Shaper Jabneel's Blog

Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22

2009-07-08T10:20:00.016+08:00

On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan's Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean where the maximum duration of totality reaches 6 min 39 s. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes most of eastern Asia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Ocean.

This web site has been established for the purpose of providing detailed predictions, maps, figures and information about this important event. The material here is adapted from the NASA Technical Publication "Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22" (NASA/TP-2008-214169). The document will be published in 2008 March. It is part of NASA's official eclipse bulletin publication series. Instructions and a form for ordering a hard copy of this publication can be found at: Order Form for NASA Eclipse Bulletins.

Preliminary Look at the Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 Jul 22

This data was presented at: IAU Symposium 233 - Solar Activity and Its Magnetic Origin
See also: Eclipse Weather and Maps (Jay Anderson)

Interactive Map of the Path of Totality

An implementation of Google Map has been created which includes the central path of the 2009 total solar eclipse. This allows the user to select any portion of the path and to zoom in using either map data or Earth satellite data.

Interactive Map of 2009 Total Solar Eclipse

General Maps of the Eclipse Path

The following maps show the overall regions of visibility of the partial eclipse as well as the path of the total eclipse through Asia and the Pacific Ocean. They use high resolution coastline data from the World Data Base II (WDB). Each map was chosen to isolate a specific region along the land portion of the eclipse path. Curves of maximum eclipse are included as well as the outline of the umbral shadow. The maps are available as high resolution (300 dpi) PDF files.

Figure Number	Title/Description	Map File
Figure 1	Orthographic (Global) Map of 2009 Total Solar Eclipse	PDF
Figure 2	Map of 2009 Eclipse Path Through Asia	PDF
Figure 3	Map of 2009 Eclipse Path Through India and Bhutan	PDF
Figure 4	Map of 2009 Eclipse Path Through China	PDF
Figure 5	Map of 2009 Eclipse Path South of Japan	PDF

From NASA Tech. Pub. "Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22" (NASA/TP-2008-214169).

Detailed Maps of the Path of Totality

The following maps show path of the 2009 total eclipse in greater detail. They use high resolution coastline, city and highway data from the Digital Chart of the World (DCW). Each map was chosen to isolate a specific region along the land portion of the eclipse path. Curves of maximum eclipse are included as well as the outline of the umbral shadow. Within the umbral path, curves of constant duration have been plotted for totality. The maps are available as high resolution (300 dpi) PDF files.

Figure Number	Title/Description	Map File
Figure 6	India- Mumbai	PDF
Figure 7	India - Bhopal	PDF
Figure 8	India (Patna) - Nepal	PDF
Figure 9	India - Bhutan	PDF
Figure 10	India - Burma - China	PDF
Figure 11	China - Chengdu	PDF
Figure 12	China - Chongquig	PDF
Figure 13	China - Wuhan	PDF
Figure 14	China - Shanghai	PDF
Figure 15	Japan - Ryukyu Islands	PDF
Figure 16	Japan - Iwo Jima	PDF
Figure 17	Marshall Islands	PDF
Figure 18	Kiribati	PDF
Figure 19	Phoenix Islands	PDF

From NASA Tech. Pub. "Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22" (NASA/TP-2008-214169).

Additional Figures

The following figures also appear in the NASA/TP-2008-214169, "Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22".

Figure Number	Title/Description	Figure File
Figure 20	Lunar Limb Profile for July 22 at 01:30 UT	PDF
Figure 21	Average July Cloud Amount Along the Central Line	PDF
Figure 22	Number of Typhoons from 1955 to 2007	PDF
Figure 23	Spectral Response of Common Solar Filters	PDF
Figure 24	Focal Length Vs. Image Size for Eclipse Photography	PDF
Figure 25	Sky During Totality from Central Line at 01:30 UT	PDF

From NASA Tech. Pub. "Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22" (NASA/TP-2008-214169).

Supplementary Figures

The following figures do not appear in the NASA 2009 Eclipse Bulletin due to page constraints. They are presented here as supplementary material for the bulletin.

Figure Number	Title/Description	Figure File
Figure 20b	Lunar Limb Profile for July 22 at 00:55 UT	PDF
Figure 20c	Lunar Limb Profile for July 22 at 02:00 UT	PDF
Figure 20d	Lunar Limb Profile for July 22 at 03:45 UT	PDF
Figure 20e	Lunar Limb Profile for July 22 at 04:15 UT	PDF
Figure 25b	Sky During Totality from Central India at 00:55 UT	PDF
Figure 25c	Sky During Totality from South of Japan at 02:00 UT	PDF
Figure 25d	Sky During Totality from Marshall Islands at 03:45 UT	PDF
Figure 25e	Sky During Totality from Phoenix Islands at 04:15 UT	PDF

Eclipse Elements, Shadow Contacts and Path of Totality

The following tables give detailed predictions including the Besselian Elements, shadow contacts with Earth, path of the umbral shadow and topocentric data (with path corrections) along the path. Also included are special extended version tables of path coordinates and graze zones in formats convenient for plotting on maps.

From NASA Tech. Pub. "Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22" (NASA/TP-2008-214169).

Local Circumstances

The following tables give the local circumstances of the eclipse from various cities throughout Asia and the Pacific Ocean. All contact times are given in the tables are in Universal Time.

From NASA Tech. Pub. "Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22" (NASA/TP-2008-214169).

Additional Tables

The following tables also appear in the NASA/TP-2008-214169, "Total Solar Eclipse of 2009 July 22".

Explanation of Eclipse Maps and Tables

The following links give detailed descriptions and explanations of the eclipse maps and tables.

"Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC"

Antarctic Ozone Hole

2009-06-26T16:56:00.011+08:00

Antarctic Ozone Hole: 1979 to 2008

download large 1979 image (335 KB, PNG) acquired September 17, 1979
download large 2008 image (373 KB, PNG) acquired October 4, 2008

The stratospheric ozone layer protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet light, which damages DNA in plants and animals (including humans) and leads to skin cancer. Prior to 1979, scientists had not observed concentrations below 220 Dobson Units. But in the early 1980s, through a combination of ground-based and satellite measurements, scientists began to realize that Earth’s natural sunscreen was thinning dramatically over the South Pole each spring. This large, thin spot in the ozone layer caused by chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) came to be known as the ozone hole.

This pair of images show the beginning and end of a nearly 30-year series of images that are part of our new World of Change: Antarctic Ozone Hole feature. The 1979 image was captured by NASA’s Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard Nimbus-7, and the 2008 image is from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) that flies on NASA’s Aura satellite. Purple and dark blue areas are part of the ozone hole.

As the images show, the word hole isn’t literal; no place is empty of ozone. Scientists use the word hole as a metaphor for the area in which ozone concentrations drop below the historical threshold of 220 Dobson Units. Using this metaphor, they can describe the hole’s size and depth. These maps show the state of the ozone hole each year on the day of maximum depth—the day the lowest ozone concentrations were measured.

In 1979, the ozone hole reached its maximum depth on September 30. At 194 Dobson Units (DU), it was not far below the historical low. The hole was confined to a relatively small area centered on the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea to its east. Almost three decades later, the ozone concentration during the 2008 Southern Hemisphere spring bottomed out on October 4, 2008, at just 100 DU. The ozone hole encompassed virtually all of Antarctica and reached across the Southern Ocean toward the tip of South America.

The global recognition of CFCs’ destructive potential led to the 1989 Montreal Protocol banning the production of ozone-depleting chemicals. Scientists estimate that about 80 percent of the chlorine (and bromine, which has a similar ozone-depleting effect) in the stratosphere over Antarctica today is from human, not natural, sources. Models suggest that the concentration of chlorine and other ozone-depleting substances in the stratosphere will not return to pre-1980 levels until the middle decades of this century. These same models predict that the Antarctic ozone layer will recover around 2040. On the other hand, because of the impact of greenhouse gas warming, the ozone layer over the tropics and mid-southern latitudes may not recover for more than a century, and perhaps not ever.

References:
Carlowicz, M. (2009). The World We Avoided by Protecting the Ozone Layer. NASA’s Earth Observatory Website.
Carlowicz, M. (2009). Climate Change and Atmospheric Circulation Will Make for Uneven Ozone Recovery. NASA Portal Website.
NASA. Ozone Hole Watch Website.
NASA images courtesy Goddard Space Flight Center Ozone Processing Team.

Instrument:
Aura - OMI

Content Type / Mime Type for Office 2007

2009-05-18T15:22:00.007+08:00

Hi Readers,

Here are some info. about Content Type/Mime Type for Office 2007.

The following is the Content Type/Mime Type for Office 2007:
1) .docm,application/vnd.ms-word.document.macroEnabled.12

2) .docx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document

3) .dotm,application/vnd.ms-word.template.macroEnabled.12

4) .dotx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template

5) .potm,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.template.macroEnabled.12

6) .potx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.template

7) .ppam,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.addin.macroEnabled.12

8) .ppsm,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.slideshow.macroEnabled.12

9) .ppsx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.slideshow

10) .pptm,application/vnd.ms-powerpoint.presentation.macroEnabled.12

11) .pptx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation

12) .xlam,application/vnd.ms-excel.addin.macroEnabled.12

13) .xlsb,application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.binary.macroEnabled.12

14) .xlsm,application/vnd.ms-excel.sheet.macroEnabled.12

15) .xlsx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet

16) .xltm,application/vnd.ms-excel.template.macroEnabled.12

17) .xltx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.template

For ASP.Net implementation, it goes like this:
e.g:

string attachment = "attachment; filename=report.xlsx";
Response.ClearContent();
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", attachment);
Response.ContentType = ".xlsx,application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet ";
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
Control.RenderControl(htw);
Response.Write(sw.ToString());
Response.End();

I hope this could help you.

Regards,
Shaper Jabneel

Internet Scams

2008-12-02T17:09:00.008+08:00

Hi Readers,

The rise of the internet has opened up the world to millions of people. It is now possible to do things that were unheard of only ten, or even five, years ago.

Unfortunately, the internet is not free from scams and scammers. Some scams are especially designed to take advantage of the way the internet works.

A lot of internet scams take place without the victim even noticing. It is only when their credit card statement or phone bill arrives that the person realises that they might have been scammed.

There are, however, a number of ways to protect yourself from internet scams. They are simple precautions you can take and are essential because you often cannot be sure exactly who you are dealing with on the internet.

How you access the internet can also make a difference. If you take the right precautions, the chances of being scammed are greatly reduced.

To avoid receiving scams and spam mails, you may do the following (but this will not garrantee that you will not receive scams or spam mails):

1. Avoid filling-up in the site that requires you to enter your Name, Email, Address, Telephone No. etc. As much as possible don’t give your personal particulars to those unknown sites.

2. When you received mail with suspicious title (most specially if it appears in your Spam mail box) do not open, immediately delete it permanently. Note that some spam mails are also appearing in the Inbox folder.

3. When you received authorized email in your Spam folder, select it and click Not Spam (for Yahoo and Google) then it will automatically move into your Inbox folder.

4. Block those email addresses that send Spam emails.

5. When you received advertisements from unknown site, knowing that you never even register to it, try to unsubscribe by clicking its unsubscribe link (mostly it appears at the bottom part of the email content). After unsubscribing, it states how long when it can be unsubscribed youre account, but if after that period and you still receiving emails from it, block the email address.

NOTE: Please bare in mind also that there are internet users who use other’s name and email when they are registering to other sites. There are advertisement sites (even other sites) also that sell their registered users’ particular, so before registering to unknown sites, be very careful and read first their Terms and Conditions. If there is no Terms and Conditions, I suggest dont enter your personal particulars (because they may also capture information from the fields even the moment you are just typing in the text fields) and dont proceed to register.

Click here to see Sample of Scam/Spam Emails

That’s all folks. Hope this would help.

Best Regards,
Shaper Jabneel

IFrame ViewState or PageState lost

2008-11-21T16:57:00.014+08:00

Hi Readers,

Do you encounter ViewState or PageState loss in your ASP.Net pages inside IFrame? In my project, I encountered this kind of issue maybe because I used PageStatePersister as the base class of my ASP.Net pages and together with AJAX. I tried to include SavePageStateToPersistenceMedium and LoadPageStateToPersistenceMedium overrided methods in my PageStatePersister base class, but it didn't help me either.

So, what I did is:
In the top of the ASP.Net Page Source Code, after the I added Update Panel . Inside that Update Panel, I added a Timer Control with Interval="5000" (equal to 5 seconds) and with OnTick event property (but you can use without OnTick event property). So that I didn't see the page refreshing, I put my ASP Timer inside the Update Panel. Then, it really solves my problem.

Here is the Example:

<body>
<ajaxtoolkit:toolkitscriptmanager id="tsmMaster" runat="server" enablepartialrendering="true"></ajaxtoolkit:toolkitscriptmanager>
<asp:updatepanel id="UpdatePanel1" runat="server" updatemode="Conditional" rendermode="Inline">
<contenttemplate>
<asp:timer id="tmTimer" runat="server" interval="5000" ontick="tmTimer_Tick"></asp:timer>
</contenttemplate>
</asp:updatepanel>
...
...
...
</body>

Here is my conclusion:
Inside my IFrame, I noticed that the ViewState/PageState of my ASP.Net page always loss within less than 30 seconds without any execution/event in the page (imagine < 30 secs.).

Since every 3 secs the page is being PostBack using ASP Timer, it keeps the ViewState or PageState alive.

I hope this would help your problem in dealing with Iframe, AJAX and PageStatePersister in ASP.Net.

Thanks

Best Regards,
Shaper Jabneel

Using window.close() without prompt in IE7

2008-10-16T14:13:00.008+08:00

Hi Readers,

If you have tried using javascript window.close() method in IE7, you will notice that it is always prompting “The Webpage you are viewing is trying to close the window. Do you want to close this window?”.

To let this prompt not to appear, just do the codes below.

script language="javascript"
function CloseWindow()
{
window.open(”,’_self’,”);
window.close();
}
/script

Or if you want to close the Parent window without prompting, just use:
window.opener.open(”,’_self’,”);
window.opener.close();

The code in bold is used to open a window which lets the browser thinks that the current window is opened using javascript window.open(), so when the close() method is executed it will close it without the message being prompted.

Best Regards,
Shaper Jabneel

Allowing Only One Instance of an Application in C#.Net

2008-10-16T13:29:00.008+08:00

Hi Readers,

Standard Windows Form application can be launched multiple times and each instance used completely independently of the others। However, sometimes it is important to restrict the user in launching multiple instance of a program।

See the code snippet below in how to restrict lunching of multiple instance of an application.

Required Namespace:
System.Diagnostics

C# Code:
static void Main()
{
// Detect existing instances
string processName = Process।GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName;
Process[] instances = Process.GetProcessesByName(processName);
if (instances.Length > 1)
{
MessageBox.Show(”This application is already running.”);
return;
}
// End of detection
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Application.Run(new Form1());
}

Hope this would help you folks. Thanks.

Best Regards,
Shaper Jabneel