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sage-nebula · 5 years

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After making this post yesterday about Alan’s potential teams, I decided to go ahead and make him a Trainer Card based on the final team I came up with. Since this would be his Champion team in the future, I edited a pic to look like the outfit I imagine he wears in the future (better seen in my sidebar art), and also made sure his full name was proudly displayed on his ID, since once he’s officially adopted by Sycamore at age seventeen, the very first thing he would do is go get his License updated so that it no longer had those brackets following his given name. (Since in my headcanon, trainers without surnames for whatever reason just have brackets following their given name, to show that, legally, there’s no other name that goes there, but that there could be someday. So although Sycamore took Alan in when Alan was five and raised him, since he wasn’t officially, legally adopted until he was seventeen, Alan had to wait to update his License with the surname that should have been his all along.)

More info on his team under the cut:

Species name is first, nickname is second.

Charizard --- Lizardon: What needs to be said about Lizardon? Lizardon is Alan’s eternal partner, his platonic soulmate, his best friend. Alan hatched Lizardon from an egg when he was ten years old, and the two have been together ever since. Their bond overcomes all reason, and surpasses its limitations. Wherever they go, they go together, and whenever Alan has doubts about how maybe he’s asking too much of Lizardon, or putting Lizardon in too much danger, Lizardon is quick to remind him of that wherever they go, they go together fact. There’s nothing in the world these two wouldn’t do for each other, and neither would have it any other way. Lizardon has quite a lot in common with Alan. He wants to be the strongest he can be, he’s incredibly protective of those he cares about (especially Alan), and he’s extremely smart and quick on his feet, both figuratively and literally. He’s the de facto team lead among Alan’s pokémon due to being around the longest, and so the rest tend to look to him for guidance just as much as they look to Alan himself. Some of his favorite things are early morning flights and naps under the sun, Alan tucked under his wing. His portrait on the ID is because I thought it would be neat if mega pokémon were identified on the card somehow. I would have preferred just the rainbow background, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option on the site. Either way, Lizardon can mega evolve outside of battle, so it’s not out of the question that he could do so for his ID picture. Nature: Adamant Characteristic: Proud of his power Moveset: Flamethrower, Dragon Claw, Thunder Punch, Blast Burn

Absol --- Sol: For the longest time, Alan carried baggage about absol due to being unfavorably compared to one in his early childhood. However, during time spent in Hoenn, that attitude changed. You see, an absol---this absol---encountered Alan, and took to shadowing him. Alan didn’t initially plan to capture her---just looking at absol made bad memories resurface---but she continued to follow him, and eventually knocked him into cover just in time for a bad earthquake to hit. Had she not intervened, he would have died, and that was a powerful reminder to Alan of the truth about absol . . . and also himself. Sol allowed herself to be captured without much of a fight, and she’s been a strong, healing member of the team ever since. Sol tends to be quiet, but watches over all the others with steady dedication. Like so many that gravitate toward Alan, she’s very protective and loyal, and likes to stay close to the others in her pack (i.e., Alan and the rest of the team). She’s not affectionate at all with those she doesn’t know well, but she likes sleeping right by her team. Some of her favorite things are full moons and ocarina music. Nature: Adamant Characteristic: Alert to sounds Moveset: Swords Dance, Sucker Punch, Aerial Ace, Knock Off

Mimikyu --- Kyu: Alan captured Kyu during a rather difficult time in his life. While on vacation in Alola, there came a point where he needed some space to himself (and Lizardon), and in order to get it, he went into an abandoned Thrifty Megamart because he figured no one else would be there. Well, he was wrong; Kyu, an oddly-colored mimikyu, was there, and she crept up to him, curious but scared to approach. Alan didn’t mind that she was there---it wasn’t pokémon company he was avoiding---and so with some patience he showed her that he wouldn’t hurt her. Kyu could tell that he was being sincere, and more importantly, that he was hurting like she was . . . so she followed him out of the abandoned Thrifty Megamart, and he decided to bring her along with him. When Alan first met Kyu, she was mistrustful, timid, and often sad. But overtime she came to heal and open up, and now she tends to be cheerful, friendly, and sweet. She likes riding around on Alan’s shoulder (or sometimes on his head), and she’s always eager to learn, experience, and try new things. She has alternate costumes based on the rest of Alan’s team; Lizardon was very excited when he saw her charizard one. Some of her favorite things are quiz / game shows, and games of hide-and-seek or peek-a-boo. Nature: Jolly Characteristic: Highly curious Moveset: Swords Dance, Play Rough, Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak

Salamence --- Bohmander: When a meteor was headed straight for the planet and swore everyone’s destruction, Alan worked with the Draconid Lorekeeper, Zinnia, in order to summon Mega Rayquaza and destroy it. That experience, that adventure . . . it affected Alan in ways he couldn’t quite identify, and he knew that he had Zinnia and the bond he formed with her to thank for that. As a result, he ended up capturing a bagon and raising it to a salamence in her honor. While Bohmander is smaller than the average salamence (and smaller indeed than Zinnia’s trusted partner), he’s no less dependable in battle. In battle, Bohmander is fierce and tries his hardest. Outside of battle, he tends to be somewhat gentle---or at least, he tries to be, but mostly this is because he can be a bit clumsy with his strength. You see, as a bagon, Boh never really broke anything. But as he evolved---and especially once he evolved into a salamence---it became a not uncommon occurrence for him to be unaware of his own strength and accidentally break things. Boh tends to be easily embarrassed whenever this happens and feels bad, and so he tries his best to be as gentle with everything and everyone as possible. It doesn’t always work out, but he tries. Some of his favorite things are poképuffs (he has a bottomless stomach for them) and rolling around in grass on sunny days. Nature: Careful Characteristic: Loves to eat Moveset: Double-Edge, Roost, Earthquake, Toxic

Tyranitar --- Bangiras: Yes, this is the very same tyranitar we see in canon. Bangiras was captured as a larvitar and trained all the way up to tyranitar, and it all happened because Bangiras, as a tyranitar, saw Lizardon and Alan out training one day and decided that Lizardon was His Rival™. Please note that this rivalry was never reciprocated; Lizardon didn’t want to compete with Bangiras, particularly once Alan captured him because Bangiras wouldn’t stop coming back for more while he and Lizardon were training. But Bangiras got it into his head that he wanted to be stronger than Lizardon, and also Alan’s favorite, and so the rivalry began and was carried out. Fortunately, though, this attitude mellowed out over time, as Bangiras came to realize that he didn’t have to be better than Lizardon to be appreciated and loved by Alan. He doesn’t regret powering through to his final evolution as fast as possible, nor does he ever stop trying his hardest in battle (or trying to be impressive), but he sees Lizardon as more of a friend than a rival now, for which Lizardon is grateful. Some of Bangiras’ favorite things are pranks and practical jokes, and making rock sculptures. Nature: Naughty Characteristic: Strong-willed Moveset: Earthquake, Crunch, Pursuit, Fire Punch

Aerodactyl --- Ptera: Ptera was revived from Old Amber by a group of scientists who instantly regretted their decision. When she awoke, Ptera was disoriented and, as a result of her disorientation, very, very angry. Alan happened to be in the area and stepped in to help calm her down, and as a result the scientists asked Alan to take her off their hands. Alan tried to refuse, but Ptera made it very clear (with her tail) that she was not interested in staying with the scientists, and so in the end he agreed. Ptera tends to be stand-offish and act cold toward others. Part of this is due to how disoriented she still is with the modern world; having once been fossilized, the world as it is now is very, very different from the world Ptera remembers, and certain things (such as encountering a plane while flying) are completely bewildering and frightening to Ptera. But being frightened is embarrassing in Ptera’s mind, and so she tends to take that fear and turn it into anger. Overall she’s getting acquainted with the modern world, but sometimes she does still feel a powerful homesickness for her original time period. Some of Ptera’s favorite things are battling (since that, at least, is still mostly the same now as it was back then) and screaming in big canyons so that her voice echoes. Nature: Serious Characteristic: Likes to fight Moveset: Earthquake, Fire Fang, Aqua Tail, Roost

#pokemon #trainer alan #trainer alain #champion alan #my valiant dragon son #the ideal natures for all of these are either adamant or jolly #but i figured it'd be a bit unrealistic if they all had perfect natures #plus no tyranitar that loses to a pikachu has a perfect nature i'm sorry #bangiras is a naughty boy and he's just going to have to live with that #we still love him tho. he's a good boy #even if he's naughty #oh and the trainer id number - the k stands for kalos ofc #and then the actual number part is the original airdate of tsme 1 in japan :)

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liliannorman · 4 years

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Explainer: Understanding meteors and meteor showers

Every once in a while, on a clear, dark night, a tiny streak of light flashes across the sky. Commonly called a shooting star, it’s actually a space rock — usually a quite small one. It creates light as its friction with Earth’s atmosphere causes its outer surface to catch fire and burn. At certain times of year, a reliable “shower” of these rocks can enter the upper atmosphere, creating a fleeting light show.

Bigger incoming rocks can pass all the way through the atmosphere, creating a sonic boom and trail of falling rocky debris.

Death by asteroid may come in unexpected ways

So how big are these rocks and where do they come from? The simple answer is, it varies — widely. They tend to be what’s left in the wake of comets or space junk. Some may even be asteroids. That last type can be plenty big enough to pose a lethal risk to anything in their path.

Most, however, are silent, high-flying shooting stars. They enter the air as pebbles about the size of a pea. That means you could stow an entire locally viewed meteor shower in your backpack.

The source of a meteor shower will depend on which one you’re watching. Each tends to take place at about the same time each year — when Earth plows through some long-lasting field of debris. This happens at the same point in our planet’s annual orbit around the sun.

It’s kind of like driving on a warm summer day when your car enters a swarm of bugs. Even if the bugs are hovering and relatively still, their collision with your windshield will yield a loud splat (and leave a nasty streak on the glass). When a large enough meteor explodes in the lower atmosphere, it can cause a loud boom, depending on its size. It also sends a streak of light into the sky.

Earth’s atmosphere is made of layers of air that become successively thicker the closer they get to the ground. When incoming space rocks hit the mesosphere, they encounter enough friction from that air that they heat up and start to burn.Crystal-K /iStock/Getty Images Plus

Earth’s gravity tugs at any nearby space rocks. As they get pulled into the upper atmosphere, they encounter drag. This friction releases an enormous amount of heat, igniting the meteor. The resulting fiery blaze can display a range of colors.

Every meteor shower has a radiant. That’s a point in the sky from which all the meteors appear to come. It’s the direction Earth bulldozes through the debris stream. So the planet strikes individual rocks head-on from that angle. If you look right at the radiant, you’ll see only a quick flash of light. But meteors that you catch while looking at a right angle (sideways) to the radiant will have long, vibrant tails.

Think about it like driving through a snowstorm at night. Imagine looking forward through the windshield. All the snowflakes seem to be heading straight at you because you’re moving straight at them. But gaze out the left or right window and the falling flakes will look like soft, white specks of light buzzing by. That’s because you’re moving parallel to the flakes’ motion.

Where do their colors come from?

Every meteor streak has its own unique character. So do the showers.

December’s Geminids are the most spectacular of all. They blaze emerald green, pink and violet. The August Perseid shower sends streaks of pink, lime green and purple. They flash across the sky in the blink of an eye. The Orionids in October are faster still but dimmer. Their streaks have a soft whitish-orange shimmer.

Two processes account for those hues.

As a meteor hurtles through the vacuum of space, there’s nothing to slow the extraterrestrial rock down. But once it encounters air resistance at the edge of Earth’s mesosphere, some 80.5 kilometers (50 miles) up, the rock gets hot. Enormously hot! That heat eventually causes the rock to burn. Its flames will have different colors, depending on the rock’s composition. Its elemental recipe determines the color of its glow. Metallic elements tend to burn brightest.

Researchers with the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic studied this in 2008. They looked at Geminid showers between 2004 and 2006. The “meteors were observed by image-intensified video cameras,” they reported. Then they applied a process called spectroscopy (Spek-TROS-koh-pee), which looks at how materials interact with light or emit light. This showed that some of the burning rock had been rich in magnesium, sodium and iron. The Perseids in August showed evidence of silicon and calcium, too.

If all these elements sound familiar, that’s because you’ve likely seen them on the back label of your breakfast cereal. Froot Loops contain them all. But that doesn’t mean dumping a bowl of Lucky Charms out your second-floor window will trigger a meteor shower. Indeed, speed is as important as the rocks’ ingredients.

As a meteor speeds through the atmosphere, it compresses the cushion of air trapped ahead of it. That “air pillow” is squeezed so much that it heats. When molecules absorb enough energy (here, heat), they can become excited — in a physical sense (not an emotional one). Afterward, they’ll release packets of light known as photons. The more energy going in, the more energetic the light that is later released. Higher energy photons will emit light having a higher frequency — also known as a higher wavelength. Purple light has a higher frequency than red. Ultraviolet light has a higher frequency than infrared.

Most meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere burn up before reaching the ground. But there are the exceptions. This Barringer crater in Arizona marks where a 30- to 50-meter (98- to 164-foot) meteor survived to crash into the Earth 49,000 years ago.StephanHoerold /E+/Getty Images

Because the Geminids are slower, their light is mainly green. But even after a meteor has passed, it takes a while for the air molecules’ energy level to fall back to normal. That’s why a shimmering tail of light remains. That light also may be accompanied by smoke.

It’s very rare for a meteor to survive and crash into the ground. On average, one basketball-sized meteor falls to Earth’s surface each month.

To reach the ground, it must start out big enough so that it doesn’t burn completely during its trek through the atmosphere. One space-boulder crashed down just west of Detroit, Mich., in January 2018. Nearly 50,000 years ago, a far bigger one excavated 175 million tons of rock in what is now Arizona. The Barringer crater it left behind is nearly 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) wide and 174 meters (570 feet) deep.

Meteors that survive to reach the lower atmosphere hit more air resistance and as a result burn very bright. These are termed fireballs. The December Geminid showers and August’s Perseids produce large numbers of fireballs.

youtube

Bill Cooke heads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. In this YouTube video he explains the difference between meteoroids, meteorites and fireballs.

How predictable are shower forecasts?

Weather permitting, people can see meteor showers many times a year. The Geminids’ peak shower spans several nights around the second week of December. Its light streaks tend to be bright, offering some of the best viewing of the year.

The Quadrantids arrive every January. They boast large numbers of shooting stars. In some years, people at many locations can see up to 100 per hour. But such peaks last only a few hours.

Debris left by Halley’s Comet is the source of two showers. The first, in May, is known as the Eta Aquarid shower. The October Orionids is the second. (Halley’s Comet last swept through the night sky in 1986. It won’t be back until 2061.)

The Areitid shower peaks around June 7th. It can bring more than 50 shooting stars per hour. That makes for comfortable warm viewing in the Northern Hemisphere. One might think that would make these showers widely viewed. In fact, they aren’t. Their radiant is so close to the sun that they are best seen right before sunset or sunrise. And because they are competing against that sunlight, only the brightest of the meteors will be visible. Plus, they mostly shower during the day. So unless a total solar eclipse blocks out the sun, they’ll zip through the skies unseen.

The August Perseid shower tends to be the most popular. It can send some 75 to 100 colorful meteors per hour across the sky. And the viewing will be summer warm in the Northern Hemisphere.

A handful of other lackluster meteor showers dot the night skies in other months, such as the Leonids each November. During its peak, that shower usually issues only about 15 meteors per hour. But even the Leonids can sometimes offer surprises.

In 1966, this usual dud of a shower started our pretty quiet. Cloud cover socked in the East Coast. Out West, only the occasional few blips of light confirmed the Leonids had arrived. As a result, most stargazers went to bed disappointed. Back then, 10-year-old Joe Rao was among them. Now a meteorologist, he has never forgotten hearing what he missed that night.

After 5 a.m., the sky seemed to explode. A torrential downpour of meteors sent more than 150,000 streaks of light across the sky in a single hour. That comes to more than 50 per second. After 90 incredible minutes, it was over. Such “meteor storms” develop when Earth’s orbit cuts through a trail of dense debris left by a comet or asteroid.

What causes it? A large fragment likely broke off some huge rock, perhaps shattering in the process. That left a narrow and extremely dense cluster of shards. Once every 33 years or so, Earth passes through one of these pockets to create a Leonid storm.

What if it’s cloudy?

Clouds can easily spoil the show from Earth’s surface. But that doesn’t mean the fun is ruined. NASA has a radar “listening station” for meteors in Huntsville, Ala. It lets anyone tune in to hear the blips as the shooting stars zip through the atmosphere. The radar signals are converted to sound waves. It’s best to listen for these during what would be Alabama’s predawn hours. That’s when more meteors enter the atmosphere — and do it with a greater velocity. This makes them easier to resolve on NASA instruments. And subsequently, you have greater odds of hearing the agency’s so-called “meteor radar.”

NASA is currently working on this system (so it is now unavailable). Meanwhile, another antenna in Washington, D.C., offers an alternative portal as a way to listen in.

Explainer: Understanding meteors and meteor showers published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/

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