The EUMETSAT Polar System - 13+ Successful Years of Global Observations for Operational Weather Prediction and Climate Monitoring

After successful launch in November 2018 and successful commissioning of Metop-C, all three satellites of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) are in orbit together and operational. EPS is part of the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) with the US (NOAA) and provides the service in the mid-morning orbit. The Metop satellites carry a mission payload of sounding and imaging instruments, which allow provision of support to operational meteorology and climate monitoring which are the main mission objectives for EPS. Applications include Numerical Weather Prediction, atmospheric composition monitoring, and marine meteorology. Climate monitoring is supported through the generation of long time series through the program duration of 20+ years. The payload was developed and contributed by partners, including NOAA, CNES, and ESA. EUMETSAT and ESA developed the space segment in cooperation. The system has proven its value since the first satellite Metop-A, with enhanced products at high reliability for atmospheric sounding, delivered a very strong positive impact on NWP and results beyond expectations for atmospheric composition and chemistry applications. Having multiple satellites in orbit - now three, has enabled enhanced and additional products with increased impact, like atmospheric motion vector products at latitudes not accessible to geostationary observations or increased probability of radio-occultations and hence atmospheric soundings with the GRAS instruments. The paper gives an overview on the system, the embarked payload and discusses the benefits of generated products for applications and services. The conclusions point to the follow-on system, currently under development and assuring continuity for another 20+ years.

Rationalist Explanations for Two-Front War

By extending the extant costly-lottery models of dyadic war to three-party bargaining scenarios, we offer rationalist explanations for two-front war, where a state at the center is fought by two enemies at opposing peripheries. We found that even though private information exists only in one front, war can break out in both fronts. Because the war outcome in one front can affect the outcome in the other through the shift of military balance, a peripheral state may preventively join the war ongoing in the other front to leverage its power (e.g. Napoleonic Wars), or the central state may preemptively initiate war in one front to establish its preponderance in the other (e.g. World War I). These findings echo Waltz’s neorealism concern that a multi-polar system may not be so stable as the bipolar system that bargaining models of dyadic war commonly presume.

The Sky Disk of Nebra Reveals Its Secrets

The paper presents the method and results of decoding the content on the Sky Disk of Nebra. It has been shown that the symbols found on it, suggesting the Sun, the Moon and the solar barge are only geometric figures facilitating the recording of astronomical knowledge. The paper first defines a polar system on the horizon plane. This system describes the range of the directions of sunrise and sunset in the annual period and the Moon in the 18.61-year cycle. It turned out that astronomical knowledge was recorded on the surface of the disk on two planes: horizontal and perpendicular one (the meridian plane). With the help of geometric constructions located on the meridian plane, it was possible to decode the range of changes in the altitude (zenith distance) of the Sun in the annual period, at the time of its upper culmination. Also, using two different geometric structures, the range of changes in altitude (zenith distance) of the Moon at the time of its upper culmination in the 18.61-year cycle was decoded

The Eurasian project in a multi-polar system of coordinates: Formulation of the problem

In this article the analysis of process, tendencies of change of unipolar model of a world order on multipolar is carried out. The most essential characteristics of liberalism as the most characteristic expression of the unipolar model of the world order are given. In the course of the study, special attention is paid to the analysis of the most significant events that mark the process of changing the model of the world order. The “Order of Large Spaces” as a supposed concept of legitimacy of the new world order is presented as a proposed structure of the world order. The author pays special attention to the potential of Russia to consolidate the Large Eurasian space and to the existential necessity of this process. The result of this study can be considered the justification of the Eurasian project as an expression of the essence of a Large space, the process of integration of the post-Soviet space, the key civilizational and foreign policy of Russia.