CryoSat goes to sea

ScienceDaily (May 28, 2012) ? CryoSat was launched in 2010 to measure sea-ice thickness in the Arctic, but data from the Earth-observing satellite have also been exploited for other studies. High-resolution mapping of the topography of the ocean floor is now being added to the ice mission's repertoire.

The main objective of the polar-orbiting CryoSat is to measure the thickness of polar sea ice and monitor changes in the ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica.

But the satellite's radar altimeter is not only able to detect tiny variations in the height of the ice but it can also measure sea level.

The topography of the ocean surface mimics the rises and dips of the ocean floor due to the gravitational pull. Areas of greater mass, such as underwater mountains, have a stronger pull, attracting more water and producing a minor increase in ocean-surface height.

Therefore, instruments that measure sea-surface height incidentally map the ocean floor in previously uncharted areas.

There have been several recent global gravity missions, such as ESA's GOCE satellite, that provide extraordinarily accurate measurements of gravity at the spatial resolution of hundreds of kilometres.

But CryoSat's radar altimeter can sense the gravity field at the ocean surface, so that seafloor characteristics at scales of 5-10 km are revealed. This is the first altimeter in 15 years to map the global marine gravity field at such a high spatial resolution.

Recent studies at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, USA, found that the range precision of CryoSat is at least 1.4 times better than the US's Geosat or ESA's ERS-1.

They estimate that this improved range precision combined with three or more years of ocean mapping will result in global seafloor topography -- bathymetry -- that is 2-4 times more accurate than measurements currently available.

"We know more about the surfaces of Venus and Mars than we do about the bathymetry of deep oceans," said David Sandwell from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the US.

"This new mapping from CryoSat will revolutionise our understanding of ocean floor tectonics and reveal, perhaps, 10 000 previously uncharted undersea volcanoes."

Most satellite radar altimeters such as the one on the joint CNES/NASA/Eumetsat/NOAA Jason-2 follow repeated ground-tracks every 10 days to monitor the changes in ocean topography associated with ocean currents and tides.

CryoSat's 369-day repeat cycle provides a dense mapping of the global ocean surface at a track spacing of over 4 km. Three to four years of data from CryoSat can be averaged to reduce the 'noise' due to currents and tides and better chart the permanent topography related to marine gravity.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Space Agency (ESA), via AlphaGalileo.

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Blair says feared fight with Britain's media barons

LONDON (Reuters) - British leaders have no choice but to court powerful media barons such as Rupert Murdoch or risk savage press attacks which are "full on, full frontal, day in, day out," former Prime Minister Tony Blair told an inquiry on Monday.

Interrupted by a heckler who accused him of being a war criminal for supporting the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Blair paused briefly before continuing calmly to justify his ties to Murdoch with whom he developed a close friendship.

An unwillingness to take on the press in Britain has been cited by many as the reason a culture of illegality and phone hacking came about at Murdoch's tabloids, but Blair told the inquiry into media standards that he had had little choice.

He could either risk being torn apart by what he once described as the "feral beasts" of the media, or use them to get his policies implemented.

He never agreed a deal with Murdoch, he said, and only became godfather to his daughter after he left office. Calling the mogul three times in the days before the invasion of Iraq was also not particularly odd, he added.

"With any of these big media groups, you fall out with them, you watch out, because it is literally relentless and unremitting once that happens," Blair, looking tanned and smart in a navy suit and white shirt, told the inquiry.

"My view is that that is what creates this situation in which these media people get a power in the system that is unhealthy. I took the strategic decision to manage this and not confront it but the power of it is indisputable."

Blair, whose reputation for obsessive media management brought him so close to Murdoch that the tycoon would joke about their love making, said he became increasingly concerned about the unhealthy relationship between the media and politicians.

Blair is the most senior politician to date to appear before Leveson, an inquiry sparked by the phone hacking revelations but which has since broadened out to show the collusion between senior politicians, media tycoons and police.

"If you fall out with the controlling element of the Daily Mail, you are then going to be subject to a huge and sustained attack," said Blair, who governed Britain from 1997 to 2007 after rebranding the Labour Party.

"Managing these forces was a major part of what you had to do and was difficult," he said.

MURDOCH

The inquiry has so far focused on the close ties between Murdoch's empire and serving ministers, helping the opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband to consolidate his position with attacks on current British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The appearance of Blair had been seen as a potential threat to this approach, but the former prime minister was rarely troubled by the lead lawyer at the inquiry, reminding observers how he comfortably led his party to three election victories.

Describing what it feels like when a small section of the press decide to go after you, Blair said: "It's full on, full frontal, day in, day out and that is not journalism in my view. That's an abuse of power."

Sometimes using Murdoch's first name, Blair said it had been clear that the proprietor called the shots in his media empire, and not his newspaper editors. The two later became so close that having stepped down as prime minister, Blair became a godfather to Murdoch's daughter Grace at a ceremony on the banks of the river Jordan.

"Blair led the way in having no shame about courting Murdoch," said Ivor Gaber, professor of political journalism at City university. "He set the style and the standard and if you regard Cameron as the 'heir to Blair' then it's not exactly surprising that he followed suit."

Murdoch's papers also supported Blair in his unpopular decision to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq.

With anger still running high in Britain over Blair's role in the war, a protestor broke into court 73 to harangue him, entering through a supposedly secure entrance to stand between Blair and the chairman of the inquiry, Lord Leveson.

"This man is a war criminal," he yelled, as security guards tried to drag him from the court. Another protestor hit Blair's chauffer-driven black Range Rover with an egg as he later left the court.

"I'd forgotten just what a convincing, classy liar Blair is," one observer said on Twitter. "Not so much a testimony as a masterclass."

Blair set the tone for his relationship with Britain's press when, before his first election victory in 1997, he flew to Australia in 1995 to speak before a gathering of Murdoch's executives who had previously used their British tabloids to vilify his Labour Party predecessors.

The decision, mocked by rivals as an act of homage to the all-powerful media boss, infuriated much of his left-of-centre party who saw the Australian-born tycoon as a right-winger who had helped to keep them out of power for years.

But Blair's speech received a standing ovation and Murdoch indicated for the first time that he could be willing to switch the allegiance of his newspapers to the Labour Party.

"If our flirtation is ever consummated Tony then I suspect we will end up making love like porcupines, very, very carefully," he told him.

(Additional reporting by Philip Baillie; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Open Child Welfare Hearings: Do They Help Or Hurt?

MIAMI -- A California judge's decision to open a county's child welfare hearings earlier this year has energized a debate among advocates in other states about whether greater transparency helps or harms the young victims appearing in family court.

When a child is abused or neglected, there's a family court hearing to discuss the victim's future. In nearly 20 states, including Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois, those hearings are usually open to the public and there is a push among child welfare advocates to open them in other states. Efforts to open the courts in California, Kentucky and the District of Columbia have garnered attention recently.

Proponents say transparency leads to better decisions by putting a spotlight on judges, exposes the blunders of child welfare workers and gives the public a better understanding of how the system works.

"Confidentiality has done more to protect the system than to protect the children in the system," said Michael Nash, chief presiding judge of Los Angeles County's children's court. He ruled in January that dependency hearings in his county will be open to the public unless there is proof the child will be harmed.

The longtime advocate of open courts was frustrated that fellow judges frequently sided with those who wanted to keep the hearings closed. Nash said decisions were made on an ad hoc basis. His order lays out a uniform process to follow when someone objects to opening the hearing.

But critics say children will be further traumatized by testifying about abuse in a courtroom full of strangers. The Children's Law Center of California, which represents most children in the Los Angeles County system, asked the state appeals court to overturn Nash's decision, but that move was rejected.

Executive Director Leslie Starr Heimov says it's unfair to compare states that have open hearings with California because children don't have a legal right to attend hearings in many states. More than 200 children attend hearings every day at the Los Angeles courthouse.

"It's difficult and it's painful and they're in the system through no fault of their own and to create a system where there's forced to endure more pain, that's harmful," Heimov said.

Family courts have opened gradually since the early 1980s, beginning with Oregon. An advocate for child welfare reform says that among the states that have followed suit, New York and Missouri's moves in the late 1990s were particularly significant. The change is usually spurred by a horrific child abuse case or a push from local media to gain access. The beating death of 6-year-old Elisa Izquierdo by her mother prompted the opening of New York family courts in 1997 and the passage of a state open-records law referred to as "Elisa's Law."

But the practice can vary by county or by judge, even in states that are presumed to be open. A New York Times reporter visited local courtrooms at random last year and found that many were closed with locked doors or hostile deputies.

Still, the reverse can be true in states that are generally closed. For example, courts in Alleghany County, Pa. were opened after a news outlet fought for access, but most of the state is still closed, said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Virginia. No one has compiled national data on how counties treat the issue.

Kentucky Rep. Susan Westrom filed a bill for the third time in March that would open courts under a pilot program. The bill passed the House, but died in the Senate.

"Social workers were identified as falsifying records and lying in court, and I heard horror stories from family court judges. The lack of transparency has harmed far too many families and children in Kentucky," Westrom said.

Among several recent efforts in California was legislation proposing a pilot program to open courts in a few counties. It died in committee last year.

Activist Gail Helms has fought for open courts in California since her 2-year-old grandson Lance was beaten to death by his father in 1995, shortly after the man was awarded custody despite a history of drug use. The boy's father was sentenced to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder.

She said public court proceedings would have exposed holes in the child welfare system and put pressure on the judge to take her son's drug use and criminal history more seriously. Spurred by the case, lawmakers eventually changed state child welfare laws to make it harder for abusive parents to regain custody.

"They need to have someone in there to monitor and see what goes on in those courtrooms," said Helms, whose efforts have included protests and remarks at public forums.

Wexler said that despite some initial protest when hearings are opened, no state has reclosed them.

"In every state there are lots of people worried and upset that courts are going to be opened and then a few years later everybody forgets the courts were ever closed. The disasters that everybody worried about never happened and there is a modest uptick in attention. It's constructive," said Matt Fraidin, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia. Lawyers in Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, Oregon, and Utah told Fraidin no problems have been reported since opening courtrooms there.

But former California foster youth Michael Bowen Dural said that opening dependency court may solve some problems, but it creates others ? such as compromising children's privacy. The change also doesn't affect other problems in the system such as social workers having too many cases, said Bowen Dural, who entered foster youth at birth when he was taken from his drug-addicted mother and stayed in the system until he turned 18.

"The laws should include you in deciding whether you want it open or not because every foster kid is at a different point in their life and at a different comfort level with some of the things that are discussed in court," said Dural, 24. He now works in the housing department for the L.A. County Department of Children and Family.

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Bay Alarm Medical Personal Alarm Response System Review

A lot of people worry about getting help if something happens to them away from a phone. Maybe they are aging or becoming confused or forgetful. Perhaps they have limited mobility or a disability. Maybe they are concerned family members worried about their loved ones. One popular option is an emergency dialing system, like the [...]

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