Topic: Hurricane

NASA reports on the effects of Strong Solar Flares

May 14, 2013 |

Written by Karen C. Fox
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD – Given a legitimate need to protect Earth from the most intense forms of space weather — great bursts of electromagnetic energy and particles that can sometimes stream from the sun — some people worry that a gigantic “killer solar flare” could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth, but this is not actually possible.

Solar activity is indeed currently ramping up toward what is known as solar maximum, something that occurs approximately every 11 years. However, this same solar cycle has occurred over millennia so anyone over the age of 11 has already lived through such a solar maximum with no harm.

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft captured this image of a solar flare as it erupted from the sun early on Nov 4, 2003. This was the most powerful flare measured with modern methods, classified as an X28.
(Credit: ESA and NASA/SOHO)

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NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spots huge Hurricane at Saturn’s North Pole

April 30, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn’s north pole.

In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane’s eye is about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are traveling 330 mph(150 meters per second). The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon.

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NASA to send ISS-RapidScat instrument to International Space Station to measure Ocean Winds

February 3, 2013 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – In a clever reuse of hardware originally built to test parts of NASA’s QuikScat satellite, the agency will launch the ISS-RapidScat instrument to the International Space Station in 2014 to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction.

The ISS-RapidScat instrument will help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring, and understanding of how ocean-atmosphere interactions influence Earth’s climate.

Artist’s rendering of NASA’s ISS-RapidScat instrument (inset), which will launch to the International Space Station in 2014 to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction and help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring. It will be installed on the end of the station’s Columbus laboratory. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JSC)

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NASA Satellites monitor Hurricane Sandy

October 30, 2012 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Hurricane Sandy is expected to affect as many as 60 million Americans this week as it combines with other weather fronts to create an anticipated ‘superstorm.’ Satellites and instruments from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, are busy monitoring the storm. NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Tracks Sandy’s Approach

NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua spacecraft captured this infrared image of Hurricane Sandy at 2:17pm EDT on October 29th, 2012.

NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua spacecraft captured this infrared image of Hurricane Sandy, another weather front to the west and cold air coming down from Canada at 2:17pm EDT Oct. 29th. The hurricane center is the darkest purple area in the Atlantic just to the east of the New Jersey coast, reflecting Sandy’s areas of heaviest rainfall. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Global Hawk unmanned aircraft flys over Hurricane Lelie in the Atlantic

September 8, 2012 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – NASA has begun its latest hurricane science field campaign by flying an unmanned Global Hawk aircraft over Hurricane Leslie in the Atlantic Ocean during a day-long flight that began in California and ended in Virginia.

With the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission, NASA for the first time will be flying Global Hawks from the U.S. East Coast.

An unmanned NASA Global Hawk aircraft comes in for a landing at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, VA, Sept. 7, kicking off the month-long Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission. HS3 will help researchers and forecasters uncover information about how hurricances and tropical storms form and intensify. (Image credit: NASA)

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Tennessee National Guard Prepares for Hurricane Response

August 27, 2011 |

Nashville, TN – Soldiers and Airmen across Tennessee are preparing for a possible activation of National Guard troops, facilities, and equipment in response to the potential landfall of Hurricane Irene.

“We were contacted by National Guard Bureau Wednesday to determine what resources we can provide should the hurricane move inland along the East Coast,” said Brig. Gen. Robert Harris, Tennessee’s Assistant Adjutant General-Army. 

United States Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys line the ramp at the Tennessee National Guard Army Aviation Support Facility #1 in Smyrna, TN. The aircraft were evacuated from military bases in North Carolina in anticipation of Hurricane Irene. (Photo: Nate Crawford, National Guard Public Affairs Office)

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Sunspot Breakthrough

August 26, 2011 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science@NASA

Washington, D.C. – Imagine forecasting a hurricane in Miami weeks before the storm was even a swirl of clouds off the coast of Africa—or predicting a tornado in Kansas from the flutter of a butterfly’s wing1 in Texas. These are the kind of forecasts meteorologists can only dream about.

Could the dream come true? A new study by Stanford researchers suggests that such forecasts may one day be possible—not on Earth, but on the sun.

“We have learned to detect sunspots before they are visible to the human eye,” says Stathis Ilonidis, a PhD student at Stanford University. “This could lead to significant advances in space weather forecasting.”

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Hurricane season starts today; forecasters predict “average” season

June 1, 2008 |

An average season has 11 named storms, including six hurricanes for which two reach major status, and that what professional forecasters are calling for in the summer of 2008.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center “projected climate conditions point to a near normal or above normal hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin this year. The prediction was issued at a news conference called to urge residents in vulnerable areas to be fully prepared for the onset of hurricane season, which begins June 1.” NOAA’s Atlantic hurricane season outlook will be updated on August 7, just prior to what is historically the peak period for hurricane activity. The season runs through November 30. «Read the rest of this article»

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