September 11

The President's Corner
By Dr Richard Shope, President
Satellite Educators Association

Coming soon! I promise!

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Earth and Moon: Say "cheese"
By (CBS/AP)

Twenty five days after launching into space, a NASA spacecraft cruising toward Jupiter glanced back and snapped a rare picture of Earth and the moon. Taken last week when Juno was 6 million miles away, the image shows two white dots, one brighter than the other.

The solar-powered Juno blasted off earlier this month on a five-year journey to Jupiter. Though previous craft have visited the giant gas planet, Juno will get closer than ever before, flying within 3,100 miles of the dense cloud tops to learn more about Jupiter's origins.

The (Canadian) $1.1 billion mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

"This is a remarkable sight people get to see all too rarely," said Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, in a statement. "This view of our planet shows how Earth looks from the outside, illustrating a special perspective of our role and place in the universe. We see a humbling yet beautiful view of ourselves."

NASA said that the spacecraft covered the distance between the Earth and moon, a span of about 250,000 miles in less than a single day.

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How do we stop asteroids from hitting Earth?
By Charles Q. Choi

While scientists keep a close watch on the myriad space rocks near Earth, they don’t yet have a solid plan on what to do if one appears headed on a collision course toward our planet.

Two new studies propose potential spacecraft missions that would collide with asteroids in an attempt to deflect them away from our planet. Such missions, some researchers say, may be among our best hopes to ward off asteroids that may pose a threat to Earth.

One concept from researchers in China involves deflecting an asteroid with a spacecraft propelled by solar sails, giant mirrors that fly through space via the force of sunlight reflecting off them. A possible target is the asteroid known as Apophis, named after the Egyptian god of darkness because of fears that it might crash into Earth.

The researchers noted that giving Apophis a tiny shove at a key moment in 2029 would help ensure that it would not approach Earth in 2036, the year that it is forecasted to come near. The scientists calculated that a solar sail could hurl a spacecraft fast enough at Apophis to potentially knock it off course.

"The impact velocity can be as high as 100 kilometers per second (223,700 mph), which is much higher than the impact velocity of a regular spacecraft, which is about 30 kilometers per second (67,100 mph)," study lead author Shengping Gong at Tsinghua University in Beijing told Space.com.

Europe's asteroid smasher
Another potential plan, a European Space Agency mission called Don Quijote, would also seek to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to deflect it.

The mission would involve two probes. One would smash into its target asteroid at more than 30,000 mph, while the other would orbit the asteroid six months beforehand to observe its behavior before and after impact.

However, Don Quijote or any other mission aiming to slam into an asteroid to deflect it would need to analyze such collisions in greater detail than before thought, according to scientists at the Open University in England and their colleagues.

Instead of measuring only an asteroid's orbit before and after impact, researchers found that its diameter, reflectivity and surface roughness also would have a large effect on how it would react to a collision. As such, these details need to monitored closely as well, significantly altering such missions.

In addition to radio transmitters to help pin down an asteroid's orbit, these spacecraft would need to carry sophisticated need to carry sophisticated imaging arrays, and possibly seismic sensors on the space rock to see if it would break apart upon impact.

"In order for the mission to succeed, you have to characterize the physical properties to distinguish effects from the deflection and effects from other non-gravitational perturbations," study lead author Stephen Wolters, an astronomer now at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Space.com.

Picking an asteroid target
The researchers do note that the asteroids they used in their calculations are not immediate threats.

The asteroid Apophis is expected to fly harmlessly by Earth on April 13, 2036, with only a 1-in-233,000 chance of hitting our planet, while neither of the two asteroids studied for the Don Quijote mission, designated 2002AT4 and 1989ML, is close to crossing Earth's orbit.

Although Apophis was picked for the study only as an example, "the results are universal" and could apply to other asteroids, Gong said.

"The idea for the mission was not to deflect a dangerous asteroid, but to deflect a safe one a little bit," Wolters said of his team's results. "This is practice so that we are prepared when there is a real danger. At the moment you might need a decade or more to prepare a real deflection mission. By having test missions, you cut down on that time, so you are prepared if you find an asteroid with fewer years until impact."

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NOAA Accurately Predicted Irene's Path 4 Days in Advance

Four days before Hurricane Irene struck eastern North Carolina and tracked northward, NOAA's National Hurricane Center accurately projected the storm's path. Even before then, forecasts showed that Irene would threaten the East Coast. This satellite animation shows Irene's progress across the western Atlantic and how it followed the National Hurricane Center's track issued at 11pm ET on Tuesday, August 23

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The Satellite Educators Association believes that educators should be well informed on issues, including those opinions and studies that do not necessarily follow the mainstream scientific views. With that in mind, a variety of positions are given in this newsletter. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily the opinions of the majority of the members in the Satellite Educators Association, but they show divergence of thought.

Gulf of Mexico system could be a tropical depression soon
By David Magee, International Business Times

One person's savior is another's curse. That's one thing we've learned through history and experience, since good news in one way often means bad news in another -- the balanced scale of life and nature that's often so conflicting and confusing, if not damaging.

Such is the case with a developing storm in the Gulf of Mexico, likely to become a tropical cyclone, and eventually a tropical storm and hurricane that will threaten a direct hit on Texas. Normally, residents in a hurricane's path shake and shiver amid threats of destruction from an onslaught of wind and torrential, flooding rain.

But Texas is in a unique situation. While Vermont and others in the wake of Hurricane Irene try to pick up pieces on the East Coast, Texas has been dealing with a searing drought and heat wave. Days ago, for instance, Austin burned at 112 degrees, an all-time record.

In addition to Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico have been scorched by a searing heat wave thriving upon drought conditions. The drier it gets, the hotter it gets. Sunlight hits the parched ground, evaporating any remaining moisture, raising the temperature.

The saga keeps playing out day after day and many residents, farmers and business owners have had about all they can take.

"This drought is just strangling our agricultural economy," professor Travis Miller, of Texas A&M University's Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, told TIME.

The drought is parching cotton crops in Texas, increasing beef prices as feeding and watering cattle has become more critical (and difficult), tourism is taking a bite, and retailers are suffering as many simply don't want to be out in the extreme dry heat. So while the East Coast manages flooding from Hurricane Irene, residents see home water bills imploding in the effort to keep lawns from completely dying, while others try to hold onto crops, and businesses.

A storm is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico -- and forecasters say it could soon become Hurricane Lee and threaten Texas with a direct hit. Texas is no stranger to hurricanes, though it's been a while since a major storm has hit the state. But since 1900, 14 major hurricanes with winds of 111 miles per hour have struck Texas

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Bill Nye Discusses Climate Change With Fox Business Network's Charles Payne

In a recent interview with the Fox Business Network, Bill Nye (yes, the Science Guy) explained to host Charles Payne that Al Gore's recent comments on the need for climate change discourse may not be far off point, especially when one considers the science behind it all.

The clip, available on Media Matters, aired just after Hurricane Irene had passed the East Coast of the U.S. It is from a segment of the show "Freedom Watch," discussing a link between climate change and extreme weather.

At the beginning of the clip, Payne mentions a Newsweek article from May that suggests extreme weather is the “new normal” because of climate change.

When asked if Irene was “proof of global warming,” Nye patiently explained that it is likely “evidence” for or “a result of” global warming. He added that the climate modeling needed to actually determine this will take at least several months, but he seemed confident of what the results would be.

Payne also asked Nye if there was any science behind the post-Katrina prediction that extreme weather would only increase in the coming years. Nye replied, “Well there's a lot more science behind it than saying it's not.” He suggested that the six years since Hurricane Katrina is a relatively short period of time to see a definite trend emerge.

Jeff Masters, a meteorologist with Weather Underground told HuffPost's Lynne Peeples in a previous interview, "Sea levels around New York have gone up 13 inches over last hundred years ... the five foot wall protecting Manhattan is one foot less able to keep water out than it was a century ago. This is going to be a kind of wake-up call for New York City: It's the first time they're going to have to evacuate from Zone A, and it's not going to be the last."

After showing a clip of Al Gore's recent comments about confronting climate deniers, Payne asked Nye whether it helped climate change believers “to always bring in things like racism” or if it “denigrate[s] anyone who might just have an inkling that maybe this stuff doesn't exist.”

Nye responded that after measuring temperatures worldwide, “you can't disagree” with the fact that the world is getting warmer. He also argued that, “when you learn the science of climate change, in my opinion, you will find it quite compelling. And you will want to do something about it, rather than pretend it doesn't happen.”

Payne thanked Nye, but said he was “confusing some of the viewers.”

Many other Americans seem to agree with Bill Nye and have decided not to pretend it doesn't happen. Actress Daryl Hannah is now among nearly 600 people, including environmentalists, religious leaders and ordinary Americans, who have been arrested in front of the White House since August 20 for protesting the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Tar Sands Action leader Bill McKibben said it may be "the largest collective act of civil disobedience in the history of the climate movement."

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Socializing Science With Smartphones in Space

One may think that participation with the International Space Station would be restricted to an exclusive club of high ranking officials and agencies. In actuality, students, teachers and commercial companies have also been taking advantage of the station's unique environment for years. One of those commercial companies, Houston-based Odyssey Space Research, plans to bring the experience to the rest of us via our mobile devices!

International Space Station National Laboratory partner NanoRacks LLC has a collaboration with Odyssey and Apple. This relationship enabled Odyssey to send two iPhone 4's to the space station as part of the STS-135 mission on July 8, 2011. These phones are just like the ones you can find at the store, but with certain alterations to meet NASA flight certification standards. It took less than a year to make the necessary changes and launch the devices to the station.

The iPhone 4 was selected for its mix of features, according to Odyssey CEO Brian Rishikof. "It had a three-axis gyro, and accelerometer, a high resolution camera and screen, and the means to manipulate the image. We had done some projects in the past that used all those features, but of course it was big, dedicated equipment and suddenly here it is in this small little package," said Rishikof.

The smartphones use the same software as their Earth counterparts and Odyssey used standard tools to develop a new app called SpaceLab for iOS, which will enable the planned research aboard the station. The app is also available for people to download to their own devices.

These devices are part of an investigation called NanoRacks Smartphone, which looks at how the phones will operate in space. The hope is to use the compact hardware in future research studies and to augment crew performance and productivity in operational activities. Currently there are four separate experiments that will run on the smartphones via SpaceLab for iOS.

The first study is Limb Tracker, a navigation experiment using photos of the Earth and image overlay manipulation to match the horizon to an arc to give an estimate of altitude and off-axis angles. Next is the Sensor Calibration or Sensor Cal experiment, which uses reference photos and the three-axis gyro and accelerometer for calibration to improve measurement accuracy. The State Acquisition or State Acq experiment also uses photos, but this time to estimate spacecraft orbital parameters. After the first three investigations are complete, the Lifecycle Flight Instrumentation or LFI experiment will operate to track the impact of radiation on the phones. To do this, the devices will monitor radiation-induced single bit upsets, which are unintended changes in memory location values.

One of the other goals in sending the phones to the space station is to engage the public. The SpaceLab for iOS app for users on the ground is identical to the software that was downloaded onto the space devices prior to launch. According to Rishikof, there is a setting in the application that indicates if the equipment is in microgravity or not. The software operates differently to accommodate the presence of gravity. "There are 200 million devices that run the operating system and could potentially run the application," said Rishikof. "Which means there are 200 million users out there that could get a sense of what it does; a sense of what an experiment in space might look like; a sense of participation."

The investigation is planned to run on the space station in the fall of 2011. The phones are not intended to have the same leisure appeal as they do on Earth, however, given the lack of iTunes, games and Internet or roaming connectivity. "People have asked me if we were loading games on the phones for the crew. No, we did not want them to be distracted, though certainly it would have been fun!" said Rishikof.

Once the investigation completes, the smartphones will return to Earth at the next opportunity. Scientists will then analyze the stored data to better understand how the devices can be used for future research on the space station and how the phones react to the space environment.

Rishikof hopes to be able to share some of the space data with SpaceLab for iOS app users, as well. "We do not have a monopoly on good ideas and hope users will suggest new and compelling things to add," commented Rishikof. "It is not a game, there's no leveling or challenges, the objective is to get data. It really just provides a way to see what's going on and while we don’t expect tons of downloads, we do expect a lot of interest. This would create an unusual opportunity for the entire world to get a look at some space data and explore it on their handheld device."

The NanoRacks Smartphone investigation is not the only phone-related study to launch to the space station with STS-135. The Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites or SPHERES, which has been aboard station since 2006, will also use smartphones to enhance the satellites' capabilities. While the two studies use different hardware, the overall capabilities of these smartphones offer bigger returns for research using a smaller package.

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The National Ocean Service: Responding to Hurricanes

A hurricane has just ravaged the coast. Homes are damaged or destroyed. Family members are searching for loved ones. Ports are closed due to unknown hazards in surrounding waterways. Damaged vessels and chemical containers are leaking potentially hazardous material into the water.

And in the background, without much bravado or fanfare, NOS has sprung in to action, working to get things moving again…responding in the aftermath of the storm.

Rapid Hurricane Response
Following hurricanes, NOS is one of the key partners immediately responding with a range of activities.

Water-level Monitoring
Before, during, and after a storm, NOAA monitors and disseminates observations of water levels, currents, and weather information in real time via the National Water Level Observation Network and the Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System. Collected real-time environmental information helps coastal authorities prepare for, mitigate, and respond to storm tides and coastal flooding. NOS also regularly updates Storm QuickLook, an online compilation of ocean and weather observations within a coastal area.

Navigational Surveys
Immediately following a hurricane, the Office of Coast Survey provides emergency hydrographic services for affected port areas. These services are performed by Navigation Response Teams. These mobile emergency response units use echo sounders to check for submerged obstructions that pose hazards to vessels, collect data to update nautical charts, and provide mapping support. The work of these teams is essential to speeding the re-opening of ports and waterways.

Aerial Photography Surveys
Just hours after a hurricane hits a coastal area, the National Geodetic Survey begins flying photo survey missions to assess storm damage. The data contained in these photos provide emergency and coastal managers with information needed to develop recovery strategies, facilitate search and rescue efforts, identify hazards to navigation and HAZMAT spills, locate errant vessels, and provide documentation necessary for damage assessment through the comparison of before and after imagery.

Hazardous Spill Response
After a hurricane, the Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) provides scientific support to hazardous materials response efforts in coastal areas. The office surveys vessels or containers that may be leaking fuel, oil, or other hazardous materials; flies missions to identify and document spill sources; and uses computer models to predict spill movement and determine pollution threats. OR&R also provides guidance on marine debris and vessel salvage, conducts shoreline cleanup assessments, collects information to understand natural resource impacts from spills in affected areas, and works to assess and restore resources injured by spills.

Long-term Hurricane Response
The work of NOS ensues in the hours following a hurricane, but it doesn’t stop there. For weeks, months, even years after a hurricane has ravaged a coastal community, NOS continues its work.

Contamination Assessments
NOAA’s National Status and Trends (NS&T) Program, part of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, coordinates with multiple partners to develop strategies to assess the environmental impacts of contaminants in coastal and estuarine waters in the aftermath of hurricanes. Of special concern is assessing the risk to human health of eating fish and shellfish and ensuring seafood safety.

Maps and Data Analysis
Following a hurricane, the NOAA Coastal Services Center provides the satellite and aerial images needed to generate maps that help officials understand the long-term effects of the hurricane. These data products include pre-hurricane imagery and digital elevation data from a variety of sources; before and after imagery comparisons; and maps depicting ecological impacts, debris assessment, and wetlands loss along the coast. The Center may also conduct studies that focus on a storm’s economic impacts.

Long-term Recovery Planning
The NOAA Coastal Services Center and the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management provide assistance in long-term recovery planning in areas impacted by a hurricane. Staff may assist in the development of coastal project plans, coordinate with other federal and state organizations involved in recovery planning, and assist with the design and implementation of activities to involve local communities in planning for their own long-term recovery.

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NASA Satellite Observes Unusually Hot July in the Great Plains

Much of the United States sweated through an unusually humid heat wave during July, a month that brought record-breaking temperatures to many areas across the Great Plains. As temperatures soared, NASA satellites observed the unusual weather from above.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), an instrument launched on the Aqua satellite in 2002, is unique in its ability to yield highly accurate data about the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere and the part that most directly affects life on Earth.

Hot temperatures struck Texas and Oklahoma particularly hard, AIRS observed. Large swaths of both of these states persistently experienced highs above 100° F (311 K) during the day for the month of July. Nights offered only minimal relief with low temperatures averaging close to 90° F (305 K) for the month. That’s about 20° F warmer, both day and night, than the average July temperatures for the past eight years of AIRS observations.

Night and day time temperatures during July were significantly warmer than has been typical over the last eight years. As seen in the top graphic, the heat remained anonymously over much of the country at night. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Center)

AIRS also offered clues about what may have caused the persistent heat spell. Domes of high atmospheric surface pressure (corresponding to the red colors in the figure below) normally intensify in the summer over both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, AIRS data shows they were abnormally strong in July.

An area of high pressure in the North Atlantic likely helped fuel the heat wave. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Center)

Meanwhile, AIRS and modeled wind data from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS-5) reveals a clockwise vortex of winds (shown with arrows below) driven by the high pressure in the North Atlantic. The vortex continuously pumped hot and humid air from the tropics through the heart of the Gulf of Mexico and into much of the continental United States throughout July.

Note the hot tropical air being pumped towards Texas and Oklahoma. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Center)

The jet stream, which typically produces loops around low-pressure areas that break off and brings cooler air and precipitation, offered little relief. As seen below, the flow of the jet stream (approximated by green and yellow) instead consistently bulged over the high-pressure aloft over the United States (shown in red)

Note the unusual bulge in the jet stream over the center of the country. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Center)

AIRS data are distributed by the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. AIRS is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. GEOS-5 is a product of the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at Goddard Space Flight Center

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Tropical Storm Lee heads for land; Katia becomes hurricane again
Los Angeles Times

A slow-moving tropical depression off the Gulf Coast strengthened into a tropical storm Friday -- meriting the official name of Tropical Storm Lee -- and continued its trek toward Louisiana, where it was expected to create tremendous flooding over the weekend.

Katia, meanwhile, regained its status as a hurricane, but there were no coastal warnings or watches in effect, according to the National Weather Service website. It was moving in a west-northwesterly direction, with some strengthening expected over the next two days. The storm wasn't considered a threat, however.

The same could not be said of Lee.

As of Friday morning, the storm -- then Tropical Depression 13 -- was about 210 miles southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River and creeping toward the coast at about 2 mph, with the center expected to approach the Louisiana coast over the weekend, the National Hurricane Center reported.

Around midday, sustained winds in the storm were at 40 mph but were expected to strengthen as it continued on its path toward the Gulf Coast, where tropical storm warnings are in effect from Pascagoula, Miss., to the Sabine Pass in Texas, a swath that includes the city of New Orleans.

The storm is expected to dump between 10 to 15 inches of rain on much of the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastlines, with some areas receiving up to 20 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

As Tropical Storm Lee moved through the Gulf of Mexico, threatening fierce rains and flash floods, oil companies began taking precautions.

Energy is a key industry in the region, and a posting on the website of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said that offshore oil and gas operators have been evacuating platforms and rigs in the path of the storm.

There have been evacuations from 169 production platforms, about 27% of the 617 manned platforms in the gulf, the agency reported. Production platforms are the fixed structures located offshore from which oil and natural gas are produced.

There have also been reports that people have been evacuated from 16 rigs, about 23% of the 62 rigs operating in the gulf. Rigs are different types of offshore drilling facilities, typically those that can be moved depending on the job, the agency said.

When an evacuation takes place, the subsurface safety valves are closed as a precaution to prevent the release of oil or gas. The closures, known as shut-ins, means that about 47.6% of the daily oil production and 33% of the daily natural gas production are off-line.

Dry Texas expected to again miss out on rain from storm
By Jim Forsyth, Reuters

As Louisiana prepares for the drenching rains of Tropical Storm Lee, no more than a few sprinkles are expected over the long holiday weekend next door in Texas, which is suffering from an historic drought.

What little rain is forecast for Texas is expected to be confined to the far southeastern part of the state, where the drought is the least severe.

"This is more of the bad luck that Texas has been experiencing," said Scott Landes, Senior Meteorologist with the Weather Channel.

He said the presence of the massive rain maker in the central Gulf of Mexico could actually decrease the chances of next door Texas getting any showers at all.

"When you have that strong low pressure system to the east, that will just pull in a high pressure ridge from the west into Texas, and that will bring with it gusty winds which will dry out the state even more."

Those gusty winds make April Saginor nervous. She is with the Texas Forest Service, which is currently battling 14 large brush fires across the state which have scorched more than 20,000 acres, destroying fifty homes and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of people.

"We're crossing our fingers, but we are not expecting enough moisture to make a difference," she said. "We are very concerned about the winds. These fires are moving so fast."

Since the current brush fire season started last November, more than 3.5 million acres of Texas has been burned by nearly 21,000 separate brush fires, the worst wildfire season the state has ever experienced.

The drought in Texas has been devastating to residents, farmers and ranchers. It has caused more than $5 billion in damage to agriculture, leading to historic rationing of water in cities, leaving parched pasture lands and brown front lawns from one end of the state to the other.

The record drought and record heat are feeding on each other across Texas, as the pounding sun beats down on a dry landscape. First July, and then August, have been the two hottest months in the state's history.

Some Texas residents are wishing Tropical Storm Lee would veer toward them as long as it is not too severe.

"We could really use the rain," said Jeff Sauerwein, Assistant Manager of Tookie's Burgers, a landmark in the Texas Gulf Coast town of Seabrook.

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How do hurricanes form?

Hurricanes are the most awesome, violent storms on Earth. People call these storms by other names, such as typhoons or cyclones, depending on where they occur. The scientific term for all these storms is tropical cyclone. Only tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or eastern Pacific Ocean are called "hurricanes."

Whatever they are called, tropical cyclones all form the same way.

Tropical cyclones are like giant engines that use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why they form only over warm ocean waters near the equator. The warm, moist air over the ocean rises upward from near the surface. Because this air moves up and away from the surface, there is less air left near the surface. Another way to say the same thing is that the warm air rises, causing an area of lower air pressure below.

Air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in to the low pressure area. Then that "new" air becomes warm and moist and rises, too. As the warm air continues to rise, the surrounding air swirls in to take its place. As the warmed, moist air rises and cools off, the water in the air forms clouds. The whole system of clouds and wind spins and grows, fed by the ocean's heat and water evaporating from the surface.

Storms that form north of the equator spin counterclockwise. Storms south of the equator spin clockwise. This difference is because of Earth's rotation on its axis.

As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the center. It is very calm and clear in the eye, with very low air pressure. Higher pressure air from above flows down into the eye.

If you could slice into a tropical cyclone, it would look something like this. The small red arrows show warm, moist air rising from the ocean's surface, and forming clouds in bands around the eye. The blue arrows show how cool, dry air sinks in the eye and between the bands of clouds. The large red arrows show the rotation of the rising bands of clouds.

When the winds in the rotating storm reach 39 mph, the storm is called a "tropical storm." And when the wind speeds reach 74 mph, the storm is officially a "tropical cyclone," or hurricane.

Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land, because they are no longer being "fed" by the energy from the warm ocean waters. However, they often move far inland, dumping many inches of rain and causing lots of wind damage before they die out completely.

Tropical cyclone categories:

Category Wind Speed (mph) Damage at Landfall Storm Surge (feet)

1 74-95 Minimal 4-5

2 96-110 Moderate 6-8

3 111-130 Extensive 9-12

4 131-155 Extreme 13-18

5 Over 155 Catastrophic 19+

The two GOES satellites keep their eyes on hurricanes from far above Earth's surface—22,300 miles above, to be exact! (Learn more about this kind of orbit.)
These satellites, built by NASA and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), save lives by helping weather forecasters predict and warn people where and when these severe storms will hit land.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS	CLICK ON THE RED LINKS BELOW TO VIEW ARTICLES	Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. Dan Wilder
The President's Corner	Coming soon to a theater near you
Government	How do we stop asteroids from hitting Earth? And Earth and Moon: Say "cheese"
Opinion	The Satellite Educators Association believes that educators should be well informed on issues, including those opinions and studies that do not necessarily follow the mainstream scientific views. With that in mind, a variety of positions are given in this newsletter. Bill Nye Discusses Climate Change With Fox Business Network's Charles Payne And Gulf of Mexico system could be a tropical depression soon
News From NOAA	NOAA Accurately Predicted Irene's Path 4 Days in Advance And The National Ocean Service: Responding to Hurricanes
News From NASA	NASA Satellite Observes Unusually Hot July in the Great Plains And Socializing Science With Smartphones in Space
News about Lee	Tropical Storm Lee heads for land; Katia becomes hurricane again
Teaching Tool	How do hurricanes form?
Lesson Plan	Types of Satellite Orbits
Go to SEA Home Page	Visit the Satellite Educators Association home page

September 2011 Printer Friendly Version	Share on Facebook Share

Rapid Hurricane Response Following hurricanes, NOS is one of the key partners immediately responding with a range of activities.

Long-term Hurricane Response The work of NOS ensues in the hours following a hurricane, but it doesn’t stop there. For weeks, months, even years after a hurricane has ravaged a coastal community, NOS continues its work.

Rapid Hurricane Response
Following hurricanes, NOS is one of the key partners immediately responding with a range of activities.

Long-term Hurricane Response
The work of NOS ensues in the hours following a hurricane, but it doesn’t stop there. For weeks, months, even years after a hurricane has ravaged a coastal community, NOS continues its work.