On this day, 9 December 1984, Mexican revolutionary fighter Amelio Robles Ávila died in his home town of Xochipala, Guerrero, aged 95. Assigned female at birth, Ávila joined the turbulent events of the revolution in 1912, and his first mission was to extort funds from oil companies to fund the revolutionary movement. He fought in the army of Emiliano Zapata and reached the rank of colonel. He was famous for shooting his pistol with his right hand while holding a cigar in his left, and he was himself shot at least six times.
In 1924 he declared his identity as male, was recognised as such by the military, and was later recognised as the first transgender veteran in the Mexican army. Ávila forged a male birth certificate, and insisted he be recognised as male for his next seven decades. Mexican historian Gabriela Cano explains that Ávila’s gender identity “must be distinguished from the strategic cross-dressing – the adoption of masculine outfits to pass as a man – that some women employed in periods of war to protect themselves from sexual violence that is usually more acute during armed conflict, to access military leadership positions or simply to fight as soldiers and not as soldaderas, that is to say, without the social gender restrictions that usually weigh on women in the military”. According to rumour, on one occasion Ávila was assaulted by men who tried to inspect his anatomy, and in defending himself two of the attackers were killed. A neighbour later recounted how Ávila would challenge anyone who misgendered him: “I always called him Mr. Robles, because he’d pull out his gun if someone called him a woman or Mrs.”
After his death, Mexican institutions began to undermine his identity. A rumour began that he had requested to be buried in women’s clothes, and a school and museum were named after his dead (i.e. christened) name.
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5 Ways Studying Water Will Help Us Better Understand Earth
Studying our home planet is just as powerful as exploring what’s beyond it.
Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) is a joint mission developed by NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency and the UK Space Agency. It will track water on more than 90% of Earth’s surface and help communities, scientists, and researchers better understand this finite and vital resource. And it’s launching this month!
So how will SWOT help us better understand Earth? Here are 5 ways.
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SWOT will address some of the most pressing climate change questions of our time.
An important part of predicting our future climate is determining at what point Earth’s ocean water slows down its absorption of the excess heat in the atmosphere and starts releasing that heat back into the air, where it could accelerate global warming. SWOT will provide crucial information about this global heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, enabling researchers to test and improve future climate forecasts.
The satellite will also offer insights to improve computer models for sea level rise projections and coastal flood forecasting.
Data from SWOT will additionally help scientists, engineers, water managers, and others better monitor drought conditions in lakes and reservoirs and improve flood forecasts for rivers.
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SWOT is the first satellite mission that will observe nearly all water on the planet’s surface.
SWOT will measure the height of water in Earth’s lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and the ocean, giving scientists the ability to track the movement of water around the world.
SWOT’s eye in the sky will provide a truly global view of the water on more than 90% of Earth’s surface, enriching humankind’s understanding of how the ocean reacts to and influences climate change along with what potential hazards – including floods – lie ahead in different regions of the world.
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SWOT will see Earth’s water in higher definition than ever before.
Because everything is better in HD 😉, SWOT will view Earth’s ocean and freshwater bodies with unprecedented clarity compared to other satellites, much like a high-definition television delivers a picture far more detailed than older models. This means that SWOT will be able to “see” ocean features – like fronts and eddies – that are too small for current space-based instruments to detect. Those measurements will help improve researchers’ understanding of the ocean’s role in climate change.
Not only will the satellite show where – and how fast – sea level is rising, it will also reveal how coastlines around the world are changing. It will provide similar high-definition clarity for Earth’s lakes, rivers, and reservoirs, many of which remain a mystery to researchers, who aren’t able to outfit every water body with monitoring instruments.
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SWOT data will be used to help make decisions about our daily lives and livelihoods.
As climate change accelerates the water cycle, more communities around the world will be inundated with water while others won’t have enough. SWOT data will be used to monitor drought conditions and improve flood forecasts, providing essential information to water management agencies, disaster preparedness agencies, universities, civil engineers, and others who need to track water in their local areas. SWOT data also will help industries, like shipping, by providing measurements of water levels along rivers, as well as ocean conditions, including tides, currents, and storm surges.
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Finally … SWOT will pave the way for future Earth missions.
With its innovative technology and commitment to engaging a diverse community of people who plan to use data from the mission, SWOT is blazing a trail for future Earth-observing missions. SWOT’s data and the tools to support researchers in analyzing the information will be free and accessible. This will help to foster research and applications activities by a wide range of users, including scientists, resource managers, and others who in the past may not have had the opportunity to access this kind of information. Lessons learned from SWOT will lead to new questions and improvements for future missions, including our upcoming Earth System Observatory, a constellation of missions focused on studying key aspects of our home planet.
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Keep track of the mission here. And make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
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