NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory: Hurricane Michael Reaches Category 3

With maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, Hurricane Michael is the first Atlantic storm of the 2012 season to reach Category 3 intensity.

The storm is shown here in high resolution infrared imagery from the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite taken on September 6, 2012 at 04:22z. 

Hurricane Michael swelled to the first category three storm of 2012 early Thursday as it churned far from land in the middle of the Atlantic, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

As of 0900 GMT the hurricane was packing winds of up to 115 miles (185 kilometers) per hour as it swirled more than 1,000 miles southwest of the Azores archipelago, the forecasters said.

There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, and the NHC said Michael may begin gradually weakening by Friday.

Hurricane Leslie, a category one storm cycling closer to North America, continued moving northward and was projected to pass over or near Bermuda on Sunday, but no warnings or watches have been issued, the NHC said.

A magnetic field, visualissed in a single image.

NASA GRACE Data Visualisation of groundwater Depletion

A new visualization of global groundwater depletion created using data from NASA's GRACE mission has premiered on New York’s Times Square to mark World Water Day 2012. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Irvine/USGS/Richard Vijgen/Peggy Weil/Heads Up! 2012

To highlight declines in the world's groundwater supplies, a new visualization of Earth's groundwater reserves, created in part with space data from the joint NASA/German Aerospace Center (DLR) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, debuted on New York's Times Square on March 22, International World Water Day.

The 30-second animation, titled "Visualizing Seasonal and Long-term Changes in Groundwater Levels," will be on display several times each hour through April 22 on Times Square's massive Thomson Reuters and NASDAQ digital signboards.

Viewers of the interactive animation are invited to use their mobile devices to submit their city and add a graph to the sign. The animation can be viewed at: http://vimeo.com/user10042778 .

Netherlands designer Richard Vijgen developed the animation using GRACE data analyzed by professor Jay Famiglietti, director of the UC Center for Hydrologic Modeling at the University of California, Irvine; and from United States Geological Survey data supplied by Leonard Konikow.

Vijgen was the winning entry in an international design visualization competition sponsored by the organization.

HeadsUP!, in collaboration with Visualizing.org. Founded by digital media artist Peggy Weil, HeadsUp! challenges designers to visualize critical global issues and create a shared sign for the public square.

Groundwater is a critical, but often overlooked, natural resource. According to a U.N. report, more than 1.5 billion people around the world depend on groundwater for their drinking water.

It comes from the natural percolation of precipitation and other surface waters down through Earth's soil and rock, accumulating in cavities and layers of porous rock, gravel, sand or clay.

Groundwater levels respond slowly to changes in weather and can take months or years to replenish once pumped for irrigation or other uses.

Famiglietti's analyses show that groundwater is being depleted at alarming rates in many of the world's major aquifers. "The GRACE data set is exciting, because it gives us the first global pictures of Earth's changing freshwater," he said.

The twin GRACE satellites, which celebrated their 10th year in orbit this week, measure minute changes in Earth's gravity field by measuring micron-scale variations in the separation between the two spacecraft, flying in formation 137 miles (220 kilometers) apart in low Earth orbit.

These variations in gravitational pull are caused by local changes in Earth's mass. Masses of water, ice, air and solid Earth can be moved by weather patterns, seasonal change, climate change and even tectonic events such as large earthquakes. GRACE was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Zen Table: Japanese rock garden and robotic Zen priest

With no water, Japanese rock gardens - also known as "dry landscape" or "Zen" gardens - feature an area of gravel or sand that is designed to symbolize the sea, ocean, rivers or lakes.


The act of raking the sand or gravel into patterns is practiced by Zen priests to help their concentration and has even found its way into offices with pint-sized desktop units for those looking to clear their minds at work.

If you think your mind is clear enough already, are after a bit more variety from your raked sand designs and like your Zen in a table form factor then the Zen Table ticks all the boxes.

The brainchild of San Clemete-based inventor Simon Hallam, the Zen Table is essentially a tempered glass-topped table with a Japanese rock garden - minus any rocks - and a robotic Zen priest trapped inside.


Instead of sand or gravel, the Zen table features a layer of microscopic silicone beads, underneath which is a sculpting head attached to a robotic mechanism driven by electric motors that move the head along the X- and Y-axes to carve the grooves into the beads and create patterns and images.

Read more here: Zen Table

AnatOnMe projects patients' insides onto their outsides

A team at Microsoft's research wing has developed a working prototype of a system that may help to encourage physical injury sufferers to do their exercises by giving them a clearer understanding of what's going on.

A therapist would use the device to project a series of graphics of underlying bone, muscle tissue, tendons or nerves directly onto the body of a patient to help explain the nature of the injury and prescribe effective treatment.

The device can also take photos during a consultation, which can be subsequently reviewed or printed out as a memory aid for the patient.

It is estimated that up to half of patients undergoing physical therapy for chronic conditions fail to comply with the recommended therapies, and effective communication between patient and practitioner is seen as a major influence for compliance with prescribed exercise regimens.

The team of Amy K. Karlson and Daniel Wigdor from Microsoft Research, and PhD student intern Tao Ni from Virginia Tech's Department of Computer Science, has created a system that could help to enhance such a therapist-patient information exchange.

The AnatOnMe projection-based handheld prototype is made up of two parts. The first consists of an Optoma PK102 pico projector, a Microsoft LifeCam digital webcam and a FireFly MV USB near-infrared camera.

The second is a modified Logitech R400 laser pointer which has had its red laser diode replaced by an IR laser diode, and some control buttons added. Both parts are connected to a laptop for processing.

The researchers put together a series of annotated graphic collections representing six injury types using stock graphics, three upper body and three lower body injuries that often require physical therapy.

Using this library, the therapist can project images onto a patient's body, a mannequin or a wall, to help the patient better understand an injury through 3D visualization of the problem and then to detail a recommended course of treatment.

Rather than creating a complicated automated system to line up the image with the area of injury, the prototype relies on the therapist to match the two by line of sight.

As the therapist gives exercise instruction, the camera could be used to photograph the patient performing the recommended exercises, and these photos could be compiled into an instruction sheet and printed off for the patient to take away.

It is hoped that giving patients a virtual view inside an affected area will encourage them to keep up their exercises.

Everything in TV and Film is Green Screened

Watching a 1a Supernova Explosion: Star Destruction

(Image: Argonne National Laboratory)
Visualisation of an exploding supernova. More Simulator Pictures here

The explosion itself is over in less than 5 seconds, but the supercomputer uses more than 160,000 processors, and expends 22 million computational hours, simulating it.