup of the Earth. Um. And so they
have a couple of buddies, Tom and Jerry that are
in orbit satellites, twin satellites about a hundred and thirty
six miles apart from each other. Do you know why
(07:56):
they're called Tom and Jerry because they're chasing each other
and then only they're on the same orbit exactly a
polar orbit. Yeah, it's very cute. So they're constantly going
from the North pole to the South Pole um as
the Earth spins below them, right, that's right. And um
they're taking they're they're taking measurements, two different types of measurements,
but they're precisely separated from one another, and they're on
(08:18):
precisely the same orbit, so they can. Really what they
produce every thirty days is a full map of the
gravitational field of Earth. Yeah, and they've Nanasa. They always
work with other people, it seems like, which is a
good thing to work with people around the world. But
they worked with a company in Germany to develop UM
an ultra precise distance measuring system that basically can measure
(08:41):
within the precision what they say is one tenth of
the width of a hair. That's pretty precise. Yeah. So
basically these things are flying U and between the two
they're measuring the distances and discrepancies between these two identical
twin satellites, and that's information is being relaid back analyze. Yeah,
because the upside of this is number one, the Earth
(09:03):
is not a perfect sphere. We know that. I can't
remember what we talked about that in oh maps. Yeah potato. Yeah,
in the the the gravitational field is not perfectly round either.
It's lower in some places, higher in other places. The
force of gravity um. So yeah, it's formed what was
coined the Potsdam gravity potato. And if you look it
(09:26):
up now there's some pretty cool UM artists rendering of
what the Earth's magnetic field looks like and as a
three dimensional model. Yeah, it's very cool. Um, so check
that out. And that's been updated dramatically in the last
couple of years thanks to this GRACE project. Yeah, and
the ultimate goal basically is to measure this gravitational field
over time see how it's changing with kind of accuracy
(09:50):
we've never had before, which will in turn inform us
on climate related uh drunk right, I mean and and
is it just a correlation between mean, like ice caps
melting in a change in a gravitational field, or does
that ice cap melting trigger that change in the gravitational field,
which in turn has some other effects. So, um, there's
(10:12):
a lot of I think understanding we can gain from
knowing what the gravitational field is changing, how it's changing. Yeah,
do you like using your GPS to get somewhere, Well,
then this kind of information can go on to help
GPS because basically it's just gonna improve the trajectories of
these UH satellites and everything is just more specific. It's
(10:35):
like a hundred times um more detailed than they've ever
had before. So that's gonna help everything out from detecting
climate change or temperature and in like potential hurricanes and
stuff too, like getting you to McDonald's, right, you know,
which is pretty important by the way, chuck. Um uh,
(10:58):
the tropical storms. You want to how they think they form? Now? Um, well,
I'm gonna tell you. So. The speed of waves on
an ocean, um, if it matches the speed of the
movement of some air above it, and an umbilical cord
of warm, humid air can get into this little pillow sandwich.
(11:22):
It forms this protective pouch and from there a convection
current can start and form into a tropical storm, which
can then form into a hurricane. That's what they learned
from the GRIP program. Man, it seems like they would
have known this stuff before then, you think, so, you know,
but we're talking like two when they're I don't even
think it's been proven. I think that that's what they
(11:43):
think based on the data from the two thousand ten experiments. Yeah,
aren't they still analyzing that stuff? Alright? I imagine like
that's got to be a pretty good field to get
into now and in the next like five ten years,
analyzing NASA data. Yeah, and just anything to do with
the climate probably anything, Yeah, things that's changing. It's gonna
(12:05):
be gangbusters. There's a lot of money in the weather. Um.
All right, so that's tropical storms and hurricanes. We didn't
talk about the GPM project. Um. Yeah, that they're working
with UM. NASA's working with Japan and they're NASA, which
is called the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency or JACKSON, and
(12:27):
that is a Global Precipitation measurement and they are using
satellites to observe all kinds of participation precipitation patterns all
over the world. And basically, like before, we can only
place these things in certain spots that were easier to
get to, and you can't place them out of the ocean,
(12:49):
and you can't place them in the andies because it's
too rocky. This allows us to study the entire globe
for the first time. So they're following they're basically tracking
the movement of water around the planet on like a daily, seasonal,
a yearly basis um. And what they hope to be
able to gain from this it's a predict when floods happened,
because apparently a major flood happens every day around the Earth. Yeah,
(13:12):
and a lot of times those floods lead to landslides.
We saw firsthand in Guatemala what happens when a landslide
comes down. Remember, oh, yeah, we were standing there and
they said, this is literally twelve feet higher than it was. Yeah,
we were standing on the remains of a village that
got caught in the middle of the night and they're like,
there are people down there still. Yeah, you could still
see the swath that have been cut through the jungle
(13:33):
on the mountain side. Right. So they're hoping, okay, well,
if we can figure out when a flood's coming, we
can predict landslides in turns, So by tracking global precipitation,
that's what they're hoping to be able to do with that. Yeah.
They're also using uh L I d a R at
the light R Surface topography system. This is my second
favorite one, the list one UM, and they're hopefully going
(13:56):
to be able to attract things like volcanoes, earthquakes, landslide
us and erosion. But not wildfires. No, not wildfires. That's
crazy talk. That is crazy talk. But it's the same
thing as with tracking precipitation. As of two years ago,
we had to physically put some sensor somewhere and there
are places we just couldn't get to, and now that
(14:17):
we have satellites, we can track that stuff. Same goes
with this, like we used to have to be able
to find a fault line, put sensors there and then
monitor that um with with the list program. With leader UM,
they're using lasers to monitor fault lines and find new
ones that we didn't know were there before, track their movement,
(14:38):
and then use those to predict earthquakes and then similarly
predict volcanoes. So listen to this. Okay. The resolution now
they have is five meter horizontal resolution with a precision
of four inches. Previously, the best data we could get
was thirty meter resolution with a thirty to foot precision,
(15:01):
So went from thirty two to four inches. That's pretty good.
They'd be like, give it take thirty two ft. Yeah,
now let's give it take four inches with thanks to lasers,
so they could possibly detect volcanic activity before it happens. Right,
And the way that they're doing that, you would think, well,
they're using thermal cameras. You'd be wrong. What they're doing
is looking for land deformation. Apparently before a volcano goes off,
(15:25):
that land around it literally deforms, it swells due to pressure.
And since we are tracking topography now using this UM
this program, we can say, oh, well that that crater
wasn't three times larger than it is now like a
week ago, maybe a volcan is about to go off. Uh.
(15:48):
And it's not just volcanoes and natural disasters. They can
also monitor erosion and top soil loss, basically anything on
the Earth that's interesting they can like really accurately closely monitor.
Now and this said two thousand sixteen, is it already underway? Um? No,
it's two thousand thirteen. Chuck. Now that says it was
(16:11):
gonna launch in two thousand sixteen, but it's already Is
it already going Okay? I think it's launching in two
thousand sixteen. Okay, so this is just the plan, you're right, Yeah,
I know they have a lot of like this just started,
like the UM I think it might have been the
Grace Program started in two thousand two and it's been
going on. It is the Grace Program, the one with
(16:32):
Tom and Jerry. Right, Yeah, that was right, and it
had its tenth anniversary in two thousand twelve. I think
that might have been the first project like this and
now NASA's throwing like everything into this stuff, and we're
just at the at the forefront, at the very beginning
of this kind of thing. This is a very timely episode. Frankly,
it's actually um they have. In fact, I think these
(16:54):
new probes are even newer than the List program, right
that NASA is proposing to launch, the one we were
just talking about with the volcano deformation. Yeah, yeah, um
this is a pair of satellites that monitor little bitty
changes in the surface. And um, I guess it's a
funding thing because I don't think these two are even uh,
(17:15):
I think they're still just like in the proposition phase.
So I guess we should say, like then they will
be doing this, this is coming yeah, and like this
particular project. Yeah, and the precipitation when his launches in
February of next year. So it sounds as though these
things are already happening. But I think it's just like
this is how it's gonna work. It sounds as though
they're already happening because of us. The tents were using
(17:37):
that's right, we're using present, we should be using future perfect.
One of the problems with the satellites, though, is um
and with lasers, is clouds right? Because clouds get in
the way. It's got to be a clear day to
use most of this stuff. Hold on, I know you
love talking about clouds. I do too. But before we
go any further, what do you think about a message break?
(17:57):
That's great? Okay, So back to clouds. They caused trouble
with lasers and with satellites. Yeah, so that you gotta
count on clear days. So it's not like these things
are humming seven. Weren't you surprised finding out that clouds
(18:18):
are still an impediment to lasers? No, I would have thought, like,
I mean, the projects we're talking about, so like, gee, whiz,
that can't cloud I thought that. It just seemed kind
of like, well, what are you guys gonna do about that?
Because that's a pretty big obstacle. Yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah,
maybe they could have an anti seating program, Oh yeah,
(18:39):
to disperse clouds. Nice. Um, so, chuck, NASA doesn't need
to turn its back fully on space, like we said,
it's still carrying out the Mars mission. Um, what was
after that? Are they going to Saturn? I don't know,
Saturn Uranus? Maybe they're they're exploring some moon I can't remember,
(19:00):
remember it's what They haven't turned their back on space,
and they don't need to because there's a huge threat
from space bearing down on us constantly. That's right near
Earth objects, which I feel like we should do a
podcast just on near Earth objects. If you want to
get here then some medium, go watch the movie Armageddon done.
(19:22):
Although that is deep impact in armagedding. We're both um,
while fanciful, not too far off, and that there are
objects that come near the Earth and we think if
we can detect them soon enough, that there is existing
technology now that can throw these things off course. Right,
and Earth is constantly being bombarded every day about a
hundred hundred tons of material like rain down on the Earth.
(19:47):
We're talking little particles, things that break up in the atmosphere, um,
mostly like comment dust and stuff. Right, Um, But there
are uh NASA estimates about a thousand objects that could
collide with Earth that are kilometer or more in diameter.
(20:08):
It's point six two miles in diameter, and that if
any one of these impacted Earth, which they do about
every ten thousand years, it would be what's called a
global catastrophe. Actually, good news, buddy, that is every several
hundred thousand years, So what comes down every ten years?
About every ten thousand years, asteroids um larger than about
(20:29):
a hundred meters could hit the Earth and that would
just be like a local disaster. So it would be
like a one the size of a football field. Yeah,
and that I mean, that's not great if you're near it,
but it's not like a what they would call a
global disaster, like the end of the world type scenario.
And that's one that's like a kilometer in diameter. Yeah,
And it says every several hundred thousand years or so.
(20:50):
I feel like, yeah, what are the chances that that's
going to happen the next like forty years? I don't know,
aren't we like on a when was the last one?
It was about a quarter of a million years ago,
wasn't it. I don't know. Was it the one that
formed the chit club creator? I don't think I've pronounced
that correctly, but you know what I'm talking about people
(21:11):
who are familiar with that or they do. But the
point is we need a lead time on the stuff.
Chee Club, the Chicken Club. It's a there's an X
in there, but it's a. It's it's in Mesoamerica. So
the X is like a hawk. Oh, it's pronounced cutulu. No,
it was close oak, it's like that. But there's a
(21:35):
chi and I believe a club afterwards. So I'm just
gonna say, chee club creator. But I think that was
longer ago than a hundred thousand years ago, that extinction event. Yes, okay, Well,
the good news is if we have a little bit
of lead time, like a few years, supposedly there are
things that we can do to knock these asteroids off course,
(21:58):
like what one is. Using nuclear fission weapons, you set
it off and the trick is you don't want to
blow this thing up, no, because then you might have
a lot of problems. Yeah, that's even worse. But um,
it would just set it off course. And even if
you set something off course by a few millimeters over
the course of years, that could be enough. So it's
(22:19):
not like they're looking to knock at miles away or anything,
although in the movies that's how they do it. Yeah,
and the movies that's how they did do it. I think,
of course, we may mind them, which we talked about. Yeah,
asteroid mining, um and tracking these things has actually become
something of a crowdsource thing. There's NASA has this um
All Sky Fireball Network that sounds so not real, yeah,
(22:43):
but it is. It's a real program they have where
they have cameras that are connected to the Internet that
are constantly filming the night sky. Most of them are
along the Eastern Seaboard. We got one here in Georgia, yeah,
and Alabama, HASM, Tennessee. Um. They're they're grouped in clusters. Um.
And actually, if you want to propose your location as
(23:04):
a place to host one of these cameras, typically they're
like on schools or things like that, Yeah, you can.
You can submit an application and if there's there's really
just like four criteria. It's like there can't be a
lot of light pollution or a light nearby, and that
rules me out. You have to be able to um,
you have to be connected to the internet, like a
(23:26):
couple of a couple of other things. Um. But it's
it's like you can get a camera set up and
be part of the All Sky Fireball Network. That's pretty cool.
I think the plan is to eventually have fifteen of
these in place, and um, I guess tracking fireballs, Yeah,
which were good, good things to keep TAM's on for sure,
(23:48):
you got anything else? No, that's all the news about NASA.
I wish NASA would sponsor US man, that'd be awesome. Yeah,
talk talk about someone we could stump for NASA. Yeah, sure,
let's let's do it. NASA. What's your problem? You guys
have deep pockets? Yeah? Uh, let's see. If you want
to know more about NASA, you can type that word
(24:11):
into the handy search bar how stuff works. That comment
will bring up a bunch of articles we love NASA here,
how stuff works and stuff you should know. Um, and
since I said handy search bar, Chuck, it's time for
listener mail. Straight to listener mail. Yeah. Oh do you
hear that chime? Man, it's like two thousand nine? All right,
(24:34):
dear guys and Jerry. It just got home from another
eight hour car trip with my hobby, during which we
binge listened to the stuff you should know. Yeah, this
has been our car trip ritual for about a year now.
We actually moved to Atlanta, Kenna saw last August, and
we make pretty frequent trips to our hometown of St. Louis.
That's a long car trip, Yeah, it sure is. I
(24:54):
wonder if they know that you can fly there really quickly. Um.
He introduced me to the Podcas asked on her first
trip down here, and I have to admit I didn't
have much hope. I'm a ballet teacher who loves arts
and fiction in long hours with Netflix, and he is
a self tart programmer who loves biographies and doing math
for fun in its free time. So when he told
me what the show was, I was thinking, great, I'm
(25:15):
gonna feel dumb and bored. But we gave it a try. Anyway.
I also have to admit, and this one is kind
of funny. After listening to one or two episodes, I
told him I didn't like it. He not understanding how
that was possible, ask me why not, and I said, dude,
it's so condescending that the way they ask each other
questions and converse as if they don't already know what
the other person is gonna say, as if he sniffed
(25:37):
me off the case right away. She says, So she's
a true fan by saying, I don't think that's fake.
I think they're really right. Don't write out a full
script ahead of time, I believe it or not. He's right,
believe or not. That changed everything, which might seem silly,
but I bet you listened to a past episode and
imagine it was totally scripted and rehearse she'd see what
I mean now, I recommended everyone. I can't even conceive
(26:00):
of how we would be able to generate the level
of clumsiness that we rise to every episode. You couldn't
write that. Yeah, So thanks guys for putting out a
very entertaining program for people of all ages to enjoy,
and for being less sad than this American life, which
we also love, but sometimes we just don't have enough
tissue and emotional resolve to listen to it. That is
(26:22):
from Amber and Ben Studive Baker. Thanks to you guys.
Thanks Amber and Ben. Hey there, if you're on one
of your road trips, drive safe and drive safe to
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(26:44):
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(27:10):
Is it how stuff works dot com m brought to
you by the all neween Toyota Corolla
Brought to you by the all New Toyota Corolla. Welcome
to Stuff you should know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's
Charles Bryant Chuckers. You might know him. An Sure, there's
(00:20):
a w in there somewhere at sure for the Wayne. Yeah,
named after Wayne coyn Right, No, we talked about that before. Yeah, John, Wayne,
how are you doing. I'm great, man, Um, I am
all over this NASA activity. Oh yeah, yeah, good because
(00:43):
it seems like i'll we hear about NASA these days
is how they're having to shut down uh space programs, Right,
that's the other stuff is cool. Well, that's the impression
I have is that they're kind of taking their um,
their field of vision the mountain to outer space and
turning it planet word towards Earth. Why not, That's where
all the people are that are buying Big Max. Right. Well,
(01:06):
if if space exploration is going private, you got the
Elon Musk's and the Richard Branson's of the world saying
we got this, NASA, you go do something else with
all of your high tech remote sensing equipment, then it
makes sense that NASA would say, Okay, we'll become the
watchdog guardian of the planet. And that's what they've they've become. Plus, also,
(01:29):
if you're the United States using NASA's remote sensing equipment
on Earth, is a dynamite cover for intelligence gathering? Well yeah,
I mean you have all sorts of satellites carrying out
different functions, but really all of them are taking pictures
of the Earth, highly detailed ones too. You want to
(01:49):
know about Russian troops formation as NASA yet of volcano? Sure?
If you want to know what kind of sand way? Uh,
Julian Assange had today, asked NASA, Well, that's NASA. Everyone
knows that what Juna fish is, That what his thing is.
(02:10):
Sure every day, that's how he keeps his white main white.
Him and Michio Kaku. Yeah, the white mullet. Actually it's
not so mellody. It's just more of a main main
for sure. Both of them have a main, a big
helmet of hair. So chuck um. But I guess the
question we've posed today I feel like we need to
(02:32):
answer is can NASA predict natural disasters? I think we
can go ahead and answer and say not yet. Right,
But now that again, they've kind of mothballed space exploration
to an extent. I mean we're still hitting Mars. Yeah, yeah,
we're not. They're not mothballing it, but they're they're they've
reached the point where they're like, Okay, we've got all
(02:52):
this really good equipment, let's start monitoring Earth a little
more because there's a lot of questions we have. Um. Now,
they've reached this point where since the beginning of twenty
one century, they've started conducting missions. They have planned ones
that are just being started now, some that are coming
in the next couple of years, and from all this
data they'll be able to analyze it and start to
(03:13):
be able to predict natural disasters. So they have this
whole like toolbox. I guess if you wanted to go
into like corporate buzz speak of of programs and missions
that they're carrying out that will help them predict natural
disasters pretty soon. That's right, not the low hanging fruit, right,
they're just trying to reach out and play together with
(03:34):
the Earth in the same in the same space, in
the same space. Maybe Java storm boy at the corporate talk, Yeah,
we shunned that at all costs here, Um, all right,
so let's talk about this. We talked about remote sensing.
That is UM basically detecting energy reflecting from something UM
(03:55):
when it's pointed out in space, like when you're looking
for new planets, it's pointed out in space. When you
pointed on Earth, it's a heck of a lot closer, right,
And to get more detail. And they're they're using different
kinds of UM detectors. They're detecting different kinds of energy
I should say, like microwave, radiation, X rays. It's not
just like using your peepers. That information can be translated
(04:19):
into something we use our peepers to look at, but
for they can use this equipment to sense all sorts
of different stuff. Yeah. And like you said, it's UM.
It's like mounted on aircraft or it's part of a
satellite or is a satellite and um, yeah, it's all up.
They're looking back at you right now, yes, the wave. Yeah,
or it's looking at the Earth where we're just the
(04:40):
insignificant tiny specs crawling around on the Earth. Yeah. And
this is this is a kind of a big deal.
You know, it makes sense, it's sensible what they're doing.
It's a smart thing. To do with NASA's department, but
it also really is, um, we're at the threshold of
like a really big change in our understanding of our planet,
(05:02):
you know, Like I think there's kind of a lot
of assumptions that people make about our understanding of the
planet that are just totally incorrect. Like, for example, I
would have guessed that meteorologists and climatologists knew how tropical
storms form. They do not, uh, And from using things
like well, there's actually a project that was carried out
(05:22):
in the summer of two thousand ten UM that was
dedicated to studying this is called grip genesis and rapid
intensification processes. And for a couple of a couple of months,
some NASA scientists flew around on a Gulf Stream jet
and took really precise measurements of what they believed were
(05:44):
the beginnings of tropical storms to see how they form exactly. Yeah,
And the goal with pretty much everything that we're going
to talk about today is early detection. Because you can't
stop a hurricane, you can't stop a volcano or an earthquake.
But like the old saying, that's right, but if you
know it's coming, then you can get people out of
(06:05):
the way. You can thwart some of them to some degree. Yeah,
Like anybody can point to a hurricane be like, oh,
there's a hurricane. By then it's a little too late.
If you can point to the very beginnings the cradle
of the hurricane, the formation of a tropical storm. Now
you're talking about time that you have to warn people,
like you, guys need to get out of here. Yeah.
(06:26):
And there is one really cool program they've had going
since two thousand two called GRACE. There's gonna be a
lot of acronyms today, by the way, the UM the
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, this is my favorite one.
It's it's really cool basically what they're doing. All right, Well,
let's step back a minute. Let's talk about Newton. Okay,
(06:48):
gravity depends on the mass of an object. In the
case of polar ice caps, the mass is changing. So
if the mass is changing, the gravity is changing. Right.
So when when the polar ice caps melt and turn
to water and then flow towards the equator, um they
are often so big that they left it in depression
(07:10):
on the Earth's surface. Once they're gone, that depression could
be filled in the mantle can fill back in in
the area, changing the mass in that particular part of
Earth and hence changing the gravity. Right, Yeah, it's one
estimate has between two thousand and ten and two thousand
and eleven UM, the Greenland ice Shield lost two hundred
and twenty four giga tons of mats. So not only
(07:34):
is that going to change the land formation in the mass,
it's gonna make the sea level rise at a rate
of about point seven millimeters a year. That's going to
change the makeup of the Earth. Um. And so they
have a couple of buddies, Tom and Jerry that are
in orbit satellites, twin satellites about a hundred and thirty
six miles apart from each other. Do you know why
(07:56):
they're called Tom and Jerry because they're chasing each other
and then only they're on the same orbit exactly a
polar orbit. Yeah, it's very cute. So they're constantly going
from the North pole to the South Pole um as
the Earth spins below them, right, that's right. And um
they're taking they're they're taking measurements, two different types of measurements,
but they're precisely separated from one another, and they're on
(08:18):
precisely the same orbit, so they can. Really what they
produce every thirty days is a full map of the
gravitational field of Earth. Yeah, and they've Nanasa. They always
work with other people, it seems like, which is a
good thing to work with people around the world. But
they worked with a company in Germany to develop UM
an ultra precise distance measuring system that basically can measure
(08:41):
within the precision what they say is one tenth of
the width of a hair. That's pretty precise. Yeah. So
basically these things are flying U and between the two
they're measuring the distances and discrepancies between these two identical
twin satellites, and that's information is being relaid back analyze. Yeah,
because the upside of this is number one, the Earth
(09:03):
is not a perfect sphere. We know that. I can't
remember what we talked about that in oh maps. Yeah potato. Yeah,
in the the the gravitational field is not perfectly round either.
It's lower in some places, higher in other places. The
force of gravity um. So yeah, it's formed what was
coined the Potsdam gravity potato. And if you look it
(09:26):
up now there's some pretty cool UM artists rendering of
what the Earth's magnetic field looks like and as a
three dimensional model. Yeah, it's very cool. Um, so check
that out. And that's been updated dramatically in the last
couple of years thanks to this GRACE project. Yeah, and
the ultimate goal basically is to measure this gravitational field
over time see how it's changing with kind of accuracy
(09:50):
we've never had before, which will in turn inform us
on climate related uh drunk right, I mean and and
is it just a correlation between mean, like ice caps
melting in a change in a gravitational field, or does
that ice cap melting trigger that change in the gravitational field,
which in turn has some other effects. So, um, there's
(10:12):
a lot of I think understanding we can gain from
knowing what the gravitational field is changing, how it's changing. Yeah,
do you like using your GPS to get somewhere, Well,
then this kind of information can go on to help
GPS because basically it's just gonna improve the trajectories of
these UH satellites and everything is just more specific. It's
(10:35):
like a hundred times um more detailed than they've ever
had before. So that's gonna help everything out from detecting
climate change or temperature and in like potential hurricanes and
stuff too, like getting you to McDonald's, right, you know,
which is pretty important by the way, chuck. Um uh,
(10:58):
the tropical storms. You want to how they think they form? Now? Um, well,
I'm gonna tell you. So. The speed of waves on
an ocean, um, if it matches the speed of the
movement of some air above it, and an umbilical cord
of warm, humid air can get into this little pillow sandwich.
(11:22):
It forms this protective pouch and from there a convection
current can start and form into a tropical storm, which
can then form into a hurricane. That's what they learned
from the GRIP program. Man, it seems like they would
have known this stuff before then, you think, so, you know,
but we're talking like two when they're I don't even
think it's been proven. I think that that's what they
(11:43):
think based on the data from the two thousand ten experiments. Yeah,
aren't they still analyzing that stuff? Alright? I imagine like
that's got to be a pretty good field to get
into now and in the next like five ten years,
analyzing NASA data. Yeah, and just anything to do with
the climate probably anything, Yeah, things that's changing. It's gonna
(12:05):
be gangbusters. There's a lot of money in the weather. Um.
All right, so that's tropical storms and hurricanes. We didn't
talk about the GPM project. Um. Yeah, that they're working
with UM. NASA's working with Japan and they're NASA, which
is called the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency or JACKSON, and
(12:27):
that is a Global Precipitation measurement and they are using
satellites to observe all kinds of participation precipitation patterns all
over the world. And basically, like before, we can only
place these things in certain spots that were easier to
get to, and you can't place them out of the ocean,
(12:49):
and you can't place them in the andies because it's
too rocky. This allows us to study the entire globe
for the first time. So they're following they're basically tracking
the movement of water around the planet on like a daily, seasonal,
a yearly basis um. And what they hope to be
able to gain from this it's a predict when floods happened,
because apparently a major flood happens every day around the Earth. Yeah,
(13:12):
and a lot of times those floods lead to landslides.
We saw firsthand in Guatemala what happens when a landslide
comes down. Remember, oh, yeah, we were standing there and
they said, this is literally twelve feet higher than it was. Yeah,
we were standing on the remains of a village that
got caught in the middle of the night and they're like,
there are people down there still. Yeah, you could still
see the swath that have been cut through the jungle
(13:33):
on the mountain side. Right. So they're hoping, okay, well,
if we can figure out when a flood's coming, we
can predict landslides in turns, So by tracking global precipitation,
that's what they're hoping to be able to do with that. Yeah.
They're also using uh L I d a R at
the light R Surface topography system. This is my second
favorite one, the list one UM, and they're hopefully going
(13:56):
to be able to attract things like volcanoes, earthquakes, landslide
us and erosion. But not wildfires. No, not wildfires. That's
crazy talk. That is crazy talk. But it's the same
thing as with tracking precipitation. As of two years ago,
we had to physically put some sensor somewhere and there
are places we just couldn't get to, and now that
(14:17):
we have satellites, we can track that stuff. Same goes
with this, like we used to have to be able
to find a fault line, put sensors there and then
monitor that um with with the list program. With leader UM,
they're using lasers to monitor fault lines and find new
ones that we didn't know were there before, track their movement,
(14:38):
and then use those to predict earthquakes and then similarly
predict volcanoes. So listen to this. Okay. The resolution now
they have is five meter horizontal resolution with a precision
of four inches. Previously, the best data we could get
was thirty meter resolution with a thirty to foot precision,
(15:01):
So went from thirty two to four inches. That's pretty good.
They'd be like, give it take thirty two ft. Yeah,
now let's give it take four inches with thanks to lasers,
so they could possibly detect volcanic activity before it happens. Right,
And the way that they're doing that, you would think, well,
they're using thermal cameras. You'd be wrong. What they're doing
is looking for land deformation. Apparently before a volcano goes off,
(15:25):
that land around it literally deforms, it swells due to pressure.
And since we are tracking topography now using this UM
this program, we can say, oh, well that that crater
wasn't three times larger than it is now like a
week ago, maybe a volcan is about to go off. Uh.
(15:48):
And it's not just volcanoes and natural disasters. They can
also monitor erosion and top soil loss, basically anything on
the Earth that's interesting they can like really accurately closely monitor.
Now and this said two thousand sixteen, is it already underway? Um? No,
it's two thousand thirteen. Chuck. Now that says it was
(16:11):
gonna launch in two thousand sixteen, but it's already Is
it already going Okay? I think it's launching in two
thousand sixteen. Okay, so this is just the plan, you're right, Yeah,
I know they have a lot of like this just started,
like the UM I think it might have been the
Grace Program started in two thousand two and it's been
going on. It is the Grace Program, the one with
(16:32):
Tom and Jerry. Right, Yeah, that was right, and it
had its tenth anniversary in two thousand twelve. I think
that might have been the first project like this and
now NASA's throwing like everything into this stuff, and we're
just at the at the forefront, at the very beginning
of this kind of thing. This is a very timely episode. Frankly,
it's actually um they have. In fact, I think these
(16:54):
new probes are even newer than the List program, right
that NASA is proposing to launch, the one we were
just talking about with the volcano deformation. Yeah, yeah, um
this is a pair of satellites that monitor little bitty
changes in the surface. And um, I guess it's a
funding thing because I don't think these two are even uh,
(17:15):
I think they're still just like in the proposition phase.
So I guess we should say, like then they will
be doing this, this is coming yeah, and like this
particular project. Yeah, and the precipitation when his launches in
February of next year. So it sounds as though these
things are already happening. But I think it's just like
this is how it's gonna work. It sounds as though
they're already happening because of us. The tents were using
(17:37):
that's right, we're using present, we should be using future perfect.
One of the problems with the satellites, though, is um
and with lasers, is clouds right? Because clouds get in
the way. It's got to be a clear day to
use most of this stuff. Hold on, I know you
love talking about clouds. I do too. But before we
go any further, what do you think about a message break?
(17:57):
That's great? Okay, So back to clouds. They caused trouble
with lasers and with satellites. Yeah, so that you gotta
count on clear days. So it's not like these things
are humming seven. Weren't you surprised finding out that clouds
(18:18):
are still an impediment to lasers? No, I would have thought, like,
I mean, the projects we're talking about, so like, gee, whiz,
that can't cloud I thought that. It just seemed kind
of like, well, what are you guys gonna do about that?
Because that's a pretty big obstacle. Yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah,
maybe they could have an anti seating program, Oh yeah,
(18:39):
to disperse clouds. Nice. Um, so, chuck, NASA doesn't need
to turn its back fully on space, like we said,
it's still carrying out the Mars mission. Um, what was
after that? Are they going to Saturn? I don't know,
Saturn Uranus? Maybe they're they're exploring some moon I can't remember,
(19:00):
remember it's what They haven't turned their back on space,
and they don't need to because there's a huge threat
from space bearing down on us constantly. That's right near
Earth objects, which I feel like we should do a
podcast just on near Earth objects. If you want to
get here then some medium, go watch the movie Armageddon done.
(19:22):
Although that is deep impact in armagedding. We're both um,
while fanciful, not too far off, and that there are
objects that come near the Earth and we think if
we can detect them soon enough, that there is existing
technology now that can throw these things off course. Right,
and Earth is constantly being bombarded every day about a
hundred hundred tons of material like rain down on the Earth.
(19:47):
We're talking little particles, things that break up in the atmosphere, um,
mostly like comment dust and stuff. Right, Um, But there
are uh NASA estimates about a thousand objects that could
collide with Earth that are kilometer or more in diameter.
(20:08):
It's point six two miles in diameter, and that if
any one of these impacted Earth, which they do about
every ten thousand years, it would be what's called a
global catastrophe. Actually, good news, buddy, that is every several
hundred thousand years, So what comes down every ten years?
About every ten thousand years, asteroids um larger than about
(20:29):
a hundred meters could hit the Earth and that would
just be like a local disaster. So it would be
like a one the size of a football field. Yeah,
and that I mean, that's not great if you're near it,
but it's not like a what they would call a
global disaster, like the end of the world type scenario.
And that's one that's like a kilometer in diameter. Yeah,
And it says every several hundred thousand years or so.
(20:50):
I feel like, yeah, what are the chances that that's
going to happen the next like forty years? I don't know,
aren't we like on a when was the last one?
It was about a quarter of a million years ago,
wasn't it. I don't know. Was it the one that
formed the chit club creator? I don't think I've pronounced
that correctly, but you know what I'm talking about people
(21:11):
who are familiar with that or they do. But the
point is we need a lead time on the stuff.
Chee Club, the Chicken Club. It's a there's an X
in there, but it's a. It's it's in Mesoamerica. So
the X is like a hawk. Oh, it's pronounced cutulu. No,
it was close oak, it's like that. But there's a
(21:35):
chi and I believe a club afterwards. So I'm just
gonna say, chee club creator. But I think that was
longer ago than a hundred thousand years ago, that extinction event. Yes, okay, Well,
the good news is if we have a little bit
of lead time, like a few years, supposedly there are
things that we can do to knock these asteroids off course,
(21:58):
like what one is. Using nuclear fission weapons, you set
it off and the trick is you don't want to
blow this thing up, no, because then you might have
a lot of problems. Yeah, that's even worse. But um,
it would just set it off course. And even if
you set something off course by a few millimeters over
the course of years, that could be enough. So it's
(22:19):
not like they're looking to knock at miles away or anything,
although in the movies that's how they do it. Yeah,
and the movies that's how they did do it. I think,
of course, we may mind them, which we talked about. Yeah,
asteroid mining, um and tracking these things has actually become
something of a crowdsource thing. There's NASA has this um
All Sky Fireball Network that sounds so not real, yeah,
(22:43):
but it is. It's a real program they have where
they have cameras that are connected to the Internet that
are constantly filming the night sky. Most of them are
along the Eastern Seaboard. We got one here in Georgia, yeah,
and Alabama, HASM, Tennessee. Um. They're they're grouped in clusters. Um.
And actually, if you want to propose your location as
(23:04):
a place to host one of these cameras, typically they're
like on schools or things like that, Yeah, you can.
You can submit an application and if there's there's really
just like four criteria. It's like there can't be a
lot of light pollution or a light nearby, and that
rules me out. You have to be able to um,
you have to be connected to the internet, like a
(23:26):
couple of a couple of other things. Um. But it's
it's like you can get a camera set up and
be part of the All Sky Fireball Network. That's pretty cool.
I think the plan is to eventually have fifteen of
these in place, and um, I guess tracking fireballs, Yeah,
which were good, good things to keep TAM's on for sure,
(23:48):
you got anything else? No, that's all the news about NASA.
I wish NASA would sponsor US man, that'd be awesome. Yeah,
talk talk about someone we could stump for NASA. Yeah, sure,
let's let's do it. NASA. What's your problem? You guys
have deep pockets? Yeah? Uh, let's see. If you want
to know more about NASA, you can type that word
(24:11):
into the handy search bar how stuff works. That comment
will bring up a bunch of articles we love NASA here,
how stuff works and stuff you should know. Um, and
since I said handy search bar, Chuck, it's time for
listener mail. Straight to listener mail. Yeah. Oh do you
hear that chime? Man, it's like two thousand nine? All right,
(24:34):
dear guys and Jerry. It just got home from another
eight hour car trip with my hobby, during which we
binge listened to the stuff you should know. Yeah, this
has been our car trip ritual for about a year now.
We actually moved to Atlanta, Kenna saw last August, and
we make pretty frequent trips to our hometown of St. Louis.
That's a long car trip, Yeah, it sure is. I
(24:54):
wonder if they know that you can fly there really quickly. Um.
He introduced me to the Podcas asked on her first
trip down here, and I have to admit I didn't
have much hope. I'm a ballet teacher who loves arts
and fiction in long hours with Netflix, and he is
a self tart programmer who loves biographies and doing math
for fun in its free time. So when he told
me what the show was, I was thinking, great, I'm
(25:15):
gonna feel dumb and bored. But we gave it a try. Anyway.
I also have to admit, and this one is kind
of funny. After listening to one or two episodes, I
told him I didn't like it. He not understanding how
that was possible, ask me why not, and I said, dude,
it's so condescending that the way they ask each other
questions and converse as if they don't already know what
the other person is gonna say, as if he sniffed
(25:37):
me off the case right away. She says, So she's
a true fan by saying, I don't think that's fake.
I think they're really right. Don't write out a full
script ahead of time, I believe it or not. He's right,
believe or not. That changed everything, which might seem silly,
but I bet you listened to a past episode and
imagine it was totally scripted and rehearse she'd see what
I mean now, I recommended everyone. I can't even conceive
(26:00):
of how we would be able to generate the level
of clumsiness that we rise to every episode. You couldn't
write that. Yeah, So thanks guys for putting out a
very entertaining program for people of all ages to enjoy,
and for being less sad than this American life, which
we also love, but sometimes we just don't have enough
tissue and emotional resolve to listen to it. That is
(26:22):
from Amber and Ben Studive Baker. Thanks to you guys.
Thanks Amber and Ben. Hey there, if you're on one
of your road trips, drive safe and drive safe to
everybody out there who's listening on a road trip or
on a long haul or on an airplane whatever. If
you're listening to us right now and you're traveling, I
hope it's a nice time, agreed. Uh. If you want
(26:44):
to tell us about those travels, you can tweet to
us at s Y s K podcast. UM. You can
join us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email Yeah Too Stuff Podcast
at Discovery dot com, and you can join us at
our home on the web. Stuff you Should Know dot
com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
(27:10):
Is it how stuff works dot com m brought to
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