Introduction

The SUNDAY SPECIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY for the day of 27 August 2023 for the UPSC CSE WBPCS preparation.

• REDD+
• What is CARBON OFFSETTING?
• Importance of Forest cover:
• Pico flare Jets of Coronal Hole Powers Sun’s Solar Wind
• PRR ENHANCES IMMUNITY TO PHYTOPHTHORA
• TROPICAL FORESTS MAY BE GETTING HOTTER
• ELIMINATING TB BY 2025
• ISRO’s UPCOMING MISSIONS

REDD+

What is CARBON OFFSETTING?

Importance of Forest cover:

• Forest cover is the most effective and cost-efficient method to balance carbon emission and a front-line factor to control Global Warming.

• Forests have a mitigation power to absorb carbon over 5 gigaton per year.

• REDD+ is a climate change mitigation solution developed by UNFCCC.
• It was also adopted by COP 19 in 2013.
• REDD+ manages forests and controls deforestation and supports the countries across the globe to achieve their national and international commitments on environmental degradation and sustainability.

Pico flare Jets of Coronal Hole Powers Sun’s Solar Wind

• Extreme Ultraviolet images of the sun by a Solar Orbiter Spacecraft reveals numerous small-scale jets from the coronal hole of the sun.

• These small-scale jets from the outermost part of the sun are called “Pico Flare” jets: a continuous stream of charged particles could supply plasma and energy to the solar wind.

• The coronal hole can be the source region for the solar wind but how they are emerging is still not defined.

PRR ENHANCES IMMUNITY TO PHYTOPHTHORA

• PRR and intrasaccular immune receptors provide plants immunity against microbial infection.

• A genetic screen of wild potatoes and other Solanum species has revealed in PERU a cell surface PATTERN RECOGNITION RECEPTOR that helps in immune response to Phytophthora infestans the pathogen that caused Great Irish Famine of the 1840s
• Further research will help to pave the way for crop resilience.

TROPICAL FORESTS MAY BE GETTING HOTTER

• Critical temperature acts as an absolute limit of a leaf up to which photosynthesis is possible.

• A recent study states that only a very less percentage of tropical leaves reached its threshold upper limit for temperature.
• Estimated nearly 0.01% of leaves.

• It is suggested that tropical forests may witness a 3.9 degree C increase in temperature before a potential tipping point.

• This is a matter of concern. As the continuous hike of temperature due to global warming, deforestation, climate change is a threatening factor for the tropical forest.
• Any intervention in photosynthesis will lead to ecological imbalance, food chain imbalance, change in global wind pattern etc.

ELIMINATING TB BY 2025

• Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs.

• Globally 1.5 million children under 15 years fail ill with TB
• 1/3 of the of the global childhood TB contributed by India
• Number of TB cases has increased in India.
• Nearly 0.34 million children under the age of 15,

ISRO’s UPCOMING MISSIONS

XpoSat: It is India’s first polarimetry mission to study the dynamism of the astronomical X-Ray radiations in different conditions.

Aditya L1: It is India’s first space-based observatory to study the Sun along with its several dynamics.

Launch of a test vehicle mission for Gaganyaan: Its India’s human space flight mission to be launched.

NISAR: It is a collaboration project between India-U. S. It is a low earth orbit observatory developed by ISRO and NASA. It has the capacity to map the entire globe in 12 days and is very useful to determine and understand the changes in the earth’s ecosystem like water resources, forest cover, biomass, sea level rise, natural disaster etc.