Earth Observing-1: Ten Years of Innovation

Scheduled to fly for a year, designed to last a year and a half, EO-1 celebrated its tenth anniversary on November 21, 2010. During its decade in space, the satellite has accomplished far more than anyone dreamed.

"Earth-Observing-1 has had three missions," says mission manager Dan Mandl of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Its original mission was to test new technologies, a mission completed in the first year. Its second mission was to provide images and data. Its third mission was to test new cost-saving software that operates the satellite semi-autonomously and allows users to target the sensors.

All of the missions come down to one thing: "We're the satellite people can try things on." Mandl calls EO-1 NASA's on-orbit test bed, and the name rings true.

Testing New Technology: Faster, Better, Cheaper

EO-1 was commissioned as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, set up to develop and fly technology that would reduce the risk and cost of future science missions. In short, NASA told its engineers: find a way to fly faster, better, and cheaper.

"EO-1's primary purpose was to demonstrate that the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) was a suitable follow-on instrument for Landsat," says Bryant Cramer, the program manager at Goddard during EO-1's development and launch. Like Landsat-7, ALI records seven wavelengths of light reflected from Earth's surface. ALI also records an additional two wavelengths to improve measurements of forests and crops, coastal waters, and aerosols.

Later, an innovative new instrument, the Hyperion imaging spectrometer, was added to the mission. Hyperion records more than 200 adjacent wavelengths of light to even better understand the makeup of Earth's surface.

"EO-1 succeeded beyond anyone's expectations," says former project scientist Steve Ungar of NASA Goddard. He credits the mission's success to EO-1's "crackerjack team" of engineers and scientists, who were drawn to the mission because they recognized that they could have a stake in the future of satellite technology.

Hyperion

"Hyperion is probably the future of remote sensing," says Cramer. Hyperion is a hyperspectral instrument, a change in technology that is like going from black-and-white to color television, Mandl adds.

Other remote sensing instruments—multispectrometers—measure discreet wavelengths of light. It is as if your eyes could only see red and blue light; you could tell much about the world based on how much red and how much blue you saw, but your vision would have gaps in the green tones. A hyperspectral instrument corrects this color blindness by measuring many more wavelengths of light.

The science behind the hyperspectral instrument is spectroscopy, says current EO-1 project scientist, Elizabeth Middleton of NASA Goddard. "Spectroscopy is the study of constituents of materials using specific wavelengths," she notes. "Hyperion measures the chemical constituents of Earth's surface."

Space-based imaging spectroscopy enables a wide range of science, including tracking the amount of carbon plants take out of the atmosphere everywhere from the Amazon Rainforest to the Alaskan tundra. It also has been used to find evidence of microbial life in the Arctic and to monitor volcanic activity.

Perhaps the most important thing Hyperion has done, says Middleton, is teach the community how to work with complex hyperspectral data. Germany will soon launch the next hyperspectral instrument, EnMap, followed by NASA's HyspIRI satellite, which is still in the planning stage. Both missions build on lessons learned from Hyperion.

Advanced Land Imager

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) was built, says Cramer, to test new technology and to provide a safe technology shift for future Landsat missions. The Landsat series of satellites has provided a continuous record of changes in Earth's landscape from 1972 to the present.

ALI differs from previous Landsat sensors because of how it takes images. Previous Landsat instruments scanned from side to side, like a whiskbroom. The image is built from horizontal strips of information. ALI, on the other hand, is more like a push broom. It has detectors arranged parallel to one another and facing forward, and they collect information in vertical strips. This arrangement eliminates the need for the sensor optics to move from side to side, and fewer moving parts means less chance of failure, says EO-1 engineer Stuart Frye of NASA Goddard.

After ten years of operation, ALI has proven that the push-broom technology is stable and reliable enough that the next Landsat satellite uses the same design. "The Landsat community is treating push-broom sensors like we've been building them for years," says Cramer. "That's a tribute to EO-1."

NASA's On-orbit test bed

As the EO-1 mission has aged, perhaps the most critical innovation has come from the onboard computer. "EO-1 has two separate computer processors with 256 megabytes of extra memory each," says Mandl. "It meant we had excess capacity to try new things."

The first new software loaded onto EO-1 was the Autonomous Science Experiment, an onboard intelligent scheduling tool that allows the satellite to decide for itself which images Hyperion and ALI should take. The on-board scheduler prioritizes requests based on what they are for (ranked by theme) and the weather.

"It's a customer-driven method of running a mission," says Mandl. Anyone from an archeologist to a disaster response agency can request images. "Flying a mission with a customizable user experience is one of EO-1's greatest achievement."

Sometimes the "customers" targeting EO-1 are other satellites. As part of SensorWeb, EO-1 automatically acquires images that are triggered by other satellites. For example, EO-1 monitors 100 volcanoes. When another satellite detects a hot spot at any of them, EO-1 automatically acquires an image on its next overpass. Hyperion records the temperature and position of lava flows, while ALI tracks ash plumes.

SensorWeb and the scheduling tool have saved money. "Initially, we were spending about $7,500 per image to acquire them. Now the cost is less than $600 a scene," says Cramer.

"EO-1 is one of the cheapest of NASA's Earth missions," confirms Middleton. These cost savings mean that anyone can now target EO-1 and access all data free of charge, making it useful to a growing range of people.

"EO-1 has done so many different things, NASA got three or four missions for the price of one," says Cramer. "We achieved all of the things that we hoped for and then some."

Online Atlas Shows Climate Change Impact on Forest Distribution Patterns in Iberian Peninsula

ScienceDaily — Researchers from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and CREAF have developed the Suitability Atlas of Woody Plants of the Iberian Peninsula, a series of digital maps available online which for the first time reveal the present and future degree of adaptation to climate conditions of the main plant species found in the forests throughout the Iberian Peninsula. Data shows the tendency of forests to move higher in altitude and migrate towards the north.
Today, territory and species conservation managers need to rely on data and empirical methods on which to base their protection policies. Within the context of Global Change, the maps offered can be useful to evaluate possible changes in the distribution of forests in the future, which could lead to an in depth study of mitigation and/or adaptation tools needed to face these changes.

Until now, a few maps had been drawn for specific woody plants or for partial areas of the peninsula. The Suitability Atlas of Woody Plants however offers a global view of the Iberian Peninsula. The series of maps were created to determine the degree of suitability to climate and/or topographic conditions of the forests' main woody plants. With the help of these maps one can verify, in an area of 200 metres, the topo-climatic suitability of the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, these values can be consulted for the current climatic scenario (1950-1998) and for future projections proposed by one of the foremost research centres dedicated to climate change, the Hadley Centre, located in Exeter, UK.

The Atlas combines advanced methodologies and technologies such as Geographic Information Systems, multivariate statistics and interoperable geoportals to offer both rigorous cartographic standards and information that can be consulted by the general public.

The Atlas was developed by a group of researchers from the UAB Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology, in collaboration with the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), under the framework of the R&D&I National Plan.

Main features of the Atlas

* Completeness: covering almost all woody species found in forests
* Quality initial data: both the Digital Climate Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula (ACDPI) and the third National Forest Inventory are cartography databases with high spatial resolution and with proven data quality.
* Detailed resolution: 200 m spatial resolution
* Objectivity: numerical quality (known level of error) calculated and documented for each map.
* Interoperability: format in which maps can be viewed allows users to contrast information with other map databases
* Accessibility: maps can be consulted online in GIS format without the need of additional installations.

First results

Researchers have already obtained the first scientific results with the help of Atlas data. They were able to verify that many species could be affected by the reduction in suitability in the regions they currently inhabit. They detected a tendency in forests to migrate towards higher altitudes and more northern latitudes. In this sense, mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees are seen as important protection areas of biodiversity within the context of Climate Change.

Nevertheless, not all species react the same when suffering the consequences of climate change. Species such as aleppo pine, stone pine, or holm oak are more resistant and may even occupy larger areas in the future. In contrast, species such as scots pine or beech are more affected by rising temperatures and longer dry periods and therefore the space they occupy may begin to decrease.

At these moments researchers are studying the total forest surface which could be lost or substituted by scrubs, as well as interactions between forest species when their area of distribution is modified. The fact that forest surfaces are decreasing is of great relevance, since this represents a reduction in CO2 consumption, an increase in the risk of land erosion and modifications in water cycles.

Developing Countries Can Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Help the Poor

ScienceDaily — In the developing world, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is often seen as being in conflict with alleviating poverty, since improving the standard of living is usually associated with increased energy use.
A clean energy development initiative in rural Nicaragua, however, demonstrates that there are cost effective steps developing nations can take to reduce carbon emissions and at the same time help the rural poor reduce their energy expenses, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley.

In a report in this week's issue of the journal Science, UC Berkeley graduate student Christian E. Casillas and professor Daniel M. Kammen analyze simple steps taken by Nicaragua's Ministry of Energy & Mines and the nonprofit blueEnergy to reduce the cost of energy while reducing carbon emissions for a community of 172 households on the country's Mosquito Coast.

The villages of Orinoco and Marshall Point are off the nation's electric grid and obtain their power from diesel generators, according to Casillas. Until last year, however, the homes had no electricity meters; homeowners were billed according to the appliances they owned. This, Casillas said, encouraged indiscriminate energy use, with lights, televisions and radios remaining on, even when not being used.

After the government installed meters, however, energy use dropped by 28 percent, and many people's electric bills also dropped.

The non-governmental organization blueEnergy, whose administrative office is in San Francisco, subsequently worked with the government to institute in Orinoco and Marshall Point a simple energy conservation campaign: Villagers were offered two efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) in exchange for two incandescent bulbs. This program reduced household energy use by an additional 17 percent, on average.

The net result was less diesel burned, even allowing for the fact that the community's reduced energy needs allowed the local energy supplier to run its generators two extra hours each day, providing longer service to customers. In the month after the conservation campaign, electricity bills dropped in 37 percent of the households in Orinoco.

"What we are saying is, if you're thinking about some of the lowest hanging fruit to lower greenhouse gas emissions, rural communities should be one of the first places you look for making small but very cheap carbon reductions," said Casillas, who is an advisor to blueEnergy.

Microgrids like the one in Nicaragua, often powered by diesel generators, are found by the thousands around the world, particularly in India and China, Casillas added.

"They're dirty, have high emissions, high energy costs and questionable reliability, so targeting these microgrids has the potential for improving access to energy services for those communities while at the same time, for the dollars invested, getting greater reductions in carbon emissions than you might get investing in similar measures where the cost of energy is cheaper, such as in the cities," he said.

"We hope that this paper will spur a wave of efforts to build similar community level carbon abatement and energy service tools, so that communities often ignored or lumped together as 'those billions without modern energy' can create their own locally appropriate development goals, and groups working with them can develop energy solutions, not just efforts to disperse hardware," said Kammen, a Distinguished Professor of Energy at UC Berkeley who is currently serving as the chief technical specialist for renewable energy and energy efficiency for the World Bank. Kammen also is director of UC Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory and a professor in both the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy.

The researchers used an economic tool called a marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve to analyze energy use in the community and to pinpoint the areas where investments would save the most energy and the most money. The tool, popularized by the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, has typically been used on a global or country-wide scale to target areas for carbon abatement, but not for assessing small communities, Casillas said.

The cheapest investments for the impact turned out to be the ones taken by the government and blueEnergy, though the model predicts further energy and carbon savings from other simple measures, such as more effective public lighting and use of biogas and wind turbines.

"The advantage of this cost curve for local governments that may have as their mandate better energy services is that it can tell them what the cheapest investments are and how much emissions reductions they'll be able to get for their investments," Casillas said. "This allows them to see, with the limited funds available, how to get the most bang for the buck."

"This paper presents a theoretical and analytic framework that opens a vital new door to value the time, energy and opportunities for the rural poor and those on the outskirts of urban areas. It also recognizes the carbon and financial benefits of integrated strategies that combine energy efficiency with renewable energy to meet energy access, climate protection and economic development goals," Kammen said.

This work was supported by the Energy Foundation, the Karsten Family Foundation, and UC Berkeley's Class of 1935.

Nepali butler inherits New York fortune

By Salim Rizvi in New York

Until a few months ago, he was a butler in one of the more expensive residential buildings in Manhattan. But now, Nepal-born Indra Tamang is the owner of two multi-million dollar apartments in the same building.
The former owner - his former employer, Ruth Ford - died last year and left the apartments in the historic Dakota Building on the Upper West Side to Mr Tamang in her will, along with a valuable Russian surrealist art collection.

The estate is estimated to be worth nearly $10m (£6.8m).

Mr Tamang is happy but quickly points out that his good fortune did not come easily.

"I am happy and have been humbled by the generosity of the Ford family," he says. "I never expected that I will be given the ownership of these apartments.

"But I have been working for the family for the last 36 years, loyally, with honesty and dedication. So my hard work has been rewarded."

Relaxed masters

Mr Tamang was 21 when he was brought from Nepal as a domestic help by Charles Ford, a writer and a photographer.

Mr Ford died in 2002; his sister, actress Ruth Ford, then took charge and told Mr Tamang that he was like a brother to her after Charles's death.

"Charles was like my father," recalls Mr Tamang. "And Ruth has also been very kind to me and I took very good care of her. She used to lovingly call me 'Tamang darling'."

"They were very relaxed masters who treated me like a member of the family. I travelled with them all over the world."
Mrs Ford died aged 98. During the last five years of her life, she lost her eyesight and also developed speech problems. Mr Tamang looked after her most of the time and took care of her medicines and food.

He also worked with Charles Ford on various photography projects, which he now wants to keep as the photographer's legacy. He hopes to organise exhibitions of Mr Ford's photographs and compile a book of his works.

With the story of Mr Tamang's inheritance doing the rounds, the Dakota Building has seen an increase in visitor numbers. It also has links with the Beatles star John Lennon, who died there.

A doorman at the gate to the mansion block said he had been busy since morning, answering questions from visitors.

Mr Tamang plans to sell the bigger, three-bedroom apartment to pay the taxes he owes to the government on his inheritance.

He has not yet asked the co-operative board of the Dakota building for permission to live in his apartments.

But, he says: "The rules of the co-op might be a problem, as they require a minimum monthly income to qualify to live as owner of apartments."

For now, he plans to live in his modest home in Queens. "I have my small house here but I am happy with it," Mr Tamang says.

'Hard worker'

He first got news of the windfall last August, when the family's lawyers told him about the apartments left in his name.
However, the biological daughter of Ruth Ford challenged the will in court and the case was not settled until April this year.

The story made it into the press only this week. Since then, Mr Tamang has been interviewed by several TV channels from the US and abroad.

The former butler, now 57, insists that he has not changed at all following the unexpected turn in his life.

"I am the same Tamang as I have been before all this happened and I will remain like this in future too."

Friends have been coming from all over the city to congratulate him.

Friend and neighbour Narbada says: "Indra Tamang is a very honest and good person, always ready to help others. I am so happy for him, he deserves every bit of it. He worked very hard for many decades."

'Safety fears'

But one Nepali community activist, who did not want to give her name, said that many members of the community had not treated Mr Tamang well before the news of the multi-million dollar legacy started making the rounds.
Mr Tamang's wife, Radhika, is also not entirely happy with the turn of events.

She says that they have not received any money as yet - but they are still being projected as millionaires. She fears for the safety of the family. The couple have a 10-year-old daughter, Zina, who is also trying to figure out what has suddenly changed in their lives.

Mr Tamang says that he will get much less than the estimated $10m value of the legacy after taxes and fees.

But looking forward to receiving a sizeable sum, he says: "When I get some money from the sale of the apartment, I will try and pay the mortgage of my home in Queens. But I will keep my other apartment and use it for exhibitions etc."

Memoir plans

Mr Tamang was born in a small village called Fahil, in the Makanpur district of Nepal.
He says that his mother, two children from his first marriage and his brothers and sisters who still live in his village have no idea about his multi-million dollar inheritance thousands of miles away in New York.

He now plans to visit his family, whom he has not seen for many years.

He also encourages other Nepalis living in America to work hard and be honest in their work.

One day, he plans to write an autobiography, with some help from others. But for now, Mr Tamang plans to take it easy and relax for a while.

He has learnt his lesson from the life of his employers and plans to use his money with great caution.

"I think one should save money for old age. That's when you need it the most to get care," he says.

Wikileaks release of embassy cables reveals US concerns

Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has released 250,000 secret messages sent by US embassies which give an insight into current American global concerns.

They include reports of some Arab leaders - including the Saudi king - urging the US to attack Iran and end its nuclear weapons programme.

Other concerns include the security of Pakistani nuclear material that could be used to make an atomic weapon.

The widespread use of hacking by the Chinese government is also reported.

The leaked US embassy cables also reportedly include accounts of:

* Corruption within the Afghan government, with concerns heightened when a senior official was found to be carrying more than $50m in cash on a foreign trip
* Bargaining to empty the Guantanamo Bay prison camp - including Slovenian diplomats being told to take in a freed prisoner if they wanted to secure a meeting with President Barack Obama
* The extraordinarily close relationship between Russian PM Vladimir Putin and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi
* Alleged links between the Russian government and organised crime
* American and South Korean officials' discussions about the prospects for a unified Korea should North Korea collapse as a viable state
* Sharply critical accounts of UK military operations in Afghanistan
The US government has condemned the release of state department documents.

"President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous action runs counter to that goal," a White House statement said.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorised disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information."

The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, says the US authorities are afraid of being held to account.

Earlier, Wikileaks said it had come under attack from a computer-hacking operation.

"We are currently under a mass distributed denial of service attack," it reported on its Twitter feed.

No-one has been charged with passing the diplomatic files to the website but suspicion has fallen on US Army private Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst arrested in Iraq in June and charged over an earlier leak of classified US documents to Mr Assange's organisation.

Wikileaks argues that the site's previous releases shed light on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Nepal police disrupt Tibetan elections in Kathmandu

By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala, October 3: Nepal police in Kathmandu on Sunday disrupted Tibetan preliminary polls by confiscating ballot boxes already filled with thousands of ballots just an hour before the polls were due to be closed.
Several armed police arrived at different polling booths located in different parts of Kathmandu valley and confiscated ballot boxes filled with thousands of votes, a Tibetan voter from Boudha, a landmark Tibetan area in Kathmandu, told Phayul.

Hundreds and thousands of Tibetan exiles across the world on Sunday went to polls to cast their ballots to nominate candidates for the post of Prime Minister of the Tibet’s government in exile and members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile for the next year’s general elections.

The voting is to take place simultaneously from 9.am to 5.pm local time around the world.

Around 50 or 60 armed policemen arrived around 4.pm and confiscated all the ballot boxes and put them into police van, the Tibetan voter who identified himself as Wangdu, said.

According to Mr Tsering Dhondup, a local election officer in charge of Boudha-Jorpati area, police took away ballot boxes from at least three polling booths located in areas of Swayambu, Boudha and the main Kathmandu city circle.

“We have been told that the last-minute order was issued directly from the Home Ministry. Otherwise we have duly informed the concerned Nepali authorities well in advance about our poll schedules and at that time we have only been told to restrict our polls within the limit of the approved venues. Other than that there were no other objections from their side initially,” Dhondup added.

According to Dhondup, although no arrests were made, in some cases police even resorted to mild lathi-charge before forcefully taking away the ballot boxes.

He said efforts are underway to talk to concerned higher authorities about the matter.

“We don’t know yet where they took away the ballot boxes and everyone here is looking confused and helpless. Some of the Tibetans at the election scene even decided to stage protests, but the Tibetan elections officials stopped them from doing so,” Wangdu said.

Nepal government has lately vowed to check "anti-China activities" to strengthen friendly ties with China, a major donor for the impoverished country.

The forced disruption of Tibetan polls on Sunday follows a visit by 21-member high-level Chinese delegation led by He Yong, Secretary of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, to Nepal last month.

During the visit, the Chinese delegation reportedly expressed satisfaction over “Nepal’s ‘one China’ policy and the alertness adopted by the country over the Tibet issue”.

Prior to the Chinese delegation’s visit, the governments of the two countries had even agreed to set up a joint mechanism to help share intelligence on "anti-China activities" in Nepal.

Nepal, which is home to some 20,000 Tibetans, has accommodated Tibetan exiles for decades, but has come under increasing pressure from China to crack down on the political protests.

Under Beijing's influence and lack of stable government in the impoverished nation, rights groups say Tibetans refugees in Nepal are increasingly vulnerable and at risk of arrest and repatriation.

Strange Facebook Love Story Is Big Screen Hit

While the upcoming movie The Social Network is offering one view of Facebook, another big-screen release is taking a personal look at the power of internet site on a shoestring.
Low-budget documentary film Catfish has grossed £1m so far after being played at Sundance earlier this year and is predicted to take a whole lot more when it reaches cinemas.

Catfish tells the tale of Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer who develops a close online relationship with three members of a rural Michigan family.

It begins when the young daughter of the family, Abby, starts painting adaptations of some of the photographer's work.

Nev also starts an intense Facebook relationship with Abby's older sister, while conversing with the sisters' mother as well.
Schulman's filmmaker brother, Ari, and his business partner Henry Joost, frequently shot the dull day-to-day doings in the office shared by the three of them.

But when Nev started internet correspondence with an eight-year-old girl, an art prodigy, the filmmakers were intrigued, and began to fix their lenses on Nev's life.

Things soon got more intriguing when they begin to suspect not all was what this "Facebook family" was claiming.

With its story of the possibilities and pitfalls of personal connection through the internet, Catfish is said to play like a scrappy sequel to The Social Network.

"The Social Network is obviously an explanation as to the construction of that world, and into the mind of the man who invented it," Schulman said.

"But Catfish is really a story about where it has taken us, and the real-life implications of what that website has created.

"So, I think they are a terrific double feature. I recommend seeing The Social Network and then going to see Catfish. It is wonderful because it is more than anything the start of a conversation."

Strange Facebook Love Story Is Big Screen Hit

While the upcoming movie The Social Network is offering one view of Facebook, another big-screen release is taking a personal look at the power of internet site on a shoestring.
Low-budget documentary film Catfish has grossed £1m so far after being played at Sundance earlier this year and is predicted to take a whole lot more when it reaches cinemas.

Catfish tells the tale of Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer who develops a close online relationship with three members of a rural Michigan family.

It begins when the young daughter of the family, Abby, starts painting adaptations of some of the photographer's work.

Nev also starts an intense Facebook relationship with Abby's older sister, while conversing with the sisters' mother as well.
Schulman's filmmaker brother, Ari, and his business partner Henry Joost, frequently shot the dull day-to-day doings in the office shared by the three of them.

But when Nev started internet correspondence with an eight-year-old girl, an art prodigy, the filmmakers were intrigued, and began to fix their lenses on Nev's life.

Things soon got more intriguing when they begin to suspect not all was what this "Facebook family" was claiming.

With its story of the possibilities and pitfalls of personal connection through the internet, Catfish is said to play like a scrappy sequel to The Social Network.

"The Social Network is obviously an explanation as to the construction of that world, and into the mind of the man who invented it," Schulman said.

"But Catfish is really a story about where it has taken us, and the real-life implications of what that website has created.

"So, I think they are a terrific double feature. I recommend seeing The Social Network and then going to see Catfish. It is wonderful because it is more than anything the start of a conversation."

China Piracy Makes Microsoft Head Nervous

Illegal piracy needs to be addressed and intellectual property needs better protection in China, the Microsoft CEO has told students in London.
Steve Ballmer said that piracy in China is twenty times worse than the UK and twelve times worse than in India.

That, coupled with the fact that China will soon be the world’s number economy, makes him "nervous".

The Microsoft head was speaking to students, academics and the media at the London School of Economics (LSE) where he gave a lecture entitled 'Seizing the Opportunity of the Cloud: the Next Wave of Business Growth'.

Mr Ballmer said that while consumers had embraced the always-on connectivity that is possible with smartphones and similar devices, business had been slower to see the potential.

He argued that in the field of science, communities of joined-up computer users will be able to achieve far more than one machine of whatever size can alone.

He called on governments to see the potential for efficiencies through the use of cloud based services - something his company will sell you for a price.

And he argued that while there might be some job losses in some areas of IT as a result of better use of automation, there was the possibility of a net increase in jobs with more people designing and managing more services.
Steve Ballmer praised the UK’s role as home to great innovators, both as app creators and as consumers keen to embrace new technologies.

That is one reason why the new Windows 7 phone will have its global launch here, he said.

"We know that this is a place where if we get a product right, we'll get a good early reception," he told his audience.

Mr Ballmer admitted Microsoft had been a little slow to the smartphone market, but promised a real wow factor when new handsets become available later in the autumn.

The Microsoft CEO choose to ignore questions about the future of the operating system (such as XP and Vista, the mainstay of profit for Microsoft) – and the threat from Google’s, proposed, free, Chrome OS.

He also appeared horrified at the suggestion that Microsoft, like so many tech companies, might, one day, fail.

"Very few tech companies have stayed at the top for a long time," he admitted.

But he said that Microsoft would, under his leadership thrive, as long "as we continue to innovate and change".

Wildfires: A Symptom of Climate Change

This summer, wildfires swept across some 22 regions of Russia, blanketing the country with dense smoke and in some cases destroying entire villages. In the foothills of Boulder, Colo., this month, wildfires exacted a similar toll on a smaller scale.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Thousands of wildfires large and small are underway at any given time across the globe. Beyond the obvious immediate health effects, this "biomass" burning is part of the equation for global warming. In northern latitudes, wildfires actually are a symptom of the Earth's warming.

'We already see the initial signs of climate change, and fires are part of it," said Dr. Amber Soja, a biomass burning expert at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) in Hampton, Va.

And research suggests that a hotter Earth resulting from global warming will lead to more frequent and larger fires.

The fires release "particulates" -- tiny particles that become airborne -- and greenhouse gases that warm the planet.

Human ignition
A common perception is that most wildfires are caused by acts of nature, such as lightning. The inverse is true, said Dr. Joel Levine, a biomass burning expert at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

"What we found is that 90 percent of biomass burning is human instigated," said Levine, who was the principal investigator for a NASA biomass burning program that ran from 1985 to 1999.

Levine and others in the Langley-led Biomass Burning Program travelled to wildfires in Canada, California, Russia, South African, Mexico and the wetlands of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Biomass burning accounts for the annual production of some 30 percent of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a leading cause of global warming, Levine said.

Dr. Paul F. Crutzen, a pioneer of biomass burning, was the first to document the gases produced by wildfires in addition to carbon dioxide.

"Modern global estimates agree rather well with the initial values," said Crutzen, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1995 with Mario J. Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland for their "work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone."


Northern exposure

Whether biomass burning is on the rise globally is not clear. But it definitely is increasing in far northern latitudes, in "boreal" forests comprised largely of coniferous trees and peatlands.

The reason is that, unlike the tropics, northern latitudes are warming, and experiencing less precipitation, making them more susceptible to fire. Coniferous trees shed needles, which are stored in deep organic layers over time, providing abundant fuel for fires, said Soja, whose work at the NIA supports NASA.

"That's one of the reasons northern latitudes are so important," she said, "and the smoldering peat causes horrible air quality that can affect human health and result in death."

Fires in different ecosystems burn at different temperatures due to the nature and structure of the biomass and its moisture content. Burning biomass varies from very thin, dry grasses in savannahs to the very dense and massive, moister trees of the boreal, temperate and tropical forests.

Fire combustion products vary over a range depending on the degree of combustion, said Levine, who authored a chapter on biomass burning for a book titled "Methane and Climate Change," published in August by Earthscan.

Flaming combustion like the kind in thin, small, dry grasses in savannahs results in near-complete combustion and produces mostly carbon dioxide. Smoldering combustion in moist, larger fuels like those in forest and peatlands results in incomplete combustion and dirtier emission products such as carbon monoxide.

Boreal fires burn the hottest and contribute more pollutants per unit area burned.


'Eerie experience'

Being near large wildfires is a unique experience, said Levine. "The smoke is so thick it looks like twilight. It blocks out the sun. It looks like another planet. It's a very eerie experience."

In Russia, the wildfires are believed caused by a warming climate that made the current summer the hottest on record. The hotter weather increases the incidence of lightning, the major cause of naturally occurring biomass burning.

Soja said she hopes the wildfires in Russia prompt the country to support efforts to mitigate climate change. In fact, Russia's president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, last month acknowledged the need to do something about it.

"What's happening with the planet's climate right now needs to be a wake-up call to all of us, meaning all heads of state, all heads of social organizations, in order to take a more energetic approach to countering the global changes to the climate," said Medvedev, in contrast to Russia's long-standing position that human-induced climate change is not occurring.

Scientists to present car for blind drivers next year

US Scientists and the National Federation of the Blind are developing a car for the blind and will present a prototype next year.

The vehicle will be fitted with technology that allows a blind person to drive independently, the NFB and Virginia Tech University said.

Non-visual aids include sensors indicating turns in the road via vibrating gloves.

Puffs of compressed air on the face will alert the driver to obstacles.

Other aids to be fitted include a vibrating vest to give feedback on speed and a steering wheel with audio cues and spoken commands indicating the car's direction.
Last year Virginia Tech turned a beach buggy into an experimental vehicle for blind drivers.

They used sensor lasers and cameras to act as the eyes of the buggy.

Continue reading the main story “
Start Quote
We're moving away from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of human beings to make contributions to society”
End Quote
Marc Maurer

NFB president
The model to be presented next year will be a modified Ford Escape sport utility vehicle, the NFB announced.

"We're exploring areas that have previously been regarded as unexplorable," said NFB president Marc Maurer.

He added that projects like this car was changing people's perception of the blind.

"We're moving away "from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of human beings to make contributions to society".

Mr Maurer said he started talking about a car for blind drivers ten years ago.

"Some people thought I was crazy," he said.

The prototype is expected be be publicly tested by a blind driver on the Daytona race track in Florida next January.

British man killed in Nepal plane crash was determined to travel to Mount Everest

Jeremy Taylor was one of six foreign tourists travelling to Mount Everest base camp in Nepal when their plane crashed in bad weather. There were no survivors.

A local travel agent who booked his tour said it had been Mr Taylor's dream to visit Mount Everest base camp, and that he had booked a 14 day trekking tour and was travelling with a Nepali mountain guide.
His trip had been cancelled on three consecutive days due to bad weather and he had extended his visit so he could "realise his dream," a spokesmen for Himal Reisen Tours said.

His flight finally took off early this morning but was forced to turn back as the weather deteriorated. It crashed into hills close to the village of Shikharpur, 50 miles from the capital Kathmandu.

Officials said there were no survivors and confirmed three crew and eleven tourists were killed in the crash. Four Americans and a nineteen year Japanese man were among the dead.

A spokeswoman for the airline Angi Air Planet said the company was investigating unconfirmed reports that engine problems may have caused the crash.

Mr Taylor had travelled to Nepal from his home in Cape Town, South Africa, and had already spent a month in the country when he headed for Lukla, the main airport for Everest base camp. He had completed a 14 day trekking tour of the Annapurna mountain circuit but was determined not to leave without seeing Everest, a spokesman for Himal Reisen Tours said

Pakistanis Flee As Floods Swamp More Towns

Pakistanis are still fleeing towns and villages due to rising flood waters - five weeks after heavy rains swamped large parts of the country. With an area the size of England now underwater, Sky News visited Khairpur Nathan Shah - a town in Sindh Province - which is the latest to be flooded.

According to early estimates by the United Nations and Pakistan's government, nine million acres of crops have been destroyed and 7.2 million livestock and poultry killed.

Sky News' Alex Crawford, in Khairpur Nathan Shah, said: "This hasn't got the speed of a tsunami, but the waters continue to destroy and claim fresh villages and towns.
"There's no sign of any organised help for these people. Here, it's each man and woman for themselves."

As he fled the town, one man said: "There are a number of people still trapped but there is no help."

Meanwhile, the public image of the Pakistani army is rising as fast as faith in the government is falling.

There is a growing suspicion that rich parliamentarians are diverting the waters away from their land by creating breaches in the dams to relieve pressure
But the military has taken the lead in providing relief, with about 60,000 soldiers involved in the effort.

The army chief has ordered each soldier to sacrifice a day's pay for donation to the flood victims.

One man told Sky News: "No one's helping us but the army."

:: The public can donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee by calling the 24-hour hotline on 0370 60 60 900, visiting www.dec.org.uk, donating over the counter at any post office or high street bank, or sending a cheque, or by texting the word GIVE to 70707

Nepali migrant worker dies in Dubai

A Nepali migrant worker, Govind BK of Saljhandi VDC of Kapilvastu district was found dead in the company's camp in Dubai on Friday, the RSS reported today.

However, the family of the deceased came to know about his death only on Sunday, according to Govind’s brother Ganesh BK.

Ganesh mentioned that his brother was learnt to have gone to sleep after attending duty on Thursday night, but didn't wake up till late morning the next day.

"When his friends tried to wake him up, they found him dead," RSS reported quoting Ganesh.

The family of the deceased have appealed to the authorities concerned to help them receive compensation from the Dubai-based company and bring home his dead body. BK is survived by wife, one son and two daughters

List of UFO sightings

List of UFO sightings
Before 2000
Date Name City, State Country Description Kind of Close Encounter Sources
1886-08-12 José Bonilla Observation Zacatecas Observatory Mexico While observing sun spots, Director Bonilla of Zacatecas Observatory counted at least 283 objects crossing the disc of the sun. He was not able to maintain his count as so many objects appeared simultaneously. Some photographs were taken, however, and are said to be the oldest photographs of UFOs in the world. 0 [1]
1886-10-24 Maracaibo Incidence Maracaibo Venezuela In a letter printed in the December 18, 1886 issue of Scientific American, page 389, the US consul of Venezuela in Maracaibo reported the sighting of a UFO. A bright object, accompanied with a humming noise, appeared during thunderstorm over a hut near Maracaibo. Afterward, the people in the hut displayed symptoms similar to radiation poisoning. Nine days later the trees surrounding the hut withered and died. 2 [2][3][4]
1897-04-19 Aurora Texas UFO Incident Aurora, Texas United States There were reports of an alleged UFO crash and a burial of its alien pilot in the local cemetery. 3 [5][6]
1908-06-30 Tunguska event Podkamennaya Tunguska River Russian Empire A massive explosion, conjectured to be from a comet or meteoroid. But it is also believed by UFO conspiracy theorists to be an exploding UFO. 2 [7][8]
1917-08-13, 09-13, 10-13 The Miracle of the Sun Fatima Portugal Thousands of people witnessed what looked like the sun gyrate and descend. This was later reinterpreted by Jacques Vallée, Joaquim Fernandes and Fina d'Armada as a possible UFO sighting, but not recognized as such due to cultural differences. 1 [9][10][11]
1926 Sightings by Nicholas Roerich Unknown, possibly Nepal (the Himalayas) Nicholas Roerich's travel diary mentions that his travelling party encountered a metallic silver disc hovering above the Himalayas. They observed the disc through binoculars for some time until it disappeared behind the peaks. 1 [12]
1940s Foo fighter Small metallic spheres and colorful balls of light repeatedly spotted and occasionally photographed by bomber crews all over the world during World War II. 1 [13][14]
1942 Hopeh Incident Hopeh China A UFO was spotted and photographed. 1 [15]
1942-02-24 Battle of Los Angeles Los Angeles, California United States Unidentified aerial objects trigger the firing of thousands of anti-aircraft rounds and raise the wartime alert status. 1 [16][17]
1946 Ghost rockets Scandinavia Objects were sighted repeatedly over Scandinavia; Swedish Defense Staff expressed concern. 1 [18]
1946-05-18 UFO-Memorial Ängelholm Ängelholm Municipality Sweden Gösta Karlsson reports seeing a UFO and its alien passengers. A model of a flying saucer is now erected at the site. 3 [19]
1947-06-21 Maury Island incident Washington United States Harold A. Dahl reported that his dog was killed and his son was injured by encounters with UFOs. He also claimed that a witness was threatened by the Men in Black. 2 [20]
1947-06-24 Kenneth Arnold Unidentified Flying Object Sighting Washington United States The UFO sighting that sparked the name flying saucers. 2 [21]
1947-07-08 Roswell UFO incident Roswell, New Mexico United States United States Army Air Forces allegedly captures a flying saucer. 3 [22]
1948 Green fireballs United States Objects reported over several United States military bases; an official investigation followed. 1 [23]
1948-01-07 Mantell UFO Incident Kentucky United States US Air Force sent a fighter pilot to investigate a UFO sighting over Fort Knox, Kentucky; the pilot was killed while pursuing the UFO. 2 [24]
1948-10-01 Gorman Dogfight North Dakota United States A US Air Force pilot sighted and pursued a UFO for 27 minutes over Fargo, North Dakota. 1 [25][26]
1950 Mariana UFO Incident Great Falls, Montana United States The manager of Great Falls' pro baseball team took color film of two UFOs flying over Great Falls. The film was extensively analyzed by the US Air Force and independent investigators. 1 [27]
1951-08-25 Lubbock Lights Lubbock, Texas United States Lights were repeatedly spotted flying over the city. Witnesses included professors from Texas Tech University and photographed by a Texas Tech student. 1 [28]
1952-07-13 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident Washington, D.C. United States A series of sightings in July 1952 accompanied radar contacts at three separate airports in the Washington area. The sightings made front page headlines around the nation, and ultimately lead to the formation of the Robertson Panel by the CIA. 1 [29]
1952-07-24 Carson Sink UFO incident Nevada United States Two pilots saw three unusual Delta-wing aircraft flying in a V-formation over Carson Sink. 1 [30]
1952-09-12 Flatwoods monster Flatwoods, West Virginia United States 6 local boys and a woman report seeing a UFO land and a bizarre-looking creature near the landing site. 3 [31][32][33]
June, 1953 Otis AFB Falmouth, Massachusetts United States A U.S Air Force radar operator and pilot bailed out over Otis Air Force Base because of engine failure. They were chasing a UFO. Plane and operator never seen again. Pilot lives and the canopy is the only thing recovered. 1 [34]
1953-08-12 Ellsworth UFO Case Bismarck, North Dakota United States A UFO appearing as a red glowing light is witnessed by 45 people. The sighting takes place over a two night period. 1 [35]
1953-11-23 Felix Moncla Lake Superior United States - Canada U.S Air Force Pilot disappears while pursuing a UFO. 1 [36]
1955-08-21 Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter Kentucky United States A group of strange, goblin-like creatures are reported to have attacked a family. The family shot at them several times with little or no effect. 3 [37]
1957 Antonio Villas Boas São Francisco de Sales Brazil Antonio Villas Boas claimed to have been abducted and examined by aliens. He also claimed to have had sex with an alien woman while aboard the UFO. 4 [38]
1957-05-20 Milton Torres 1957 UFO Encounter East Anglia United Kingdom US Air Force fighter pilot Milton Torres reports that he was ordered to interecept and fire on a UFO displaying "very unusual flight patterns" over East Anglia. Ground radar operators had tracked the object for some time before Torres' plane was scrambled to intercept. 1 [39]
1957-11-02 Levelland UFO Case Levelland, Texas United States Numerous motorists reported seeing a glowing, egg-shaped object which caused their vehicle's engines to shut down. When the object flew away, their vehicles restarted without a problem. 2 [40]
1959 Dyatlov Pass incident Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Mysterious deaths of experienced skiers in the Urals is believed to have been caused by "unidentified orange spheres" and an "unknown compelling force". 2 [41]
1961-09-19 Betty and Barney Hill abduction New Hampshire United States A widely publicized alien abduction experience. 4 [42]
1964-04-24 Lonnie Zamora Socorro, New Mexico United States Police officer Zamora reports a close encounter. 3 [43]
1965 Exeter incident Exeter, New Hampshire United States UFO observed by a teenager and two police officers. 1 [44]
1965-12-01 Adhara Observatory UFO Lunar Transit San Miguel Argentina At 8.30 pm the Adhara Observatory received several calls concerning strange objects visible on the moon. The staff of the observatory photographed the moon in fixed intervals, which revealed disk shaped objects flying in front of the moon. A few minutes later, three strange luminous objects flew over La Plata. 0 [45]
1965-12-09 Kecksburg UFO incident Kecksburg, Pennsylvania United States Mass sighting of a falling UFO, followed by a cordoning-off of the crash site. 1 [46]
1966 The Mothman Prophecies Point Pleasant, West Virginia United States A wave of sightings of a winged humanoid is reported to be connected to other mysterious events including sightings of UFOs. 1 [47]
1966-01-11 Wanaque Reservoir UFO Wanaque Reservoir, Wanaque, New Jersey United States UFO in the form of a bright light seen in the vicinity of Wanaque Reservoir, led to traffic jams and overloaded police communications networks. The UFO shifted color on a continuing basis. It shot a beam of light down towards the ice near the dam, maintained its position for another half hour and flew off to the southeast. Another UFO, sighted the next night near Wanaque, was observed flying in zigzag pattern. The mayor, Warren Hagstrom, as well as Chief of Police Floyd Elston and captain Joe Sisco watched the craft for some time.Two reserve officers, Sgt.Ben Thompson and patolman Edward Wester, also witnessed the craft along with a number of other observers. 1 [48]
1966-04-06 Westall UFO Clayton South, Victoria Australia A sighting by hundreds of people. Witnesses of "The Clayton Incident" still gather for reunions. 1 [49]
1966-04-17 Portage County UFO chase Ohio United States Several police officers pursue a UFO for 30 minutes. 1 [50]
1966-10-11 The Grinning Man Elizabeth, New Jersey United States A Tall man with no nose or ears is sighted in a neighborhood shortly after UFO sighting. 2
1967-03-05 Minot Air Force Base UFO Incidents Minot/Minot A.F.B., North Dakota United States UFO appears to hover over area, strike teams are called in to confront the vessel. 1 [51]
1967-03-?? Malmstrom AFB Incident Malmstrom A.F.B. United States 1 [51]
1967-05-20 Falcon Lake Incident Falcon Lake, Manitoba Canada A UFO's exhaust allegedly burns a man. 2 [52]
1967-08-29 Close encounter of Cussac Cussac, Cantal France A young brother and sister claim to have witnessed a UFO and its occupants. 3 [53]
1967-10-04 Shag Harbour incident Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia Canada A UFO was seen crashing into Shag Harbor. A Canadian naval search followed, and the incident is officially referred to as a UFO crash. 2 [54][55]
1967-12-03 Schirmer Abduction Ashland, Nebraska United States Sergeant Herbert Schirmer claimed he was abducted. 4 [56]
1967 Minot Air Force Base UFO Incidents Minot/Minot A.F.B., North Dakota United States Air Force claims unidentifiable craft "attacks" air base, specifically the missile silos. (the "attack" was two beams of light, one of which appeared to be an offensive weapon. One of numerous cases involving the base, which is home to a nuclear weapon launch silos and stockpiles.) 1 [51]
1968-6-6 Minot Air Force Base UFO Incidents Minot/Minot A.F.B., North Dakota United States UFO hovers over a silo, then leaves. After the UFO leaves, personnel discover that the missile was armed and in launch mode, and the nuclear warhead was armed. 2 [51]
1968-10-25 Minot Air Force Base UFO Incidents Minot/Minot A.F.B., North Dakota United States 1 [51][57][58]
1969-01-01 Prince George sightings Prince George, British Columbia Canada Three unrelated witnesses reported a strange, round object in the late afternoon sky. The sphere radiated a yellow-orange light and appeared to ascend from 2,000 feet (610 m) to 10,000 feet (3,000 m). 1 [59]
1969 Jimmy Carter UFO incident Leary, Georgia United States Jimmy Carter's sighting. 1 [60]
1970s Barry DeLong UFO incident Somerset County, Maine United States Sheriff Barry A. DeLong witnessed a UFO: "They were hovering about 15 feet (4.6 m) from my cruiser, late at night. It had fixed, spinning lights. The craft was a huge oval shape. I knew it wasn't a jet fighter. It slowly started backing off toward Sugarloaf, and then at a terrific speed." 1 [61]
1970-04-24 Border incident between Russia and China 1000 kilometres north-east of Ulan Bator Mongolia In the border area between Russia and China, air traffic controllers from both nations observe multiple unidentified flying objects. The Russians believed they were Chinese and vice versa. On April 24, 1970, a Russian bomber disappeared during a flight from Moscow to Vladivostok. On the same day many of these objects were observed, with attempts to shoot them down a failure. Using triangulation it was calculated that the UFOs came from an area 1000 kilometres north-east of Ulan Bator. The area was bombed by a hundred Russian planes, allegedly destroying a secret tunnel system. There were also rumours that nuclear weapons were used in the attack. This was officially referred to as a spring maneuver and a small border conflict. 2 [62][63]
1971-09-04 Lake Cote UFO Arenal, Alajuela Costa Rica An UFO was photographed during a mapping mission from an airborne camera over Lake Cote, Costa Rica. No crew member saw the object at the time, but the image was captured on film. 1 [64][65]
1973-10-11 Pascagoula Abduction Mississippi United States Alien abduction occurs while the victims were fishing on the Pascagoula River. 4 [66]
1974-01-23 Berwyn Mountain UFO incident Llandrillo, Merionethshire, North Wales United Kingdom An alleged UFO crash involving lights in the sky being observed moments before a large impact shock. The cause of the incident was soon revealed as a 3.5 magnitude earthquake. 1 [67][68]
1975-01-12 North Hudson Park UFO sightings North Bergen, New Jersey United States Considered a close encounter of the second and third kind, the case introduced Budd Hopkins to UFO research, a key figure in future alien abduction research. Researcher Jerome Clark cites the incident as one of the best-documented, since the story was corroborated by numerous independent witnesses. 2 [69]
1975-11-05 Travis Walton Arizona United States Logger Travis Walton reports being abducted by aliens for five days. Walton's six workmates claimed to have witnessed the UFO at the start of his abduction. Walton described the event and its aftermath in The Walton Experience, which was dramatized in the film Fire in the Sky. 4 [66]
1976-06-22 1976 Canary Isles sightings Canary Islands Spain Several lights and a spherical transparent blue craft, piloted by two beings was reported. 1 [70]
1976-08-20 Allagash Abductions Maine United States Four campers claimed to have been abducted by alien beings in the Allagash wilderness. 4 [71]
1976-09-19 1976 Tehran UFO incident Tehran Iran A UFO disabled the electronic equipment of two F-4 interceptor aircraft, along with ground control equipment. The event is well documented in the U.S. DIA report. The Iranian generals involved in the incident stated object was extraterrestrial. 2 [72]
1977 Colares UFO flap Colares Brazil A bewildering account of an island attacked by UFOs shooting harmful beam sof radioactive light at the residents. 2 [73]
1978-05-10 Emilcin Abduction Emilcin Poland A man in Emilcin, Poland is said to have been abducted by "grays." There is now a memorial at the site. 4 [74]
1978-10-21 Valentich Disappearance Victoria Australia Contacting air traffic control, an Australian pilot reported sighting a UFO before his aircraft vanished. 1 [75][76]
1978-12-21 Kaikoura lights South Island New Zealand A series of sightings by a Safe Air freight plane; the airplane was escorted by strange lights that changed color and size. 1 [77]
1979-08-27 Val Johnson Incident Marshall County, Minnesota United States A deputy sheriff spotted a bright light which appeared to have collided with his patrol car and damaged it. The deputy also suffered temporary retinal damage from the "light". 2 [78][79]
1979-11-09 Robert Taylor incident Livingston United Kingdom A forester, Bob Taylor, was pulled by two spiked globes towards a UFO, which stood on a clearing. He lost consciousness and afterwards had trouble walking and speaking. He also was constantly thirsty for several days. 4 [80]
1979-11-11 Manises UFO Incident Valencia Spain Three large UFOs forced a commercial flight to make an emergency landing at Manises airport. 1 [81]
1980s Hudson Valley UFO sightings Hudson Valley United States A UFO flap during the eighties and early nineties, involving thousands of reports of similarly-shaped UFOs. They were first observed by a retired policeman in Kent, New York, late on New Year's Eve, 1981. The 1984 "Incident at Indian Point" was one of these sightings. 1 [82]
1980-12-28 Rendlesham Forest Incident Suffolk, England United Kingdom A sighting which was first thought to be a downed aircraft. 2 [83]
1980-12-29 Cash-Landrum incident Dayton, Texas United States A huge diamond-shaped UFO irradiates three witnesses, who all needed treatment for radiation poisoning. The UFO was escorted by military helicopters. The victims have since sued the US Government. 2 [84]
1986-11-17 Japan Air Lines flight 1628 incident Alaska United States A group of UFOs flew alongside Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 for 50 minutes above Northeastern Alaska. One of the objects trailing behind the Boeing 747 was detected by military radar. 1 [85]
1990-03-30 Belgian UFO wave Ans, Wallonia Belgium Mass sighting of large, silent, low-flying black triangles, which were tracked by multiple NATO radar and jet interceptors, and investigated by Belgium's military. Photographic evidence exists. 1 [86]
[87]

1990-11-07 1990 Montreal UFO Montreal, Quebec Canada More than 40 witnesses, including police, observed a UFO above Place Bonaventure for more than 3 hours. 1 [88]
1991-04-21 Achille Zaghetti London, England United Kingdom Alitalia pilot Achille Zaghetti reports a cigar-shaped UFO flying past his plane at high speed during his descent to Heathrow Airport on a flight from Milan to London. Immediately following the near-miss, Zaghetti contacted the radar control center, which confirmed an unidentified target was observed 10 nautical miles behind the plane. British defence officials ruled out a missile, but offered no explanation for the sighting. 1 [89][90]
1991 STS-48 incident Orbit, Space Discovery, STS-48 Video apparently taken during missionSTS-48, appears to show objects flying in an artificial fashion. NASA explained the objects as ice particles reacting to engine jets. Philip C. Plait discussed it in Bad Astronomy, agreeing with NASA. A Florida Today article in 2000 quoted Dr. Jack Kasher stating that he found the footage to actually depict independently operated spacecraft, see "Journal for UFO Studies". 1 [91]
1993 Kelly Cahill Victoria Australia East of Melbourne's Dandenong foothills Kelly Cahill and five others observed a flying saucer that appeared shortly after midnight. They were also confronted by tall, slim, black aliens with glowing red eyes. 5 [92]
1994-06 Meng Zhaoguo Incident Wuchang China Meng claimed to have been abducted and forced to have sexual intercourse with a 10 feet (3.0 m), six fingered, female alien with braided leg fur. 4 [93]
1996-01-20 Varginha UFO incident Varginha, Minas Gerais Brazil Multiple sightings and an allegedly captured alien by the Brazilian military. 3 [94]
1997-08-06 Mexico City skyline UFO Mexico City Mexico An amateur with a digital camera captured footage of a UFO passing behind and above several buildings. Air traffic was restricted that day except for two helicopters. 1 [95]
2000-01-05 Southern Illinois UFO St. Clair County, Illinois United States Between 4:00 and 7:00 am, six people, including police officers, observed a large, triangular object a few hundred feet over St. Clair County. The object glided silently and slowly to the southwest over several villages before vanishing near the town of Dupo. The object, studded with several bright lights, was as tall as a two-story house and as long as a football field. 1 [96]

[edit] After 2000
Date Name City, State Country Description Kind of Close Encounter Sources
2002-01-14 Paintsville UFO/Train Collision Paintsville, Kentucky United States A train struck a UFO that was hovering over the tracks. The train was heavily damaged, along with two other railroad cars. 1 [97]
2004-03-05 2004 Mexican UFO Incident Mexico A drug-smuggling air patrol recorded on infrared camera what some claimed to be UFOs. The footage was released by Jaime Maussan. Others suggest the objects are oil platform burn-off flares. 1 [98]
2004-10-31 The Tinley Park Lights Tinley Park, Illinois United States A sequence of five mass UFO sightings, first on August 21, 2004, two months later on October 31, 2004, again on October 1 of 2005, and once again on October 31, 2006, in Tinley Park and Oak Park, Chicago. 1 [99][100][101]
2005-04-27 Washington, D.C. United States The White House was evacuated when a UFO entered restricted air space, then disappeared. It was explained as: "probably a cloud or several birds". 1 [102]
2006-11-07 Chicago O'Hare UFO sighting 2006 Chicago, Illinois United States United Airlines employees and pilots claimed sightings of a saucer-shaped, unlit craft hovering over a Chicago O'Hare Airport terminal, before shooting up vertically. The FAA initially denied having received reports, but information gained by means of the Freedom of Information Act revealed otherwise. 1 [103]
2007-02-02 Islington, London, England United Kingdom Ten to fifteen UFOs are spotted. 1 [104]
2007-02-16 Kaliningrad Russian Federation A student records a UFO on his video camera. 1 [105]
2007-03-03 New Delhi India A green fireball was seen over Delhi by ten pilots. 1 [106]
2007-03-07 New Delhi India Two UFOs were detected near the prime minister's residence. 1 [107]
2007-03-10 Cleveland, Ohio United States UFO seen over a peace rally. 1 [108]
2007-04-23 Channel Islands Two airline pilots on separate flights spot UFOs off the coast of Alderney. 1 [109]
2007-05-02 Sutton, England United Kingdom John Gregory spotted a UFO after 10 pm. As he was observing the sky he noticed a very bright object, which at first he considered to be a star. Later he began to doubt this, and was very surprised by the very unusual and clear phenomenon, which was visible for miles around. The image, which seemed to be shaped like a face, nose and mouth, remained for about 20 minutes and then just vanished. 1 [110]
2007-05-11 Massillon, Ohio United States At 10:40 pm, Rosemary Lyons and a co-worker were taking a smoke break outside the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge, located at 2935 Lincoln Way West, when they witnessed a UFO. They estimated its size as 60 feet (18 m) in diameter. Lyons: "The first thing I said was 'Oh my gosh. Look at that,' We saw it for 20 to 25 seconds. It was round and luminous underneath. It wasn't a plane, it wasn't a helicopter, it wasn’t a blimp and it wasn't a balloon. It made absolutely no sound. It was flying over just carefree – like it was no one's business." 1 [111]
2007-05-12 Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland United Kingdom Orange colored UFOs were spotted during the evening. Clifford Rossbottom said, "There were three orange globes, nearly in a straight line, ... an absolutely fascinating sight. I watched them for five minutes, and then very slowly, they just disappeared. The only thing I thought it could have been was three high-flying aircraft. If that is not the case, then I have no idea, and the only other thing I can think of is in fact that they were UFOs." Belfast International Airport's air traffic control received calls from people (including the Coastguard) who spotted the objects, but the airport reported no aircraft in the area during the time of the sightings. A company called UFO Balloons later claimed their product was responsible for the events. One month later two similar aircraft were sighted over Buela, Colorado.[112] 1 [113]
2007-05-27 Chilliwack, British Columbia Canada Dave Francis and Kelly McDonald witnessed a UFO over UCFV campus. Francis said, "I really think it was a UFO. I don’t really care if anybody else believes me ... it was the craziest thing I ever saw. Whatever it was, they were moving from place to place as a unit [and then] just faded away." McDonald said, "I know that I saw something that wasn’t from here. I’ve never seen anything move that way. It wasn’t birds. [As the UFO approached] it broke apart into 20 or more of these little spheres ... birds don’t dive-bomb in at each other. " 1 [114]
2007-05-28 Bangalore India Afzal Khan told CNN IBN that he photographed a UFO, "Today (Monday) at around 9 pm (IST), I and my brothers saw a bright, slow-moving object which looked like a group of lights moving in a triangular formation in the sky towards west/north-west direction. This object was definitely not an aeroplane as it was moving very slowly. We observed the object from around 9 pm until 9.30 pm before it disappeared into the distance. During this time we managed to take some pictures with my camera. The astronomical/space/science departments of any activity in the sky during the above time can be confirmed. We live in Jayanagar area of Bangalore. Another thing that we noticed during this time was an aircraft that took-off from Bangalore Airport was flying very close to this object. It is possible that the pilot of that aircraft could have spotted this object as well." 1 [115]
2007-07-23 Warwickshire, England United Kingdom Crowd of 100 persons saw a formation of strange lights in the sky for 30 minutes. 1 [116]
2007-09-25 Kodiak Island UFO, 2007 Kodiak, Alaska United States On September 25, 2007, around 6:45am, a bright red light was flying fast over Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. Within seconds, it travelled to Kodiak Island air space, over 300 miles away. Many claimed to have seen it descend behind a mountain. Local troopers and Coast Guard personnel were unable to find traces. 1 [117]
2007-10-30 Kolkata India Many people claimed to see a UFO near Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, Calcutta. It was also recorded by an amateur videographer. It was like a ball of light which some time hovered, sometimes moved very fast and changed shape and size. The video was broadcasted on local news channels. 1 [118][119]
2007-11-08 Larnaca Cyprus UFO reported to have come from the coast inland near a village called Catalkoy in small and rapid zigzags, then stopped and hovered for approximately 30 seconds before making a smooth ascent at 45 degrees east. 1 [120]
2008-01-01 San Diego, California United States Nine separate lights were spotted moving in an arc formation across the sky at around half past midnight on New Years Day. Around the globe, many people are said to have reported the same exact lights in the sky. A later Fox News San Diego report by anchor Jim Patten showed these lights to be Chinese New Year floating Lanterns. On February 16, 2008, two individuals reported seeing a large, pulsing orb of light hovering in place above Miramar Air Base. 1 [121]
2008-01-08 to 2008-02-09 Stephenville, Texas UFO sightings Stephenville, Texas, Dublin, Texas, Crawford, Texas United States UFOs were, and still are, sometimes reported in this area. One was an object that was described as 1 mile (1.6 km) by 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in size, spotted over Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas. The Air Force has identified the objects as training fighter jets that went unreported due to a "communications problem". 1 [122]
May–Sept, 2008 2008 Turkey UFO Sightings Istanbul Turkey Over a four month span in 2008, a night guard at the Yeni Kent Compound videotaped one or more UFOs over Turkey at nighttime. Many witnesses confirmed the two and a half hours' worth of video, leading the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Center to dub it the "most important images of a UFO ever filmed". 1 [123]
2008-05-14 Needles, California United States A flaming object crashed near the Colorado river. Several witnesses claim to have seen five helicopters picking up the strange object after 17 minutes and heading into direction of Las Vegas. 1 [124]
2008-06-20 Wales UFO sightings Different cities, Wales United Kingdom After media reports of a police helicopter that was almost hit by a UFO, before it tried to pursue it, hundreds of people reported to have witnessed a UFO on the same or preceding days, from different areas of Wales. 1 [125]
2008-06-21 Moscow UFO sightings Moscow Russian Federation Different people and media (including state-owned) reported sightings of 11 orange UFOs. Further confirmation came from Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk. On June 25 a similar report, now with 13 objects, was claimed in the UK. 1 [126][127][128]
2008-06-29 Weston-super-Mare, Somerset United Kingdom Royal Navy aircraft engineer Michael Madden watched a UFO hover above the M5 motorway near Weston-super-Mare for around three minutes before it disappeared at high speed. Madden described the UFO as looking "like alien aircraft in the films". 1 [129][130]
2008-12-10 Zagreb Croatia Bright lights were seen over an insurance building in Zagreb. They were filmed and put on the news. The UFO was actually a misidentified media stunt. [131]
2009-01-05 Morristown UFO Morristown, New Jersey United States A confirmed hoax in Morristown, New Jersey, perpetrated by Chris Russo & Joe Rudy who sent up different sets of helium balloons with attached flares. [132][133][134]
2009-03-18 London, England United Kingdom A group of UFOs appear on a photo, even though they were invisible to the naked eye. 1 [135]
2009-05-31 Kolkata India UFOs detected by Kolkata ATC 1 [136]
June, 2009 Wisconsin, Texas, Nevada, Mexico City, Tijuana United States, Mexico Scattered reports of UFO sightings all over the United States from June 3 to 22, 2009. 1, 2 [137]
2009-08-05 Northern England United Kingdom UFO captured on BBC camera. 1 [138]
2009-08-16 Ural Russia Alleged disappearance of an 11 year old girl in a UFO sighting 1 [139]
2009-10-20 Florida United States Report of a nearly 200-foot-long triangle-shaped craft spotted flying at 100 feet altitude. 1 [140]
2010-06-05 New South Wales, Queensland Australia Scores of people across Australia's east coast say they saw bizarre yellow-green light zooming across the sky "like a lollipop swirl" between 5.45am and 6am. 1 [141]
2010-07-09 Zhejiang China According to the Xinhua news agency, after the unidentified flying object was spotted, airport authorities stopped passengers from boarding planes, and outgoing flights were grounded for an hour in Hangzhou, the capital city of China's Zhejiang province. When officials closed the airport, incoming flights were rerouted to other airports. So far, no explanation has been offered to explain the UFO. However, several hours before the airport incident, many Hangzhou residents described seeing a large, brightly lit, elongated object in the sky.