Ball Aerospace commercialise a design for geostationary STORM

Tempus Global, a commercial venture that aims to perform hyperspectral sounding from geostationary orbit, has contracted with Ball Aerospace to build sensors that would be hosted on third-party satellites. 

Credit: Tempus Global

Tempus Global Data, the Ogden, Utah-based firm that last year took over an effort to commercialize a Utah State University design for a geostationary-orbiting weather sensor, has contracted with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to build eight copies of the sensor, the company announced in a Jan. 7 press release.

Under the arrangement, Ball would build six Sounding & Tracking Observatory for Regional Meteorology (STORM) sensors to fly as hosted payloads on geostationary satellites, and possibly two more that would fly on dedicated satellites, Tempus said in its press release.

Financial terms of the deal, under which Utah State would support Ball’s effort, were not disclosed.

Tempus spokesman Mark Hurst said the company has “closed an initial round” of financing for its ambitious project but declined to provide details.

“Our target date for first launch is early 2018. We don’t have a specific start date on building STORM 1 but it is roughly a three year build for the first sensor,” Hurst wrote in a Jan. 14 email.

The STORM sensor was originally developed by Utah State for a U.S. government mission that ultimately was canceled.

Tempus emerged as the university’s commercialisation partner last year after a similar arrangement with GeoMetWatch, which hoped to deploy a global network of STORM sensors and sell the data to weather agencies and other organizations, collapsed in acrimony.

The first STORM sensor was supposed to fly as a hosted payload aboard a satellite owned by AsiaSat of Hong Kong, but that deal fell through after GeoMetWatch was unable to secure the necessary financing in time to meet the satellite’s production schedule.

In a separate press release issued Jan. 13, Tempus said it had entered into a strategic partnership with Science and Technology Corp. (STC) of Silver Spring, Maryland, to develop STORM data products.

STC is a technology company whose government clients include the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) weather satellite and National Weather Service divisions.

NOAA: Antarctic ozone hole remains static 2014

Ozone concentrations above Antarctica on Sept. 11, 2014. 

Credit: NASA

The Antarctic ozone hole reached its annual peak size on Sept. 11, according to scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The size of this year's hole was 24.1 million square kilometers (9.3 million square miles), an area roughly the size of North America.

The single-day maximum area was similar to that in 2013, which reached 24.0 million square kilometers (9.3 million square miles).

The largest single-day ozone hole ever recorded by satellite was 29.9 million square kilometers (11.5 million square miles) on Sept. 9, 2000.

Overall, the 2014 ozone hole is smaller than the large holes of the 1998–2006 period, and is comparable to 2010, 2012, and 2013.

With the increased atmospheric chlorine levels present since the 1980s, the Antarctic ozone hole forms and expands during the Southern Hemisphere spring (August and September).

The ozone layer helps shield life on Earth from potentially harmful ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancer and damage plants.

The Montreal Protocol agreement beginning in 1987 regulated ozone depleting substances, such as chlorine-containing chlorofluorocarbons and bromine-containing halons.

The 2014 level of these substances over Antarctica has declined about 9 percent below the record maximum in 2000.

"Year-to-year weather variability significantly impacts Antarctica ozone because warmer stratospheric temperatures can reduce ozone depletion," said Paul A. Newman, chief scientist for atmospheres at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"The ozone hole area is smaller than what we saw in the late-1990s and early 2000s, and we know that chlorine levels are decreasing. However, we are still uncertain about whether a long-term Antarctic stratospheric temperature warming might be reducing this ozone depletion."

NOAA's GOES-East satellite Monitoring Atlantic Hurricane Gonzalo - Video

On Oct. 15 at 11:15 a.m. EDT NOAA's GOES-East satellite saw Gonzalo had tightly wrapped bands of thunderstorms spiraling into the center of its circulation. 

Credit: NASA /NOAA GOES Project

Hurricane Gonzalo has made the jump to major hurricane status and on Oct. 15 was a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

NOAA's GOES-East satellite provided imagery of the storm.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Gonzalo is the first category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic basin since Ophelia in 2011.

NOAA's GOES-East satellite provides visible and infrared images of weather from its orbit in a fixed position over the Earth.

On Oct. 15 at 15:15 UTC (11:15 a.m. EDT) GOES saw Gonzalo had tightly wrapped bands of thunderstorms spiraling into the center of its circulation.

The eye of the storm was obscured by high clouds in the image.

NOAA aircraft data and microwave images clearly show concentric eyewalls, with the inner radius of maximum winds now only about 4-5 nautical miles from the center.

At 11 a.m. EDT on Oct. 15, Gonzalo's maximum sustained winds increased to near 130 mph (215 kph) and the National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that fluctuations in intensity are expected over the next couple of days.

Gonzalo's cloud-covered eye was located near latitude 23.5 north and longitude 68.0 west, about 640 miles (1,025 km) south-southwest of Bermuda.

Gonzalo is moving toward the northwest near 12 mph (19 kph).

The minimum central pressure recently reported by an air force reconnaissance aircraft was 949 millibars.


This animation of visible and infrared images from NOAA's GOES-East satellite shows the movement and strengthening of Gonzalo from a tropical storm on Oct. 13 to a hurricane on Oct. 15 north of Puerto Rico. 

Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project

Tropical storm conditions are possible in Bermuda by late Thursday night, Oct. 16, and hurricane conditions are possible over Bermuda on Friday Oct. 16.

Ocean swells however, will be felt over a much larger area, reached the U.S. east coast on Oct. 16. Large swells generated by Gonzalo are affecting portions of the Virgin Islands, the northern coasts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and portions of the Bahamas. Swells will reach much of the east coast of the United States and Bermuda on Thursday.

By late Oct. 16, Gonzalo is expected to turn to the northeast and the center is expected to approach Bermuda sometime on Oct. 17.

NASA SDO: Incredible Solar Flare Video Captured

A NASA satellite charged with staring at the sun captured an incredible view of a powerful solar flare on Thursday (Oct. 2).

The space agency's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) caught sight of the flare as it erupted from an active region on the right side of the sun, according to NASA.

The spacecraft' spectacular videos of the solar flare, as well as still images, show the sun storm erupting from the sunspot AR2172-AR2173.

The flare reached its peak at 3:01 p.m. EDT (1901 GMT) on Tuesday. While the M7.3-class flare did cause a coronal mass ejection, an explosion of super-hot solar plasma, the eruption was not directed at Earth, and should not pose a concern for satellites in orbit or the planet as a whole, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Office.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this photo of an M7.3-class solar flare erupting from the sun on Oct. 2, 2014.

Credit: NASA/SDO

M-class flares are about one-tenth as powerful as the strongest solar flares, which are known as X-class flares.

"Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel," NASA Goddard Space Flight Center spokeswoman Karen Fox wrote in a statement.

The sun has unleashed a series of X-class flares this year. In early September, the star fired off two large flares in rapid succession.

Those solar storms, which were pointed toward Earth, created some amazing aurora displays. Powerful solar tempests can supercharge Earth's auroras, causing curtains of green light to dance in the skies of the high northern and southern latitudes.

The northern lights are created when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth's upper atmosphere, bombarding neutral particles and creating the lights of the auroras.

Lockheed Martin successfully mates NOAA GOES-R satellite modules

Lockheed Martin successfully mated together the large system and propulsion modules of the first GOES-R series weather satellite at the company’s Space Systems facilities near Denver, Colorado.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

A team of technicians and engineers at Lockheed Martin has successfully mated together the large system and propulsion modules of the first GOES-R series weather satellite at the company's Space Systems facilities near Denver, Colorado.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R series (GOES-R) is NOAA's next-generation geostationary weather satellites.

The system module of the A2100-based satellite houses more than 70 electronics boxes that comprise the three major electrical subsystems; command and data handling, communication, and electrical power.

The propulsion core contains the integrated propulsion system and serves as the structural backbone of the satellite.

The propulsion subsystem is essential for maneuvering the GOES-R satellite during transfer orbit to its final location, as well as conducting on-orbit repositioning maneuvers throughout its mission life.

"Positioning these large modules together in such a precise manor is a challenging task," said Tim Gasparrini, vice president and program manager for GOES-R at Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

"Our team spent many hours modeling and analyzing the procedure in our virtual reality lab called the CHIL before tackling the mate in the cleanroom."

"This was a critical step in the integration of GOES-R and the team did an outstanding job."

With the core spacecraft completed, the team will begin installing the six weather and solar-monitoring instruments onto the satellite.

Functional testing and environmental testing phases of the program will follow this fall. GOES-R is scheduled to be launched in early 2016.

Data from NOAA's GOES-R satellites provides accurate real-time weather forecasts and early warning products to NOAA's National Weather Service and other public and private sectors.

The advanced spacecraft and instrument technology on the GOES-R series will vastly improve forecasting quality and timeliness, generating significant benefits to the U.S. and Western Hemisphere in the areas of public safety, severe weather monitoring, space weather prediction, ecosystems management, commerce and transportation.

International Action Against Ozone Depleting Substances Claim Gains

Minimum concentration of ozone in the southern hemisphere for each year from 1979-2013 (there is no data from 1995). 

Each image is the day of the year with the lowest concentration of ozone. A graph of the lowest ozone amount for each year is shown.

Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/M. Radcliff

Worldwide action to phase out ozone-depleting substances has resulted in remarkable success, according to a new assessment by 300 international scientists.

The stratospheric ozone layer, a fragile shield of gas that protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet light, is on track to recovery over the next few decades.

The Assessment for Decision-Makers, a summary of the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2014, provides new information to affirm that the 1987 international agreement known as the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer has successfully resulted in global international policies to reduced levels of ozone-depleting substances.

The report is conducted by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and co-sponsored by NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the European Commission.

Science teams from these organizations and other countries have been monitoring the ozone layer on the ground, by balloon and with a variety of satellite instruments dating back to NASA's Nimbus 4 satellite, launched in 1970.

The most current ozone hole satellite data comes from the Ozone Monitoring and Profiler Suite (OMPS) instrument on the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite (Suomi NPP), and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument and Microwave Limb Sounder (OMIMLS) on NASA's Aura satellite.

"It is particularly gratifying to report that the ozone layer is on track for recovery to 1980 benchmark levels by mid-century," said Paul A. Newman, chief scientist for atmospheres at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a co-chair of the WMO/UNEP report.

"Many of these early signs of ozone improvements are due to decades of work and contributions by NASA and NOAA instruments and scientists."

Ozone depleting substances are also powerful greenhouse gases. The Montreal Protocol provided a double benefit: stopping ozone depletion, and slowing the growth of greenhouse gases.

“Substitutes for ozone depleting substances are ozone safe, but many are powerful greenhouse gases.

These substitutes could offset the climate gains achieved by the Montreal Protocol in the future," Newman said.

The Assessment for Decision-Makers, a summary of the Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2014 is the first comprehensive update in four years.

The full report will be available in early 2015.

Scientists concerned over the future of satellite-based research

Landsat 8 captured fine details of the lava flowing in Iceland between the Bardarbunga and Askja volcanoes.

Credit: NASA, NOAA.

The U.S. has more than 30 civilian, Earth-observing satellites circling the planet, providing scientists with a torrent of crucial environmental and climate information.

More satellites are on deck to launch in the next few years, but, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society, scientists have registered serious concerns over the lack of a long-term, cohesive vision for the scientific missions.

Jyllian Kemsley, a senior editor at C&EN, reports that satellites are marvels of technology.

From their orbits up to thousands of miles above the planet's surface, they collect Earthly measurements and beam down to scientists information they can't get any other way.

The satellites map cloud cover; they track snow and ice cover; they measure atmospheric carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas; they detect chemical reactions in the atmosphere; they help meteorologists make weather predictions.

Future launches will undoubtedly add to the treasure trove of scientific data.

But some scientists say that despite the state-of-the-art sensors the satellites are equipped with, a short-sighted vision for the future, may cause the resulting science to suffer.

They say that the division between two agencies leading the way, NASA, which operates under a "first and best" vision, and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which takes the longer view, has created a "valley of death."

This gap hinders the use of NASA's research instruments for NOAA's desired sustained monitoring, which is critical to understanding complex systems of atmospheric chemistry and climate.

More information: Observing Earth - cen.acs.org/articles/92/i36/Observing-Earth.html

NASA Studies of the ultraviolet sun

Four of the telescopes on the Solar Dynamics Observatory observe extreme ultraviolet light activity on the sun that is invisible to the naked eye. 

Credit: NASA/SDO

You cannot look at the sun without special filters, and the naked eye cannot perceive certain wavelengths of sunlight.

Solar physicists must consequently rely on spacecraft that can observe this invisible light before the atmosphere absorbs it.

"Certain wavelengths either do not make it through Earth's atmosphere or cannot be seen by our eyes, so we cannot use normal optical telescopes to look at the spectrum," said Dean Pesnell, the project scientist for the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Several spacecraft can observe these invisible light wavelengths. SDO for example has four telescopes that image the sun in the ultraviolet spectrum.

As beams of ultraviolet light pass into the telescope, a mirror with special coatings filters and amplifies the ultraviolet light's otherwise poor reflection.

The incoming photons are then recorded as pixels and converted into electrical signals, similar to how your cell phone camera sees visible light.

"It's exactly the same process, whether it's ultraviolet light, infrared light, visible light, or radio," said Joseph Gurman, project scientist for both the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) at Goddard.

"In this case we're trying to understand how the sun changes and how those changes affect life here on Earth."

Ultraviolet light causes molecular radiation damage to our skin, seen as sunburns that can lead to cancer.

Its cousin, extreme ultraviolet radiation, and the associated solar storms have the potential to disrupt communications and spacecraft navigation.

"These are very damaging, energetic photons, and we want to understand what chain of events produces these photons," Pesnell said.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed a solar flare (upper left) and a coronal mass ejection (right) erupting from the sun’s limb in extreme ultraviolet light on August 6, 2010. 

Credit: NASA/SDO

Thankfully our planet's atmosphere absorbs much of this solar radiation, making life on Earth possible.

However, this means that to study extreme ultraviolet light, instruments must do it from the vacuum of space.

"Ultraviolet light from the sun can show us the origins of solar storms that can lead to power outages, cell phone disruptions, and delays in shipping packages due to the rerouting of planes from over the pole," Gurman said.

By understanding what occurs in the sun's atmosphere, scientists hope to predict when powerful solar events such as coronal mass ejections and solar flares may occur.

Spacecraft record solar activity as a binary code, 1s and 0s, which computer programs can translate into black and white. 

Scientists coloroured the images for realism, and then zoom in on areas of interest. 

Credit: NASA/Karen Fox

"You really want to know what's happening on the sun as soon as you can," said Jack Ireland, a solar visualization specialist at Goddard.

"We can then use computer models to estimate how solar events will affect Earth's space environment."

The information can then be used by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, in Boulder, Co. to alert power companies and airlines to take the necessary precautions, thus avoiding power outages and keeping airplane passengers safe.

NASA TRMM Satellite: Heavy Storms in the eye of Hurricane Iselle - video

NASA's TRMM Satellite found storms in Iselle's eye wall reaching from 13km (8 miles) high and very heavy rain falling at a rate of almost 182 mm (about 7.2 inches) per hour in Iselle's eye wall. Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce


NASA's TRMM Satellite found storms in Iselle's eye wall reaching from 13km (8 miles) high and very heavy rain falling at a rate of almost 182 mm (about 7.2 inches) per hour in Iselle's eye wall. 

Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM) flew directly over the eye of powerful Hurricane Iselle and found extremely heavy rainfall rates occurring there.

On August 4, 2014 at 1037 UTC (6:37 a.m. EDT) when TRMM passed over the storm, Iselle had winds of about 120 knots (about 138 mph) at that time making it a dangerous category four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

Rainfall from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) instruments was overlaid on an enhanced infrared image from NOAA's GOES-West satellite that showed cloud extent.

The composite image showed the diameter of the storm and the rate in which rain was falling within it.

The TRMM PR saw rain falling at a rate of almost 182 mm (about 7.2 inches) per hour in Iselle's eye wall.

TRMM data was also used to create a 3-D image of the storm to help forecasters see cloud heights.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a 3-D image was produced using radar reflectivity values from TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) instrument. 

The 3-D image showed storms in Iselle's eye wall reaching from 13km (8 miles) to the surface of the ocean below.

GOES-R Instruments Complete Spacecraft Integration

Two of the six instruments that will fly on NOAA's first Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite - R (GOES-R) satellite have completed integration with the spacecraft.

The Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) and Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) were installed on the sun-pointing platform.

They will observe the sun and space weather, including coronal mass ejections, solar flares and ion fluxes that can disrupt power grids, communication and navigation systems and create radiation hazards.

"This development highlights the forward progress underway to complete the installation of the space weather instrument suite onto the GOES-R spacecraft," said Pam Sullivan, GOES-R Flight Project Manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

"It is critical we give our partners at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center the tools they need to improve prediction capabilities and further our knowledge of space weather."

Understanding Space Weather
The space weather mission is an important part of not only the overall GOES-R Series Program, but also NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS), which is home to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

Space weather describes the conditions in space that affect Earth and its technological systems. Space weather storms originate from the sun and occur in space near Earth or in the Earth's atmosphere.

Space weather can be difficult to understand since it is unlike the weather we experience here on Earth. For example, one type of space weather, known as coronal mass ejections, can have changing polarities, which can make it more challenging to predict the impacts of the magnetic storm.

Watch here to learn more about how space weather impacts our everyday lives. To help kids understand space weather, the GOES-R Program partnered with NASA to create materials available here for students and teachers.

Installation of the SUVI and EXIS instruments moves the program another step closer to the launch of the GOES-R satellite in early 2016.

In addition to SUVI and EXIS, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and the Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS) were delivered for integration earlier this year and will be installed on the spacecraft in the coming months.

The two remaining instruments that complete the GOES-R Series Program payload are the Magnetometer and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM). Both instruments are scheduled for delivery later this year.

NOAA manages the GOES-R Series Program through an integrated NOAA-NASA office, staffed with personnel from both agencies and located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Malaysia Airlines flight 370: NOAA Seafloor experts publish new view of potential crash zone

This is the seafloor topography in the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 search area. 

Dashed lines approximate the search zone for sonar pings emitted by the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder popularly called black boxes. 

The first sonar contact (black circle) was reportedly made by a Chinese vessel on the east flank of Batavia Plateau (B), where the shallowest point in the area (S) is at an estimated depth of 1637 meters. 

The next reported sonar contact (red circle) was made by an Australian vessel on the north flank of Zenith Plateau (Z). 

The deepest point in the area (D) lies in the Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone at an estimated depth of 7883 meters. 

The Wallaby Plateau (W) lies to the east of the Zenith Plateau. 

The shallowest point in the entire area shown here is on Broken Ridge (BR). Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) site 256 is marked by a gray dot. 

Seafloor depths are from the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans [2010] (GEBCO). 

Credit: Walter H.F. Smith and Karen M. Marks

A new illustration of the seafloor, created by two of the world's leading ocean floor mapping experts that details underwater terrain where the missing Malaysia Airlines flight might be located, could shed additional light on what type of underwater vehicles might be used to find the missing airplane and where any debris from the crash might lie.

The seafloor topography map (above) illustrates jagged plateaus, ridges and other underwater features of a large area underneath the Indian Ocean where search efforts have focused since contact with Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was lost on March 8.

The image was published today in Eos, the weekly newspaper of the Earth and space sciences, published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

The new illustration of a 2,000 kilometer by 1,400 kilometer (1,243 miles by 870 miles) area where the plane might be shows locations on the seafloor corresponding to where acoustic signals from the airplane's black boxes were reportedly detected at the surface by two vessels in the area. It also shows the two plateaus near where these "pings" were heard.

It points out the deepest point in the area: 7,883 meters (about five miles) underneath the sea in the Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone – about as deep as 20 Empire State buildings stacked top to bottom.

Undersea mountains and plateaus rise nearly 5,000 meters (about three miles) above the deep seafloor, according to the map.

This image, originally appeared on the NOAA map and it shows the possible crash area's location, to the west of Australia.

The illustration, designated as Figure 1 of the Eos article, was created by Walter H.F. Smith and Karen M. Marks, both of the (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) NOAA's Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry in College Park, Maryland, and the former and current chairs, respectively, of the Technical Sub-Committee on Ocean Mapping of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans, (GEBCO).

GEBCO is an international organization that aims to provide the most authoritative publicly available maps of the depths and shapes of the terrain underneath the world's oceans.

Satellite altimetry has made it possible to depict the topography of vast regions of the seafloor that would otherwise have remained unmapped, Smith said.

To illustrate the topography of the search area, Smith and Marks used publicly available data from GEBCO and other bathymetric models and data banks, along with information culled from news reports.

Smith said the terrain and depths shown in the map could help searchers choose the appropriate underwater robotic vehicles they might use to look for the missing plane.

Knowing the roughness and shape of the ocean floor could also help inform models predicting where floating debris from the airplane might turn up.

Smith cautions that the new illustration is not a roadmap to find the missing airplane. Nor does the map define the official search area for the aircraft, he added. "It is not 'x marks the spot'," Smith said of their map.

"We are painting with a very, very broad brush."

Search efforts for the missing airplane have focused on an area of the southern Indian Ocean west of Australia where officials suspect that the plane crashed after it veered off course.

After an initial air and underwater search failed to find any trace of the airplane, authorities announced this month that they will expand the search area and also map the seabed in the area.

Smith pointed out that the search for the missing plane is made more difficult because so little is understood about the seafloor in this part of the Indian Ocean.

In the southeast Indian Ocean, only 5 percent of the ocean bottom has been measured by ships with echo soundings.

Knowledge of the rest of the area comes from satellite altimetry, which provides relatively low-resolution mapping compared to ship-borne methods.

"It is a very complex part of the world that is very poorly known," Smith said.

More information: Paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EO210001/pdf

NOAA Hurricane Research Storm Drones

In this April 29, 2014 photo, Joe Cione, who studies how storms interact with the ocean at the (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) NOAA's Hurricane Research Division in Miami, displays a drone he hopes to use this hurricane season for research. 

NOAA researchers plan to test five or six drones in the peak of hurricane season that will be transmitting data that could help forecasters understand what makes some storms fizzle while others strengthen into monsters. AP Photo/J Pat Carter

The point where the roiling ocean meets the fury of a hurricane's winds may hold the key to improving storm intensity forecasts, but it's nearly impossible for scientists to see.

That may change this summer, thanks to post-Hurricane Sandy federal funding and a handful of winged drones that can spend hours spiraling in a hurricane's dark places.

The drones will be transmitting data that could help forecasters understand what makes some storms fizzle while others strengthen into monsters.

Researchers at the NOAA's plan to test five or six drones in the peak of hurricane season.

The $1.25 million project is among a slew of other NOAA hurricane research funded by last year's Sandy supplemental bill that authorised $60 billion for disaster relief agencies.

NASA Stereo: Carrington-class CME narrowly misses Earth

Last month (April 8-11), scientists, government officials, emergency planners and others converged on Boulder, Colorado, for NOAA's Space Weather Workshop—an annual gathering to discuss the perils and probabilities of solar storms.

The current solar cycle is weaker than usual, so you might expect a correspondingly low-key meeting.

On the contrary, the halls and meeting rooms were abuzz with excitement about an intense solar storm that narrowly missed Earth.

"If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado, who presented a talk entitled The Major Solar Eruptive Event in July 2012: Defining Extreme Space Weather Scenarios.

The close shave happened almost two years ago. On July 23, 2012, a plasma cloud or Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) rocketed away from the sun as fast as 3000 km/s, more than four times faster than a typical eruption.

The storm tore through Earth orbit, but fortunately Earth wasn't there. Instead it hit the STEREO-A spacecraft.

Researchers have been analyzing the data ever since, and they have concluded that the storm was one of the strongest in recorded history.

"It might have been stronger than the Carrington Event itself," says Baker.

The Carrington Event of Sept. 1859 was a series of powerful CMEs that hit Earth head-on, sparking Northern Lights as far south as Tahiti.

Intense geomagnetic storms caused global telegraph lines to spark, setting fire to some telegraph offices and disabling the 'Victorian Internet."

A similar storm today could have a catastrophic effect on modern power grids and telecommunication networks.

According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, the total economic impact could exceed $2 trillion or 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina. Multi-ton transformers fried by such a storm could take years to repair and impact national security.


This movie shows a coronal mass ejection (CME) on the sun from July 22, 2012, at 10:00 p.m. EDT until 2 a.m. on July 23 as captured by NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory-Ahead (STEREO A). 

Because the CME headed in STEREO A’s direction, it appears like a giant halo around the sun.

A recent paper in Nature Communications authored by UC Berkeley space physicist Janet G. Luhmann and former postdoc Ying D. Liu describes what gave the July 2012 storm Carrington-like potency.

For one thing, the CME was actually two CMEs separated by only 10 to 15 minutes. This double storm cloud traveled through a region of space that had been cleared out by another CME only four days earlier.

As a result, the CMEs were not decelerated as much as usual by their transit through the interplanetary medium.

Had the eruption occurred just one week earlier, the blast site would have been facing Earth, rather than off to the side, so it was a relatively narrow escape.

When the Carrington Event enveloped Earth in the 19th century, technologies of the day were hardly sensitive to electromagnetic disturbances.

Modern society, on the other hand, is deeply dependent on sun-sensitive technologies such as GPS, satellite communications and the internet.

"The effect of such a storm on our modern technologies would be tremendous," says Luhmann.

More Information: Observations of an extreme storm in interplanetary space caused by successive coronal mass ejections - Authors: Ying D. Liu, Janet G. Luhmann et al. doi:10.1038/ncomms4481

NOAA GOES-East Image: Captures weather system that spawned tornadoes

This NOAA GOES-East satellite image from Monday, Apr. 28, 2014 at 13:01 UTC/9:01 a.m. EDT shows the same storm system that generated the severe weather outbreak yesterday, has moved to the east. 

Credit: NASA /NOAA GOES Project

NASA has just released an animation of visible and infrared satellite data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite that shows the development and movement of the weather system that spawned tornadoes affecting seven central and southern U.S. states on April 27-28, 2014.

NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared data on the system that revealed powerful storms, high into the troposphere.

This storm system generated reports of tornadoes from Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Coupled with local weather observations, soundings, and computer models, data from satellites like NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-East or GOES-13) gives forecasters information about developing weather situations.

In real-time, the NOAA's GOES-East satellite data in animated form showed forecasters how the area of severe weather was developing and moving.

NOAA's GOES-East satellite sits in a fixed orbit in space capturing visible and infrared imagery of weather over the eastern U.S. and Atlantic Ocean.

The GOES-East satellite is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created the animation of GOES-East satellite data that covered the period during the tornado outbreak.

The GOES-East animation of visible and infrared imagery runs 31 seconds. The animation begins on April 27 at 00:15 UTC (April 26 at 8:15 p.m. EDT) and runs through April 28 at 14:15 UTC/10:15 a.m. EDT.

By 14:45 UTC/10:45 a.m. EDT on April 27 the animation shows the squall line of thunderstorms developing.


This animation of NOAA's GOES-East satellite data shows the development and movement of the weather system that spawned tornadoes affecting seven central and southern U.S. states on April 27-28, 2014. 

Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project

To create the video and imagery, NASA/NOAA's GOES Project takes the cloud data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite and overlays it on a true-color image of land and ocean created by data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

Together, those data created the entire picture of the storm system and show its movement.

A NASA satellite also captured an image of the storm, collecting infrared data on it as it passed overhead on April 27.

At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. a false-colored image was created of the storm system using data gathered by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite on April 27 at 18:59 UTC (1:59 p.m. CDT).

The AIRS image showed very cold cloud top temperatures indicating that the thunderstorms had strong uplift that pushed cloud tops to the top of the troposphere.

Some of those thunderstorms had cloud tops as cold as 200 kelvin (-99.6 F/-73.1C). Temperatures drop to just under 220 degrees kelvin at the top of the troposphere (and where the tropopause begins).

This false-colored infrared image from the AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite shows the cold cloud top temperatures associated with the severe thunderstorms that brought severe weather to seven states on Apr. 27. 

Credit: NASA/JPL, Ed Olsen

NASA SDO: Sun Unleashes Major X1.3 Class Solar Flare - Video

The sun erupted with a massive solar flare late Thursday (April 24), triggering a temporary communications blackout on some parts of Earth.

The powerful flare peaked at 8:27 p.m. EDT Thursday (0027 April 25 GMT), and ranked as an X1.3-class solar storm, one of the strongest types of flares the sun can experience, according to a report from the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured video of the intense solar flare in several difference wavelengths.

The solar flare erupted from an active sunspot region known as Region 2035 located on the far western side (or limb) of the sun as seen from Earth.

Because of its position, the flare sparked a high-frequency radio blackout for about an hour on the daytime side of Earth, most likely over the Pacific Ocean and Eastern Pacific Rim, according to the SWPC update.

An X1.3-class solar flare (far right) erupts from the surface of the sun on April 24, 2014 EDT (April 25 GMT).

Credit: NASA /Solar Dynamics Observatory

"Region 2035 is rotating out of view and won't pose any danger for much longer, but could in the immediate future," SWPC officials wrote in the update.

When aimed directly at Earth, X-class solar flares can endanger astronauts in space, as well as interfere with communications and navigation satellites in orbit.

The most powerful X-class flares can also affect power grids and other infrastructure on the Earth.

Thursday's solar flare was the fourth X-class solar flare of 2014. It followed an X1.2 solar flare on Jan. 7, a monster X4.9 solar flare on Feb. 24, as well as an X1 solar flare on March 29.

Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI): New satellite sensor will analyze and predict severe space weather

Lockheed Martin engineers in Denver install the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) on the GOES-R Sun Pointing Platform. 

SUVI was built at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin has delivered a new solar analysis payload that will help scientists measure and forecast space weather, which can damage satellites, electrical grids and communications systems on Earth.

The Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) instrument was integrated with the first flight vehicle of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, known as GOES-R.

The GOES-R Series spacecraft are designed and built by Lockheed Martin in Denver, Colo.

"It is enormously satisfying to see the first GOES-R satellite and its instruments coming together, and it is great to see SUVI in flight configuration on the satellite's Sun-Pointing Platform," said Jeff Vanden Beukel, Lockheed Martin SUVI program director at the Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, where the instrument was built.

"We look forward to continuing our collaboration with NASA and NOAA to produce state-of-the-art scientific instruments that increase safety and improve quality of life."

SUVI will provide the required solar observational capabilities that enable NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo.,;

• to monitor solar activity and to issue accurate, real-time alerts; when space weather could affect the performance and reliability of technological systems in space and on the ground, 
• through the enhanced detection of coronal holes, solar flares and coronal mass ejections, 
• as well as improved geomagnetic storm and power blackout forecasts.

Extreme Space weather is known to disrupt satellite operations, communications, navigation, and the distribution of electricity through power grids.

Timely forecasts of severe space weather events would help satellite operators and electrical grid technicians mitigate potential damage to such systems.

Lockheed Martin is under contract to build the first four next-generation GOES satellites (R, S, T, and U).

Four of the six instruments for the GOES-R satellite have been delivered to the Denver facility and are being integrated with the spacecraft.

Once the instrument complement is completely integrated, a full suite of environmental tests will be conducted. Launch of the GOES-R satellite is scheduled for the first quarter of 2016.

NASA SDO images of X-class solar flare

Extreme ultraviolet light streams out of an X-class solar flare as seen in this image captured on March 29, 2014, by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). 

This image blends two wavelengths of light: 304 and 171 Angstroms, which help scientists observe the lower levels of the sun's atmosphere. 

Credit: NASA/SDO

The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 1:48 p.m. EDT March 29, 2014, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured images of the event.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

To see how this event impacted Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, the U.S. government's official source for space weather forecasts, alerts, watches and warnings.

This flare is classified as an X.1-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.

US Navy transitions global ocean forecast system for public use

This Image from the Navy Global Ocean Forecast System (GOFS) portrays sea surface temperature (SST) on Jan. 15, 2014. 

The warm tropical waters can be seen to flow through the Gulf of Mexico and northward along the eastern US seaboard where the Gulf Stream separates at Cape Hatteras, off the coast of North Carolina, and flows to the east. 

This warm water "conveyer-belt" alters the ice cover across the north Atlantic. 

Without the ocean transport of heat, global climate and weather would be dramatically changed. 

Credit: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory-Oceanography Division

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) within the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have entered into a formal agreement that results in NCEP using Navy developed global ocean forecast model technology to make environmental ocean forecasts for public use.

"Development of an advanced global ocean prediction system has been a long-term Navy interest," said Dr. Gregg Jacobs, head, NRL Ocean Dynamics and Prediction Branch.

"This use of Navy developed systems for global ocean forecasting represents dual use technology that will benefit civilian interests and is an excellent example of the cutting edge research that is enabled through Navy sponsored investments."

The Navy has had requirements for predicting the ocean environment for its purposes including estimating acoustic propagation, placement of sonar arrays, determining currents for mine drift and burial, drift for search and rescue, and safety of operations on and under the ocean surface.

NRL has enabled Navy operational ocean prediction of tactically relevant information.

To accomplish this task, Jacobs says three critical components are necessary to predict the open ocean environment.


Ocean Circulation Models - Gregg Jacobs.

"The first is access to satellite observations that measure precise sea surface height, sea surface temperature and ice concentration with in situ observations from public sources and Navy ships; second, numerical models representing the dynamical processes capable of understanding the physics of the ocean and numerical methods for efficiently representing those physics; and lastly, the third critical component is the technology to correct the numerical models using the observations through data assimilation."

The new agreement will allow NCEP to use software developed by NRL to assimilate data necessary to maintain daily forecast accuracy that enables safe, at-sea operations, hazard mitigation, resource management, and emergency response.

"This is an example of complementary missions across agencies that through coordinated application leads to protecting our service personnel, who ensure the high seas are safe, and protecting our resources and citizens at home." Jacobs said.