Category: Noaa

Aurora Noaa Northern Lights Science Space

If you live in the northern U.S., you could see a radiant celestial treat Saturday night

sudshr47 March 23, 2019

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Some of us Earthlings may see dancing, green lights in the sky on Saturday night.

The sun blasted out a flare of energized particles into space on March 20, and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Prediction Center forecasts that a strip of the northern U.S. may experience a visible effect of this event: an aurora, or eerie dancing greenish light, created when the sun’s particles interact with Earth’s atmosphere.

Such an atmospheric event is stoked by a disturbance called a geomagnetic storm, where energized solar particles propel changes in Earth’s magnetosphere — a sprawling zone of space around Earth where the planet’s magnetic field changes and evolves in reaction to the sun.  Read more…

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View More If you live in the northern U.S., you could see a radiant celestial treat Saturday night
Climate El Nino Noaa Science Weather

El Niño has arrived. What does that mean for weather in 2019?

sudshr47 February 14, 2019

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El Niño has arrived in 2019. So far, it’s pretty weak. That doesn’t mean it will stay that way. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Thursday that this natural climate phenomenon — which is triggered by warmer temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and can significantly affect weather in the U.S. — will likely persist through the spring. But what happens next is still unclear.

“We don’t have a good handle on where this goes the rest of the year,” Mike Halpert, the deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said in an interview. “It becomes kind of a tossup after spring.” Read more…

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Arctic Arctic Warming Climate Change Global Warming Noaa

The Arctic we once knew is gone

sudshr47 December 11, 2018

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Atop the globe, there’s probably no turning back.

Melting trends in the Arctic today are increasingly stark. The 2018 Arctic Report Card, produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), depicts a thawing world that is continuing to warm and melt at an unprecedented pace.

“I think that the report demonstrated everything we’ve been seeing for the last decade,” Jeremy Mathis, a NOAA Arctic scientist who was not involved with this report, said in an interview. 

“The changes in the Arctic are happening faster than they’re happening anywhere else on the rest of the planet.”

Loss of November #Arctic sea ice volume since 1979…

+ Data information: https://t.co/MJsb1hjtBx
+ Additional graphics: https://t.co/uzWknWmNnX pic.twitter.com/TKk1MIrba9

— Zack Labe (@ZLabe) December 8, 2018 Read more…

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Animals Marine Science Noaa Science Whales

Mysterious U.S. whale die-off is now deep in its 2nd year. We still don’t know the cause.

sudshr47 October 17, 2018

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Using a tractor, state and town officials in coastal New Hampshire attempted to drop the carcass of a minke whale into a dumpster in mid-September. But the dead cetacean proved too big, bouncing off the red bin and flopping onto the pavement of a beachside parking lot.

The minke whale — which can weigh up to 20,000 pounds — is one of 55 that have turned up dead on East Coast shores of the United States since January 2017. 

The strange die-offs have officially been labeled as an “Unusual Mortality Event” (UME) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The cause of whale deaths in this vastly-understudied species largely remain an inconsistent puzzle.  Read more…

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View More Mysterious U.S. whale die-off is now deep in its 2nd year. We still don’t know the cause.
Animals Marine Science Noaa Science Whales

Mysterious U.S. whale die-off is now deep in its 2nd year. We still don’t know the cause.

sudshr47 October 17, 2018

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Using a tractor, state and town officials in coastal New Hampshire attempted to drop the carcass of a minke whale into a dumpster in mid-September. But the dead cetacean proved too big, bouncing off the red bin and flopping onto the pavement of a beachside parking lot.

The minke whale — which can weigh up to 20,000 pounds — is one of 55 that have turned up dead on East Coast shores of the United States since January 2017. 

The strange die-offs have officially been labeled as an “Unusual Mortality Event” (UME) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The cause of whale deaths in this vastly-understudied species largely remain an inconsistent puzzle.  Read more…

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View More Mysterious U.S. whale die-off is now deep in its 2nd year. We still don’t know the cause.
Category 4 Hurricane Hurricane Hurricane Florence Noaa Science

Hurricane Florence is on its way to the East Coast. Here’s what to expect.

sudshr47 September 10, 2018

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Despite facing heavy winds late last week, Hurricane Florence beat the odds.

The hurricane, which is now whipping up winds at 130 mph, is a Category 4 storm and forecast to make landfall later this week on the coast of the Carolinas. 

“Florence is quickly becoming a powerful hurricane,” The National Hurricane Center said in a statement  Monday morning. “Data from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that Florence has continued to rapidly strengthen.”

If it makes landfall in North Carolina as a Category 4 storm, it will be the largest storm to hit the state since Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Read more…

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View More Hurricane Florence is on its way to the East Coast. Here’s what to expect.
Extreme Weather Iss Noaa Satellite Space Station

Astronaut captures photos of ominous-looking Hurricane Florence from space

sudshr47 September 6, 2018

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On Wednesday, Hurricane Florence became the first major hurricane of the 2018 season in the Atlantic Ocean. 

On Thursday, astronauts saw the ominous storm swirling from space. 

NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold captured images of Florence as it strengthened on Thursday from his post on the International Space Station.

“#HurricaneFlorence strengthens in the early morning hours over the Atlantic,” Arnold said on Twitter.

In the photos, Florence seems massive, albeit somewhat disorganized since the hurricane’s eye isn’t immediately noticeable and the storm has lost some of it’s symmetry.  Read more…

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Noaa Radio Science Space Space Weather

Bursts of solar energy severed radio communication during 2017’s hurricane mayhem

sudshr47 July 30, 2018

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While three hurricanes swirled in the Caribbean and Atlantic Oceans on September 6, 2017, the sun blasted off a powerful flare of energy, which soon smacked into Earth and severed radio communications across half the planet for hours.

Just four days later, another solar flare — an intense burst of radiation from the sun — hit Earth and again disrupted communications, as major storms continued to churn toward land.

This confluence of tempestuous weather both on Earth and in space was recently described by scientists in the journal Space Weather, the research led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers.  Read more…

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China Noaa Ozone Layer Pollution Science

The rogue emitters of an ozone-killing chemical have been exposed. How can they be stopped?

sudshr47 July 9, 2018

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A crooked industry in China has been releasing ozone-depleting chemicals into Earth’s atmosphere for years. Now, many of the culprits have been exposed. 

CFC-11, an illegal chemical used to make foam insulation used in homes and buildings, has been banned globally for decades. But scientists spotted an uptick in the chemical’s abundance in the air since 2012, meaning its overall decline has slowed. Researchers concluded in May that there must be a new source of these pollutants. 

Exactly who was annually spewing some 14,000 thousand tons of a chemical that erodes the ozone layer — which keeps life on Earth from getting irradiated by the sun — wasn’t known.  Read more…

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View More The rogue emitters of an ozone-killing chemical have been exposed. How can they be stopped?
Atmospheric Science Extreme Weather Hurricanes Noaa Science

This Atlantic hurricane season may be quieter than expected, and no one’s complaining

sudshr47 June 21, 2018

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At the end of May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its 2018 hurricane forecast, predicting a likely active or above active season in the Atlantic Ocean — though certainly not on par with 2017’s exceptionally stormy season.

But almost a month later, conditions in the Atlantic are showing signs that the 2018 season might be quieter than forecasters initially thought. 

Specifically, surface water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic are unusually cold. When these waters are cooler, it tends to damper the formation of powerful storms, Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, said in an interview. Read more…

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View More This Atlantic hurricane season may be quieter than expected, and no one’s complaining
exploration Giant Squid Noaa Oceans Science

After filming giant squids, scientists ponder what else lurks deep within the oceans

sudshr47 June 19, 2018

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For centuries, sailors spoke about a tentacled monster called “the Kraken” that lurked in the oceans. 

“There were tales of them pulling ships and men to their death, which may have been partially true, although sailors tell tales,” Edith Widder, a marine biologist, said in an interview.

The Kraken, however, might exist — in the form of the elusive giant squid.

Six years ago, Widder and team of scientists captured the first-ever video footage of the giant squid — which she said can grow to be the length of a four-story building — by attracting the mysterious creature to an electronic flashing lure, which mimicked the glow of a jellyfish.  Read more…

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View More After filming giant squids, scientists ponder what else lurks deep within the oceans