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- According to a recent report from the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), efforts to mitigate road dust as part of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) are consuming a significant chunk — 64% — of the program's funding allocation.
- The NCAP was launched in January 2019 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change as a comprehensive, time-bound national strategy to combat air pollution across India. It aims to rigorously implement measures to prevent, control, and reduce air pollution, enhance the air quality monitoring network nationwide, and promote public awareness and capacity-building initiatives.
- Key Objectives of NCAP include:
- Strict implementation of pollution mitigation measures.
- Strengthening the national air quality monitoring network.
- Increasing public awareness and capacity-building efforts.
- The program targets a substantial reduction of 20-30% in PM10 concentration from 2017 levels by 2024. Recently revised, the new objective is to achieve up to a 40% reduction in PM10 levels or attainment of national standards (60 µg/m3) by 2025-26.
- Recently, Russia's Defence Ministry reported that Russian warplanes intercepted two U.S. strategic bombers to prevent them from crossing the state border over the Barents Sea.
- Key Information about the Barents Sea:
- The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, covering an expansive area of 1.4 million square kilometers.
- Located along the northern coasts of Norway and Russia, it is named after Willem Barents, a renowned Dutch explorer.
- Historically known as the Murmean Sea to Vikings and medieval Russians.
- Boundaries: It is bordered by the Svalbard archipelago to the northwest, Franz Josef Land to the northeast, Novaya Zemlya to the east, the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea to the west, and the Kola Peninsula to the south.
- It is separated from the Kara Sea by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya.
- The Barents Sea includes the White Sea as its southern arm, separating the Kola Peninsula from mainland Russia, and the Pechora Sea in its southeastern part.
- Features: The sea reaches a maximum width of 1,050 kilometers and spans approximately 1,300 kilometers in length.
- It is relatively shallow with an average depth of around 230 meters.
- The Barents Sea experiences a subarctic climate and has a high salinity of 34 parts per thousand.
- Ocean currents flow northward, bringing warm Atlantic waters into the Arctic Ocean through the Barents Sea.
- The sea supports a rich seafloor biodiversity, including some of the world’s largest deep-water coral reefs and coastal kelp forests.
- The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) is currently engaged in constructing a new ocean research vessel to undertake exploration in the deep Indian Ocean, focusing on rare minerals and metals as part of India's Deep Ocean Mission.
- Key Details about the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR):
- Established in 1998, NCPOR is an autonomous research institute renowned for its research and development activities in India's Polar and Southern Ocean domains.
- It serves as India’s primary institution for planning and executing polar expeditions, scientific research in Antarctica, the Arctic, the Himalayas, and the Southern Ocean.
- NCPOR operates under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), playing a pivotal role in coordinating and conducting polar and southern ocean scientific research, including vital projects like mapping of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) and continental shelf margins.
- The center, located in Vasco da Gama, Goa, was formerly known as the National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR).
- NCPOR maintains a Research Advisory Committee (RAC) to guide its research endeavors and strategic initiatives.
- Researchers have unveiled a new tool designed to forecast the occurrence of rogue waves, also known as freak waves—rare, large, and unpredictably spontaneous ocean surface phenomena.
- Key Characteristics of Rogue Waves:
- Rogue waves exceed the maximum anticipated wave height for a given sea state, often towering more than twice the size of neighboring waves.
- They typically result from the coincidental convergence of multiple wind-driven wave crests or the interaction of different wave systems.
- These waves can emerge suddenly and move independently of prevailing wind and wave directions, occurring worldwide in oceans such as the Mediterranean, Pacific, Atlantic, and parts of the Indian Ocean.
- Their steep sides and deep troughs give them a distinctive "wall of water" appearance, making them particularly hazardous.
- Researchers have utilized observations from the James Webb Space Telescope to conduct detailed analyses of the atmospheric conditions on a pair of brown dwarfs.
- Characteristics of Brown Dwarfs:
- Brown dwarfs are celestial bodies larger than planets yet smaller than stars, with sizes ranging between those of giant planets like Jupiter and small stars.
- Unlike planets, brown dwarfs accumulate material like stars and can host unique atmospheric phenomena such as hot silicate particle clouds, contrasting with cooler water clouds found on Earth.
- These objects retain hydrogen and helium more effectively than planets and typically exhibit lower metal content.
- Due to insufficient mass for sustained nuclear fusion in their cores, brown dwarfs are often termed "failed stars."