Tag Archives: shelley littin

With ‘Google Earth’ for Mars, Explore the Red Planet from Home

A new software tool developed by the HiRISE team in the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Lab allows members of the public to download high-resolution images of the Martian landscape almost instantaneously and explore the surface of the Red Planet from their own desktops.

Imagine zooming in over the surface of Mars, sweeping over sand dunes and circling around the rims of craters – all from your home desktop.

With HiView, the image-viewing tool recently released by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, team at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab, you can do just that. (more…)

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UA Scientists Find Evidence of Roman Period Megadrought

*A new study at the UA’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research has revealed a previously unknown multi-decade drought period in the second century A.D. The findings give evidence that extended periods of aridity have occurred at intervals throughout our past.*

Almost nine hundred years ago, in the mid-12th century, the southwestern U.S. was in the middle of a multi-decade megadrought. It was the most recent extended period of severe drought known for this region. But it was not the first.

The second century A.D. saw an extended dry period of more than 100 years characterized by a multi-decade drought lasting nearly 50 years, says a new study from scientists at the University of Arizona. (more…)

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Coming Soon to a Server Near You: Fewer Internet Delays

Researchers at the UA-led Center for Integrated Access Networks, the largest optical research center in the U.S., are developing methods to improve transmission speed, efficiency and reliability of Internet content, including everything from cell phone calls or texts to emails and television.

If you’ve ever received an email or text hours after it was sent and privately raged at having missed a deadline, or twiddled your thumbs while waiting for a webpage to load, then you’ve been a victim of Internet latency.

Latency can occur for a number of reasons associated with disruption of an information lane such as an electronic wire or fiber optic cable, or from an overload of Internet-based messaging that can occur with increased network traffic. (more…)

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