Tropically Speaking, NASA Investigates Precipitation Shapes, Sizes for Severity

Rain drops are fat and snowflakes are fluffy, but why does it matter in terms of predicting severe storms?

We've all seen fat rain drops, skinny rain drops, round hailstones, fluffy snowflakes and even ice needles. This summer, NASA researchers are going to get a look at just how much these shapes influence severe storm weather. To do it, they'll have to look inside the guts of some of the world's fiercest storms. NASA recently assembled a team of hurricane scientists from across the country to carry out high-altitude-aircraft surveillance to explore in detail how storms form, intensify and dissipate.

Earth scientists and engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., have redesigned one of their instruments, the Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer, or AMPR, to better observe the different shapes of precipitation. In August and September, AMPR will fly at an altitude of 60,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. It will sit in the bomb bay of a WB-57 airplane, which is based at the NASA Johnson Space Center's Ellington Field in Houston.

AMPR will sit in the bomb bay of a WB-57 airplane, where it will scan the surfaces below to measure both how hard it’s raining and the type of precipitation being produced by a storm. (NASA/JSC)

During these flights, AMPR researchers will test a new build -- the instrument is an upgraded version of the original AMPR built at NASA Marshall in the early 1990s -- and use it to participate in NASA's upcoming hurricane study, the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes field campaign, better known as GRIP. The campaign involves three planes mounted with 14 different instruments, including AMPR. The instruments will all work together to create the most complete view of a hurricane to date.

Researchers hope the hurricane campaign will help them answer some of nature's most perplexing questions. As tropical storms grow, they produce massive amounts of rain -- a key element in the development of full-scale hurricanes. Scientists will use AMPR along with the other instruments, such as data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite, to figure out just how hard it's raining inside these ferocious storms, and how much of that rain is associated with the production of ice during intensification.

"If you don't know how hard it's raining or where the rain is forming in the atmosphere, you don't know hurricanes," said Dr. Walt Petersen, AMPR principle investigator and Marshall Center earth scientist. "AMPR provides us an opportunity to see their precipitation structure by using an instrument like those currently flying on, for example, the TRMM and Aqua satellites in space."

That's because AMPR doesn't just give scientists new information about hurricanes. The instrument also enables them to test equipment currently in space. Every day, numerous weather satellites orbit Earth to measure the rainfall rate of storms across the globe. They work much like AMPR except over much larger scales. Because they're so far above the Earth and moving so fast, they can take only one measurement every few miles along their track. Scientists can correct for such coarse measurements, but to do so they need highly accurate data. AMPR can take several measurements per mile, giving scientists the data they need to verify that weather satellites continue to provide accurate data.

Crashing waves in the deep ocean can generate enough energy to create a seismic "hum." (Bruce Molnia/U.S. Geological Survey)

"It's like the pixels in your computer screen," Petersen said. "When satellites take measurements, they have really big pixels, and we might lose some of the finer details of what's happening on the ground. AMPR has much smaller pixels, much higher resolution, and allows us to see a much clearer picture. It's a part of our arsenal to make sure what we're measuring from space makes sense. We'd hate to send something up and not have it accurately measure what's happening on the ground."

That information translates into better predictions of hurricane track and intensity -- how hard it's going to rain in a certain area when a hurricane hits, for example, aiding in early flood warnings.

AMPR doesn't just measure how hard rain falls. Within the last several years, the AMPR team has worked vigorously to upgrade the instrument. These upgrades will enable AMPR to more accurately detect what kind of precipitation is in the storm. By identifying the shape of the precipitation, AMPR may present scientists with recognizable signatures that define different types of precipitation. For example, varying combinations of fat or skinny rain drops, snow, ice or hail distributed throughout the depth of the storm will produce different brightness temperatures when viewed at different angles. A storm may develop and behave differently depending on these variations.

Engineers packed the 380-pound AMPR payload with a delicate set of instruments and computer hardware. AMPR gathers data by measuring the amount of microwave radiation rising from the surface beneath -- often the ocean. Because rain water is a better emitter of microwave radiation than ocean water, the radiation measured from rainfall is actually greater during a big storm. This measurement is converted to a "brightness temperature," which correlates to how much radiation is being generated. The more rain, the higher the brightness temperature.

Alternatively, if a hurricane's clouds are full of ice or hail, as they usually are, much of the microwave radiation is scattered away. The corresponding brightness temperature is much lower than the anticipated surface measurement. Scientists can use those changes to determine how hard it's raining inside a storm or how much ice a given storm might contain.

"Whether rain drops are fat or skinny, and whether ice is round or bumpy, these factors are critical when we're trying to estimate rainfall rates," Petersen explained. "Because of air drag, the rate at which these precipitation particles fall through the air depends on their thickness or shape. A fat rain drop falls more slowly than a hail stone of the same size, for example -- that factor enables you to determine rainfall rate."

This image over Southern Brazil, taken from the space shuttle by an astronaut in February 1984 and shows a mixture of cold and warm clouds. (NASA/JSC)

After the GRIP experiment ends in September, Petersen and his team will unload the data and begin analyzing it, adding their findings to the increasingly large body of hurricane knowledge.

"The GRIP experiment will give us information about how a hurricane circulates and how it intensifies. Basically we have a bunch of theories about the role of precipitation in hurricanes, and we need to test them. That's where instruments like AMPR come in."

After this summer’s hurricane study, AMPR will continue to fly in storm campaigns. It's already scheduled for a major joint NASA and U.S. Department of Energy study in April 2011 to support the Global Precipitation Measurement

Petersen loves the challenge. Storms have fascinated him ever since his junior year of high school, when lightning struck just inches away from him while he was at a drive-in movie.

"The thing that excites me is looking inside a storm that we can't fly into," he said. "We can't fly inside these big storms because they're just too nasty. The only way to get information about what's going on inside is to do what AMPR does.

"Being able to look at the guts of a storm and figure out what's going on, that's the key thing for me," he added.

With any luck, AMPR's look into hurricanes will put scientists one step closer to predicting some of the world's fiercest storms.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/missions/grip/news/ampr.html

NASA Lightning Research Happens in a Flash

Lightning's connection to hurricane intensification has eluded researchers for decades, and for a riveting 40 days this summer, NASA lightning researchers will peer inside storms in a way they never have before.

Earth scientists and engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will soon fly the Lightning Instrument Package, or LIP, a flight instrument designed to track and document lightning as hurricanes develop and intensify. In August and September, LIP will fly on a remotely piloted Global Hawk airplane over the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 60,000 feet. LIP will be part of a NASA hurricane study called Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes, or GRIP for short. The study involves three storm chaser planes mounted with 15 instruments. LIP and the other instruments will work together to create the most complete view of hurricanes to date.

Dr. Richard Blakeslee (right) and Tony Kim (left) of the Marshall Center test the electric field mills used to measure lightning produced by thunderstorms. (NASA/MSFC/D. Stoffer)

"We're now putting LIP on an aircraft that can stay in the air for 30 hours," said Richard Blakeslee LIP principal investigator and Earth scientist at the the Marshall Center. "That’s unprecedented. We typically fly on airplanes that fly over a storm for a period of 10-15 minutes. But this plane can stay with a storm for hours."

"We'll be able to see a storm in a way we’ve never seen it before," he added. "We'll see how the storm develops over the long term, and how lightning varies with all the other things going on inside a hurricane. It's the difference between a single photograph and a full-length movie. That’s quite a paradigm shift."

While scientists know an increase in lightning means the storm is changing, it remains a mystery as to whether that increase signifies strengthening or weakening. Though scientists have quite a few ideas, they lack the data to firmly establish a concrete relationship. Researchers hope LIP's upcoming flights will change that. If scientists can figure out the ties between lightning and hurricane severity, meteorologists may be able to greatly improve their short-term forecasts. Researchers have connected lightning to everything from strong winds to flooding to tornadoes, and a few extra minutes of warning time can save lives each year.

The Lightning Instrument Package will fly aboard the Global Hawk, a remotely piloted airplane that reaches altitudes of 60,000 feet, about twice the height of a commercial airliner. LIP has flown numerous times before, but will now be on an aircraft that can stay in the air for 30 hours, an unprecedented improvement. (NASA)

"We can use lightning as a natural sensing tool to see into the heart of a storm," said Blakeslee. "Lightning allows us to get at rain and other processes going on within a storm."

For Blakeslee and the rest of the LIP team, the hurricane study this fall presents a tremendous opportunity. In its nearly 15-year lifespan, LIP has flown nearly 100 missions in 10 major field campaigns, soaring over more than 800 storms. That's unparalleled for a lightning instrument, according to Blakeslee, and LIP researchers hope it will continue its long tradition of successful research.

The Guts of the Lightning Instrument Package

LIP's instruments may look simple, but they're surprisingly complex. To measure the electric field in a storm, the instrument relies on electric field mills, devices that allow scientists to measure the amount of lightning a storm produces. Originally developed at NASA, the mills look like big cans -- each about a foot long and approximately 8 inches across. As the instrument flies through the air, a plate covering each can rotates, covering and uncovering four metal disks housed inside. Uncover a disk and electricity from the storm rushes in. Cover the disk and it rushes back out. The whole process converts the electrical current from DC to AC and back to DC, allowing scientists to measure how strong a storm's electric field is, and how prone to lightning it might be. A sudden shift in the strength of the electrical field allows scientists to determine that a lightning strike has occurred.

In addition, a conductivity probe reveals how easily electrical current can flow through the storm to the upper part of the atmosphere. The probe is a small nose-cone shaped device with two sensor tubes attached to each side. As the plane flies near a hurricane, small electrical particles called ions rush through the tube, allowing the team to count them.

The instrument will measure the amount of lightning produced by hurricanes and tropical storms. Lightning’s connection to hurricane intensification has eluded researchers for decades, and NASA scientists hope the upcoming hurricane experiment will help answer some puzzling questions. (NASA)

The LIP team uses all that data to determine how much lightning a hurricane produces and where it originates within the storm. By combining that data with wind speed, rainfall rate and other information, researchers can connect how lightning relates to hurricane intensification. And because Blakeslee and his team get their data real time, they can redirect the plane as needed to improve the likelihood of quality results.

After the summer hurricane study ends in September, the team will analyze, evaluate, and eventually release the data, a process which should take several months. Following that, the Lightning Instrument Package will continue to fly in hurricane and storm studies in hopes of collecting more data. The more data, the better the forecasts, Blakeslee said -- and the nearer scientists move to understanding these powerful storms.
The Long Journey of LIP

Of course, Blakeslee and the rest of the LIP team have had to overcome their fair share of challenges.

"When we first started out, we didn’t even know if what we do now was possible," Blakeslee said. "One of my colleagues told me, 'You won’t be able to make current measurements over storms.' But I said, 'Yes we can.' And now we do."

Lightning can serve as a natural sensing tool that allows scientists to understand what else could be happening in a storm. (National Weather Service/F. Smith)

"It's a pretty rewarding feeling," he said. "The biggest challenge now is that there’s always more to study than we possibly can. We've got to pick and choose, and sometimes that can be frustrating."

But for Blakeslee, there's nothing else he'd rather do.

"Lightning is just cool," he laughed. "I've always enjoyed hands-on science, and everything about lightning measurements is hands-on science. You build the instruments. You put them on airplanes. You go out and fly them. You get back the data. And then there's the satisfaction that it’s not all abstract -- we can actually apply what we're learning to real people, real situations and real problem-solving."

For now, the LIP team looks forward with anticipation to sending their instrument out on an unprecedented journey -- hopefully one that will bring scientists one step closer to solving one of science’s biggest mysteries.

For more information about NASA storm research and upcoming study, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/grip

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/missions/grip/news/lightning.html

NASA's TRMM Satellite Sees Heavy Rainfall in Hurricane Alex

Hurricane Alex is generating some very heavy rainfall, and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite known as TRMM has been calculating it from its orbit in space.

As predicted by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida, Alex intensified after entering the warm waters of the southwest Gulf of Mexico.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., scientists created an analysis of Alex's rainfall using data captured by the TRMM satellite on June 29, 2010 at 1350 UTC (9:50 a.m. EDT). At that time the sustained winds around Alex were estimated to be 60 knots (~69 mph). Alex continued to strengthen and was classified as a hurricane early on 30 June 2010. This made Alex the first hurricane in the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season.

The rainfall analysis used TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) data and TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) data. The TMI data showed that a heavy band of precipitation (some areas showed rain falling at more than 2 inches per hour) was spiraling into the center of Alex's intensifying circulation. The precipitation analysis was overlaid on visible and infrared data from TRMM's Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS). In this image a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES East) visible image was used to fill in locations not viewed by the TRMM satellite.

The TRMM satellite's data on June 29, 2010 at 9:50 a.m. EDT showed some heavy rain (red) falling at up to 2 inches per hour, spiraling toward Hurricane Alex's center. The yellow and green areas indicate moderate rainfall between .78 to 1.57 inches per hour. Credit: NASA, Hal Pierce

Alex is expected to continue to be a large rainmaker when it makes landfall. Rainfall accumulations are expected of between 6 and 12 inches, with isolated amounts of 20 inches.

Tropical Storm-force winds are expected to reach coastal areas in the warning areas this afternoon, while hurricane-force winds will reach the coast tonight. In addition, the National Hurricane Center noted "a dangerous storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 3 to 5 feet above ground level along the immediate coast to the north of where the center makes landfall."

By 11 a.m. EDT, Alex was still a category one hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph. Alex was located about 145 miles (235 km) east of La Pesca, Mexico and 190 miles (310 km) southeast of Brownsville, Texas. That makes Alex's center near 23.8 North and 95.5 West. Alex is moving northwest at 7 mph (11 km/hr), and has a minimum central pressure near 961 millibars.

Satellite data show that Alex is a large hurricane and the hurricane force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) from the center. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 200 miles (325 km) primarily to the northeast of the center.

The National Hurricane Center noted today that "Given such a low minimum pressure...the current satellite presentation and a favorable environment for intensification...the winds should increase today and Alex could reach category two before landfall."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2010/h2010_alex.html

Spinoffs Reveal Earth Benefits of NASA Technologies

Congressional staffers in the Rayburn House Office Building on May 20 were wondering why a robot was roaming the halls. Those who followed the robot were led to further surprises: an igloo-shaped life raft, long socks full of fine powder, an inflatable antenna shaped like an enormous beach ball -- all NASA technologies that, through commercial partnerships between NASA and industry, are improving life on Earth.

The second annual Spinoff Day on the Hill, hosted by Representative Suzanne Kosmas of Florida, featured seven companies who have partnered with NASA to bring innovations to market that are saving lives, protecting the environment, and enriching how we experience our planet.

The 1958 Space Act that created NASA mandated that the Agency transfer as much of its technology as possible for the benefit of the public. To date, NASA has documented more than 1662 of these technologies, called spinoffs, in its annual Spinoff publication (http://spinoff.nasa.gov), launched in 1976.

"We invest in technologies for what they will bring to NASA in terms of future missions of science and of exploration, but we can never forget that we also invest in these things because of what they do for us right here on Earth," said NASA chief technologist Bobby Braun, who presented remarks at the event.

The products on show at Spinoff Day on the Hill all trace their origins back to space. The igloo-shaped life raft? Engineers at Johnson Space Center originally developed the self-righting raft design to prevent life rafts holding astronauts from capsizing from the downdraft of helicopters after Apollo-era splashdown landings. Now manufactured by Givens Marine Survival Co. Inc. of Tiverton, Rhode Island, the raft is credited with saving the lives of over 450 sailors.

Unirem Inc., managed by Summit International/Rasstech Industries, of Houston, exhibited its Petroleum Remediation Product, or PRP, developed through the collaboration of industry scientists and NASA researchers. The powder technology, which absorbs and captures oil as it floats on the water's surface, may soon play a role in the cleanup of the catastrophic oil spill currently endangering the nation's Gulf coast.

GATR Technologies of Huntsville, Alabama, displayed one of its inflatable antennas, developed under NASA's Small Business Innovation Research program. Quickly deployable from two suitcase-size containers, GATR's antennas enabled communications during wild fires in southern California, after Hurricane Katrina, and following the earthquake in Haiti.

Airocide, a unique air purifier that helps preserve perishable foods and destroys airborne pathogens, was presented by KES Science and Technology Inc. of Kennesaw, Georgia, and Akida Holdings of Jacksonville, Florida. Originally developed by NASA-funded researchers to help preserve plants grown in space, the technology is improving food storage and distribution in remote regions of the world, as well as helping sanitize operating rooms and doctors' offices.

Also on display was Menlo Park, California-based Allocade Inc.'s OnCue scheduling software. The technology was invented by a former Ames Research Center computer scientist who helped design scheduling software for the Hubble Space Telescope. OnCue now helps hospitals operate more efficiently by optimizing constantly changing schedules for imaging procedures.

An igloo-shaped life raft and roaming robots were just a few of the NASA spinoff products showcased during the second annual "Spinoff Day on the Hill." Image Credit: NASA

Gigapan photographic technology, derived from the panoramic camera mast assemblies on the Mars Exploration Rovers, awed attendees with its ultra-high resolution imagery, while the Webby Award-winning NASA@Home and City interactive Web site (http://www.nasa.gov/city) shared information about spinoff technologies that can be found in homes and hometowns across the Nation.

Braun noted the economic impact NASA’s technological advancements can create, leading to "more Earth-based spinoffs, more technology-oriented jobs, and more business and industries that can compete in the global marketplace." He also highlighted the inspiration such innovation provides to students exploring education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

"What we have here are just a few outstanding examples, but there are so many others to learn about," said Doug Comstock, director of NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program. "The fabric of our everyday lives benefits from these space technologies."

One such example zipped along the halls of the Rayburn building even as Spinoff Day on the Hill came to an end. The Multi-function Agile Remote Control Robot, or MARCbot, was enhanced by NASA engineers and is now manufactured by Applied Geo Technologies Inc. of Choctaw, Mississippi. More than 300 of the robots are now in service overseas, keeping soldiers safer by helping identify possible explosive devices.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/nasalife/features/sdoh.html

This Month in Exploration - January

Visit "This Month in Exploration" every month to find out how aviation and space exploration have changed throughout the years, improving life for humans on Earth and in space. While reflecting on the events that led to NASA's formation and its rich history of accomplishments, "This Month in Exploration" will reveal where the agency is leading us -- to the moon, Mars and beyond.

225 Years Ago

January 7, 1785: Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries flew across the English Channel from Dover, England to a forest near Calais, France in their hydrogen balloon. At first the journey went well. But once over the Channel the balloon lost altitude and the pair had to toss ballast and other items overboard to remain aloft. About two hours after takeoff, they crossed the French coast clad only in their underwear and the cork life jackets they brought in case they landed in the water. It was the first time the channel was traversed by air.

105 Years Ago

January 3, 1905: Wilbur Wright met with U.S. Rep. Robert M. Nevin in an effort to interest the U.S. government in the use of airplanes for the military. Although the congressman submitted and endorsed a letter from Wright to President William Howard Taft and the secretary of war, the army declined the proposal.

90 Years Ago

January 2, 1920: Isaac Asimov, one of the most popular and prolific writers of science fiction, was born. Asimov’s three laws of robotics, introduced in his 1950 novel "I, Robot," have influenced work in robotics across the globe. The first law prohibits robots from injuring humans or allowing humans to come to harm.

January 29, 1920: President Woodrow Wilson appointed Orville Wright to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a small committee of unpaid, appointed scientists and engineers dedicated to aerodynamics research. aerodynamics. Wright would remain with the NACA until his death in 1948.

75 Years Ago

January 11, 1935: Amelia Earhart became the first woman pilot to fly solo between Hawaii and mainland United States. She flew her Lockheed Vega from Wheeler Field in Honolulu on the island of Oahu across the eastern Pacific to Oakland, Calif. and landed after 18 hours and 15 minutes. The flight occurred in adverse weather conditions and demonstrated Earhart's courage as well as her stubbornness.

Amelia Earhart. Credit: NASA

65 Years Ago

January 8, 1945: The Mitsubishi J8M1 rocket-interceptor "Sword Stroke" made its first test flight in Japan. The fighter’s unique “tailless” design was tested by towing it into the air and letting it glide back down. The rocket motors were added and tested later that summer.

50 Years Ago

January 14, 1960: President Eisenhower directed the transfer of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency's (ABMA) Development Operations Division to NASA, creating the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntstville, Ala. The head of ABMA, Dr. Wernher von Braun, remained as director of the new center.

January 21, 1960: Little Joe 1B was launched at 7:00 p.m. EST from Wallops Island, Va. with one crew member aboard—a Rhesus monkey called "Miss Sam." The mission tested the launch and abort systems of the Mercury spacecraft.

45 Years Ago

January 19, 1965: NASA launched the Gemini-2 spacecraft using the Titan 2 launch vehicle at 9:04 a.m. EST from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. after delays caused by two hurricanes and technical problems with hydraulic pressure. The mission was an unmanned test of the launch vehicle and the Gemini spacecraft. It was completed successfully.

40 Years Ago

January 23, 1970: NASA launched the ITOS 1/OSCAR 5 satellites via a Delta rocket at 6:34 a.m. EST from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The OSCAR 5 (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio), built primarily by students at the University of Melbourne in Australia, was the first amateur satellite to be remotely controlled. The University compiled hundreds of tracking reports from stations in 27 countries.

35 Years Ago

January 16, 1975: The U.S. Air Force set new climb-time records with the McDonnell Douglas F-15A aircraft, operating from Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota. A modified F-15 was stripped of its gun, its radar, some avionics, the tail hook, one generator, part of the hydraulic system, actuators and 40 pounds of external paint. During Operation Streak Eagle, the aircraft broke all existing time-to-altitude records.

The F-15A aircraft in flight. Credit: NASA

30 Years Ago

January 7, 1980: A single-engine Mooney 231 flew non-stop, coast-to coast— using only 105 gallons of fuel. This set a non-stop record of just over eight hours.

25 Years Ago

January 7, 1985: Japan launched Sakigake from Uchinoura Space Center as the country’s first interplanetary mission. The probe was essentially a test mission prior to launching another probe, Suisei, designed as part of an international effort to study Halley’s comet. Sakigake means ‘pioneer’ in Japanese.

20 Years Ago

January 9, 1990: The space shuttle Columbia (STS-32) launched from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. at 7:35 a.m. EST and deployed the Syncom IV-5 satellite. Columbia’s crew also retrieved the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) on January 11. The spacecraft landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 1:35 a.m. PST on January 20.

10 Years Ago

January 3, 2000: The Galileo probe flew by Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Launched in October of 1989, the spacecraft reached Jupiter in December of 1995. Its mission was to conduct detailed studies of the giant planet and its largest moons, which it did until 2003 when the probe disintegrated in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Information about Europa returned by Galileo led scientists to speculate about liquid water oceans and the possibility of life beneath the moon’s icy surface.

5 Years Ago

January12, 2005: NASA launched its Deep Impact spacecraft by a Delta 2 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Fla. at 1:47 p.m. EST. Its mission, the first of its kind, was to fly by Comet Tempel 1 and eject an impactor into the comet, releasing debris for scientific study. The successful impact and observation revealed answers to questions regarding the exterior and interior structure of a comet.

Present Day

Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA

January 20, 2010: Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., will celebrate his eightieth birthday this year. Aldrin, a U.S. astronaut and Apollo 11 crewmember, was one of the first two humans (along with Neil Armstrong) to set foot on the moon during the historic Apollo 11 mission. He developed spacecraft docking and rendezvous techniques, as well as underwater training techniques for space walks that are still in use today.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/thismonth/this_month_jan10.html

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New Results from a Terra-ific Decade in Orbit

December 18, 2009, marks the tenth year since the launch of Terra, one of NASA's "flagship" Earth observing satellites. But the decade is more than just a mechanical milestone. With each additional day and year that the satellite monitors Earth, scientists achieve a lengthened record of Earth's vital signs. It's that record that helps scientists assess the health of Earth's ocean, land, and atmosphere, and determine how these systems are changing.

"Earth system science is a relatively young science," said Marc Imhoff, project scientist for the mission and a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Terra's sensors have provided the first coordinated set of observations allowing us to link Earth system processes across space and time so we can better understand how they function together and how we interact with them."

Global measurements of the carbon stored by plants (net primary productivity) during photosynthesis, based on MODIS data, are an important piece of the climate change puzzle. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Since Terra's five instruments officially saw "first light" on Feb 24, 2000, after a post-launch checkout, the data have continued to advance Earth system science. Here's a sample of the latest developments to be presented by Terra researchers at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Droughts Slow Earth's Carbon Metabolism

Data from Terra's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) have turned up evidence that climate change may have negative effects for ecosystems earlier than we thought, according to Maosheng Zhao, an ecologist at the University of Montana in Missoula.

For the past several decades, photosynthesis by land plants and trees has absorbed, or acted as a "sink," for about one third of global carbon dioxide emissions, helping to slow the increase of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. But scientists have found that global carbon uptake by land plants is declining.

A large bloom of cyanobacteria spread across Guatemala’s Lake Atitlán in green filaments, visible in this simulated-natural-color image from ASTER data taken Nov. 22, 2009. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

"This decreasing trend has very important implications for how much and how long humans should count on the carbon sink capacity of terrestrial ecosystems," Zhao said.

To arrive at their finding, Zhao and colleagues analyzed MODIS data from 2000 to 2008. Directly measuring carbon dioxide from space is difficult, so scientists rely on sensors to measure the photosynthetic activity of plants. That activity can then be translated to an estimate of how much carbon dioxide the plants are absorbing. "So far, MODIS is the best sensor we have for monitoring global vegetation dynamics," Zhao said.

ASTER's ability to sense fine-scale heated surfaces provided a look at a flow from the side of Russian volcano Bezymianny in Kamchatka Dec. 28, 2000. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

A closer look reveals that carbon uptake is still on the rise in middle and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. But that benefit is outweighed by changes in the tropics and southern hemisphere, where scientists observed less carbon being absorbed.

Zhao thinks that a major cause of the decrease is warming-related droughts, which impact crop yields, timber production, and expanses of natural vegetation.

Some computer models have predicted that by the middle of this century, carbon-climate feedbacks could cause terrestrial ecosystems to shift from being carbon sinks to sources, according to Zhao. "Our result is an early warning that we must take some actions to mitigate human-induced climate change."

Natural Hazards Tracked

There's no escaping the risk to human populations posed by natural hazards. But for almost 10 years, Terra has helped governments and local groups respond to and mitigate the consequences.

A MISR camera imaged California's Station Fire mid-morning Aug. 30, 2009, as it was aggressively spreading north of Los Angeles. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Just last month in El Salvador, Hurricane Ida brought heavy rains that triggered flooding and deadly mudslides. In another incident in November, a major algal bloom in Guatemala's Lake Atitlan had residents concerned about the lake's health and the safety of people who swim in and drink the water.

To help monitor these hazards, local governments and data processing groups turn to NASA for images from Terra's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER ). The instrument's spatial resolutions of about 15 to 90 meters produce detailed maps of land surface characteristics such as temperature, reflectance and elevation, which are key for helping decision-makers determine where and how to respond.

"The request for the mudslide and algal bloom images are typical of the types of requests we receive," said Michael Abrams, ASTER science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We also work with the U.S. Forest Service to image active wildfires for logistical support and often for post-fire damage assessment and mitigation."

Instrument operators can point ASTER -- an instrument provided by Japan's Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry -- at specific targets and acquire about 500 images per day. Each day about 3,000 requests are active in the request database, ranging from field work, global maps, and regional monitoring. To decide where to point the instrument, an algorithm was developed to automatically prioritize requests.

For example, immediate threats such as the requests from El Salvador's Civil Protection Agency to monitor the flooding and mudslides and Guatemala's Ministry of Agriculture to monitor the algal bloom, receive higher priority. Lower priority targets include a project to obtain complete global maps of ASTER imagery at least 3-5 times during mission.

As part of its monitoring of natural hazards, ASTER has been keeping a long-term eye on more than 1,000 active volcanoes around the world. The extended archive will be used by researchers to characterize the historical behavior for each volcano.

"To improve prediction, we need to know which signals are important," Abrams said.

Pollution Travels High and Far

The Station wildfire that burned southern California in late August 2009 was the largest fire in the recorded history of Los Angeles County and its Angeles National Forest, with more than 160,577 acres burned. Pollution created by the wildfire traveled even further. Rising more than 4 miles (7 kilometers) above Earth's surface, smoke from the fire was carried over Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, and carbon monoxide from the fire traveled at least as far as Louisiana.

The measurement of smoke height was possible with Terra's Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR ), which can resolve atmospheric components -- such as, clouds, dust and smoke plumes -- in three dimensions. MISR can also measure horizontal winds.

CERES data show the patterns of reflected shortwave solar energy (blue, left) and longwave thermal energy emitted from the Earth (red, right). Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Scientists have used the instrument to develop a multi-year "climatology" or statistical database of the heights to which wildfires inject smoke into the atmosphere. The database now contains observations from more than 7,000 smoke plumes in North America, Siberia, and Africa.

"We discovered that for about one-fifth of wildfires, the smoke particles escape the low, turbulent part of the atmosphere and rise to a higher altitude, where they can remain concentrated for long periods and also be transported great distances " said David Diner, MISR principal investigator at JPL.

Researchers studying the dispersal of particulates from wildfires, volcanoes, and dust storms also use the data to test theoretical simulations against observed behavior. These simulations will help researchers understand, for example, what the effect of more fires in a warmer climate might have on air quality.

Other scientists are watching pollution that travels even greater distances, across international boundaries. Measurements of carbon monoxide from the Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere instrument MOPITT -- provided by the Canadian Space Agency -- and of aerosols from the MISR and MODIS instruments allow scientists to observe both the sources and transport of pollution on a global scale.

"The Terra satellite made it possible to track pollution plumes as they are transported across the ocean, allowing us to observe numerous plumes of Asian pollution transported to the United States," said Daniel Jacob, an atmospheric scientist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. "The findings show that air pollution is a global issue, and thus that meeting air quality goals in the United States will increasingly require international cooperation."

Balancing the Energy Budget

As society considers carbon dioxide caps and geoengineering, open questions remain about exactly how, why, and where Earth is warming. Answering those questions requires a clear picture of how the Earth's energy budget is changing.

For a decade, researchers using the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) experiment on Terra have been taking stock of how much solar energy is absorbed by the planet's atmosphere and surface, and how much infrared and heat energy is emitted back into space. CERES scientists also study how cloud properties influence the energy exchange from space to the atmosphere to the ground and back again.

"CERES has provided a decade of accurate observations that allow us to explore changes over time, to see how radiation at the top of the atmosphere varies seasonally and annually," said Kevin Trenberth, A CERES investigator from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "The longer the record, the more valuable it becomes."

Earth's complex energy budget accounts for how much solar energy reaches the planet's atmosphere and surface, and how much infrared and heat energy escapes back into space. Credit: NASA/ Sally Bensusen

The observations have shown that the world is cloudier than we thought, and changes in cloudiness can lead to regional and global fluctuations in the heat budget. For instance, albedo is decreasing in the Arctic as snow and sea ice melt, but there is also evidence of compensation from an increase in cloud cover.

Researchers including Norman Loeb of NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., and principal investigator for the CERES instrument, have found that measurements of the energy budget from space correlate well with what is being observed by heat content observations in the ocean, where most solar heat retained by Earth is stored.

Most strikingly, the CERES science team has updated the numbers in the planetary budget ledger and found a gap between incoming and outgoing radiation. The Earth is estimated to be absorbing at a rate of about 0.9 Watts per square meter more than it is emitting -- large enough to provoke the question: what does it mean for climate change?

"Terra has allowed us to observe cloud heights with MISR; cloud density and coverage, with MODIS, as well as sea ice, glaciers and surface temperatures; and incoming and outgoing radiation with CERES," said Marc Imhoff, project scientist for Terra. "That's a very powerful combo for understanding how the atmosphere, land, and oceans work together in balancing heat."

Related AGU talks
Wednesday, Dec. 16
U31C-01 Tracking Earth's global energy
U31C-05 Terra at 10: CERES Results
U32A-01 Geological mapping and hazards monitoring using ASTER data
U32A-02 Using Terra observations to quantify sources and intercontinental transport of pollution
U32A-04 MISR at 10: Looking back, ahead, and in between
U32A-07 Variations and trends of terrestrial primary production observed by MODIS

Related links:

NASA's American Geophysical Union homepage
› www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/agu/index.html
Related story: Terra details urban heat islands
› www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/terra/news/heat-islands.html

Terra Tracks Ten Years of Change
› terra.nasa.gov/Ten
Terra: The EOS Flagship
› terra.nasa.gov

About Terra
› earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/AM1

World of Change
› earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange

Landslides in El Salvador
› earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=41365

Drought Cycles in Australia
› earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/australia.php
Tracking Nature's Contribution to Pollution
› earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ContributionPollution
Climate and Earth's Energy Budget
› earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/EnergyBalance

Seasonal Changes in Global Net Radiation
› earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=35555

Earth's Energy Budget Animations
› svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010300/a010395/index.html

Kathryn Hansen and Mike Carlowicz
NASA's Earth Science News Team

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/terra/news/decade-orbit.html

Hubble's Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region

Just in time for the holidays: a Hubble Space Telescope picture postcard of hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds. The festive portrait is the most detailed view of the largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood.

The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus.

Many of the diamond-like icy blue stars are among the most massive stars known. Several of them are over 100 times more massive than our Sun. These hefty stars are destined to pop off, like a string of firecrackers, as supernovas in a few million years.

The image, taken in ultraviolet, visible, and red light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, spans about 100 light-years. The nebula is close enough to Earth that Hubble can resolve individual stars, giving astronomers important information about the stars' birth and evolution.

The brilliant stars are carving deep cavities in the surrounding material by unleashing a torrent of ultraviolet light, and hurricane-force stellar winds (streams of charged particles), which are etching away the enveloping hydrogen gas cloud in which the stars were born. The image reveals a fantasy landscape of pillars, ridges, and valleys, as well as a dark region in the center that roughly looks like the outline of a holiday tree. Besides sculpting the gaseous terrain, the brilliant stars can also help create a successive generation of offspring. When the winds hit dense walls of gas, they create shocks, which may be generating a new wave of star birth.

The movement of the LMC around the Milky Way may have triggered the massive cluster's formation in several ways. The gravitational tug of the Milky Way and the companion Small Magellanic Cloud may have compressed gas in the LMC. Also, the pressure resulting from the LMC plowing through the Milky Way's halo may have compressed gas in the satellite. The cluster is a rare, nearby example of the many super star clusters that formed in the distant, early universe, when star birth and galaxy interactions were more frequent. Previous Hubble observations have shown astronomers that super star clusters in faraway galaxies are ubiquitous.

The LMC is located 170,000 light-years away and is a member of the Local Group of Galaxies, which also includes the Milky Way.

The Hubble observations were taken Oct. 20-27, 2009. The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars; the green from the glow of oxygen; and the red from fluorescing hydrogen.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, and is an International Year of Astronomy 2009 program partner.

Images and more information are available at:

› HubbleSite

Space Telescope Science Institute

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/hst_img_festive_r136.html

NASA Marks the Joint Typhoon Warning Center's 50th Anniversary

This year, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) turns 50 years old, and NASA is proud to be one of their partners in tropical cyclone forecasting and research.

JTWC is a joint U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force office that includes Navy, Air Force and civilian meteorologists and satellite analysts. The center, located in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, provides forecasts, advisories and warnings on tropical cyclones (the generic name for a typhoon, cyclone, hurricane, tropical storm or tropical depression).

This is the front Web page for the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Credit: JTWC

NASA does not forecast tropical cyclones, but provides satellite data to the JTWC to enable meteorologists there to create forecasts for tropical cyclones in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and southern hemisphere. In turn, NASA posts JTWC's forecasts for cyclones that occur in these regions on the NASA Hurricane and Tropical Cyclone page.

JTWC provides tropical cyclone reconnaissance and forecasting to support the safety of military and other government assets in the U.S. Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command areas of responsibility. JTWC forecasters there use NASA, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), and foreign satellite sensors, in addition to shore, buoy, ship, and aircraft observations and surface radar imagery. They also utilize the forecasts produced by computer models operated by the United States, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts in the production of tropical cyclone forecasts.

JTWC uses TRMM satellite images like this one to assist with their forecasts. Here, TRMM captured Category 4 Typhoon Melor at 14:29 UTC on October 5. Melor had a nearly complete inner eyewall (the innermost bright green ring indicates moderate rain), surrounded by moderate rain (wider ring of bright green). Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

Bill Patzert, climate scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. said, "For the JTWC, hurricane, cyclone and typhoon forecasting is a year-round job. When the seasons switch hemispheres, the JTWC follows. They are a 24/7, all year center. For the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans (in both hemispheres), the Center is the go-to cyclone forecasting group. For the past 50 years, they have not only insured the safety of America's fighting forces, but also served the many nations of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. Also, for all scientists, the JTWC archive is an invaluable scientific resource."

Up until it’s recent failure, the center routinely used NASA QuikSCAT scatterometer-derived ocean surface wind vectors (speed and direction) data to monitor storm genesis (determine when systems reach tropical depression status), storm location, and the radius of gale force winds.

Other NASA satellite data used by JTWC include the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission’s (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI) and its precipitation radar, Aqua’s Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E), the CloudSat cloud radar, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard both NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

Non-NASA satellites JTWC uses include microwave imagers onboard the DMSP spacecraft (SSM/I and SSMIS sensors), microwave sounders on NOAA's low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites (AMSU), geostationary data from the United States, Japan, and European Space Agency and several other LEO sensors from foreign sources. JTWC also uses data from the Naval Research Laboratory's Windsat instrument. Windsat is a satellite-based polarimetric microwave radiometer that is part of the risk reduction for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).

"Because of its vast area of responsibility, which includes the Northwest Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean where there are no routine aircraft reconnaissance missions, JTWC must rely heavily on satellite data to obtain fixes or storm positions to track tropical cyclones over the open ocean," said Stephen E. Lang, a Research Meteorologist on the TRMM mission at SSAI and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

JTWC also uses Aqua's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) data. Here AIRS captured Typhoon Melor's high thunderstorm cloud temperatures (in purple) that were colder than minus 63 Fahrenheit. This image from October 4 at 12:29 EDT clearly shows Melor's eye. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen

Lang said "In 2004, the last year that JTWC reported detailed statistics on fixes, TRMM accounted for around 16 percent of all position fixes. TRMM's TMI is especially useful in the early stages of storm development because it can see through the upper-level clouds and has the resolution to detect low-level circulations before an eye has formed. This ability means it can also aid in refining estimates of storm intensity."

JTWC's cyclone forecasts include graphical and text products that include the projected storm track, intensity, and extent of the high wind region of each tropical cyclone.

JTWC was established in 1959 by the U.S. Pacific Command to consolidate and improve the United States military tropical cyclone forecasting effort. Prior to the establishment of the JTWC, the U.S. military had numerous tropical forecast centers throughout the Pacific region. The impetus for the establishment of the JTWC was Typhoon Cobra which struck ships of the Pacific Fleet in 1944, killing 790 sailors and sinking three ships, damaging nine others, and destroying 146 aircraft.

The JTWC, the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center provide forecasts that cover all global tropical cyclones around the world. JTWC covers the western Pacific and Indian Oceans both in the northern and southern hemispheres, while NOAA's National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Centers cover the Atlantic and the Pacific region east of the International Dateline.

"NASA salutes the Joint Typhoon Warning Center on behalf the global scientific community and the many large and small nations of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Many thanks for your 50 years of service," Patzert said.

Rob Gutro
Goddard Space Flight Center

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/features/typhoon.html

NASA Assessing New Roles for Ailing QuikScat Satellite

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA mission managers are assessing options for future operations of the venerable QuikScat satellite following the age-related failure of a mechanism that spins the scatterometer antenna. This spinning antenna had been providing near-real-time ocean- surface wind speed and direction data over 90 percent of the global ocean every day.

In recent months, the QuikScat project team has been monitoring a pattern of increasing friction in the bearings that allow the antenna to spin, leading to increased resistance and strain on the motor that turns QuikScat's rotating antenna. This degradation was fully expected, as the spin mechanism was designed to last about 5 years.

After experiencing further difficulties over the weekend, the antenna stopped spinning early today, Nov. 23. The QuikScat spacecraft and scatterometer instrument themselves remain in otherwise good health. Should engineers be unable to restart the antenna, QuikScat will be unable to continue its primary science mission, as the antenna spin is necessary to estimate wind speed and direction and form the wide data swath necessary to obtain nearly global sampling.

Artist's concept of QuickScat. Image credit: NASA/JPL

Over the coming days, NASA managers will review contingency plans for restarting the antenna and assess options for using the mission in its present degraded state to advance Earth system science in the event the antenna cannot be restarted. For example, degraded scatterometer measurements from QuikScat can still be useful for cross-calibrating the mission's climate data record with measurements from other scatterometers, including the operational EUMETSAT ASCAT instrument, India's recently launched Oceansat-2 and a planned Chinese scatterometer. Specific operational forecasting applications such as polar ice measurements and limited hurricane observations may also be supportable.

By any measure of success, the 10-year-old QuikScat mission is a unique national resource that has achieved and far surpassed its science objectives. Designed for a two-year lifetime, QuikScat has been used around the globe by the world's operational meteorological agencies to improve weather forecasts and identify the location, size and strength of hurricanes and other storms in the open ocean. The mission has also provided critical information for monitoring, modeling, forecasting and researching our atmosphere, ocean and climate. More information on QuikScat is online at: http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/quikscat/index.cfm.

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/quickscat20091123.html

NASA's Hurricane Page is All "a-Twitter"

NASA is all "a-Twitter" about its tropical cyclone research. In 2005, NASA created the NASA Hurricane and Tropical Cyclone Web page that covers NASA research on tropical cyclones around the world every day. That includes all ocean basins in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Now, NASA's Hurricane page has a companion "Twitter" page.

NASAHurricane on Twitter is updated daily and provides updates on the tropical cyclone happenings in various ocean basins. The primary source for "Tweets" is the daily storm updates from the NASA Hurricane page (www.nasa.gov/hurricane). The storm updates always include a NASA satellite image of a tropical cyclone, its most recent strength and location, and what the NASA satellite image reveals. If there are watches and warnings, the updates usually include them from the forecast source.

Image of the Twitter/NASAHurricane page. The page is updated every day on weekdays, sometimes on weekends, and covers all of the ocean basins around the world. Credit: NASA/Twitter.com

Separate Web features that highlight NASA hurricane research are also posted on the NASAHurricane Twitter site. The site also includes research features on topics such as the status of El Niňos and La Niňas, flood maps of areas inundated by tropical cyclones, hurricane videos, and more.

"The Twitter site is also used to provide up-to-the-minute updates, including watches and warnings, and background information," said Rob Gutro, manager of the NASA Hurricane Page at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Even though there may not be tropical activity in an ocean basin, people still want to know why and Twitter provides the vehicle to do that in an easy way on a daily basis." The Twitter NASAHurricane uses information from numerous forecast centers, including the National Hurricane Center, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, and the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

If there's a tropical wave that is has any potential for development, and it's cited by one of the forecast centers, NASAHurricane's Twitter will explain what it is, and where it is. For example, if there's a tropical wave in the Atlantic Ocean, Twitter provides the opportunity to highlight it and give a status on it.

NASA uses several satellites in hurricane research including Aqua, CloudSat, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite, Jason-1, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2, Landsat, QuikScat, and Terra. NASA also creates images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. NASA researches hurricanes and supplies some of the data from these satellites to NOAA, who forecast the storms. Each storm update on the NASA Hurricane page, and subsequently posted on Twitter, will reference what at least one of these satellites is seeing in a current tropical cyclone.

The MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Typhoon Mirinae on October 30 at 1 p.m. Asia/Manila Time approaching the Philippines (left), part of which are already under a part of Mirinae's clouds. Credit: NASA MODIS Rapid Response

Using all of these satellites and their instruments and computer modeling, NASA scientists gather data on many factors that determine if a tropical cyclone may strengthen or weaken. Data include: storm and surface winds; sea surface heights and temperatures; rainfall intensity and area; lightning; cloud water; water vapor; cloud heights, extent of cloud cover and cloud temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure; cloud development; and size of the storm.

All of this research is housed on NASA's Hurricane/Tropical Cyclone Web page, which explains the research NASA does on tropical cyclones. It contains daily storm updates from storms around the world, videos, educator lesson plans, a storm archive since 2005, videos and animations, International Space Station cyclone videos, a live alerts feed on the Atlantic Basin from the National Hurricane Center, NASA hurricane missions, "About Hurricanes: background information," fact sheet, "Hurricanes in History," and education links.

"NASAHurricane Twitter is excited about communicating 'in-real-time' to hurricane enthusiasts worldwide," said climatologist Bill Patzert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. "'Tweeting' the latest in NASA research and technology, developing hurricane events and impacts cranks up NASA's commitment to rapidly providing the most up-to-date and useful hurricane information to every level of society."

Related Link:

› NASA's Twitter page for hurricanes

Rob Gutro
Goddard Space Flight Center

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/features/twitter.html

NASA Satellites See Ida Spreading Out Before Landfall

NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites are keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Ida, and both have instruments aboard that show her clouds and rains are already widespread inland over the U.S. Gulf coast states. Infrared NASA satellite imagery revealed that Ida lost the "signature shape" of a tropical cyclone, and that the storm's clouds have already spread far to the north (over land) of its center of circulation.

At 4 p.m. EDT on November 9, Tropical Storm Ida's maximum sustained winds were near 70 mph. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 200 miles from the center. Ida was located near 28.4 North and 88.5 West. That's about 60 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 165 miles south-southwest of Pensacola, Florida. Ida is moving north near 18 mph, and is expected to turn to the east after landfall. Minimum central pressure is 991 millibars. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 200 miles from the center.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured cold thunderstorm cloud tops of Ida in an infrared image at 1:47 p.m. EDT on November 9. The image showed Ida's clouds and rains have spread over Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida as its center approaches the coast.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured cold thunderstorm cloud tops of Ida in this infrared image from November 9. Ida's clouds and rains have spread over Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida as its center approaches the coast. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen

The infrared imagery revealed that the cloud tops are not as cold as they were (colder than -63 Fahrenheit) when Ida was a hurricane, indicating Ida has weakened.

In addition to satellite imagery showing that Ida's center is shifting, the National Hurricane Center's last hurricane hunter aircraft fix showed the 700 millibar and surface centers of Ida coming apart, or "decoupling." If you think of a tropical storm link the children's spring toy, "Slinky," the top part of the spring would be leaning over the bottom.

The Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument on NASA's Terra satellite also provided a visible image of Tropical Storm Ida's cloud cover as she was approaching the U.S. Gulf coast at 12:15 p.m. ET today, and showed the cloud cover spreading out.

The Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image of Tropical Storm Ida approaching the U.S. Gulf coast at 12:15 p.m. ET today, November 9. Credit: NASA MODIS Rapid Response

Tropical storm warnings are still in effect from Grand Isle, Lousiana to Aucilla River, Florida, including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. Rainfall is still expected between 3 to 6 inches, with up to 8 inches in areas from the Gulf Coast northward into the eastern Tennessee Valley and the southern Appalachians.

Live radar from the National Weather Service from Mobile, Alabama: http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=MOB&product=NCR&overlay=11101111&loop=yes; Fort Rucker, Alabama radar: http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?product=NCR&rid=eox&loop=yes; and northwest Florida radar: http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?product=NCR&rid=evx&loop=yes,

Ida's center of circulation is expected to make its official landfall during the early morning hours on Tuesday, November 10, and large and dangerous surf and a storm surge of 3 to 5 feet are forecast to accompany Ida's center.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

For more information http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2009/h2009_Ida.html

NASA's GOES Project Offers Real-Time Hurricane Alley Movies

People love to get the big picture of hurricane alleys, and thanks to the GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., they can now get real-time satellite animations of the eastern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

NASA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) Project is offering real-time HDTV movies of the east- and west-coast "hurricane alley" regions. There are two types of movies for both the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. There are "Coastal" and "Global" movies. The two coastal movies (one for each ocean) show four satellite image frames per hour over the previous two days. The two global movies show two frames per hour over the most recent three days. All four movies are automatically updated every hour.

"The color frames are composed by overlaying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) GOES cloud images on a true-color background previously derived from NASA's Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imager," said GOES Project Scientist Dennis Chesters on the NASA GOES Project at Goddard. MODIS is an instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites to provide color imagery of the Earth's surface. "The GOES infrared images show the convective storms 24 hours a day. During daylight, the GOES visible images reveal the low clouds that provide detail and a sense of the low-level winds," Chesters said.

NASA GOES Project now offers real-time HDTV movies of the east- and west-coast "hurricane alley" regions. This is a short movie of GOES satellite imagery showing Hurricane Bill from August 2009. Credit: NASA GOES Project › Watch video (3.6 MB mp4)
› Watch video (14 MB mp4)

Hurricanes develop far from land in wide areas of the sub-tropical Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where only satellites can provide up-to-date weather data. NASA's GOES Project has created a method to animate satellite imagery on a true-color map over that large area to watch the early development of hurricanes.

"These new live animations provide panoramic views of each hurricane alley in HDTV wide-screen format," Chesters said. Viewers can see tropical cyclones in the Pacific developing off of the western Mexican or Central American coasts, potentially threatening Mexico or Hawaii. The Atlantic panorama revels the potential hurricanes that threaten the Caribbean islands and the USA's eastern and gulf coasts, and also shows the constant flow of convective storms across the eastern United States.

All of the animations can be found at the NASA GOES Project Web page: http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/. There are four links, each labeled "Hurricane Alley HDTV," next to the GOES-EAST and the GOES-WEST images of the USA and the globe. Each link delivers a hurricane alley movie from the area suggested by the image next to the link.

For example, to see what's happening in the always stormy Atlantic, click the link next to the GOES-EAST global image: http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/goescolor/goeseast/overview2/movie/alley_east_globe.mp4

Stretch your browser window wide to see the entire panorama.

The "global view" of the Atlantic Ocean is most interesting because it displays several weather regimes simultaneously. It shows the easterly winds in Hurricane Alley, daily thunderstorms over the Antilles, storms across the southeast U.S., the prevailing westerly winds and Atlantic storms at mid-latitudes.

There is a little date/time stamp in the lower left corner of each frame so viewers know which day they're viewing. The date/time is odometer-style: YYMMDDhhmm, an abbreviation for YEAR-MONTH-DAY-hour-minute, and is in Universal Time.

The movies are 1280x720p MPEG4 (H.264) in an Apple Quicktime file, and are about 20 Megabytes each.

Hurricane Alley animations can be found at the NASA GOES Project Web page.

Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/features/hurricane_alley.html