Global Warming Sensation(alism)

Google Earth published some startling time lapse images from 1984 – 2011 showing how a glacier in Alaska and a lake in Azerbaijan have shrunk dramatically (among others).

Here is the image showing the decimation of Columbia Lake, Alaska, presumable due to global warming:

Columbia Glacier, Alaska

Then I checked Google Earth myself and this is what it shows today (in May 2013):

Looks like the glacier is back with a bang!

Same story with Lake Urmia:

Lake Urmia, Azerbaijan

Here is what Google Earth shows today:

While the lake shoreline has certainly shrunk from the 1984 levels, it is now nowhere near as brown as the sensational time lapse image shows.

What exactly is Google Earth (and NASA and others) trying to do here?

 

 

Soak up the Sun!

Tomorrow (24th Apr) noon the Sun transits right over Bangalore on its march towards the tropic of Cancer.

The above screenshot from Stellarium shows the Sun crossing the meridian over Bangalore at 12:17 and RA/DE (of date) shows a declination of 12 Deg 56 Mins which places the Sun somewhere over South Bangalore.

The Sun crosses 13 Deg N sometime in the night and the next day – the 25th – will find it transiting North Bangalore.

So, listen to Sheryl Crow and go soak up the Sun

And stop complaining about global warming and how hot Bangalore has become. It is all local, buddy! Nothing global about it.

An Interesting Ratio

I just realized that the ratio of the orbital periods of the Moon, Earth and Jupiter approximates 1 : 12 : 12² (The exact ratio is 1 : 12.37 : 146.72)

• The Moon completes approximately 12 synodic orbits around the Earth wrt the Sun (12.368746 orbits to be precise) while the Earth completes one sidereal orbit around the Sun, thus resulting in 12 Chandramana Masas in one Souramana Varsha.
• The Earth completes approximately 12 sidereal orbits around the Sun while Jupiter completes one sidereal orbit around the Sun (since Jupiter’s orbital period is 11.87 years).

• QED

In simple terms, Moon completes 12 orbits around the Earth-Sun axis for every one orbit of Earth around the Sun. The Earth, in turn, completes 12 orbits for every one orbit of Jupiter; in other words, the Moon is 12 times faster than the Earth and the Earth is 12 times faster than Jupiter.

Ayana

Tags

astronomy, dakshinayana, hindu astronomy, uttarayana

Most of us know from our high school science that due to the inclination of the Earth’s axis, the Sun does not always stay on top of the Equator. Instead it drifts north and south of the equator over one year and comes right over the equator only twice a year (Vernal Equinox – March 20th and Autumnal Equinox – Sep 21st). Hindu astronomy refers to these movements as Uttarayana and Dakshinayana (there is also a lesser known classification Devayana / Pitrayana).

How many of us know what the observable effect of this is?

Consider the following video. It shows a series of snapshots of the setting Sun (by appropriately scripting Stellarium), at 4 PM, as seen from Bangalore. This way the diurnal motion of the Sun is ignored and its annular motion highlighted.

I have simulated four snapshots for every month (1st, 8th, 14th and 21st – the date is shown at the bottom of the screen). It is easy to see that the Sun drifts north and south of the celestial equator (which is a projection of the terrestrial equator equator on to the celestial sphere) in the course of a solar year, keeping within a band of 23.5 degrees North and South of the Equator.

In other words, if instead of using a compass you fix West by the setting Sun, you could be off by as much as 23.5 degrees! The Sun only approximately sets in the West. Only twice a year (on the equinox days) it actually sets due West.

Netaji – Circumnavigating Eurasia

I am presenting here the three maps from my three earlier posts, depicting the incredible scope of Netaji’s actions:

Click here to go to the interactive Google map.

Click here to go to the interactive Google map.

Click here to go to the interactive Google map.

Netaji circumnavigated Eurasia starting from Kolkata in Jan 12, 1941 and returned back as close as Mandaly in Burma. The final hop from Mandalay to Kolkata was stopped by the British at Imphal. A surrender at Singapore would have brought him back to Kolkata as a prisoner which is what he fled from in the first place (he was under house arrest in Kolkata). He chose to begin another innings but that was not to be.

Netaji – The Retreat from Burma

Tags

Indian independence, nataji, subash chandra bose

The last an final incredible journey is very different from the earlier two. Which the earlier two were point-to-point journeys, the series of moves shown below happened as part of a gradual military retreat:

Click here to go to the interactive Google map.

After the submarine journey to Asia in early 1943, Netaji allied himself with the nascent Japanese empire, based himself in Singapore and Rangoon (then under Japanese control like the rest of south east Asia) and raised the Indian National Army of over 30,000 troops (Indian PoWs as well as fresh civilian recruits). The INA fought alongside the Japanese in the failed offensive on Imphal and Kohima between Mar – Jun 1944. During this time, Netaji moved his base to Maymyo, a small hill town near Mandalay in Burma. This was as close as he would ever come to returning back to Kolkata. (I have not shown these moves in the map above).

By Feb 1945, the tables were turned with the British pushing into Burma and the INA defending the Irrawady river crossing south-west of Mandalay. This time Netaji went up to the front and was with his troops at Meiktila when the British broke through the INA defenses and crossed the Irrawady. Thus began Netaji’s final journey, this time one of retreat (see map above from here on).

Falling back to Pyinmina with the British just a few miles behind him, Netaji proceeded to Rangoon but Rangoon was no safe haven for too long. A further retreat from Rangoon ensued a month later with the Jhansi Rani Brigade of INA (the women’s brigade). Under fire from the British-American air force, Netaji retreated on foot most of the way to Moulmein where there was still a semblance of Japanese defense. A final hop brought him to Bangkok on May 15, 1945 thus effectively completing the retreat.

For the next two months Nethaji operated between Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and his original based in Singapore until the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug 6th and 9th 1945. The resulting Japanese surrender brought things to a head (“So, that is that”, Netaji is reported to have said, “What next?”). The only two options left now were to either surrender to the British (as the Japanese had done)  or find a new ally (most promising option being Russia). Bose chose the second option and thus began his last and final escape.

A series of flights on Japanese war planes took Netaji from Singapore back to Bangkok, to Saigon, Da Nong and finally Taipei where it all ended. The next flight to an unspecified destination crashed immediately after take off cutting off an incredible life.

Netaji – The Submarine Journey

Tags

Indian independence, netaji, subash chandra bose

Two years after making the incredible land journey from Kolkata to Berlin, the indomitable Netaji was on the move again in the reverse direction, this time by sea (under the sea to be precise):

After spending a frustrating two years in Germany (1941 – 1943, which was the period when the Nazis were implementing their infamous “Final Solution“) and being disappointed with the Fuhrer, Subash Chandra Bose convinced the Germans (and the Japanese) to transport him back to Asia to the nascent Japanese Empire:

Click here to go to the interactive Goole map.

Unlike  the Great Escape, which was a land journey, this one back to Asia was an underwater journey, the majority being on a German U boat, with a transfer to a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean. The duration once again was approximately three months.

The German U boat trawled through the hostile waters of  the North Sea, and the western seaboard of Europe before traversing Africa. Off the Southern African coast the U boat was involved in action and sank a British merchant vessel S. S. Corbis.

The U Boat rendezvoused with a Japanese submarine off the coast of Madagascar on Apr 26, 1943. After waiting two days for the sea to subside, Subash and his aide Abid Hasan were transferred in fairly rough seas from the German U boat to the Japanese submarine in a rubber dingy. A week later Subash disembarked at Sumatra and was flown to Japan on a Japanese war plane.

After practically circling the Eurasian land mass in a two year time frame, Netaji was not done yet. His final journey was to return back to the starting point – Kolkata –  at the head of an invading army (Indian National Army) which fought alongside the Japanese when the Japanese moved against India from Burma, but that was a Journey where Netaji faced defeat and ultimately death.

Netaji – The Great Escape

Tags

Indian independence, netaji, subash chandra bose

This must have been the most extraordinary journey ever made by an Indian:

Click here to go the the interactive Google map.

At the height of World War II (in 1941), Subash Chandra Bose decided to use  the clash between imperialist forces to India’s advantage. Since his enemy’s enemy was likely to be his friend, he decided to escape to Germany to seek the Fuhrer’s assistance for the cause of Indian independence (After being duly disappointed in that direction, he turned towards Japan, and that is another equally extraordinary tale).

The above map shows Netaji’s escape from house arrest in Kolkata to Berlin via arguable the most unsafe territories in the world even today, viz. Afghanistan and Russia. The text on the left indicates the various modes of transport, and the distances covered with dates of arrival at key transit points (it took around 3 months to reach Berlin). He had to adopt two disguises:

• From Kolkatta to Kabul: as Muhammad Ziauddin, involving a full change of attire. He had to act as a deaf-mute (since he could not speak a word of Pushtun) when crossing the border of British India to Afghanistan.
• From Kabul to Berlin: as Orlando Mazzotta, an Italian diplomatic courier, involving a new passport and another change of attire.

A Gregorian Lunar Calendar

Tags

astronomy, hindu astronomy

Elsewhere I have explained the Hindu lunar calendar where the lunar months extend from New Moon to New Moon, and the lunar fortnights (Pakshas) extend from New Moon to Full Moon and vice versa.

Here is a nice Gregorian calendar that shows the moon phases for Apr 2013 beautifully and prominently (click on the image to go to the moonconnection.com web site) and hence helps illustrate the Hindu lunar Masas:

It is easy to see that Apr 12th, 2013 must be the beginning of a new Masa and Apr 12th – 26th is Shukla Paksha with the 26th being Pournami. Krishna Paksha starts from the 27th and goes on until the next New Moon which is somewhere in May.

We know that Apr 14th is Mesha Sankranthi (Sourmana Yugadhi); hence, the month starting before that must be Chaitra. Hence Apr 12th starts Chaitra Masa and hence Apr 12th is Chandramana Yugadhi.

The Gregorian calendar of course does not care for the Moon and throws the New and Full moons all over the place. If you imaging the same calendar showing Hindu Masas instead of Gregorian months, it will always start with a waxing crescent and end with a New Moon, with the Full Moon falling right in the middle.

Hindu Festivals Calendar

Tags

hindu calendar

When following the Gregorian calendar, it seems that every year the various Hindu festivals occur on different dates. Sometimes, Deepavalli falls in Oct, sometimes in Nov. Similar case with Dussera and all others. Yet, if you switch over to a Hindu Lunar calendar it is easy to see that all Hindu festivals fall on the same dates, year after year:
I have covered most all festivals (i.e. they all have lunar definitions).

Only two that are Sun based (souramana) are Soura Yugadhi and  Makara Sankranthi, which need to be plotted on a Hindu Solar calendar in order to “fix” them. Since the Gregorian calendar is also Sun based, these two festivals are “fixed” on the Gregorian calendar too on Apr 14 and Jan 14th respectively.