FOUR WEATHER STUDS AND A BABE

Global Warming Snows Cover NW North America

2012-01-28T02:44:00.001-06:00

NOAA's Suomi Observatory First Images

2012-01-27T03:49:00.000-06:00

The satellite formerly known as NPP, now re-named Suomi Observatory, in honor of the pioneer of satellite meteorology has collected the first color imagery. Not sure if this is a mosaic, or just an amazingly wide field of view for a polar-orbiter. - HLG

Biggest Snowfall in Japan History Due to Global Warming

2012-01-18T04:36:00.002-06:00

Jan 18, 2012

An unusually powerful storm hit the city of Iwamizawa on Monday, leaving behind mounds of snow nearly two metres deep.

Scientists say they can't confirm exactly how much snow fell because their measuring instruments were damaged in the blizzard.

But the island's meteorological agency said this is the most snow Iwamizawa has been hit with since records began in 1946.

Here, the sheer weight of the snow caused the collapse of a wooden roof.

The falling structure knocked over several stoves, setting the building ablaze.

On Tuesday, many bus and train services remained suspended due to snow on the tracks and roadways.

Expected History Snowfall in Seatlle Due to Global Warming

2012-01-17T21:43:00.001-06:00

Historic winter storm likely to blast Northwest

USA Today

Unlike most Northwest storms, snow may fall even at sea level, including in Seattle and Portland.

Up to a foot of snow could blanket the Seattle area, a city that typically sees about 6 inches a year. If 10 inches are measured, it would match the third-biggest snowstorm on record in Seattle, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Johnny Burg in Seattle.

The most recent big snowstorm in Seattle was in November 1985, when 7.8 inches fell, according to the weather service.

The storm and its heavy snowfall could force roads to close in the passes of the Cascades, clog streets with snow and force flight delays and cancellations, AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski says.

Near the coast, he says, the snow will be heavy, wet and difficult to shovel. The combination of the snow and gusty winds could down trees, taking power lines with them.

Light snow prompted some school districts in Washington and Oregon to close or delay opening Tuesday, and delays or closings are likely again Wednesday. Transportation Department trucks were out spraying de-icer and sanding roadways.

The weather service placed winter storm watches and warnings for most of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. Several feet of snow could fall in the Cascades and northern Rockies, where avalanche danger is high.

Later Wednesday and into Thursday, the snow should end, Burg says, but rain will begin to fall across western Washington, potentially leading to river flooding this week due to the rain and snow melt.

If the past is any hint, several inches of snow could paralyze Seattle. The city owns relatively few snowplows and Seattle drivers are mostly inexperienced with driving in snow or ice.

"Snow is beautiful to look at, but it's kind of a hindrance for us to work and commute," says John Lee, 23, who works in Seattle and lives in Mill Creek. "The snowstorm is going to cause a little bit more havoc and chaos on the road."

The cold, raw weather isn't confined to the Northwest: In central California, citrus farmers were nervous about a hard freeze that's hit the nation's largest fresh-fruit market this week. The weather service said temperatures dropped to as low as 19 degrees early Tuesday, and hard freeze warnings were in effect again for early Wednesday morning.

"It will be a week before we see what damage there may or may not be," said Dean Thonesen of Sun West Fruit, east of Fresno

Rare January Tornado in Kentucky Confirmed to be Due to Global Warming

2012-01-17T20:18:00.000-06:00

Storm Damage Information for Tues, Jan 17th

...EF-1 Tornado Confirmed in Jefferson County Kentucky...Damage Type: Tornado
                 Date: Jan 17 2012
        EF Scale: 1
   Wind Speed: 95 MPH
   Path Length: 4.2 MILES
     Path Width: 250 YARDS

Narrative: An NWS storm survey has confirmed an EF-1 tornado in Jefferson
County, Kentucky. The tornado touched down near the intersection of I-264 and
Brownsboro Road. The tornado tracked northeast to near the intersection of
Hurstbourne and Brownsboro Road where it briefly lifted. The tornado then reformed and crossed
I-265. The preliminary path length is 4.2 miles with a path width of 250 yards. This
storm survey is ongoing and information in this statement will be updated as it
becomes available.

...EF-0 Tornado Confirmed in Jefferson County Indiana...
Damage Type: Tornado
                Date: Jan 17 2012
       Start Time: 10:40 AM EST
      End Time: 10:40 AM EST
        EF Scale: 0
   Wind Speed: 85 MPH
   Path Length: 0.3 Miles
     Path Width: 60 Yards

Small TC "Hedi" Spinning off NW Australia

2012-01-11T18:20:00.001-06:00

Global Warming Causes "Snopocalypse" in Alaska

2012-01-10T20:12:00.000-06:00

Alaska's tale of two cities: one desperate for fuel, another for big shovels

Blitzed by heavy snow and early-season ice in the Bering Strait, two Alaska towns – neither accessible by road – have been cut off from critical supplies, including fuel.

By Gloria Goodale, Staff writer / January 10, 2012

In this photo provided by the Alaska National Guard, guard members help dig out the fishing town of Cordova, Alaska. Dozens of National Guard troops are helping Cordova recover from massive snows that have collapsed roofs, trapped some people in homes and triggered avalanches.

Alaska National Guard/AP

The tiny town of Cordova (pop. 2,300), nestled in Prince William Sound, races to dig out from “snowpocalypse,” its worst snow disaster in living memory, even as new snow falls Tuesday.
A thousand miles to the north, a Russian tanker loaded with critical supplies ekes out a path through treacherous early-season ice toward Nome, bearing the fuel necessary for the tiny hamlet’s winter survival.

IN PICTURES: No business like snow business

Neither town is accessible by road.
While the two emergencies are very different in nature – one completely weather-driven, the second a murky mix of weather problems and human error – both can be seen as rich in lessons for a region that anticipates an increase in vessel traffic through the Bering Strait, and continued extreme winters.
“This is the first time we have ever sent an ice-clearing operation through the early ice,” says Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley, a spokesman for the US Coast Guard operating out of Anchorage. The Coast Guard ice-breaking ship is clearing the way for the Russian vessel, averaging speeds of between 5 and 9 miles per hour.
Ice-breaking operations normally handle “old” ice, in the spring and summer, he points out, when the ice formations are more predictable.
In this unprecedented operation, the ship is tackling newly-formed ice that is “extremely dynamic,” and therefore more challenging, says Officer Mosley. “Progress under these conditions is very hard.... I’m sure we will be poring over the lessons learned from this operation for a long time.”
Across the state in Cordova, after 24 straight days of hard snowfall, city officials declared an emergency, and on Friday mounted the first-ever incident command center, complete with a public information officer, a logistics point-person, and a finance officer. Within 19 hours, 57 National Guardsmen were mustered from Anchorage while graders and snow-melting machinery arrived via barges.
Surprising even themselves, says public information officer Allen Marquette, the clean-up effort "has been an amazingly smooth, well-oiled response to a genuine emergency.”
“Our biggest problem is finding more shovels,” says Mr. Marquette. While the large, snow-clearing machinery is hardy “regular shovels break,” and as the town is accessible only by air or sea, “bringing in that sort of equipment is harder to do,” he says.
Another problem is that snow dumps are maxed out so there is an effort under way to melt the snow, Marquette says. But he can tell by looking out his window that the wind and snow are starting to pick up.
Marquette is quick to point out that because of the well-coordinated effort, there have been no fatalities or serious injuries. He credits the extensive training exercises his town has undertaken over the past several years. Under guidance from Homeland Security, the town has run through scenarios such as a massive plane crash, with nearly half the residents playing victims.
Twenty of the National Guardsmen helping dig out are being housed at the Reluctant Fisherman Inn in Cordova. Owner Greg Meyer says the official response to the crisis couldn’t have been better. “For a town of our size, it’s pretty amazing to have such an efficient response,” he says.
Cordova also benefited from the presence of Guardsman from all over the sate being in nearby Anchorage for a drill status weekend, says Major Guy Hayes of the National Guard in Anchorage. But the increased cooperation between Homeland Security and small towns such as Cordova has been steadily building. It helps that his office is headquartered in the same building as Homeland Security. Each time an emergency comes up, he says, “everyone learns more

Global Warming Out of Control in Alaska 2012

2012-01-09T23:42:00.001-06:00

Record-Breaking Snow & Cold In Alaska

January 9th, 2012 at 1:13 am by Chad Evans under Chad's WLFI Weather Blog

It has been one rough, snowy, cold winter in Alaska, even by their standards. One of the coldest Novembers on record occurred at Fairbanks with temperatures down to -41 mid-month (up to 40 degrees below normal). In December readings in the latter part of the month averaged 25 degrees below normal with temperatures as low as -50 around Fairbanks. Recently, temperatures 25 degrees below normal have occurred.
Near Anchorage, the National Guard is trying to get in to help with 18 feet of record snow that has fallen in the past 1-2 weeks.
This where the extreme part of winter is located in what has been a stormy, rough, rough winter in Alaska. A small chunk of cold will break off from this & bring us cold weather late in the week. However, the strong-than-normal upper winds near the North Pole of the Polar Vortex will tend to prevent a full dis-lodging of the cold.
A major railway in Austria has been shut down by heavy snowfall of up to 4′ as a parade of storms continue to hammer Europe. So, parts of Europe & certainly Alaska, are having potent winters.
As for us, this continues to be the warmest winter since 2007 with the least amount of snow since 2007. It still does not rank in the top 15 warmest or least snowy, however. We are not close to other warm & even snowless years. Only 0.3″ of snow had fallen for the winter by January 8 in 1966 (ended up with 8.8″ with the winter, however, in that El Nino winter). No snow fell in January 1944.

Comet Lovejoy Rises over the Andes

2012-01-09T02:20:00.001-06:00

Comet Lovejoy above the Andes (Part 1: 23/12/2011) from Stéphane Guisard on Vimeo.

TC Benilde Says Happy New Year

2012-01-08T23:23:00.003-06:00

TC Benilde (04S) on New Year's, at closest approach to Diego Garcia. - HLG

Large Plankton Bloom off South Africa

2012-01-08T17:11:00.002-06:00

But for the life of me I can't remember if cold eddies go counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere or not, but this one is definitely in an eddie of some kind, that the plankton really find a lovely home. -HLG

Large Midwestern/NE Snowstorm Late Next Week?

2012-01-06T00:08:00.002-06:00

Tuscaloosa Tornado Track

2012-01-04T22:06:00.002-06:00

The high-res photo shows the damage from Spring 2011's Tuscaloosa tornado, which you can see passed very near (just over a mile) from the University of Alabama's main campus, and the Tide's football stadium. - HLG

TC 06B "Thane"

2011-12-27T16:32:00.002-06:00

Late season Bay of Bengal cyclone heading into southern India. - HLG

TC "Washi" Death Toll Continues to Rise in Phillipines

2011-12-26T19:17:00.002-06:00

Nearly 1,500 Deaths From Floods In Philippines

by The Associated Press

text size A A A

December 26, 2011

The death toll from flash floods that swept away entire villages in the southern Philippines has climbed to nearly 1,500 as authorities widen their search for bodies.
The Office of Civil Defense's latest tally Tuesday listed 891 dead in Cagayan de Oro and an additional 451 in nearby Iligan city. The rest came from several other provinces. Most of the dead are unidentified.
Civil Defense head Benito Ramos says decomposing remains were retrieved floating in the sea as far as 60 miles from the two cities where a Dec. 16 tropical storm unleashed more than a month's worth of rainfall in 12 hours, sending walls of water gushing into homes.
Ramos says the search will continue as long as bodies are being recovered.

Comet Lovejoy from Orbit

2011-12-22T20:22:00.002-06:00

Global Warming Snows Piling up in Central Asia

2011-12-20T13:42:00.000-06:00

At least the Yeti's will be happy. Can you hear me Global Al? Are you buried in the snow over there, preaching about Global Alarming?

Typhoon "Washi" Causes State of Calamity in PI

2011-12-17T12:12:00.002-06:00

UPDATE 4-Typhoon kills more than 436 in southern Philippines

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Analysis & Opinion

TC "Washi" Following an Odd Track

2011-12-16T20:00:00.001-06:00

No More December Tropical Forecasts from CSU?

2011-12-16T13:47:00.004-06:00

For Hurricane Forecasters, the Outlook Is Stormy
By Jeremy A. Kaplan

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AP/NOAA

Here's a forecast you might not expect. Two Colorado State University climatologists, who have independently been tracking and predicting the severity of hurricanes for nearly 30 years, are abandoning their long-range forecasting efforts. Simply put, the advance predictions just weren't accurate. "We have suspended issuing quantitative forecasts at this extended-range lead time, since they have not proved skillful over the last 20 years," Philip J. Klotzbach and William M. Gray wrote in their annual December report intended to predict the severity of the upcoming year's Atlantic hurricane season. Klotzbach and Gray will continue forecasting -- just not in December, months in advance of the hurricane season. "From a computation perspective, there's enough chaos in weather that I don't know if you'll ever be able to predict it months in advance," Klotzbach told FoxNews.com. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Colorado State and others traditionally issue hurricane predictions in late May just prior to the start of the season, and update them in early August, just prior to the historic peak. Twenty years ago, Klotzbach decided to push the envelope, to see how early he could predict the season. The results weren't good. In December 2010, the duo predicted 180 total days of tropical cyclone activity; the season actually saw 137. The numbers for 2009 were off as well: 136 days of cyclone activity were predicted, but only 66 cropped up. "Beyond five days or so, that's where the crystal ball gets a little fuzzy," Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for NOAA, told FoxNews.com. "You can predict seasonal trends fairly well months in advance. But the devil's in the details. Which ones will stay over open water and which will hit land?" And that type of more immediate forecasting has actually improved dramatically, Vaccaro and Klotzbach both said. "Hurricane forecasting has come a long way," Vaccaro said. "Once a storm does form, our forecast skills are quite high in being able to predict where that storm will hit. The challenge lies in understanding the forces at work, he said. The long-term seasonal outlooks are based on large-scale, slow-moving climate factors -- things like ocean temperatures, the presence of a La Nina or El Nino force, weather patterns, and so on. But the birth and eventual path of an individual storm is dependent on short-term weather patterns -- the position of the jet stream or the presence of a cold front. "Those day-to-day weather patterns are very fluid and have a tremendous impact on the strength and track of a specific storm," Vaccaro told FoxNews.com. Colorado State's hurricane experts tell a similar story. Despite advances in supercomputers, hurricane-hunter aircraft, satellites, weather buoys and more, long-term prediction simply isn't feasible today. But short-term forecasts get better every year.
"Our April forecasts have shown reasonably good skills and are getting better over the years," Klotzbach said. "When you're forecasting the weather a week from now versus tomorrow, you're going to put a lot more faith in tomorrow's forecast." "Our knowledge of how storms work still isn't perfect," Klotzbach admitted.

Plankton Bloom off the Falklands

2011-12-16T13:30:00.002-06:00

Chile Volcanic Dust in Patagonia

2011-11-30T22:50:00.001-06:00

Two MODIS passes to show the entire spread of the ash from Chile's Puyehue-Cordó volcano. - HLG

TC 05A in the Arabian Sea

2011-11-30T19:23:00.001-06:00

They are always so interesting looking, with the contrast of cloud, sand, and sea. - HLG

Did US Destroy Martian Mars Probe??

2011-11-28T19:01:00.001-06:00

The Russians are implying that, without any evidence, of course.

It's not the first time the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Programme (HAARP) has been accused of some malevolent purpose. In fact, it's a conspiracy theorist favourite, most often accused of causing extreme events like the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

HAARP's stated purpose, according to its website, is:

A scientific endeavour aimed at studying the properties and behaviour of the ionosphere, with particular emphasis on being able to understand and use it to enhance communications and surveillance systems for both civilian and defence purposes.
But those of a suspicious mindset think the project aims to manipulate the ionosphere in order to cause massive disasters. - The Guardian

Beautiful Day to Head to Mars

2011-11-26T20:37:00.001-06:00

Mars "Curiosity" Rover is on the way to Mars. Gorgeous launch at The Cape. Congrats NASA and JPL! Onward to the Red Planet. - HLG

Climate forcing by CO2 Overblown?

2011-11-24T20:44:00.001-06:00

Climate sensitivity to CO2 probedBy Jennifer Carpenter

Science reporter, BBC News

Global temperatures could be less sensitive to changing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels than previously thought, a study suggests.

The researchers said people should still expect to see "drastic changes" in climate worldwide, but that the risk was a little less imminent.

The results are published in Science.

Previous climate models have used meteorological measurements from the last 150 years to estimate the climate's sensitivity to rising CO2.

From these models, scientists find it difficult to narrow their projections down to a single figure with any certainty, and instead project a range of temperatures that they expect, given a doubling of atmospheric CO2 from pre-industrial levels.

The new analysis, which incorporates palaeoclimate data into existing models, attempts to project future temperatures with a little more certainty.

Lead author Andreas Schmittner from Oregon State University, US, explained that by looking at surface temperatures during the last Ice Age - 21,000 years ago - when humans were having no impact on global temperatures, he, and his colleagues, show that this period was not as cold as previous estimates suggest.

"This implies that the effect of CO2 on climate is less than previously thought," he explained

By incorporating this newly discovered "climate insensitivity" into their models, the international team was able to reduce their uncertainty in future climate projections.

The new models predict that given a doubling in CO2 levels from pre-industrial levels, the Earth's surface temperatures will rise by 1.7 to 2.6 degrees C.

That is a much tighter range than suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s 2007 report, which suggested a rise of between 2 to 4.5 degrees C.

The new analysis also reduces the expected average surface temperatures to just over 2 degrees C, from 3.

The authors stress the results do not mean threat from human-induced climate change should be treated any less seriously, explained palaeoclimatologist Antoni Rosell-Mele from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who is a member of the team that came up with the new estimates.

But it does mean that to induce large-scale warming of the planet, leading lead to widespread catastrophic consequences, we would have to increase CO2 more than we are going to do in the near future, he said.

"But we don't want that to happen at any time, right?"

"At least, given that no one is doing very much around the planet [about] mitigating CO2 emissions, we have a bit more time," he remarked.

Weather Service Mapping

2011-11-24T01:19:00.001-06:00

I like to visit the new Weather Warning map-service, hosted by ESRI, but it reminds me that NOAA needs to take some remedial cartography classes. I see at least three choices for the pink area off the east coast, in the legend. How about a little striped pattern, or something other than the two dozen shades of the same colors! Come on NOAA! - HLG

Global Warming Snow in NE Asia

2011-11-23T22:38:00.001-06:00

Global warming continues to spin out of control, as the early snows deepen in NE Asia.

Dust or Ash?

2011-11-23T17:05:00.001-06:00

And is there really a difference? NOAA labeled this as an Argentine Dust Storm, but I believe it is more ash from Chilean volcanoes swirling around in Patagonia. - HLG

Late Season East-Pac Hurricane

2011-11-22T19:31:00.001-06:00

Hurricane Kenneth, luckily moving away from Mexico as we head towards December in the northern-hemisphere tropics.

La Nina and Fires in Ecuador

2011-11-21T17:51:00.001-06:00

A classic La Nina effect, with extensive fires in agricultural areas of Ecuador, not getting average rainfall levels. - HLG

Forecast for OU win was a bust!

2011-11-21T03:45:00.001-06:00

The odds were good, since OU had NEVER lost to Baylor, but even the best forecast sometimes bust, as every weather-guesser knows! - HLG

Mystery of West Coast Rocket Solved?

2011-11-18T06:22:00.001-06:00

I find it hard to believe that the military's newly announced hypersonic weapon system is unrelated to the "non-rocket/nothing-to-see-hear" rocket launch we all witnessed off the west coast last year.

U.S. Army Tests Secret Hypersonic Weapon

Published November 17, 2011

Technews Network

The U.S. Army's hypersonic weapon prototype streaked across the Pacific Ocean at several times the speed of sound Thurs., Nov. 17, in a flawless maiden test flight. The success could pave the way for a new military capability to strike targets anywhere on Earth in as little as an hour.

Such a hypersonic weapon concept flies at a relatively flat trajectory within the atmosphere, rather than soaring up toward space like a ballistic missile and eventually coming back down. Hypersonic speed is defined as being at least five times the speed of sound (3,805 mph, or 6,124 kph, at sea level). An unmanned aircraft that can travel at a breakneck pace 20 times the speed of sound will take off Wednesday from an Air Force base in California for a test flight.

The Army's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon launched aboard a three-stage booster system from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai in Hawaii at 6:30 AM ET, deployed for its hypersonic glide, and eventually splashed down in the Reagan Test Site located near the Kwajalein Atoll.

Pentagon officials kept a careful watch on the flight test from space, air, sea and ground. That allowed them to collect data about aerodynamics, navigation, guidance, and control performance, as well as thermal protection technologies meant to shrug off intense heat during hypersonic flight.

Such success may provide some consolation to DARPA, given that its Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) experienced problems in its two test flights that led to early crashes. HTV-2 reached a speed of Mach 20 during its latest test in August.

The Air Force has also tested its own X-51A Waverider vehicle, most recently on June 13, as an experimental platform for an air-breathing scramjet engine. During the latest test, the X-51A Waverider reached hypersonic speeds of at least Mach 5 before it failed to switch over to its main fuel source.

Having several hypersonic projects resembles the early days of U.S. rocket and missile development, when the Army and Air Force competed to get their rockets off the ground. But any success in the hypersonic realm seems likely to benefit the U.S. military's unified goal for a "Conventional Prompt Global Strike" weapon designed to speedily attack targets around the world

Yet another GIS application in the weather-world

2011-11-18T03:20:00.001-06:00

Storm Chaser

Amica Mutual Insurance Maps Real-Time Data, Providing Better Service to Policyholders

By Karen Richardson
Esri

Because many Amica Mutual Insurance policyholders owned homes or other property in the path of Hurricane Irene, the company wanted to ensure that it had adequate resources to provide services when these people needed them most. Amica, a provider of personal insurance for autos, homes, and boats, is headquartered in Lincoln, Rhode Island. Known in the industry for its high standard of customer service, the company has been awarded several J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction awards.

Amica used ArcGIS to track Hurricane Irene and view forecasted wind speeds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's NowCoast Web Map Services. This map displays the storm one day prior to making landfall in North Carolina.

Amica monitored Irene last summer as the hurricane moved up the East Coast of the United States, using real-time weather warnings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This information, which included live radar loops focused on the strongest parts of the storm, was brought into Esri's ArcGIS Online as map services, a standard way to view location-based information on the web. By viewing live data streams and comparing them with internal policy data, Amica personnel were able to watch the storm in real time and quickly identify which areas were likely to generate the most claims.
Before their eyes, the path of destruction passed through North Carolina, Virginia, and all the way up the East Coast. "Our exposure along the forecast track was significant, and we immediately knew this would be a big event for us," said Adam Kostecki, a claims examiner in the Property Loss Division at Amica Mutual Insurance.
When tracking Irene, Kostecki combined real-time event tracking and geocoded policy locations displayed in ArcGIS. Taking a NOAA map service that forecasted wind speed and creating it as an ArcGIS web mapping service (WMS), Kostecki was able to input where Hurricane Irene was moving in real time on a map, along with Amica's plotted policies. He and other personnel drew lassos around policies in the areas they were interested in. The lasso Select tool allowed Amica staff to select multiple policies in contiguous areas without being restricted by administrative or geographic boundaries. Combining both datasets—wind speed high enough to cause damage plus policies in the area—Amica found out the number of policies that might be at risk.
By viewing the policy locations along with the area of impact, Kostecki could find out exactly which policies were in the path of the event and generate reports for claims adjusters quickly. "Simply by viewing and exploring the data in ArcGIS, I simplified and improved the accurate identification of customers in Hurricane Irene's impact area," said Kostecki.
For insurers, knowing precisely where damage has occurred is paramount in developing a timely and appropriate response. The quicker an insurer can respond to claims, the faster people can rebuild and continue on with their lives. Being able to determine exposures in different areas, as well as knowing the likely severity of the damage, allowed the Amica claims department to proactively plan for potential claims volume. "Once Irene passed, we plotted claims as they were reported," said Kostecki. "Waiting days for first-responder reports, damage models, or even post-event aerial imagery just isn't an option anymore when responding to catastrophes."
Knowing how many policyholders might be affected helped Amica better determine how many adjusters were needed and where they should be sent after Hurricane Irene passed. From the information gathered in ArcGIS, the staff was able to generate a quick summary and export the information into a report. This information provided a better picture of how many claims Amica might need to respond to in a certain geographic area.
"We had a much better idea of what our claim potential was going to be after this event," said Kostecki. "And even better, we had this information ready to go hours after the storm."
Amica implemented the use of GIS in claims about five years ago, in order to better estimate the company's exposure after a catastrophic event such as a hurricane, earthquake, wildfire, or tornado. Knowing this information helps Amica ensure that it is appropriately staffed to handle the volume of claims that might be reported. Since implementing GIS technology, Amica has realized that pushing this technology to the front lines could have a profound impact on the way it services its policyholders. Kostecki explained, "It's a technology that our staff embraces—because it makes their jobs easier, and it allows them to be more efficient."
For more information on how ArcGIS is used in the insurance industry, visit esri.com/insurance.

Song Heard in Dubai

2011-11-16T06:14:00.001-06:00

This was actually heard in Dubai during a fog event...

Dubai Skyscrapers in the Fog

2011-11-16T03:34:00.001-06:00

Amazing picture from NatGeo. The humidity is still very high in the southern Persian Gulf this time of year, but as the mornings are chillier, thick advection sea-fogs roll in amongst some of the tallest buildings on Earth., reminding me of the uber-geeky Cloud City of Star Wars Epsidode 6. -HLG

AN OPEN LETTER - FROM FWSAAB CORP.

2011-11-15T05:45:00.000-06:00

Dear Readers,

I, Sterling Gonads, as the new President of FSWAAB Corp (a subsidiary of the Environment Channel and part of the Universal Global Broadcasting System - UGBS), openly apologize for the crude, unsolicited and unapproved comments made by HLG recently. We at FSWAAB believe in a caring, open and green blog - one that is carefully controlled by our managers at UGBS (UGBS +5% FTSE). We will not allow crass and ungreen-like statements made by our on-blog geographers who like to pretend that they have a meteorology background.

At FWSAAB, we will ensure the reading blog public that irreverent and humorous commentaries from HLG, BB - and the others who haven't been heard from in years - will continue. However, the management will also take a hard-line against hurtful statements that go against our public options on the open market.

FWSAAB will be making some exciting changes in the coming weeks to bring it more inline with our other media products like the Environment Channel, UGBS Network News and the Friend Channel. We will also start including famous meteorologists to make on-blog appearances, some of which appeared on another weather-type channel. Soon we will also roll out our new Spanish Blog "El Clima de Cuatro Hombres y Una Guapa Chica (ECCHUGC)"

At FWSAAB, we believe in making the environment exciting. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,
Sterling Gonads, esq.

North Sea Island "Ship-wakes"

2011-11-13T17:51:00.001-06:00

Some of the most complicated island-ship-wakes I have ever observed. Must have something to do with the "Epic" Storm in Alaska. - HLG

Loading Up in Alaska

2011-11-12T09:06:00.000-06:00

Alaska will be plunged into quite a cold morass after the "epic" storm of 2011. All this cold air is preparing to spill down into the central plains and possibly into the deep south. Should be a fun trip for Thanksgiving Day drivers across the U.S..

On a lighter note - the owners of FSWAAB would like to point out that their blog employees have not mentioned the Penn State scandal. Such restraint should be congratulated.

BB

First Global Salinity Maps from Aquarius

2011-11-10T18:19:00.001-06:00

This map reminds me of the early global sea-surface-temperature maps. I suspect this will be revolutionary when the data is incorporated into global ocean circulation models. - HLG

New Satellite May Precipitate on Earth

2011-11-09T23:42:00.003-06:00

Russian space engineers scrambled Wednesday to salvage an ambitious science mission to Mars after the unmanned spacecraft became stranded in Earth orbit. If they are not successful, the probe, which is loaded with toxic fuel, could re-enter the atmosphere within days or weeks. - NY Times

Tropical Storm Sean 2011

2011-11-08T21:40:00.003-06:00

At the time of this image yesterday, Sean was still a "sub-tropical" storm, but was since "upgraded?"

NASA Radar Animation of Asteroid 2005 YU55

2011-11-08T17:46:00.002-06:00

Cyclone Formation Alert Arabian Sea

2011-11-07T04:45:00.000-06:00

Should head towards Yemen, but they look like they could use some rain.

Wind Farms Causing False Radar Returns?

2011-11-07T03:38:00.000-06:00

Wind Farms Disrupting Radar, Scientists Say

By Maxim Lott

Published November 05, 2011

This one's really off the radar.

Wind farms, along with solar power and other alternative energy sources, are supposed to produce the energy of tomorrow. Evidence indicates that their countless whirring fan blades produce something else: "blank spots" that distort radar readings.

Now government agencies that depend on radar -- such as the Department of Defense and the National Weather Service -- are spending millions in a scramble to preserve their detection capabilities. A four-star Air Force general recently spelled out the problem to Dave Beloite, the director of the Department of Defense’s Energy Siting Clearinghouse.

"Look there’s a radar here -- one of our network of Homeland surveillance radars -- and [if you build this wind farm] you essentially are going to put my eyes out in the Northwestern corner of the United States,” Beloite related during a web conference in April.

Spinning wind turbines make it hard to detect incoming planes. To avoid that problem, military officials have blocked wind farm construction near their radars -- and in some cases later allowed them after politicians protested.

Shepherd’s Flat, a wind farm under construction in Oregon, was initially held up by a government notice that the farm would “seriously impair the ability of the (DoD) to detect, monitor and safely conduct air operations."

Then Oregon’s senators got involved.

“The Department of Defense's earlier decision threatened to drop a bomb on job creation in Central Oregon,” democratic Senator Ron Wyden noted in a press release.

Beloite told FoxNews.com that the project was given the green light by the military only after scientists at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory assured the Department of Defense “that there were algorithms and processors they could design for not too much money that would mitigate the problem.”

Beloite said that the MIT technology has proven successful in the last few months.

"[The problem] has been addressed. And I have a letter from the deputy director of operations from U.S. NORAD that says 'step one of the two-step fix worked so well that we recommend we don't spend any more money on step two.'"

The fix the MIT scientists came up with tells the radar not to pay attention to signals in a very small area.

“You just tell the radar processor, ‘you're going to have clutter here. Don't display it.’ You create a tiny blank spot [in the radar map] directly above the turbine,” Beloite told FoxNews.com.

In addition to the cost of the radar development, taxpayers are on the hook for more than $1 billion in subsidies for the construction of the Shepherd’s Flat wind farm, according to a 2010 memo from Larry Summers and two other White House economic advisors.

The fix for military radar doesn't work so well for weather forecasters, however.

“It's a lot easier to filter out interference for aviation,” Ed Ciardi, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Radar Operations Center in Norman, Okla., told FoxNews.com. “The real problem is when rain and the wind turbines are mixed together [on the radar map.] And it's all confusing… sometimes [forecasters] throw up their hands and say, ‘who knows?’”

When the situation is unclear, Ciardi said, “they'll play it safe and maybe extend a warning.”

Ciardi said there have been occasional false alarms due to wind farm interference, but the Weather Service hasn't failed to issue any storm warnings yet.

“We're more worried about the future ... we've seen quite a few proposals for wind farms around our radars. And we have been ... trying to convince them to stay a good distance away,” he said.

One strategy is to ask wind farm owners to turn off the propellers during storms. Another is to convince them to install devices that measure wind speeds and rainfall, so that there would no longer be much need for radar there.

“It all comes down to money and who's going to pay for it,” he noted.

Meanwhile, top radar scientists are working on developing a fix that works for weather radar.

“It's slow progress, and they say it's extremely difficult -- that they need more money and more time. The solution, I would say, is probably five years down the road," Ciardi said.

2011-11-05T04:08:00.005-05:00

Asteroid 2005 YU55 near Earth November 8

Paul A. Heckert

, Astronomy Examiner

November 3, 2011 -

On November 8, 2011 the asteroid 2005 YU55 will come within about 325,000 kilometers (202,000 miles) of Earth's center. This distance is about 85% of the distance between Earth and Moon. Asteroid 2005 YU55 will be far enough from Earth that the close approach will not endanger Earth in any way. The close approach will however offer astronomers an excellent opportunity to study an asteroid at close range.
The orbit of asteroid 2005 YU55 crosses Earth's orbit regularly, which allows for the possibility of a collision on another orbit. Its orbit has been calculated accurately for the next 100 years and 2005 YU55 will not collide with Earth during that time. That is fortunate. According to an article in the November 2011 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine an impact with 2005 YU55 would release in the range of 100 times as much energy as a large hydrogen bomb - equivalent to several thousand tons of TNT.
Unlike most asteroids, which are irregularly shaped, 2005 YU55 is very nearly spherical. 2005 YU55 is about a quarter of a mile in diameter. Its surface is carbonaceous meaning it is covered with carbon and carbon containing compounds. Carbonaceous meteorites have been found to contain amino acids and other organic compounds. It would be interesting to know if 2005 YU55 were similar.
During its closest approach 2005 YU55 will pass through the great square of the constellation Pegasus. Despite its very close proximity to Earth asteroid 2005 YU55 will not be visible to the naked eye. Because it is fairly small and has a dark carbonaceous surface, 2005 YU55 will be about 50 to 100 times too faint with to see with the naked eye. As astronomers measure brightness, it will be magnitude 11.2. Amateur astronomers owning moderately large telescopes can see it. The November 2011 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine has a finding chart for 2005 YU55 on page 53. The asteroid will be distiguishable from faint stars in the field because it will move across the eyepiece field at a noticeable rate.

Tropical Cyclone 03A and Halloween Snow in US

2011-11-04T11:32:00.001-05:00

Cantore Finds Jesus in the Thundersnow!

2011-11-02T18:02:00.001-05:00

Accuweather Radar Web-tool Best Ever?

2011-10-30T21:07:00.001-05:00

I have looked at a lot of crapy radar display services (yea, I am talking to you NWS, and Japan Met Service, as well as Korea, Jamaica, and ESPECIALLY Mexico) over the years. I think the tool Accuweather has is the best ever. It utilizes nested zooms, so you go from continental, to regional, to local, in a very friendly environment. Some kinda geniuses up there in Happy Valley, the Drinking Town with a Football Problem! - HLG

http://www.accuweather.com/us/radar/sir/us_/radar.asp

Congrats to NASA and NOAA on Successful NPP Launch

2011-10-30T04:09:00.002-05:00

NPP Launch News

Officials Hail NPP Satellite Launch

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:55:34 PM GMT+0900

NASA and NOAA officials congratulated each other this morning following the successful launch of the NPP spacecraft aboard a Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Ken Schwer, NPP Project Manager, led off a news conference this morning about three hours after liftoff. He will be part of the team who will get the spacecraft checked out during the next several weeks so it can begin its Earth observing mission.

"Now the future of NPP starts and we look forward to NPP touching the rest of the world," Schwer said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is expected to use the data from NPP as part of its weather forecasting.

NPP will "make America a more weather-ready nation," said Mary Glackin, NOAA's deputy undersecretary for Oceans and Atmosphere.
The NPP spacecraft was launched on-time at 5:48 a.m. EDT.

Four our Snowed-in Fans in the NE USA

2011-10-30T03:49:00.000-05:00

This should warm you up, if you have a pulse that is!

October Nor"easters and Flying...

2011-10-30T01:34:00.004-05:00

Equals NOT Fun!

Snowstorm Strands JetBlue Passengers on Runway for Seven Hours

Published October 30, 2011

HARTFORD, Conn. – Flight 504 from Fort Lauderdale could not land at its intended destination, Newark International, due to poor visibility and was forced to divert to Bradley International at around 2:00pm local time, the Hartford Courant reported.

It was not until after 9:00pm that the 126 passengers on board were told buses would be coming to take them to the nearby terminal.

One passenger said people were given no food or water throughout the ordeal and also had to deal with clogged bathrooms.

Andrew Carter, a professional football writer, told the Hartford Courant, "We ran out of water. The bathrooms are all clogged up and disgusting. The power would go off every 45 minutes or so for five minutes or so, and that would freak people out. I've heard about these kind of stories."

Another passenger, Todd Bailey, told WTIC-TV from onboard the stranded plane that the situation was tense.

"People are on their last edge. It's just crazy ... Everybody is freaking out here. They're tired of it."

A JetBlue spokesperson told FOX News Channel, "JetBlue is doing everything possible to ensure our customers affected by today's unusual combination of weather and infrastructure issues are being well cared for. We apologize for the experience.

"We could not deplane the aircraft until it was safe to do so. Once our customers are safely inside the terminal, we will do everything within our power to support them."

A rare and deadly October snowstorm hit a wide swath of the East Coast on Saturday, knocking out power to nearly two million households and causing major travel headaches.

Flooded areas near Bangkok and Pnom Phem

2011-10-29T03:14:00.001-05:00

Global Warming Snowstorm Biggest since The Civil War!

2011-10-28T18:26:00.002-05:00

Somebody STOP the warming. Fat Al can you hear me bro??

Northeast braces for October snowstorm with up to a FOOT predicted in areas - the earliest New York City snow since Civil War

Snow already falling in Massachusetts
Parts of Connecticut could get a foot of snow this weekend
Since record keeping began NYC has never had an inch of snow in October

By MIKE O'BRIEN

Last updated at 10:18 PM on 28th October 2011

The leaves are still on the trees and it looks like autumn has been bypassed. October has been relatively mild so far but now north eastern states are suddenly braced for snow this weekend.

Forecasts for this nor’easter have changed in the last couple of days and the prospect of a snow-free Halloween weekend have now gone.

Low pressure will track up the East Coast on Saturday possibly bringing significant amounts of the white stuff across the tri-state area, Pennsylvania and New England.

Scroll down for video

Here it comes: The October snow is expected to start late Saturday afternoon and may carry on through the night

New York has received measurable snow before Halloween only three times since 1869 - and never more than one inch, which is what some experts are predicting.

It would be the earliest one-inch snowfall in the city since the Civil War.

The heaviest snows are expected between 5pm and 8pm Saturday night, although the temperatures could bring light snow throughout the night.

Temperatures in the 30s and 40s and wind chills in the 20s will make it feel like winter has truly arrived.

Forecasters at weather.com say the heaviest amounts of snow will fall in parts of Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, upstate New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The Northeast can expect what Denver already got. Colorado was hit with an unseasonably early snowstorm this week, sending some Occupy protesters to the hospital

Residents in the path of the unseasonable snow should watch out for power outages and falling tree limbs, still green from the late summer

These areas could see between two to four inches late on Saturday.

Weather.com said: 'Precipitation will start as rain in these locations, but may change over to snow. How quickly this occurs and how much snow falls is dependent on the availability of enough cold air, which is difficult to forecast early in the season.'

The frozen north: Map showing the expected accumulation on grassy surfaces, indicating that east-central Pennsylvania to south-central New England will be hardest hit late on Saturday

Early season snows, when the leaves are still on the trees, are notorious for causing tree damage and power outages and this storm will be no exception.

The biggest impact from the weekend’s storm will not come from snow accumulation, but from the rain and melted snow freezing on bridges and overpasses.

Sunday morning could be particularly treacherous on the roads.

More...

Overnight freeze warnings are in effect across the north east region.

Lows in the 20s will effectively bring the agricultural growing season to an end, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Temperature plunge: The Saturday daytime figures show a biting 42-47 degrees as the storm clouds gather. Forecasters are predicting a 5pm start for the snow in much of the north east

Surface temperature is a factor in accumulations.

It's been a warm October so far in much of the north east, so any falling wet snow that hits the pavement could melt soon after contact. If snow rates are heavy enough, then the warm ground obstacle to accumulations would be overcome.

Trick or treaters most likely will not be treading the white stuff on Monday.

Not meant to be: Halloween decorations stand covered in snow in a front lawn in Denver, Colorado. A foot of snow fell this week, just two days after the city was 80 degrees

The forecast for the country is mostly dry, though a few disturbances could bring some showers to parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York.

National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Simpson said you would won't need to go out and buy roof rakes, but October snowfall records could be broken in parts of southern New England, especially at higher elevations.

The October record for southern New England is 7.5 inches in Worcester in 1979, the Associated Press reports.

Heading north: The temperatures ease up slightly Sunday daytime as the snow makes its way to northern New England

Initial blast: First snowfall in the tri-state area was in Vernon, Connecticut, on Thursday night

The most snow will likely hit the Massachusetts Berkshires, the Litchfield Hills in northwestern Connecticut, and south western New Hampshire, he said.

Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy warned residents that they could lose power.

The storm could bring more than six inches of snow to parts of Maine beginning Saturday night.
In Pennsylvania, six to 10 inches could fall at higher elevations, including the Laurel Highlands in the south western part of the state and the Pocono Mountains in the north eastern part.
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh could see a coating.

John LaCorte, a National Weather Service meteorologist in State College, Pennsylvania, said: 'This is very, very unusual. It has all the look and feel of a classic midwinter nor'easter. It's going to be very dangerous.'

The last major widespread snowstorm in Pennsylvania this early was in 1972, Mr LaCorte said.
In New England, the first measurable snow usually falls in early December, and normal highs for late October are in the mid-50s.

Drying out: Trick or treaters can look forward to a dry day for most of the country, with some showers in the north

'This is just wrong,' said Dee Lund of East Hampton, who was at a Glastonbury garage getting four new tires put on her car before a weekend road trip to New Hampshire.

Miss Lund said that after last winter's record snowfall, which left a 12-foot snow bank outside her house, she'd been hoping for a reprieve.

The good news, Mr Simpson said, is that relatively warm water temperatures along the Atlantic seaboard would keep the snowfall totals much lower along the coast and in cities such as Boston.

'We're Not Leaving': A snow-dusted protest sign sits under a tree at the Occupy Denver camp on Wednesday. Several protesters were taken to the hospital for hypothermia

Temperatures should return to the mid-50s by midweek.

'This doesn't mean our winter is going to be terrible,' he said.

'You can't get any correlation from a two-day event.'

Not everyone is lamenting the arrival of winter. Dan Patrylak, 79, of Glastonbury, had just moved back to New England from Arizona and was picking up two new ice scrapers for his car.
He said he was looking forward to seeing snow on the ground again.

'In Phoenix, it's 113 all summer long,' he said. 'So, it just depends on where you are and what the weather is and you learn to accept that. Whatever it is, I'm going to be ready for it.'

Twenty Years Since the Great Halloween Storm of 1991 (aka The Perfect Storm)

2011-10-28T10:25:00.001-05:00

Large October Global Warming Snowstorm for Northeast US

2011-10-28T09:01:00.001-05:00

Amazing how the Global Warming snowstorms are starting early this year.

What would Fat Albert say?

Record Flooding in Thailand, Compounded by High Tide?

2011-10-28T01:28:00.002-05:00

By Jason Szep and Martin Petty

BANGKOK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Traffic clogged roads out of the Thai capital on Friday as tens of thousands of people fled ahead of a high tide expected to worsen floods that have inundated factories and prompted foreign governments to warn their citizens to stay away.

The main concern is that Bangkok's Chao Phraya River will burst its banks over the weekend during the unusually high tide that begins on Friday. Buildings across Bangkok have been sand-bagged for protection, and some vulnerable streets were nearly deserted.

Thailand's worst flooding in half a century, caused in part by unusually heavy monsoon rain, has killed 377 people since mid-July and disrupted the lives of nearly 2.2 million, until now mostly in the north and central provinces.

Television footage showed cars and trucks bumper-to-bumper leaving the city and the main airport's departure lounges packed, but the traffic department said it could not put an exact figure on the size of the Bangkok exodus because much of its monitoring equipment was under water.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she was considering a proposal to dig channels into some roads in eastern Bangkok to drain water into the Gulf of Thailand, an idea backed by the chairman of the Thailand unit of Toyota Motor Corp whose factories have been badly flooded.

"We need to look into several details on whether it works," Yingluck told reporters.

The Meteorological Department warned residents living along the Chao Phraya they could face rising waters. Roads around the Grand Palace, a top tourist attraction, are partially flooded along with some streets in densely populated Chinatown.

On Friday morning, on a street in front of the Grand Palace normally bustling with tourists, a two-metre (6 1/2-ft) snake was caught by a motorcycle taxi driver. Residents have also had to contend with crocodiles escaping from flooded farms.

While many of the inner-city streets of Bangkok remained dry, the suburbs continued to struggle.

In the riverside shantytown of Bang Phlad, small wooden homes were knee-deep in foul-smelling water with rubbish floating on the surface. Residents carried belongings above their heads, struggling against the current of water pumped back out to the river.

Tem Kaewkeow, 73, sat on a pile of tyres, staring at the blank screen of a half-submerged television set.

"Everything is damaged, but what can I do? This is the force of nature," he said, shirtless and sipping on water he had boiled on a small gas stove.

"I don't plan to leave. This is my home."

SANDBAG WALLS COLLAPSE

At the district's Yanhee hospital, two dozen emergency room doctors and nurses shovelled sand into sacks to fortify a one-metre (3-ft) wall protecting the building as water levels rose in a nearby canal brimming with trash.

"Everyone here is working around the clock to protect the hospital," said Dr Supot Sumritvvanitcha, the hospital's chief executive. "We're using trucks, motorbikes and boats to get help to people. Yesterday, we brought a pregnant woman here by boat to deliver a baby."

In Nonthaburi province bordering Bangkok, walls of sandbags were collapsing under the weight of surging floodwaters. A policeman dressed in shorts, flip-flops and a vest directed traffic on a megaphone as water gushed out of drains.

Cars with wheels submerged crawled at a snail's pace along the road and exhausted drivers were seen pushing stalled tuk-tuks -- Thailand's ubiquitous three-wheel, open-air taxis-- through the water.

Yingluck's government declared a five-day holiday from Thursday to allow people to leave. Roads out of the city to the flood-free south were jammed. Many were heading for the seaside town of Hua Hin and the eastern resort city of Pattaya, where hotel rooms and homes to rent were scarce.

Bangkok, a low-lying city of at least 12 million that accounts for 41 percent of Thailand's $319 billion economy, is in danger from run-off water from the north coinciding with the high tide on the Chao Phraya, already at a record high level.

The economic toll continued to pile up across Thailand, Southeast Asia's biggest auto production hub and a major base for multinational companies, many of which face supply and production disruptions after the floods shuttered at least seven huge industrial estates north of Bangkok.

The Bank of Thailand nearly halved its projection of economic growth this year to 2.6 percent from July's 4.1 percent estimate, and said the economy -- Southeast Asia's second largest -- would shrink by 1.9 percent in the December quarter from the previous three months due to the floods.

Daihatsu Motor Co , which makes mini-vehicles for Toyota Motor Corp , said it would reduce work to produce Toyota-badged cars at two Japanese factories next week due to a shortage of parts from Thailand.

But insured losses are likely to be at a manageable level and will not trigger widespread solvency problems, said credit-ratings agency Fitch Ratings.

Many Thais are uninsured and Japanese non-life insurers in Thailand will bear the brunt of losses at the factories.

Fitch, citing Thai insurance regulatory data, estimated the country faced about 140 billion baht ($4.5 billion) in losses, including damage at the seven industrial estates. About 80 percent of that is covered by Japanese insurers, but they are unlikely to be badly affected with about 85 percent of their coverage ceded to foreign reinsurers, Fitch said.

The defence ministry said 50,000 armed forces personnel were standing by with 1,000 boats and 1,000 vehicles to help evacuate people. A government crisis centre said there would soon be evacuation centres in eight provinces that could take in between 100,000 and 200,000 people.

Taiwan's New GIS Centric Tropical Forecast Tool for Emergency Managers

2011-10-27T18:26:00.002-05:00

Fall 2011

Disaster Decision Support System

System Features Time-Aware Functionality, Data Integration, and Remote-Sensing Image Comparison

Highlights

The solution provides a custom time slider that allows users to view the data at any time.
CEOCDSS's base layer is published by an Esri map service.
The toolbar contains the table of contents, a map bookmark list, GIS tools, and a map position tool.

In August 2009, Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan and resulted in record-breaking accumulated rainfall within a short period of time (one rain gauge recorded a total rainfall of 2,965 millimeters in three days). Hundreds of casualties and severe debris flows were caused by Morakot.

Time-aware functionality allows users to easily browse different time versions of an event.

To provide integrated and comprehensive-solutions from all government resources, the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) assigned a disaster intelligence group providing various types of typhoon disaster assistance, including a Central Emergency Operation Center Decision Support System (CEO-CDSS). This system integrates other government agencies' typhoon information, such as disaster news and predictions, emergency response, and rescue organizations.

Before the CEO-CDSS project, NCDR offered a platform to related government and nongovernment organizations to augment early warning and evacuation operations with technology and to introduce disaster analysis information systems for disaster prevention. NCDR also integrated digital disaster data with real-time synchronization from other agencies. But NCDR needed a better way to display and analyze this data. After comparing available technologies, NCDR approached RiChi Technology Inc. of New Taipei City, Taiwan, to develop a GIS solution. In 2010, RiChi developed an application named "CEOCDSS" to streamline data analysis and optimize its display for NCDR using ArcGIS API for Flex. CEOCDSS has the following four main features:

User-Friendly Interface

CEOCDSS employs the interface design concept of full map content and user-friendliness. Disaster response commanders and other CEOCDSS users can navigate the system easily even without being familiar with GIS. The user interface is divided into three main sections: map setting, basic toolbar, and advanced toolbar. The map setting region includes a basemap switch and map scale slider, with which users can select streets, terrain, and aerial and satellite image maps. The basic toolbar features the four functionalities that are used most frequently during typhoons. The toolbar can float on the table of contents (TOC) and includes a map bookmark list, GIS tools, and a map position tool. The advanced toolbar includes a time slider, dual-view mode, map event editing, and interface settings.

Time-Aware Functionality

Time-aware functionality displays the path of Typhoon Megi.

During typhoons, disaster response commanders need to know all the different situations occurring at each point in time. In nonflood periods, disaster researchers need to analyze historical data regarding past typhoons. Therefore, CEOCDSS provides a custom time slider that allows users to view the data at any time; this data includes any type of attribute containing time, such as satellite imagery (visible and enhanced), water level, forecasted typhoon paths, real-time rainfall reports, radar data, and road disasters.

In addition to the time slider, users can access the calendar list, which shows all historical typhoons and disasters and can be used for switching time periods faster. An auto-update time slider is also available. It is helpful for finding disaster information from older periods and monitoring current data in real time. Users can also use the time player to display each moment of data between periods of time or during one typhoon.

Heterogeneous Data Integration and Management

CEOCDSS embraces heterogeneous data that can be divided into dynamic map services, points in the database, tiled maps, customized advanced layers, and the nearest real-time picture from the operational point of view. Formats of and access and methods of connection to all the data are very different. For example, the base layer is published by an Esri map service using map documents (MXD); several types of real-time data are stored in the database; and real-time pictures, like radar images, are stored in folder directories in image format.

Integration of multiple types of data in one GIS platform leads to restrictions about layer setting dispersal. System administrators must be aware of the data type and layer operation before applying settings. To solve these limitations, the NCDR-RiChi development team strengthened all parts of the system structure by inserting a data control mechanism between the data entities and system display. All information must be displayed using this mechanism, which includes layer labels, scale restrictions, default modules in CEOCDSS, data sources, and sorting in the TOC. All these items are centralized in the system database and can be set easily at the CEOCDSS management website.

Comparing Remote-Sensing Images

During typhoons, remote-sensing images can provide reliable information that rescue organizations can use to make decisions and immediately follow up on disaster response issues. CEOCDSS provides a satellite image dual-view mode, allowing users to compare two different images side by side. This functionality can be used for comparing different datasets for the same area or viewing data in different time periods. When users pan or zoom in or out on the map in one view, the other view moves simultaneously. With CEOCDSS, satellite images are published as the web map service and can be filtered and overlaid by a time slider.

So far in 2011, CEOCDSS has integrated more than 100 datasets for NCDR with assistance from RiChi. In fact, CEOCDSS has actually been applied to six of Taiwan's typhoons, two exercises for disaster response, and two workshops about disaster intelligence; it also provides great performance in NCDR's decision support system. Decision makers can easily understand the different time period status of disasters via the time-aware functionality.

For more information, contact Dr. Wenray Su, NCDR (e-mail: wrsu@ncdr.nat.gov.tw), or Chiajui Shang, RiChi Technology Inc. (e-mail: jerryshang@richitech.com.tw).

Related Podcast

Using GIS for Emergency Operations Planning in Nepal
Justin Pummell, a GIS professional with the US Army Corps of Engineers, talks about using GIS to assess the seismic vulnerability of critical transportation infrastructure in Kathmandu, Nepal. Listen to the podcast. [11:00 | 10 MB]

The Return of NPOES!

2011-10-27T07:34:00.002-05:00

Air & Space - SCITECH

Weather Looks Pristine for NASA Climate Satellite Launch Friday

By Mike Wall

Published October 27, 2011

| Space.com

NASA is gearing up for the planned Friday (Oct. 28) launch of its newest Earth-observing satellite, a trailblazing spacecraft that will be the first to make observations for both short-term weather forecasts and long-term climate monitoring.

Appropriately enough, it looks like Mother Nature will cooperate. Current forecasts call for a zero percent chance of launch-violating bad weather.

The National polar-orbiting operational environmental satellite system Preparatory Project — or NPP for short — is due to blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:48 a.m. EDT (0948 GMT) Friday, aboard a Delta 2 rocket.

Preparations for an on-schedule launch are coming along nicely, with the NPP team completing its launch readiness review today (Oct. 26), NASA officials said. So everything should go off as planned.

"It's looking to be very favorable conditions for launch day," Lisa Cochran, launch weather officer at the 30th Operations Support Squadron at Vandenberg, told reporters during a briefing today.

Monitoring weather and climate

Once aloft, the minivan-size NPP will zip around Earth in a polar orbit, peering down at our planet from an altitude of 512 miles (824 kilometers).

The $1.5 billion satellite will use its suite of five science instruments to make a variety of observations, which should be useful to weather forecasters and climate modelers alike, officials said.

For example, NPP will record sea and land surface temperatures, track atmospheric ozone and dust levels, measure changes in vegetation productivity and monitor sea ice, land ice and glaciers around the world, among other things, researchers said.

The result could be a better understanding of climate change and its impacts.

The satellite will also help monitor natural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, wildfires and floods. [Natural Disasters: Top 10 U.S. Threats]

"It's the prototype of the next-generation weather satellite," NPP project scientist Jim Gleason, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a recent NASA video. "It's the nation's first attempt to really combine weather monitoring and climate observing in the same platform."

A testbed for future satellites

NPP was originally conceived as a demonstration mission for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), a joint military-civilian project that would monitor both weather and climate.

However, NPOESS was scuttled in 2010, doomed by a series of delays and rising cost estimates. The military-civilian partnership was dissolved, with each branch directed to develop its own line of polar-orbiting Earth-observing satellites.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are working on the civilian program, which is called the Joint Polar Satellite System, or JPSS.

While NPP will gather important data itself, the satellite is also viewed as a key step toward bringing JPSS online. For example, NPP will try out technology that could be incorporated into JPSS, researchers said.

NPP is designed to be operational for at least five years, which should keep the satellite working until JPSS is ready to go. The first JPSS satellite is slated for launch in late 2016, officials said.

NPP is not the only payload aboard the Delta 2. The rocket will also carry six cubesats — tiny satellites that measure about 4 inches (10 centimeters) across — into orbit. The cubesats were designed by university students and will ride to space as part of NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program.

The Only Weather Site which Give you Creedance

2011-10-27T06:12:00.001-05:00

Since Dr BB pointed out the numerous signs of the coming end-o-the-world

Rina to some to a near standstill

2011-10-27T05:32:00.002-05:00

At least she is forecast to weaken, but a week over the NW Carib means a lot of rain for somebody. Cancel that trip to Cancun. - HLG

Strange News from Meteor-Ology

2011-10-25T07:29:00.001-05:00

Falling Meteorite Sparks Panic in Britain After Pilot Mistakes It for a Plane

Published October 24, 2011

| NewsCore

WHITSTABLE, England – A meteorite in southern England sparked a rescue mission after shocked onlookers thought they were seeing a plane crashing into the sea.

Firefighters were called out after a pilot and a fisherman both reported that an aircraft had fallen into the water in Whitstable, but the search was called off when no trace of the plane could be found.

A spokesman for the Kent Fire and Rescue Service told the Kent Messenger, "Two independent calls came in reporting a plane had crashed off the coast. Even a pilot who was looking out of his window reported a plane was in distress and had gone into the sea."

He added, "Fishermen in the area also reported seeing something, but in the end nothing was found, and it was put down to a meteorite falling to Earth."

Hundreds of meteorites streaked across the sky this weekend as the Earth passed through a cloud of dust left by behind by a comet called Giacobini-Zinner.

Return of Wrong Way Lenny?

2011-10-25T05:24:00.001-05:00

Will Rina become "Wrong-way Rina?" There have only been 6 hurricanes, reliably recorded in November, for the Atlantic. Will Rina become the 7th? She already appears on track to be a just as rare, late October, Major Hurricane, as forecast. Meanwhile, models show another storm forming, right behind Rina, and heaind for the Gulf?- HLG

November hurricanes of note
The most extraordinary November hurricane was “Wrong-Way Lenny”, which hit the northern Leeward Islands as a strong Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds on November 17-18, 1999. Lenny was the first storm to have an extended west-to-east track across the central and eastern Caribbean Sea in the 135-year Atlantic tropical cyclone record, and was the strongest November hurricane on record. Hurricane Gordon was the deadliest November hurricane. It claimed 1122 lives in Haiti when it passed just west of the country as a tropical storm on November 13, 1994. Lenny claimed six lives in Costa Rica, five in the Dominican Republic, two in Jamaica, two in Cuba, and eight in Florida. Property damage to the United States was estimated at $400 million (1994 dollars), and was severe in Haiti and Cuba as well.

Three November hurricanes have hit the U.S.–an unnamed 1916 Category 1 hurricane that hit the Florida Keys, an unnamed 1925 Category 1 hurricane that struck Sarasota, Florida, and Hurricane Kate, which struck the Florida Panhandle on November 22, 1985.

Read more: http://weather.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/11/07/interesting-historic-info-on-november-hurricanes/#ixzz1bmtKcjqt

More End of the World Signs

2011-10-24T23:59:00.003-05:00

Large undersea volcanic plume seen south of the Canary Islands. - HLG

THE END IS NEAR

2011-10-24T22:24:00.000-05:00

Aurora Borealis Visible Across the Midsouth on October 24th!
A very rare sighting of the Aurora Borealis shocked many residents of the Midsouth on Monday evening. Residents from northern Arkansas, northern Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina reported a red glow in the northern sky.

A coronal mass ejection, otherwise known as a solar wind, took aim on the eastern United States giving residents even south of the Mason-Dixon line a rare sight of the Northern Lights. The Aurora is produced as energetically charged particles from the sun (solar wind) interact with the Earth's magnetic field. Since the Earth's magnetic field is strongest at the poles, Auroras are much more common at very high latitudes. Occasionally these lights can be seen further south, but rarely do they reach as far south as 35 degrees north latitude, or the Mississippi/Tennessee state line.

BB

Where will Rina go?

2011-10-24T16:32:00.001-05:00

The solutions seem equally divided between hard-recurve, progression to the west, and my favorite, the week-long-loop-d-loo! - HLG

2011-10-24T02:16:00.002-05:00

Huge Asteroid to Pass Near Earth on November 8th 2011

Apr 08, 2011 - 11:44 AM
By: Chris_Kitze

Mark your calendars for an impressive and upcoming flyby of an asteroid that’s one of the larger potentially perilous space rocks in the heavens – in terms of smacking the Earth in the future.
It’s the case of asteroid 2005 YU55, a round mini-world that is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) in diameter. In early November, this asteroid will approach Earth within a scant 0.85 lunar distances.
Due the object’s size and whisking by so close to Earth, an extensive campaign of radar, visual and infrared observations are being planned.
Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered by Spacewatch at the University of Arizona, Tucson’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on Dec. 28, 2005.
En route and headed our way, the cosmic wanderer is another reminder about life here on our sitting duck of a planet
“The close Earth approach of 2005 YU55 on Nov. 8, is unusual since it is close and big. On average, one wouldn’t expect an object this big to pass this close but every 30 years,” said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Yeomans said that with new radar capabilities at Goldstone in California — part of NASA’s Deep Space Network — there is a good chance of obtaining radar imaging of 2005 YU55 down to the 5-meter resolution level. Doing so, he said, would mean obtaining higher spatial resolution of the object than that attained by recent spacecraft flyby missions
“So we like to think of this opportunity as a close flyby mission with Earth as the spacecraft,” Yeomans told SPACE.com. “When combined with ground-based optical and near-infrared observations, the radar data should provide a fairly complete picture of one of the larger potentially hazardous asteroids,” he said.
Asteroid 2005 YU55 is a slow rotator. Because of its size and proximity to Earth, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., has designated the space rock as a “potentially hazardous asteroid.”

OU's Shocking Upset Triggers Widespread web-page Outage!

2011-10-23T18:32:00.002-05:00

The JTWC page has been down all weekend. Amazing to me how the NHC NEVER goes down, but any given weekend, and it is almost always a weekend, the JTWC page is out of commission. Give it back to the Air Force Navy, maybe they can figure this interweb thingy out! - HLG

SEVERE STORMS SABOTAGE STELLER SEASON

2011-10-23T11:05:00.000-05:00

The "Main Stream" sports media is refusing to discuss nature's sabotage of THE University of Oklahoma's (OU) 2011 football season.

While not publicly discussed, in 2006 OU's sports research division built new Magnetic-Crystal-Amazonian (MCA) football uniforms - the reason behind OU's dominance at home. When the football team runs out onto the field, the uniformed players run through a polarizing magnetic field that charges the MCA uniforms with positive energy. Once charged, the uniforms continually charge the players with positive magnetic energy throughout the game, that allows the players to perform in a magnificent fashion.

However, last night before the start of the game between OU and Texas Tech, severe storms moved through the Norman area, setting off EMP pulses from cloud-to-ground lightning strikes. Since the OU players were already on the field, their charged MCA uniforms quickly discharged because of the EMPs, rendering them useless.

Thus, OU lost to Texas Tech - back to the drawing board.

100 Percent Chance of Precipitation from Space

2011-10-22T21:42:00.002-05:00

If you see a large glowing object plummeting from the sky late Saturday or early Sunday, duck.A defunct European satellite called ROSAT is headed straight for Earth this weekend—and chances are even higher that a piece of space debris could hit someone than the odds placed on a NASA satellite that fell from orbit last month.The German Aerospace Center, which led the development and construction of ROSAT, estimates that the chance of anyone being harmed by debris from the satellite is 1 in 2,000. For NASA's UARS, the injury risk was roughly a third lower, at 1 in 3,200.ROSAT is currently estimated to make an uncontrolled reentry during the early morning hours on Sunday, Greenwich Mean Time, said Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency's space debris office.But Klinkrad cautions that the satellite could enter Earth's atmosphere up to 24 hours earlier or later than the estimated time.That's because shifts in radiation from the sun aren't 100-percent predictable. If solar radiation increases, there's more heating and expansion of the atmosphere, which would increase drag on the spacecraft and cause it to hurtle downward sooner than expected.Don't Touch the Space JunkUnfortunately, neither Klinkrad nor anyone else can say exactly where on Earth ROSAT is headed.Debris could come down anywhere between 53 degrees north latitude and 53 degrees south latitude, an area that includes most of Earth's land mass, the German Aerospace Center's Roland Gräve said via email.That could be a worry, because the satellite's 1.5-ton mirror is likely to survive the superheated trip through the atmosphere all the way to the ground, where it could make a major dent in whatever it strikes.By contrast, the biggest piece of NASA's UARS spacecraft thought to hit the planet was a 300-pound (150-kilogram) chunk of the craft's frame.In the end, the remnants of UARS splashed down into an isolated stretch of the Pacific Ocean, disturbing no one except perhaps a few fish. (See "NASA Satellite Debris Likely Fell in Ocean, May Never Be Found.")Despite the higher odds, ROSAT is also unlikely to hurt anyone, scientists say, given the planet's large stretches of ocean and thinly populated areas."We accept risks in everyday life that are many orders of magnitude higher than the risks we incur from reentering space objects," ESA's Klinkrad said.If bits of the satellite do land in a populated area, "they will be extremely hot," added the German Aerospace Center's Gräve. "This is why we recommend not touching any satellite parts" that do make it to the ground.And any ROSAT debris, no matter where it's found, belongs to the German government, he said.ROSAT Worthy of a WakeROSAT—short for Roentgen Satellite—launched in 1990 on a Delta II rocket to measure the x-rays emitted by objects such as neutron stars, dense stellar cores left behind by some supernovae.The mission was supposed to last only 18 months, but the satellite kept chugging for eight years. Scientists finally shut it down in 1999 after its last functional scientific instrument accidentally pointed too close to the sun, blinding the sensors.When ROSAT was on the drawing board in the 1980s, spacecraft designers didn't plan for the end of their vehicles' lives. So ROSAT was built without a propulsion system that would've allowed for a carefully choreographed demise."The attitude 20 years ago was still very much, Eh, space is big, and things that reenter probably won't hit anyone, so we won't worry about it," said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientist who relied on data from ROSAT.As far as McDowell can remember, nothing as big as the ROSAT mirror has smashed into the Earth's surface since the reentry of the Soviet space station Salyut-7 in 1991.(Space debris pictures: "Five Unexpected Objects That Fell to Earth.")The mirror is likely to come down intact in part because it's such a massive item, added University of Leicester physicist John Pye, who worked on the ROSAT program for nearly 20 years.What's more, he said, the glass is a special heat-resistant variety, to keep the mirror from distorting the x-rays as its temperature changed in space.Instead of being worried, however, the CfA's McDowell is feeling so nostalgic about the satellite's imminent death that he's planning a wake. There's just one problem: When to send out the invitations."I'm going to wait until it looks like it's going to come down," he said, "and then I'm going to email everybody: Anybody free? ... That's the trouble with these reentry celebrations. You're never sure when they'll be." NATGEO

Tropical Cyclone IO2B (Bay of Bengal) from MODIS

2011-10-22T19:54:00.001-05:00

Tropcial Cyclone IO2B

2011-10-20T01:41:00.000-05:00

The second storm of the Bay of Bengal this season didn't get very strong, but hopefully fizzles out completely before getting over inland Thailand, which has seen devastating flooding this rainy season."Dr BB's" Storm of Fall 2011 causing mayhem from Chicago to the Northeast, and tornadoes down in Florida. How much snow would this thing be cranking out in 6 weeks or so? Is it a portent of a bad East-Coast winter to come? - HLG

Beautiful Stratus over Greenland

2011-10-19T05:43:00.002-05:00

Thanks National Geo!

More Evidence for the Coming Ice-Age

2011-10-19T04:32:00.004-05:00

More and more dust and dryness, proving the Earth is sliding towards the next advance of the polar ice caps. Dust storm shrouds Texas cityOctober 18, 2011, 9:35 p.m.Reporting from Houston— Even by Texas standards the dark, dense, 8,000-foot-high behemoth of a dust storm that enveloped Lubbock had folks making comparisons Tuesday to the great Dust Bowl of the 1930s.It was "Steinbeck-ish in its arrival," said 71-year-old Paul Beane, a Lubbock city councilman, who watched the storm roll in Monday evening from his front porch. "I expected at any moment to see a line of Model Ts coming through headed to California. It really did look like pictures I had seen of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s."Winds kicked up to 75 mph. The sky turned darker than a thunderstorm. And then a blinding, rust-colored cloud blew into town with a vengeance. In what meteorologists described as a rare event because of the size of the cloud, the dust storm knocked out power, tipped small planes, toppled trees, damaged an airport hangar and a fire department roof and had people sweeping and brushing off a thick coating of dirt.With the ongoing drought across the Southwest, experts said, the dust clouds could become more commonplace.Smaller dust storms are common in Lubbock, the "Hub City" of the South Plains, home to 230,000 people about 300 miles west of Dallas. But the conditions that caused Monday's storm were unusual, similar to those that generated enormous dust clouds in Arizona in recent months.The cloud formed what meteorologists call a haboob, an Arabic term used to describe a violent dust storm or sandstorm. Justin Weaver, a meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Lubbock, said Arizona's dust storms were driven by thunderstorms. "We have the same situation when we get a haboob — it's driven by convection," he said. "This one was a little different because it was driven by the leading edge of a cold front."The storms can be traced, at least in part, to the Southwest's long-lasting drought, which the Texas climatologist has said could endure for a decade. As the dry spell continues, another cold front could stir up a similar dust cloud in coming months, Weaver said."There's very few crops in the fields; almost all the cotton crops failed," Weaver said. "It's similar to what we saw during the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s."Councilman Beane said Lubbock residents still told stories about how Depression-era dust storms turned the town so dark, chickens went to roost in the middle of the day. Now he said the next generation had its own dust storm story.Lubbock Mayor Tom Martin was selling pumpkins outside his church when he saw a dense, black cloud on the horizon."It looked like nighttime coming real quick. It got very, very dark in a hurry," Martin said.On Tuesday, crews were still working to restore power to some residents, and street sweepers were clearing the remaining layer of red dust, according to city spokesman Jeff McKito.McKito was on his way home from picking up a pizza Monday night, driving the downtown highway loop, when the dust storm hit."It blocked out the sun," he said. "I couldn't even see the Sam's Club right off the loop, there was so much dirt in the air."Over at Estacado High School, the football team watched in awe as the cloud approached, trying to figure out what it was. As soon as they did, they ran inside, where the girls' volleyball team and the drama club were practicing. Then the school lost power and practice was cut short, according to Principal Sam Ayers. A nearby middle school canceled a volleyball game so students could take shelter."We had a lot of dirt to clean out this morning," Ayers said, and the school was still trying to fix its bell and clock system, which were thrown off by the outage."Somehow," he said, "students still seem to know when it's time to get out of class."molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Chilean Volcanic Plume

2011-10-18T19:56:00.002-05:00

Chile's active volcano has launched another major dust plume high in the atmosphere, as can be seen from MODIS, over Argentina this week. - HLG

Coastal "Bomb"

2011-10-17T05:06:00.002-05:00

Dr BB's 2011 Storm looks like it will explode over the Mid-Atlantic the next 48 hours. I am sure the media will be surprised, and this is clearly a Global Alarming Event! - HLG

"Fat Lady" not singing in Central America either ;(

2011-10-17T00:54:00.003-05:00

Storms leave 80 dead in Central AmericaOctober 17, 2011 - 3:54PMThe death toll from rains and mudslides across Central America has risen to at least 80, with El Salvador suffering the most fatalities at 32 and poor weather continuing.International highways have been washed out, villages isolated and thousands of families have lost homes and crops in a region that the United Nations has classified as one of the most affected by climate change.Hardest hit were El Salvador, with at least 32 dead after five days of intense rains unleashed by a stubbornly persistent tropical depression, and Guatemala, where 28 people were reported dead and two others were missing.Advertisement: Story continues below President Mauricio Funes said in a message to the nation that El Salvador was "really being put to the test", adding that more than 20,000 people had been evacuated and entire communities had been cut off due to unpassable roads.Environment Minister Herman Rosa Chavez said 150mm of rain over a 12-hour period had made the country's mountainous terrain unstable.The government appealed for international humanitarian aid, with the rains forecast to continue through Monday. Spain responded by sending 20 tonnes of aid including personal hygiene kits and tents.In Ciudad Arce, 40km west of the capital, a landslide swept away five houses, killing at least nine people, officials said.Jorge Melendez, the head of the country's civil protection agency, said most of the deaths in El Salvador were caused by mudslides.In Guatemala, President Alvaro Colom declared a "state of calamity" after the death toll there reached 28 after five days of heavy rains.In the most recent incident, a mudslide buried five members of a single family inside a house in Boca del Monte, Villa Canales, 18km south of Guatemala City.Forecasters said rains generated by a low-pressure system would not let up for at least another day.In Honduras, authorities raised the death toll to 12 after a night of unrelenting rains turned creek beds into raging torrents in the populous mountain valley that is home to the capital Tegucigalpa.President Porfirio Lobo declared a state of emergency in the southern part of the country and dispatched medical teams to the worst-affected areas.In Nicaragua, the civil defence agency ordered the evacuation of the slopes of the Casita volcano, which experienced deadly landslides in 1998.First Lady Rosario Murillo, who is also the government spokeswoman, said eight people had been killed and more than 25,000 affected by the rains.

STORM SEASON 2011 AIN'T OVER

2011-10-16T16:57:00.000-05:00

The "Fat Lady" hasn't sung yet Breck.

BB

Worst algae blooms in Lake Erie in decades

2011-10-14T05:46:00.000-05:00

As the great HLG pointed out in an early blog - "thar some funky sh*t goin' on in da Lakes." So true.

From CIMSS Blog

"According to the NASA Earth Observatory site, this is one of the worst algae blooms in Lake Erie in decades, brought about in part due to large amounts of runoff into the lake following a period of above-normal precipitation. The thickest portions of the algae bloom appear lighter green in the false color images, just like dense vegetation does."

BB

Hurricane Jova Heading to Mexican Riviera

2011-10-11T17:47:00.001-05:00

Adirondack Fall Colors

2011-10-11T17:46:00.002-05:00

Greens and oranges, and yellows. Awwww!

More Sediment Plumes and Green Stuff in the Great Lakes

2011-10-11T01:50:00.002-05:00

Most of the light blue areas are reflected sediment. I assume the green stuff is a plankton bloom, but since it is Lake Erie, it could be other stuff! - HLG

Korea Weather Forecast in English, on your mobile!

2011-10-10T04:00:00.001-05:00

English mobile weather forecast launched2011-10-10 14:35 Text Youngsters growing tired of social media‘U.K. spies plotted to feed Hitler fema...K-pop captivates youngsters of PyongyangFarmers, producers agree on raw milk pr...San Francisco subway stations closed am...Han’s disappearance absurd and irrespon...U.S. judge OKs felony charges over Face...Man decapitated disabled sonRembrandt drawing stolen from Californi...Coffee＇s anti-cancer link explained: st...Studies show 15 minutes of daily exerci...Waking up with a foreign accentLee Chung-Yong breaks legDirector Kim wins key Cannes sidebar pr...N.K. has around 30,000 electronic warfa...The Korea Meteorological Administration has launched its English mobile website (m.kma.go.kr/eng) for smartphone users. Information to be provided includes current weather, digital forecast, mid-term forecast, world weather, satellite images, radar images, sea weather, mountain weather and weather information for daily life. Warnings for typhoons, yellow dust and earthquakes will be posted in real time, too. Access to the mobile website is also available through its QR code. The KMA currently runs English (web.kma.go.kr/eng), Chinese (web.kma.go.kr/chn) and Japanese (web.kma.go.kr/jpn) websites, and plans to open Chinese and Japanese mobile websites in the near future. By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldm.com)

Fall Colors from MODIS

2011-10-06T22:19:00.001-05:00

The amazing peak of fall colors around Lake Superior, seen this week from MODIS. - HLG

SEDIMENT BOUNDARIES

2011-10-06T20:46:00.000-05:00

From CIMSS - a large amount of sediment was seen in southern Lake Michigan following a strong wind event which produced very large waves.

BB

Will Solar Region 1302 Disrupt Earth's Satellites and Power Grids?

2011-09-30T19:10:00.001-05:00

Sunspot 1302 Continues to Turn Toward Earth-UPDATED09.27.11 Geomagnetic Storm Subsiding"Almost as soon as it was dark we were seeing vertical columns of light extending high into the sky, with the ever-present green color, but also lots of red color!" said Travis Novitsky of Grand Portage, Northeastern Minnesota, of this image he took on Sept. 26. Image Courtesy of Travis Novitsky. UPDATE 09.27.11 - The severe geomagnetic storm (Kp=7-8) that began yesterday when a CME hit Earth's magnetic field is subsiding. At the peak of the disturbance, auroras were sighted around both poles and in more than five US states including Michigan, New York, South Dakota, Maine, and Minnesota.Every three hours throughout the day, magnetic observatories around the world measure the largest magnetic change that their instruments recorded during that period. The result is averaged together with those of the other observatories to produce an index (Kp index) that tells scientists how disturbed the Earth's magnetic field is on a 9-point scale. Credit: NOAA UPDATE 09.26.11 - A strong-to-severe (Kp=8) geomagnetic storm is in progress following the impact of a coronal mass ejection (CME) at approximately 8:15a.m. EDT (12:15 UT) on Sept. 26. The Goddard Space Weather Lab reported a strong compression of Earth's magnetosphere. Simulations indicate that solar wind plasma has penetrated close to geosynchronous orbit starting at 9am. Geosynchronous satellites could therefore be directly exposed to solar wind plasma and magnetic fields. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras after nightfall.

Sunspot 1302 has already produced two X-flares (X1.4 on Sept. 22nd and X1.9 on Sept. 24th). Each of the dark cores in this image from SDO is larger than Earth, and the entire active region stretches more than 100,000 km from end to end. The sunspot's magnetic field is currently crackling with sub-X-class flares that could grow into larger eruptions as the sunspot continues to turn toward Earth. Credit: NASA/SDO/HMI› View zoom larger› View full disk image Behemoth sunspot 1302 unleashed another strong flare on Saturday morning--an X1.9-category blast at 5:40 am EDT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the extreme ultraviolet flash.The movie (above) also shows a shadowy shock wave racing away from the blast site. This is a sign that the blast produced a coronal mass ejection (CME) that could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 26.Since the X1.9-flare, active region (AR) 1302 has unleashed M8.6 and M7.4 flares on Sept. 24 and an M8.8 flare early on Sept. 25. None of the blasts have been squarely Earth-directed, but this could change as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the days ahead. AR1302 is growing and shows no immediate signs of quieting down.Updates will be posted as warranted.What is a solar flare? What is a coronal mass ejection?For answers to these and other space weather questions, please visit the Spaceweather Frequently Asked Questions page.

Why do some typhoons have two names?

2011-09-30T01:44:00.005-05:00

Regardless, this one is bad new for Luzon, which is still recovering from one last weekend. - HLGQuiel to hit Northern Luzon on Saturday09/30/2011 | 12:58 AM Tropical cyclone “Quiel" (Nalgae) is expected to hit Northern Luzon this Saturday, as forecast by both Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.In PAGASA’s 11 pm bulletin issued on Thursday, Quiel’s center was spotted at 950 km east of Aparri, Cagayan 10 pm, moving eastward at 17 kph with maximum sustained winds at 110 kph near the center with gustiness of up to 140 kph.The storm’s diameter or span is 300 km. By Saturday evening it is expected to be 130 km from Aparri, Cagayan – which means the storm’s edges would then have hit land. Since in PAGASA’s forecast, Quiel’s maximum sustained winds has not yet reached nor exceeded 118 kph, the cyclone is still considered just a tropical storm and not yet a typhoon.Highlights of PAGASA 10 p.m. datain 11 p.m. bulletin on "QUIEL"Location: 950 km East of Aparri, CagayanWind speed: 110 kphGust: 140 kphMovement: 17 kphDirection: WestRainfall volume: 15-25 mm per hourDiameter: 300 kmForecast Position:- Sept. 30 (Friday evening) - 590 km East Southeast of Appari, Cagayan- Oct. 1 (Saturday evening) - 130 km East Southeast of Appari, Cagayan- Oct. 2 (Sunday evening) - 370 km East km of Appari, CagayanFrom GMA News

Another Satellite Forecast to Precipitate to Earth

2011-09-29T10:16:00.000-05:00

In the ongoing efforts here at FWSAAB to keep our loyal readers (yes, both of you) informed on the latest trends in meteorology, we are proud to announce a new series. This series promises to keep you informed on the forecast for satellites falling out of the sky, and possibly on your head. After the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell this month, the news broke that the German x-ray satellite, ROSAT will fall in an uncontrolled tumble, some time in November. So, stay tuned to FWSAAB, as we are in constant communications with Space Command out in Colorado to keep our loyal readers aware of what might fall on their head from the sky. - HLGAnother Dead Satellite to Crash Land in NovemberBy Denise ChowPublished September 29, 2011| Space.com Print Email Share CommentsGerman Aerospace CenterA defunct NASA satellite that fell to Earth last week sparked some worldwide buzz, but it's not the only spacecraft falling out of space.The decommissioned German X-ray space observatory, called the Roentgen Satellite or ROSAT, will tumble to Earth sometime in early November, but it's still too early to pinpoint exactly when and where debris from the satellite will land, according to officials at the German Aerospace Center.The 2.4-ton spacecraft's orbit extends from the latitudes of 53 degrees north and south, which means the satellite could fall anywhere over a huge swath of the planet — stretching from Canada to South America, German Aerospace officials said. [6 Biggest Uncontrolled Spacecraft Falls From Space]The latest estimates suggest that up to 30 large pieces of the satellite could survive the intense and scorching journey through Earth's atmosphere. In all, about 1.6 tons of the satellite components could reach the surface of the Earth, according to German Aerospace officials.The re-entry will be similar to NASA's 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), which plunged into the southern Pacific Ocean on Saturday (Sept. 24).ROSAT coming homeIn 1998, ROSAT's star tracker failed, which caused its onboard camera to be pointed directly at the sun. The event permanently damaged the spacecraft and ROSAT was officially decommissioned in February 1999.Scientists are actively tracking the dead satellite, but many of the details will remain uncertain until roughly two hours before it hits Earth."It is not possible to accurately predict ROSAT's re-entry," Heiner Klinkrad, head of the Space Debris Office at the European Space Agency, said in a webcast posted on the German Aerospace Center's website. "The uncertainty will decrease as the moment of re-entry approaches. It will not be possible to make any kind of reliable forecast about where the satellite will actually come down until about one or two hours before the fact."It will, however, be possible to rule out certain geographical regions from the potential drop zone about a day in advance, Klinkrad said. The largest piece of debris is expected to be the telescope's heat resistant mirror."Generally speaking, whenever a satellite re-enters the atmosphere, about 20 to 40 percent of its mass actually reaches the Earth’s surface," Klinkrad said. "In the case of ROSAT, this figure could be slightly higher because one of its characteristic features is that it carries heat-resistant mirror structures on board." [Related: Falling Satellites & Space Junk: Q&A with Orbital Debris Expert]Small risk to publicFragments from ROSAT could fall back to Earth over a 50-mile (80-kilometer) wide path, but despite the uncontrolled nature of ROSAT's re-entry, the odds of personal injury or property damage are extremely remote, German Aerospace officials said.When NASA's UARS satellite fell to Earth, for example, NASA said the chances of parts of the spacecraft striking any one of the nearly seven billion people on the planet were about 1 in 3,200. The actual personal risk of being hit for an individual person, however, was about 1 in several trillion, NASA officials said.To date, there have been no reported serious injuries or casualties from falling space debris, NASA scientists have said.

Angry Tourists in Hong Kong. Oh my!

2011-09-29T02:30:00.000-05:00

Typhoon Nesat hits HK, markets closedShare thisEmailBy Kelvin SohHONG KONG | Thu Sep 29, 2011 2:35am EDT(Reuters) - A typhoon swept past Hong Kong on Thursday, closing markets, schools and most businesses in one of Asia's most important financial centers.The stock market, government offices and schools will remain closed for the rest of the day as Typhoon Nesat makes its way past Hong Kong en route to south China, after crossing the Philippines where it left at least 35 dead and 45 missing."Gale winds persist over parts of Hong Kong in particular over the southwestern part of the territory," the observatory said in a statement. "With Nesat moving away from Hong Kong, the local winds show sign of weakening."No deaths were reported in Hong Kong, but local television showed footage of at least two people who were hospitalized after being hit by falling debris as a result of strong winds.The Hong Kong Observatory's No.8 typhoon warning signal will remain in effect for most of the day, it said on its website, prompting financial markets to be closed all day.Hong Kong has a series of different typhoon warnings. Schools, businesses and government services stop when any No.8 or above typhoon warning is hoisted. The weather service will consider downgrading the warning as winds subside, it said.As of 0545 GMT, Nesat was centered about 390 kilometers (240 miles) southwest of Hong Kong, which saw winds of up to 121 kilometers per hour. The tropical cyclone on Tuesday hit the Philippines, where it also caused an estimated 1.1 billion pesos ($25 million) in crop and infrastructure damage.Several window panes from the headquarters of Hang Seng Bank (0011.HK) in the business district fell, but no one was injured."The streets are empty and all the shops are closed," said Sharon Guan, a tourist who was waiting for her ferry at the China Ferry Terminal. "It's so unusual to see Hong Kong so deserted at this hour."Tropical cyclones regularly hit Hong Kong, the Philippines and other coastal regions of south China in summer and early in autumn.EMPTY STREETS, ANGRY TOURISTSA ship weighing 1,677 deadweight metric tons ran aground in the early hours of Thursday morning, but there were no injuries, the Hong Kong Marine Department said.Nearly 20 shelters were also set up around Hong Kong, while the government canceled public events, including the daily flag raising ceremony at the city's Victoria Harbor.Usually crowded streets were devoid of people as its iconic tram system stopped operations and the subway and bus systems cut trips. Trees fallen by strong winds blocked some roads, while taxis still plying the roads asked for extra fare.Hong Kong's dominant airline Cathay Pacific (0293.HK) said all its flights to and from the city were operating as normal. The Hong Kong International Airport's website showed at least 40 departing flights were delayed or canceled.Ferry terminals that link Hong Kong to Macau, south China and outlying islands were also closed.Angry tourists gathered at the Hong Kong-Macau ferry terminal next to the city's business district, with some waiting in despair and others crowding around ticket counters demanding their money back."We all thought we would have a good time in Hong Kong, but it's been a disaster," said one tourist who gave her name as Huang. "All they want is to take our money, but when there is trouble, they disappear."Neighboring Macau was also affected, with schools and businesses at the former Portuguese colony closed. But the city's glittering casinos, including the Venetian Macau and the Wynn Macau, remained open for tourists who managed to make their way there. ($1 = 43.460 Philippine Pesos)

More Bad New for the Phillipines

2011-09-29T00:43:00.003-05:00

I am not sure I have ever seen a typhoon track that was forecast to be due west (or any other direction) for so long as this one, but either way, not good news for the Phillipines, which is going to see two typhoons in a week over Luzon. Build the ark! - HLG

Koppen Geiger Climate Shifts Mapped On-line

2011-09-28T23:15:00.001-05:00

As a geographer religion, I have always been partial to the Von-Koppen climate classification schemes, and this map service from ESRI was a pleasure for me to see, because I wanted to do something like this as a grad-school project (a long, long time ago), but the technology just wasn't there.The authors have taken historical and modeled climate data, mapped it in the modified Koppen-Geiger system, and put it in an on-line map service hosted by ESRI. Make sure to press the little time slider to watch the decades slip by, and what the models portend for the future. - HLGhttp://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=0b9f1f90f4f745daacbc35599609b59a

Typhoon "Nesat" after Devastating the Phillipines

2011-09-28T17:32:00.003-05:00

Many dozens killed, and thousands homeless in the Phillipine Islands from Typhoon Nesat, seen here as it spins over the South China Sea, on it's way to northern Vietnam. Not a very strong system in the core, but a large rain-maker for sure. This has been a theme in the northwestern Pacific this season. - HLG

What a "purdy" storm!

2011-09-27T22:24:00.000-05:00

Large upper level cyclone over the central US made a nice photo-op for MODIS this week. HLG

One, Two, Three Punch for Indochina, and SE China

2011-09-27T07:29:00.000-05:00

The third tropical cyclone in a row has formed in the western Pacific, and is forecast to take a nearly identical track to the first two. The middle storm "Nesat" has killed dozens in the Phillipines, and the news can't be good for northern Vietnam, and the southern provinces of China, which have already had severe flooding the past few weeks. - HLG

Amazing Gravity Waves in Sahara Dust Storm

2011-09-27T00:34:00.002-05:00

The dust storm coming off west Africa, in late September of 2011 showed amazing gravity wave patterns, amid very thick bands of dust and sand.

NASA Warns People NOT to "Steal" Satellite Parts!

2011-09-23T19:50:00.001-05:00

NASA's 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is expected to fall back to Earth late tonight or early Saturday (Sept. 23 or Sept. 24 EDT), raining more than two dozen large chunks of debris on the surface. But don't even think about keeping a piece for yourself.Should the public find parts from the satellite where they fell or, since current projections suggest an ocean splashdown is more likely, after being washed ashore, NASA is warning people to stay away for both safety and legal concerns."If you find something you think may be a piece of UARS, do not touch it. Contact a local law enforcement official for assistance," NASA wrote on its website two weeks ago after it became evident that UARS's fall was approaching.

FAA Warns Pilots to Watch Out for Falling Satellite!

2011-09-23T19:47:00.002-05:00

The Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert to pilots today warning flyers to be on the lookout for any signs of a huge NASA satellite expected to fall to Earth tonight (Sept. 23) or early tomorrow.FAA officials released the special notice after NASA refined its estimates for the re-entry time of its Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), a 20-year-old climate satellite the size of a school bus that will fall from space sometime in the next 18 hours.

Probing the Madden-Julian Oscillation (What would Fat Albert Gore say?)

2011-09-22T13:45:00.001-05:00

Scientists probe Indian Ocean for clues to worldwide weather patternsSeptember 22, 2011BOULDER—An international team of researchers will begin gathering in the Indian Ocean next month to study how tropical weather brews there and then moves eastward along the equator with reverberating effects around the entire globe. They will use a vast array of tools ranging from aircraft and ships to moorings, radars, and numerical models.NCAR’s S-PolKa radar will be one of the key tools used in DYNAMO. (©UCAR, Photo by Carlye Calvin. This image is freely available for media use. For more information, see Media & nonprofit use.*)The six-month field campaign, known as DYNAMO (Dynamics of the Madden-Julian Oscillation), will help improve long-range weather forecasts and seasonal outlooks, and enable scientists to further refine computer models of global climate.The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is providing major observing tools to the science team and helping to oversee operations and data management for the project.DYNAMO is organized internationally as the Cooperative Indian Ocean Experiment on Intraseasonal Variability in the Year 2011 (CINDY2011), which is led by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.The overriding goal of the DYNAMO field campaign is to better understand a disturbance of the tropics known as the Madden-Julian Oscillation, or MJO. This disturbance, which originates in the equatorial Indian Ocean roughly every 30 to 90 days, is part of the Asian and Australian monsoons. It can enhance hurricane activity in the northeast Pacific and Gulf of Mexico, trigger torrential rainfall along the west coast of North America, and affect the onset of El Niño, along with other impacts on weather and climate patterns around the globe.Scientists believe that the MJO is the world’s greatest source of atmospheric variability in a one- to three-month time frame.“The Madden-Julian Oscillation has a huge impact all over the globe,” says DYNAMO chief scientist Chidong Zhang of the University of Miami. “It connects weather and climate, and it is important to forecasting both of them.”“The MJO drives weather in both hemispheres even though it sits along the equator,” says NCAR’s Jim Moore, director of the DYNAMO project office. “Its origins have never been measured in such a systematic fashion before.”DYNAMO, the Littoral Air-Sea Processes (LASP), and the ARM MJO Investigation Experiment (AMIE) are the three U.S. projects contributing to CINDY 2011. DYNAMO, LASP, and AMIE are jointly supported by several United States agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Naval Research (ONR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).Staff, facilities, and observations for the international collaborative effort are being provided by 16 countries: Australia, China, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Korea, the Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. U.S. scientists, students, engineers, and staff from 16 universities and 11 national laboratories and centers are participating in the field campaign.The project “Super Site” on Addu Atoll in the Maldives will host the major radar array. Other observation sites will be based on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and on Diego Garcia atoll, as well as aboard research ships and aircraft in the Indian Ocean. The AMIE project provides continuous observations on Addu Atoll and Manus for the six-month period.“The entire international program encompasses a vast expanse of the Indian Ocean on both sides of the equator and into the equatorial western Pacific, providing scientists a chance to measure the pulse of the whole life cycle of the MJO,” says AMIE principal investigator Chuck Long of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.From the tropics to the United StatesThe MJO plays a key role in driving tropical weather and climate variations during all seasons of the year. It also interacts with other atmospheric patterns, such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation that can shape weather and climate patterns across much of the globe.This illustration shows a moment in the evolution of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, a complex process involving sea surface temperatures and their influence on atmospheric processes. (©UCAR. Illustration by Lex Ivey. This image is freely available for media use. For more information, see Media & nonprofit use.*)Scientists need to better understand the MJO, both to improve long-range weather forecasts and seasonal outlooks worldwide and perhaps make the leap to longer-term forecasts of climate that may extend years into the future. In winter, for example, the onset of an MJO can set off atmospheric waves that travel across the globe and, about 10 days later, influence the location and severity of major storms on the west coast of North America, some of which cause significant flooding.“If you can find out how an MJO event starts, you may get a couple of weeks warning about wintertime storms in the United States, “ says NCAR scientist Mitchell Moncrieff, a member of the DYNAMO Science Steering Committee.At present, the computer models that scientists use to study global weather and climate fail to capture the MJO very well. The information from the field campaign could lead to significant improvements to the models.As global climate changes, it is becoming more important to understand how the atmosphere and oceans interact to regulate Earth’s temperature and respond to long-term variation. Field projects such as DYNAMO and AMIE, with an emphasis on basic research, add to scientists’ growing body of knowledge about the many interconnected components of Earth’s complex climate system.“The long-term applications and implications of the data that come from this international field campaign could be profound in terms of our understanding of weather, climate and climate change,” NCAR’s Moore says.“It’s our first chance to do a large, in-depth field campaign in the Indian Ocean," says Eric DeWeaver, program director in NSF’s Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences "This is a rare occasion when many countries pool their scientific resources to look at a phenomenon that's of tremendous interest to everyone. The precipitation pattern over the Indian Ocean can influence weather and climate as far away as the USA, including the number of hurricanes that form in the Gulf of Mexico."An array of instrumentsThe DYNAMO field campaign brings a considerable array of instruments to bear on the MJO, including two research aircraft provided by NOAA and the French Airborne Environment Research Service; four ships from the United States, India, Indonesia and Japan; a half-dozen meteorological radars; balloon sounding units; moored buoys; and a suite of other instruments.Especially critical during the field campaign are radars, which provide information about the microphysics inside clouds and rainstorms that lead to the development of the MJO. At the project super site on Addu Atoll, a meteorological radar array with seven different frequencies will be used to scan the MJO as it moves through the region. The array includes NCAR’s S-PolKa, a dual-wavelength Doppler radar that can distinguish the sizes and shapes of precipitation particles and even observe the water vapor from which the clouds form, thereby shedding light on the development of clouds and rainfall. It also includes a C-band radar from Texas A&M University that can estimate rainfall and latent heating. In addition, the site includes a suite of radars in a mobile facility of AMIE that detect different types of clouds.“DYNAMO and AMIE mark the first time in the modern era that we’ll be able to use remote sensing techniques, particularly radar, to measure atmospheric phenomena from individual cloud droplets to large raindrops,” Moore says. “We have instrument capabilities for this project that we didn’t even have 10 or 15 years ago.”In addition to measuring the sky, the researchers will also turn their attention to the sea. The physical properties of the ocean, such as temperature and salinity, are as important to the MJO as are the properties of the atmosphere. A collection of ocean sensors, deployed from ships and moorings in the open seas, will collect data on ocean-atmosphere interactions. The atmospheric and ocean data will be fed into computer models to study the initiation and propagation of the MJO.About 50 scientists and technicians from NCAR are involved in DYNAMO. In addition to deploying the S-PolKa radar, NCAR is supporting the project by providing sounding systems that measure standard weather variables, hosting the project’s logistics and planning office, and handling data management, which includes creating a real-time, online field catalog and long-term data archive.The U.S. researchers are collaborating heavily with their Maldivian hosts. The Maldives Meteorological Service is providing local weather knowledge, meeting and operations space and facilities. The researchers in turn will offer training on radar and other instrumentation to local meteorologists.A DYNAMO and AMIE media day and opening ceremony will take place on Addu Atoll at the beginning of the field campaign. Other outreach activities with local schools and organizations will be incorporated into the project during the entire deployment period.

Warning Earthlings: The Sky IS Falling

2011-09-22T05:46:00.002-05:00

Track NASA's Falling, 6.5-Ton Satellite in Real-TimePublished September 21, 2011| Print Email Share CommentsNASAAn artist's concept of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) satellite in space. The 6 1/2-ton satellite was deployed from space shuttle Discovery in 1991 and decommissioned in December 2005.In a matter of days, the sky will actually be falling. A defunct NASA atmosphere-monitoring satellite the size of a small bus is set to plunge to Earth somewhere between Thursday and Saturday -- and the space agency's scientists say there's no way to precisely determine where it will crash, be it Africa or America, the Pacific Ocean or Pacific Heights.But thanks to a neat widget built exclusively for FoxNews.com by the satellite-tracking website N2YO.com, you can watch the UARS satellite as it courses through the heavens.Pinpointing where and when hurtling space debris will strike is an imprecise science. To calculate the orbit, N2YO.com runs information from the U.S. Air Force Space Command through a series of algorithms, and overlays it on mapping data from Google. For now, scientists predict the earliest it will hit is Thursday U.S. time, the latest Saturday. The strike zone covers most of Earth. (Anywhere between 57 N and 57 S latitude).

Awesome Video of One Orbit on the ISS

2011-09-21T17:54:00.002-05:00

This video is made from hundreds of images taken at night, on the "bow" of the ISS, as it sails around the Earth. You gotta love the lightning-storms. - HLG