Daily Quiz 29th May 2024

Explanation:
• Option (b) is correct: Venezuela’s last glacier, Humboldt, was recently reclassified as an ice field, making Venezuela likely the first modern country to lose all its glaciers. Venezuela has six glaciers located about 5,000 metres above sea level in the Andes mountains. By 2011, five had vanished. Scientists expected the Humboldt glacier to last another decade, but it melted faster than anticipated and shrunk to less than 2 hectares. he primary cause of glacier melting is global warming, driven by greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide and methane, which trap heat in the atmosphere. The Andes mountains, including Venezuela, have seen a temperature increase of 0.10 degrees Celsius over the past seven decades, accelerating glacier loss.

Explanation: ATCM 46 is organized by National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Goa, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• Statement 1 is incorrect: The Antarctic Treaty was signed in Washington on 1 December 1959 by the twelve countries whose scientists had been active in and around Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58. It entered into force in 1961 and has since been acceded to by many other nations. The total number of Parties to the Treaty is now 56. Twelve countries – Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the USSR, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
• Statement 2 is correct: The article VII of the treaty says that, To promote the objectives and ensure the observance of the provisions of the Treaty, “All areas of Antarctica, including all stations, installations and equipment within those area shall be open at all times to inspection.

Explanation:

• Statements 1 and 2 are  incorrect: PFCE (Private final consumption expenditure) is a measure of total consumption expenditure by households and non-profit institutions serving households on goods and services. As a percentage of GDP, India spends significantly more on consumption than China (58% vs 38%). Final consumption, which includes government consumption expenditure, constitutes 68% of GDP for India and 53% for China. Despite China’s economy being approximately five times bigger than India’s, its PFCE is only about 3.5 times that of India’s. India spends more on food, clothing, footwear, and transport, and less on education, culture, recreation, and healthcare, typical of a developing market. China’s consumption basket represents a relatively developed market, with a declining percentage of expenditure on food and beverages. China spends more on housing, white goods, recreation, education, and healthcare than India. In aggregate terms, India spends about half of what China spends on food, transport, communication, and clothing.

Explanation:

• Option (d) is correct: Turbulence is a disruption of airflow over the wings of an aeroplane, causing irregular vertical motion. There are at least seven kinds of turbulence:
• Clear Air Turbulence (CAT): Occurs in clear skies, usually at high altitudes, and can be caused by wind shear within the jet stream.
• Frontal Turbulence: Happens near weather fronts where warm and cold air masses meet, leading to unstable air and potential thunderstorms.
• Mechanical Turbulence: Caused by obstructions on the ground, like buildings or mountains, that disrupt the flow of air.
• Convective Turbulence: Results from thermal columns or rising warm air, often associated with cumulus clouds and thunderstorms.
• Wake Vortex Turbulence: Generated by the wingtips of large aircraft, creating swirling vortices that can affect following aircraft.
• Wind Shear: Sudden changes in wind direction, usually near thunderstorms or jet streams.
• Mountain Waves: Oscillations on the downwind side of mountains when strong winds flow towards mountains perpendicularly.

Explanation:

• Pair 1 is incorrectly matched: Google introduced an early version of Project Astra at the company’s annual developer conference. It is a new multimodal AI agent developed by Google. It can answer real-time questions using text, video, images, and speech by retrieving relevant information. It can see the world, remember where objects are placed, and verify the correctness of computer code using the phone’s camera. It is not limited to smartphones; demonstrated usage with smart glasses.
• Pair 2 is correctly matched: Copernicus Programme is a part of the EU’s space programme, aimed at monitoring Earth and its environment by collecting and processing data from satellites and other sources. It provides geospatial information from satellite remote sensing and in situ data for managing natural disasters, man-made emergencies, and humanitarian crises. Service Components:

• Mapping Component: Includes rapid mapping (RM) and risk and recovery mapping (RRM).
• Early Warning Component: Issues alerts about floods, droughts, and forest fires, and provides near-real-time assessment of forest fire impacts.

• Pair 3 is incorrectly matched: A synchrotron is a type of circular particle accelerator where particles move in a loop. It accelerates charged particles (typically electrons) through sequences of magnets until they reach nearly the speed of light. These high-speed electrons produce very bright light known as synchrotron light. Scientists use synchrotron light to study minute matter such as atoms and molecules. They analyse how samples scatter, diffract, absorb, or re-emit the light to uncover details about their structure or chemical composition.