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- Written by: Dr. Tony Phillips
Since the dawn of the Space Age, mission planners have tried to follow one simple but important rule: Stay out of the van Allen Belts.
The two doughnut-shaped regions around Earth are filled with “killer electrons,” plasma waves, and electrical currents dangerous to human space travelers and their spacecraft. Lingering is not a good idea.
So much for the old rules. NASA has launched two spacecraft directly into the radiation belts--and this time they plan to stay a while.
NASA’s Radiation Belt Storm Probes blasted off from Cape Canaveral on August 30th, 2012. Bristling with sensors, the heavily-shielded spacecraft are on a 2-year mission to discover what makes the radiation belts so dangerous and so devilishly unpredictable.
“We’ve known about the Van Allen Belts for decades yet they continue to surprise us with unexpected storms of ‘killer electrons’ and other phenomena,” said mission scientist David Sibeck, “The Storm Probes will help us understand what’s going on out there.”
When the radiation belts were discovered in 1958, they upended orthodox ideas.
Most people assumed the space around Earth was empty. America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, proved otherwise.
The tiny spacecraft was equipped with a Geiger tube for counting energetic protons and electrons. Circling Earth, Explorer 1 found so many charged particles that the counter registered off-scale most of the time.
Back in the 1950s the radiation belts had little effect on ordinary people. Today they are crucial to our high-tech society.
Hundreds of satellites used for everything from weather prediction to GPS to television routinely skim the belts, subjecting themselves to energetic particles that can damage solar panels and short-circuit sensitive electronics.
During geomagnetic storms when the belts are swollen by solar activity, whole fleets of satellites can be engulfed, imperiling the technological underpinnings of daily life on the planet below.
“The Radiation Belt Storm Probes directly address these down-to-Earth problems,” said Lika Guhathakurta, the lead program scientist of NASA’s Living with a Star Program, which manages the mission. “RBSP is a unique mix of pure science and practical application.”
One of the biggest mysteries of the radiation belts is the crazy way they react to solar storms. “Almost anything can happen,” said Sibeck.
When a storm cloud from the sun hits the radiation belts, they often respond in counterintuitive ways.
One possible outcome is that the radiation belts fill with energetic particles such as the potent “killer electrons” that worry mission planners.
However, just as often the opposite happens. A solar storm can cause the belts to lose their killer particles, temporarily making them a safer place. And sometimes nothing happens! The belts remain completely unchanged.
“The problem is, there is no unified idea of what phenomena are most important inside the belts,” said Sibeck.
He describes attending scientific conferences on the subject: “If there are 100 people at a meeting, there will be 100 different answers for every question. How are killer electrons energized? Some say plasma waves do it; others point to solar wind shocks; others favor diffusion. The list goes on and on.”
Researchers hope RBSP will narrow the possibilities. During storms, the probes can sample electric and magnetic fields, count the number of energetic particles, and detect plasma waves of many frequencies.
The inner workings of the Van Allen Belts will be an open book to the two spacecraft, providing data for predictive models that tell forecasters when it’s safe to enter the belts, perform spacewalks, and operate sensitive electronics.
“The Van Allen Belts are part of our home in space,” added Guhathakurta. “RBSP will help us learn how to live there.”
So much for the old rules, indeed.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A video of the funeral service for a fallen Kelseyville soldier is available for viewing online.
The service for Sgt. Richard Essex, 23, was held Saturday morning at the Kelseyville High School football field.
An estimated 1,500 people attended the service to pay their respects to the young man.
Essex, who graduated from Kelseyville High School in 2008, was serving as a Black Hawk helicopter door gunner when his helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on Thursday, Aug. 16. Ten others also died in the crash.
The video was produced by McKenzie Paine of Velocity Video, with contributions from John Jensen of Lake County News.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A wildland fire complex burned nearly 500 more acres in northern Mendocino County on Sunday, with officials reporting that a helicopter was damaged during operations the previous day.
The North Pass Fires had burned a total of 41,340 acres by Sunday, with containment remaining at 58 percent, according to a report from the unified command of Cal Fire and the US Forest Service.
The two fires, caused by lightning and burning since early on Saturday, Aug. 18, are located in the Williams Valley 10 miles northeast of Covelo.
Containment is expected on Monday, Sept. 10, the US Forest Service reported.
A Sunday night US Forest Service report said a helicopter was damaged during a routine water drop on Saturday afternoon.
Due to smoky conditions, the helicopter hit a dead tree, damaging its rotor blades. The report said the helicopter remained operational and landed safely near Howard Lake. No one was hurt and the crew was flown out in another helicopter. The Forest Service said new helicopter blades will be flown in to repair the damaged aircraft.
The number of personnel assigned to the incident was rolled back by more than 400 to 1,275 on Sunday. Nearly two-thirds of the engines assigned were reduced, with 63 engines remaining on scene, along with 10 fire crews, two airtankers, 17 helicopters, 12 bulldozers and 29 water tenders, unified command reported.
Officials said the fire is backing down to the Middle Fork of the Eel River on the northeast side and slowly advancing downslope to the north in the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness.
Damage assessment of private property is ongoing; so far 16 structures have been destroyed, according to the report.
Fire lines continue are continuing to hold on the south end of the fire and crews were conducting burnouts to improve fire lines. The Forest Service report said there was one small spot on the southeastern perimeter but firefighters were able to put it out with help from water-dropping helicopters.
Officials said evacuations remained in effect for all areas north of the Forest Service gate at Boardman Ridge Campground on Indian Dick Road (Forest Road M-1), and all areas east of Benchmark 2444 to Forest Road M-4 on Mendocino Pass Road (Forest Highway 7).
A closure order continues to cover all areas of the Covelo Ranger District north of Mendocino Pass Road to the Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity National Forest boundaries.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The deep-throated rumble of a Black Hawk helicopter was a sound Richard Essex knew well.
The 23-year-old, who entered the Army not long after graduating from Kelseyville High School in 2008, had volunteered to be a Black Hawk door gunner, a job that his sister, Jennifer Williamson, said he loved, which fit with his “adrenaline junkie” personality.
He likely would have marveled at seeing the two Black Hawk helicopters circle over his hometown – where he had last visited 11 month ago – on Saturday, the pulse of their rotors filling the air over the estimated 1,500 people who attended his funeral.
Essex was killed in action near Shah Wali Kot, Afghanistan, on Thursday, Aug. 16, roughly five months before he was set to return home to his family.
He was traveling on a Black Hawk along with 10 others – including six members of the U.S. military – when the helicopter crashed, killing all aboard.
The Department of Defense has not stated why the Black Hawk fell from the sky that day – if it was in fact taken down by gunfire or for another reason.
Essex’s Saturday funeral brought to a close several days of solemnities across Lake County, beginning with the arrival of his body on Tuesday, with a procession carrying him past his high school – a request he had made – and through Lakeport.
In addition to people of all walks of life, veterans from all eras – back to World War II and its first blow to the United States, Pearl Harbor – have paid tribute to the young soldier.
Brig. Gen. Duane A. Gamble, who spoke at the service, told Lake County News that the community had shown a “palpable” dedication to the young man and his family.
Earlier in the day firefighters from Lakeport, Kelseyville, Northshore, South Lake County Fire, Cal Fire, and Lake County Fire gathered to take part in the funeral service. An American flag was hung from ladder trucks from Lakeport Fire and Lake County Fire.
Attired in their formal dress, firefighters, Lake County Sheriff’s deputies, Clearlake Police officers, California Highway Patrol officers, wardens with the California Department of Fish and Game and Lakeport Police officers lined the far end of the field, standing before the fire trucks and keeping watch throughout the service.
Lakeport Police Det. Lou Riccardi and his patrol car led Essex’s hearse into the stadium, where it was met by an honor guard of young military men who carried it to the catafalque near where his family sat.
County Supervisor Rob Brown, a family friend, led the welcomes and introductions at the service, telling those who came to honor Essex, “It is my hope that you go away with one understanding – what it is that makes an ordinary boy into an extraordinary man.”
Helping create that understanding were the members of Essex’s family and his friends who spoke during the hour-and-a-half-long service.
They remembered him not as a faraway figure, wrapped now in the painful distance of loss, but as boisterous, fun loving, thoughtful, occasionally misbehaving, filled both with passion and compassion.
Essex had struggled with language and speech, yet went on to prove wrong a high school English teacher who had told him that English “wouldn’t be his thing.” He had two books of poetry published, “Whispers” and “Shade Tree Memories.”
In a poem titled “Place of Death We Call Sand,” included in the “Shade Tree Memories” collection, Essex had written – in words that suggest an eerie foreboding – “I ride a pale horse / To place of sun and sand / Where life is lost.”
He was a raucous boy, a warrior poet, whose entry into manhood led him far from home, but not far from the hearts of those who knew him.
And, ultimately, the life of intense promise for which he was remembered – friend David Cimina remembered Essex “radiating greatness” – was cut short.
Brown credited Essex’s mother, Marion Hopkins, with guiding him to be the man he became. He said Hopkins was an extraordinary mother, committed to her children and always present at their events and games.
While being dealt a blow that no parent should have to face, a clearly moved Brown, whose voice faltered at times during the memorial, told her, “It is you who have inspired us,” and those who knew her son were better for it.
Joey Luiz, Clearlake’s mayor and a longtime friend of Essex – he had known him since he was a toddler – began by remembering his young friend nearly getting caught while partying as a teenager.
Luiz, also at times overcome with emotion, said on Aug. 16 he received a text message saying that Essex’s debt had been paid. He said the community and country owed the young soldier a debt.
Luiz recognized Essex’s family, who he thanked for sharing Essex. He also offered a challenge: “Where Richie’s service ended, our service must begin.”
Essex’s family had earlier received a flag from Congressman Mike Thompson that had been flown over the US Capitol in the young soldier’s honor.
At the service, California Highway Patrol Northern Division Assistant Chief Ruben Leal, on behalf of Gov. Jerry Brown and law enforcement, presented Essex’s family with a flag that had been flown over the State Capitol building.
Essex’s siblings and friends who spoke recalled how he inspired them to do what they loved.
Sister Jennifer Essex Williamson said they were not there to mourn but to remember a hero. She thanked law enforcement, firefighters and the soldiers who remain on the front lines.
She told her brother, “I hope you can hear me, because I love you so much.”
His friend Rocky Cimina briefly spoke before a song he wrote for Essex was played.
Brown told those assembled that Essex’s final gift to the community was the ability to set aside differences and come together “to pay tribute to this good man.”
Brig. Gen. Gamble said he offered the gratitude of the military and a grateful nation for Essex’s service. “We will never leave a fallen comrade behind.”
Essex had gone to both Iraq and Afghanistan “without fear or hesitation,” and volunteered to be a door gunner, Gamble said.
“We’ve lost one of our best,” who had more to give, Gamble said.
He quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote,
“Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.
Brave men who work while others sleep
Who dare while others fly ...
They build a nation’s pillars deep,
And lift them to the sky.”
Essex was posthumously promoted to sergeant, and received the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service and the Purple Heart. The awards were presented on Saturday to his family, who after the rifle volley and playing of “Taps” also received the flag that had draped his casket.
Then the Black Hawks came. They passed the field, circled, passed again and on the third and final pass one veered off in the “missing man” formation to salute the young soldier. Then both flew back toward the west.
People were invited to write messages on the balloons tied to the 350 chairs set up in front of the bleachers. Those balloons, with their prayers and farewells, then were released, rising into the sky.
As it came time to leave the field for the final time, Essex’s pallbearers – brothers Michael Essex and Michael Williamson, and friends Tim Stites, Rocky Cimina, David Cimina, Tommy Mingory, Billy Peacock, Zac Moe, Patrick Haley, Dylan Grier and Dalton Moore – carried his casket to the hearse, with Corey Heart’s “Sunglasses at Night,” playing in the background.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Place of Death We Call Sand
I’ve seen faces on the wall
Seen people break down
Friends carried away cases
A friend who I won’t finish my promise
Family that loves me
Shadows that induce me
Teachers who gave all their knowledge to kids
New friends who showed me a new way of life
Old friends who taught me life was fun
Riv riders who showed me the meaning of life
Now it’s dog soldiers
Who fight for freedom and for each other.
I ride a pale horse
To place of sun and sand
Where life is lost
– Richard Essex, from the book, “Shade Tree Memories,” published February 2010
For the Love of Things
Little bee on the rosebush
May you smell the sweet scent of the flower.
Never forget this flower in which it will come back
When you leave the field in which you fly around
You go around trying to find that one you found that day
But all you see is gray
It's never coming back to you
It lost its scent at summer's end
Now its winter and you try to stay alive
That rosebud is all you think about
Just hope for the sun
And maybe you will smell that scent once again
Not in a dream or a fairy tale
Just for the scent you would die a thousand times over
You wait in the cold where you found it
But the sun never comes
Summer's dew runs through the field of dreams
The winter's cold is gone
Flowers bloom
And those roses come back to life
But the bee has died waiting for the flower
The poor being lies beside the rosebush, its dying wish
For that sweet scent
Now rose-red buds lie on its grave
That is love for beauty
And not for entertainment of others.
– Richard Essex, from the book, “Whispers”
