IT HAS BEGUN

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The World’s Richest People Lost Another $124 Billion on Monday

The global rout continues 

Tom Metcalf

August 25, 2015 — 6:10 AM MYT

Another $124 billion was wiped off the collective fortunes of the world’s 400 richest people today as the global selloff pushed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index into its first correction in nearly four years.

Twenty-four billionaires saw their wealth fall by more than ten figures on Monday, including Bill Gates who dropped $3.2 billion and Jeff Bezos, who fell $2.6 billion, according to data compiled by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mexico's Carlos Slim lost $1.6 billion as his fortune fell to its lowest level since the Index began in 2012.Sliding markets worldwide have resulted in Chinese shares sinking the most since 2007, Germany's DAX falling into a bear market, and commodities reaching a 16-year low, as Brent crude plunged below $45 a barrel.

Last week’s declines had already seen the world’s 400 richest people lose $182 billion. A decline of $76 billion on Friday had put their fortunes into the red for the year-to-date.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting. Each net-worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York and listed in U.S. dollars.

2.

The Independent - UK

News>Business>Business News>Frontpage

FTSE 100 loses £104 billion in value in one day as China stock slide prompts global selloff

HAZEL SHEFFIELD

Monday 24 August 2015

The FTSE 100 shed £104 billion at its lowest point on Monday, after severe losses in Chinese markets prompted a global sell-off.

Monday’s bloodbath marked the tenth day of consecutive losses on the FTSE 100, the longest straight period of decline since 2003. The index has lost around £218 billion in value in that time.

Many expected the Chinese government to take measures such as cutting interest rates or injecting liquidity to stop further losses after the Shanghai Composite Index fell nearly 12 per cent last week. No action prompted further losses of 9 per cent on Monday.

Since August 11, $5 trillion has been been wiped off global markets after China unexpectedly devalued the yuan.

The Dow Jones also plummeted more than 1000 points on opening Monday, before rebounding slightly. The S&P 500, another US stock market index, dropped 99 points, or 5 per cent.

While plunging stock indices were attributed to lack of action in Beijing, Monday’s selloff follows months of poor data. Last week, activity in Chinese factories was shown to have dropped sharply.

Declining commodity prices continue to weigh oil giants. Glencore, Shell and Rio Tinto, which are all listed on the FTSE 100, suffered the worst declines on Monday.

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$10 Trillion Gone UPDATE: Actually It Was More Like $3 Trillion

Matt Vespa | Aug 24, 2015

Editor's Note: It was originally reported that $10 trillion had been erased, but it's been revised to $3 trillion.  The post has been updated.

Monday got off to a disastrous start for the world economy.

The Dow Jones plunged 1000 points–or 6.5 percent–upon the opening bell thanks to the volatile economic situation in China.

As Cortney wrote earlier today, the market recovered roughly half of its losses by the time trading was suspended for the day.

The New York Times compiled the butcher’s bill–and it was quite steep. $3 trillion was erased from the global stock market since the June 3 peak, the Chinese Shanghai Index lost all of the gains it has made this year, European stocks dropped 5 percent or more, and the U.S. S&P 500 closed four percent down.

At the same time, many analysts knew a recalibration of our bull market bearings was due. Right now, all eyes are on government policy:

“Everything is going to be dictated by government policy,” said Kevin Kelly, the chief investment officer of Recon Capital Partners.

“Whatever noise is coming from policy makers is going to determine the next couple weeks."

”The conversation about government policy is playing into a broader debate about the global economy’s ability to continue growing without the sort of extraordinary stimulus that has become the norm in recent years."

Investors’ worries over China’s economic slowdown and a souring view of emerging economies have rattled financial markets around the world in recent days, and showed no signs of letting up. 

“There was a huge amount of negative sentiment built in this morning,” said Dan Greenhaus, the chief global strategist at BTIG.

Many analysts have said that a correction to stock market valuations was overdue after a long bull market. And it is too early to say how the financial market slump will affect the underlying global economy where goods and services are actually produced and consumed.

Many of the world’s central bankers will have a chance later this week to compare notes and discuss whether new policy steps are needed when they gather, along with finance ministers and academics, in Jackson Hole, Wyo., for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual conference.

The lack of coverage about China’s economic woes is due to the fact that Tom Brady’s deflated footballs were deemed much more newsworthy. After analyzing a month’s worth of broadcasts, the Media Research Center discovered that “deflategate” received five times more coverage on the Big Three–ABC, NBC, and CBS, than China’s struggling economy:

In a month of coverage, from July 18 to Aug. 18, China’s economic situation was discussed for just 3 minutes and 11 seconds on the network evening news programs.

That coverage was entirely on CBS and ABC and even included a political story about Donald Trump that made a passing mention of China’s currency devaluation.

In contrast, ABC, CBS and NBC spent 18 minutes and 21 seconds on Brady’s appeal and courtroom appearances: more than five times more.China devalued its currency, called the Yuan, in what ABC World News Tonight with David Muir referred to as “a surprise move” on Aug. 11.

That send the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 200 points that day. The entire story was a mere 11 seconds long.

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The Independent - UK

TUESDAY 25 AUGUST 2015

News>UK>UK Politics Frontpage

Stock up on canned food for stock market crash, warns former Gordon Brown adviser

JON STONE Monday 24 August 2015

A former adviser to Gordon Brown has urged people to stock up on canned goods and bottled water as stock markets around the world slide.

Damian McBride appeared to suggest that the stock market dip could lead to civil disorder or other situations where it would be unreasonable for someone to leave the house.

“Advice on the looming crash, No.1: get hard cash in a safe place now; don't assume banks  and cashpoints will be open, or bank cards will work,” he tweeted.

“Crash advice No.2: do you have enough bottled water, tinned goods & other essentials at home to live a month indoors? If not, get shopping.

“Crash advice No.3: agree a rally point with your loved ones in case transport and communication gets cut off; somewhere you can all head to.”

Mr McBride credited his former boss Gordon Brown with preventing a cataclysm by nationalising the banking system during the 2008 crash.

“We were close enough in 2008 (if the bank bailout hadn't worked),” he said. “and what's coming is on 20 times that scale”.

Financial markets are unstable and periodically suffer crises which can have devastating consequences for the wider economy.

China's "Black Monday" has plunged the global financial markets into chaos.

The Shanghai Composite Index, China’s most important stock market index, was down 8.45 per cent, erasing a year’s gains in a day’s trading.

The FTSE100 fell 4.5 per cent, hoping £60bn off the price of UK shares, and the Dow Jones in the US fell by over a thousand points in its first minute of trading.

Some analysts have suggested that the stock market slide could be the start of a new global financial crisis.Mr McBride’s suggestions about stocking up on canned goods, setting rally points and stocking up on bottled water were ridiculed by some users on Twitter as over the top, however.

Mr McBride was special adviser to Gordon Brown and head of communications at the Treasury for a period during the last Labour government. 

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A blog about business and economics.

Aug. 24 2015 9:59 AM

China’s Stock Market Is Melting Down—and It’s Taking Markets Everywhere With It

By Alison Griswold

Friday was a rout in the stock markets; Monday is already looking worse. The Shanghai Composite index tumbled 8.5 percent—erasing the last of its gains for the year in its biggest single-day loss since 2007. European stocks have plunged nearly 5 percent. U.S. stocks nosedived at the opening bell:

The S&P 500 fell 99.1 points or 5.03 percent, the Dow sank 991 points or 6.02 percent, and the Nasdaq pitched 335 points or 7.12 percent. There is only one word for all of this, and it is yikes. Brent crude, the benchmark for oil prices worldwide, is trading below $45 a barrel for the first time in six years. Even gold, so often a “safe haven” commodity that investors pour money into during periods of economic uncertainty, is being weighed down

Despite climbing all spring, the Shanghai Composite has now erased its gains for the year. (Yahoo Finance)

What’s behind the apparent panic in the global economy?

Mostly China.

Over the past two weeks, China’s currency fell in value more than it did in the previous two decades. On top of that, all the recent economic data coming out of China seems to fundamentally contradict official reports of the country being on track for 7 percent growth. Investors and analysts have long questioned the accuracy of economic statistics produced by the Chinese government, so seeing those figures can’t have been entirely surprising.

But it’s only recently become clear how big the gap between official reports and China’s economic reality might be. And the bigger that gap, the greater the ramifications could be worldwide. In recent years, China has accounted for up to half of global growth, though it makes up just 15 percent of global output.

Per the Wall Street Journal, China is looking into stimulus measures:

The expected move to free up more funds for lending—by reducing the deposits banks must hold in reserve—is directly aimed at countering the effects of a weaker currency, which could send more funds away from Beijing’s shores.

The moves reflect an economy increasingly failing to cooperate with Chinese leaders’ playbook to control the world’s No. 2 economy.The Journal says this could happen by the end of August or in early September, most likely via a half-percentage-point reduction in reserve-requirement ratios for banks.

Another possibility is to just loosen the reserve requirements for banks that lend primarily to small and private businesses. China’s entrepreneurs have been stifled by the risk-averse tactics of many banks, which prefer to lend to state-owned companies than private, potentially higher-growth enterprises.

Theoretically, stimulating that kind of private-sector growth would be better for China in the long run than falling back on exports, its traditional economic mainstay. (The leading theory for why China’s central bank devalued the yuan is that it was trying to prop up exports.)

At the same time, as the Journal notes, these new “would-be drivers of the economy—high technology and entrepreneurship—aren’t filling the gap quickly enough.” In the meantime, expect a lot of turbulence in the global markets.Alison Griswold is a Slate staff writer covering business and economics.

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AUGUST 22, 2015 9:00 PM  

ECONOMY GLOBAL INSECURITY (Bloomberg)

The world’s 400 richest people lost $182 billion this week from their collective fortunes as weak manufacturing data from China and a rout in commodities sent global markets plunging.

The weekly drop for the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a group that includes Warren Buffett and Glencore Plc’s Ivan Glasenberg, was the biggest since tracking of the expanded list began in September 2014. The combined net worth of the index members fell by $76 billion on Friday alone, when the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks ended its worst week since 2011.

“For them that’s a fractional percentage, even though $182 billion is a big number,” said John Collins, director of investment advisory at Aspiriant, which oversees more than $8 billion for high net worth clients. “A week like this feels really bad, but when you take a step back, in a big picture view it’s not a disaster by any means.”

Friday’s losses put the world’s richest 400 into the red for the year to date. They’re now down $74 billion in 2015, with a collective net worth of $3.98 trillion.

The week’s largest setback in dollar terms was experienced by Buffett, who saw his fortune drop by $3.6 billion as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slipped more than 5 percent. The investor is the world’s third-wealthiest person, with a fortune of $63.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The slump in oil, which had its longest weekly losing streak since 1986 amid signs of an extended supply glut, contributed to $15.2 billion in losses for the world’s wealthiest energy billionaires. Continental Resources Inc. Chairman Harold Hamm saw $895 million, or 9 percent of his net worth, vanish this week.

Glencore’s Glasenberg

Glasenberg, chief executive officer of mining company Glencore Plc, lost $237 million during the week as commodity prices slid to their lowest levels in 13 years. Glencore reached a record low in London on Friday, down more than 8 percent from a week earlier, after the trading house reported its profit sank 56 percent in the first half of the year. Glasenberg’s fortune has decreased more than 40 percent in 2015, to $3.1 billion.

China’s 26 wealthiest people, pummeled by Hong Kong’s bear market and a weaker yen, lost $18.8 billion during the week. Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co. was hit hardest, losing $3.5 billion.

Eleven billionaires added to their fortunes in spite of the market turmoil. The week’s biggest dollar gainer was Sun Pharmaceuticals’ Dilip Shanghvi. The world’s 39th-richest person became $467 million wealthier, elevating his net worth to $18.9 billion.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and Bloomberg News reporting. Each net-worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York and listed in U.S. dollars.

HAPPY MERDEKA

MY COMMENTS ON MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW - NIK ZAFRI

(Commenting on one of the research published in MIT Sloan - Designing Effective Knowledge Networks)

The article is a nice complement to modules of Hi-Impact Network that I’m currently conducting. I hope that everyone in the Artificial Intelligence industry should be reading this article. It a true representation of state of the art combination of ‘management and technical’.

But the part where :

“We found that good leaders were role models, inspiring members to act, and they did not delegate work such as being online and responding to discussions. They were routinely visible — as a cohesive team — to the community”

Sounds ‘a lil bit’ rethorical (and yes, good leaders do all that)

Unfortunately I still see leaders thinking like typical managers -yet ‘hijacking’ the word leader. More system than functional.

This conventional approach is now loosing its glory as it tends to create fear rather than respect. Even when this ‘leader’ is visible, it looks like ‘checking, inspecting and auditing’ when making rounds. The ‘visibility’ is too frequent which may be misinterpreted as a signal of mistrust.

Tabulation Source - projectmanagerpad.com 

Anyway this is a very scholarly yet practical article/research.

Congratulations.

Nik Zafri

--------------------------------------------

Source : thegipster.blogspot.com

Not many decades ago, Supply and demand is perhaps one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and it is the backbone of a market economy.

But when you really analyze it (I mean really…), you’ll find that there is never an accurate equilibrium in the curves of supply and demand.

This is because, the scenario depends mostly on what type of products and services that you’re selling. If you talk about controlled items, then you can easily relate to controlled raw materials.

Now, here you can’t use the conventional supply and demand as it won’t work!

What should be highlighted is about Knowledge-Based Economy and total reduction of Productivity-Based Economy.

Now, quoting Peter Drucker Chapter 12 in his book The Age of Discontinuity – (which he has said this quite some time ago – the idea of “scientific management” developed by Taylor/Mashlup.

There is; on the other hand; productivity but it is recommended not to be mixed up together as the sole indicator for supply and demand.

There is a lot of justifications needed (which require true factual knowledge and information) to be made even in the laymen term rather than depending merely on the curves.

Thus, the information age will be ready to go for the next wave, Rules, practices needed rewriting in an interconnected, globalized economy where knowledge resources such as trade secrets and expertise are as critical as other economic resources.

Nik Zafri Abdul Majid

PROPOSAL FOR A FLOOD RISK ACT FOR MALAYSIA - NIK ZAFRI

Click 3:18 of the following video

Excerpt 1: 

Published by Nik Zafri · 10 August at 15:25 ·

#Flood #RiskManagement #NikZafri

Malaysia have many acts but there is no specific Flood Risk Act - this may somehow lead to overlapping of duties between the stakeholders. Most important, it also makes it difficult to do a proper Risk Management Plan (Flood and Mitigation Design).

Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID/JPS), The National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM) and my fellow colleagues - professional engineers (geotechnical especially) including other professional associations such as Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM), Institutions of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and so many others have done very good jobs by preparing strong foundations for flood mitigation.

As a 'non-technical person', I am amazed on the design storm analysis by DID/JPS - calculation (which is totally customized) coupled with Mann-Kendall analysis, researches on interrelationship with climate change (sea tides, forest, water, biodiversity, riparian etc) by NAHRIM, proposed mitigation structures by so many professional associations are splendid!

I propose that these agencies should be in the lead. I have faith in these fine Malaysians and I think it's time to put together our heads to come out with perhaps a Malaysian Flood Risk Act 2016 (maybe) and pass the bill in the Parliament - so that there will be no longer issues of who to do what.... most important..this is a business of saving lives in the future.

So who wants to be the champion?

Flood in Kemaman, Terengganu, Malaysia

The proposed Act for Malaysia should be something like this :

 : Flood Risk and Water Management Act  2010 (UK/Wales)

Introductory Text

Part 1 Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management

1. Key concepts and definitions

1.“Flood” and “coastal erosion”

2.“Risk”

3.“Risk management”

4.“Flood risk management function”

5.“Coastal erosion risk management function”

6.Other definitions

2. Strategies, co-operation and funding

7.National flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy: (Malaysia)

8.National flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy:(States)

9.Local flood risk management strategies: East

10.Local flood risk management strategies: West

11.Effect of national and local strategies: North

12.Effect of national and local strategies: South

13.Co-operation and arrangements

14.Power to request information

15.Civil sanctions

16.Funding

17.Levies

3. Supplemental powers and duties

18.DOE: reports

19.Local authorities: investigations

20.Ministerial directions

21.Lead local authorities: duty to maintain a register

4. Regional Flood and Coastal Committees

22.Establishment

23.Consultation and consent

24.Membership

25.Money

26.“The Minister”

5. General

27.Sustainable development

28.Power to make further amendments

29.Restructuring

30.Designation of features

31.Amendment of other Acts

Part 2 Miscellaneous

32.Sustainable drainage

33.Reservoirs

34.Special administration

35.Provision of infrastructure

36.Water use: temporary bans

37.Civil sanctions

38.Incidental flooding or coastal erosion: DOE

39.Incidental flooding or coastal erosion: local authorities

40.Building regulations: flood resistance

41.Compulsory works orders

42.Agreements on new drainage systems

43.Drainage: concessionary charges for community groups

44.Social tariffs

45.Water and sewerage charges: non-owner occupiers

46.Abolition of Overlapping Committees

Part 3 General

47.Pre-consolidation amendments

48.Subordinate legislation

49.Technical provision

SCHEDULES

SCHEDULE 1 Risk Management: Designation of Features

SCHEDULE 2 Risk Management: Amendment of Other Acts

SCHEDULE 3 Sustainable Drainage

SCHEDULE 4 Reservoirs

SCHEDULE 5 Special Administration

Source : 

http://images2.alphacoders.com/

PENGUBAHAN WANG HARAM/MONEY LAUNDERING

Kajian : Nik Zafri (Januari, 2006)

Artikel berikut adalah kajian bebas pengarang dan bukanlah bertujuan untuk memberikan khidmat nasihat kepada pembaca. Pembaca digalakkan menghubungi pihak yang berwajib seperti institusi perbankan dan kewangan.

Mungkin ramai yang pernah mendengar frasa 'money laundering' atau 'pengubahan wang haram'. Aktiviti money laundering ini telah mengakibatkan kerugian jutaan ringgit kepada sesebuah negara. Setakat ini Malaysia mengamalkan dasar yang agak ketat bagi menangani masalah ini.

Money laundering dikatakan amat popular di peringkat antarabangsa terutamanya golongan pengedar-pengedar dadah, kongsi gelap, bookie, pemain judi dan kumpulan pengganas. Walaupun terdapat pelbagai undang-undang telah digubal di seluruh dunia, namun money laundering, amat sukar di kawal.

Dikatakan money laundering berasal daripada satu kumpulan kongsi gelap/penjenayah antarabangsa yang menggunakan duit hasil kegiatan jenayah untuk 'dilaburkan' atau 'dibersihkan' dengan menggunakan jalan-jalan yang berlandaskan undang-undang seperti menerusi aktiviti pembelian saham, stok, derivatif, futures, FOREX, insurans, pembiayaan industri/projek yang besar, terlibat dalam sektor hartanah dan sebagainya. 

Malah 'penjenayah' menggunakan wang berkenaan bagi 'membiayai' dan 'membeli' bank-bank tertentu (yang bermasalah) untuk diniagakan menerusi pelbagai skim pinjaman berfaedah termasuk segala potongan cukai bagi 'membersihkan' wang berkenaan dan mengikut 'lunas undang-undang' serta dianggap sebagai 'revenue'/hasil. - ('doing the wrong thing the right way' - pengarang)

Suatu laporan antarabangsa pernah dikeluarkan yang menyatakan bahawa kewujudan Money Laundering juga menandakan wujudnya operasi jenayah terancang (organised crime) dan transnasional. 

Money Laundering juga amat cepat evolusinya di mana penjenayah amat bijak menyesuaikan teknik 'pelaburan' agar sukar dikesan tambahan pula dengan adanya teknologi ICT yang mempermudah dan mempercepatkan lagi urusan 'perniagaan'. Apabila banyak keuntungan diperolehi dari 'pelaburan' money laundering, maka dengan sendirinya kekemungkinan 'keuntungan' ini digunakan pula untuk membiayai aktiviti jenayah adalah tinggi.

KENAPA GAGAL BERNIAGA - TONTONI VIDEO INI JIKA INGIN BERJAYA : NIK ZAFRI

I GOT YOU EXACTLY WHERE I WANTED YOU TO BE - Quick Note about Get Rich Quick Scheme - by Nik Zafri

I GOT YOU EXACTLY WHERE I WANTED YOU TO BE!

(PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF GET RICH QUICK SCHEMES - HOW THEY BRAINWASH VICTIMS ESPECIALLY WHEN A BIG CELEBRATION IS AROUND THE CORNER)

Everytime a big celebration is around the corner - Hari Raya (Eidulfitr especially), Deepavali, CNY and Christmas, suddenly the Get Rich Quick (GRQ) /Ponzi schemes (PS) will also make their appearances 'big time'. 

Those days - GRQ disguised as MLM, nowadays it's common to see the big words such as "FOREX", "Stock Market" etc. being used to entice potential victims.

The targets are the medium and low income groups who almost have similar thinking patterns.

"I've not enough money or I don't have much money or I don't have any money"

"I prayed or wish to become rich so that I can help others in need, buy new clothes for my family, return to my hometown in nice cars, have so much cash in my pocket, settle all outstanding debts (overheads, bills etc)"

These kind of thinking patterns are exactly what the GRQ/PS is looking for and many of these poor victims started thinking :

a) Wow, I think "my prayers have been answered"

b) Now I am going to be rich

c) Thank you so much Mr. GRQ/PS for helping me, bless you

d) Mr. GRQ/PS, you've made my life happy

Then, the poor victims started to invest money/savings into the GRQ/PS accounts. They get their 'minimal return' after a week or so (which is actually taken from their own money), and they start to invest more.

What surprises me most is that, people can be blinded easily - many purposely ignore to check the validity of such schemes even if they feel "something is not right", they purposely do not want to read other people's experience being swindled. (positive thinking in the wrong way)

All they say is "I want to be rich....I don't care how...I'm desperate...who are you to tell me?"

While you still have time....Sementara masa masih ada...

BINTANG DAN KUMAN

Dari cermin kapalterbang,
aku menjengah ke bawah dan
tidak seorang pun kelihatan
tiada orang besar, tiada orang hebat,
tiada ego, tiada diskriminasi, 
tiada orang marah...
LANGSUNG TAK NAMPAK!

Di angkasalepas,
apabila aku lihat dari bumi
jelas ribuan bintang berkilauan,
dapat dilihat walau jutaan batu jauhnya

Manusia sekarang memilih
untuk menjadi KUMAN 
yang tak dapat dilihat pun
dari cermin kapalterbang
walau banyak sekalipun  
tetap tidak nampak

Jadilah BINTANG, 
bertebaran di angkasa,
berkilauan indah
semakin banyak, semakin cantik.

Sombong, besar diri,
Rasa diri sudah cukup hebat
Sifat membeza sesama insan
semuanya itu hanyalah KUMAN semata-mata
malah MENYAKITKAN ORANG LAIN PULA
yang mendekatinya

Jaga Maruah, Merendah diri,
terus belajar,
tiada beza antara kita
semuanya itu sifat BINTANG
yang bersinar
yang boleh dilihat dari bumi
malah BOLEH MEMBERIKAN PANDUAN 
PADA ORANG LAIN PULA 
untuk mencari jalan pulang...

(Nik Zafri)

Enormous Tubes Of Plasma Floating Above The Earth

Source : http://www.iflscience.com

Student Confirms That There Are Enormous Tubes Of Plasma Floating Above The Earth
June 3, 2015 | by Stephen Luntz

This is an artist's impression of tubular plasma structures in the Earth's magnetosphere, 600 kilometres above the ground. Credit: CAASTRO/Mats Bjorkland

(photo credit source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/

A 60-year-old theory about the structure of the magnetic fields that surround Earth has been confirmed directly for the first time. The lead author of the paper is an undergraduate student who invented a way to view the Earth's magnetosphere in three dimensions.

The sun emits a constant stream of charged particles that's supplemented by cosmic rays from sources such as supernovae. As these particles approach Earth, their path is altered by the Earth's magnetic field, which deflects some and funnels others towards the poles, leading to displays such as aurora.

This region, known as the magnetosphere, includes the ionosphere and plasmasphere as its inner layers. These distinctions aside, we don't know all that much about the structure of these regions.

A better understanding would be useful because the ionosphere interferes with satellite navigation systems and the images received by radio telescopes. During her honors project at the University of Sydney, Cleo Loi realized she could use the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope to probe these regions in a way that had never been done before, leading to a paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. 

The MWA is a forerunner of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), soon to transform radio astronomy. It consists of 128 antennae spread over three kilometers (almost two miles). Loi suggested that by splitting the observations between those from the eastern and western ends of the array, she would achieve something equivalent to binocular vision, allowing us to see in three dimensions.

For the MWA's usual astronomical work, a three-kilometer baseline does not give the parallax required to see in-depth, but the situation is very different when we are looking close to the Earth.

Loi detected a series of high and low density plasma tubes connecting the ionosphere and plasmasphere running in parallel to the magnetic field. "We measured their position to be about 600 kilometres [373 miles] above the ground, in the upper ionosphere, and they appear to be continuing upwards into the plasmasphere. This is around where the neutral atmosphere ends, and we are transitioning to the plasma of outer space," Loi said. The tubes move slowly with time, so telescopes experience changing interference effects.

Loi told IFLScience that while some limited probing has been done on the ionosphere with other radio telescopes such as the Very Large Array, no one to her knowledge has applied parallax to the problem previously.

“People theorized something like this from observations of a type of very low frequency electromagnetic wave. We can detect lightning from another hemisphere and people concluded there must be plasma tubes guiding the signal,” says Loi. “It's a very indirect conclusion, and no one had much idea what these tubes were like.”

Loi says she was amazed at how many tubes the MWA's enormous 30° field revealed. “There are no plans to use the SKA for studying the ionosphere, but I am hoping with publicity about this work to change that,” she says.

----------------------------------------
Source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/

Seeing tubular plasma structures in inner layers of magnetosphere surrounding Earth
Date: June 1, 2015    Source:   University of Sydney

Summary:

Astronomers have creatively used a radio telescope to see in 3-D, allowing them to detect the existence of tubular plasma structures in the inner layers of the magnetosphere surrounding the Earth. By creatively using a radio telescope to see in 3D, astronomers have detected the existence of tubular plasma structures in the inner layers of the magnetosphere surrounding Earth.

"For over 60 years, scientists believed these structures existed but by imaging them for the first time, we've provided visual evidence that they are really there," said Cleo Loi of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) and School of Physics at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Ms Loi is the lead author on this research, undertaken as part of her award-winning undergraduate thesis and recently published in Geophysical Research Letters. In collaboration with international colleagues, she identified the structures.

"The discovery of the structures is important because they cause unwanted signal distortions that could, as one example, affect our civilian and military satellite-based navigation systems. So we need to understand them," Ms Loi said.

The region of space around Earth occupied by its magnetic field, called the magnetosphere, is filled with plasma that is created by the atmosphere being ionised by sunlight.

The innermost layer of the magnetosphere is the ionosphere, and above that is the plasmasphere. They are embedded with a variety of strangely shaped plasma structures including, as has now been revealed, the tubes.

"We measured their position to be about 600 kilometres above the ground, in the upper ionosphere, and they appear to be continuing upwards into the plasmasphere. This is around where the neutral atmosphere ends, and we are transitioning to the plasma of outer space," explained Ms Loi.

Using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a radio telescope located in the Western Australian desert, Ms Loi found that she could map large patches of the sky and even exploit the MWA's rapid snapshot capabilities to create a movie -- effectively capturing the real-time motions of the plasma.

"We saw a striking pattern in the sky where stripes of high-density plasma neatly alternated with stripes of low-density plasma. This pattern drifted slowly and aligned beautifully with the Earth's magnetic field lines, like aurorae," Ms Loi said.

"We realised we may be onto something big and things got even better when we invented a new way of using the MWA."

The MWA consists of 128 antenna 'tiles' spread over an area roughly three by three kilometres that work together as one instrument -- but by separating the signals from tiles in the east from the ones in the west, the astronomers gave the MWA the power to see in 3D.

"This is like turning the telescope into a pair of eyes, and by that we were able to probe the 3D nature of these structures and watch them move around," said Ms Loi.

"We were able to measure the spacing between them, their height above the ground and their steep inclination. This has never been possible before and is a very exciting new technique."

This ability adds yet another accolade to the MWA's name after it had already proven its worth as a powerful precursor instrument to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), and now the MWA's 3D vision has the potential to provide many more in-depth analyses of the formation of plasma structures.

"It is to Cleo's great credit that she not only discovered this but also convinced the rest of the scientific community. As an undergraduate student with no prior background in this, that is an impressive achievement," said Ms Loi's supervisor Dr Tara Murphy, also of CAASTRO and School of Physics at the University of Sydney.

"When they first saw the data, many of her senior collaborators thought the results were literally 'too good to be true' and that the observation process had somehow corrupted the findings, but over the next few months, Cleo managed to convince them that they were both real and scientifically interesting."

VENDOR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY) - BY NIK ZAFRI