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You are browsing the archive for August 2011 - Page 2 of 4 - Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal.

26 August 2011

Hurricanes and Quakes are Inspirational Science Moments

Every meteorologist I know can point to a big storm as the inspiration that led them into the field of atmospheric science (A blizzard in 1968 and the tornadoes of June 8,1974 for me), and this is true for other sciences as well. Neil de Grasse Tyson still has his certificate of accomplishment from the Hayden Planetarium that he now directs. The certificates are still given out and he signs …

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25 August 2011

What To Expect From Irene If You Are In Her Path

Hurricane Irene remains a dangerous hurricane, and overnight numerical weather prediction models have shifted a bit back tot he west. This increases the risk of a land falling hurricane in New Jersey or on Long Island, followed by a track across the highly populated areas of New England. It’s possible that Irene may pass near or west of New York City and Boston. While Irene will start to pass over …

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Is This Tropical Storm Jose??

  The tropical wave off Africa has intensified and is looking very healthy this evening. It even looks like an anticyclone has developed aloft over the wave, and we may have tropical storm Jose soon (if not already). Water vapor imagery from the European weather satellite also shows little dry air in the region, although there is some dry air to the north of the system (not enough to seriously …

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24 August 2011

Category Three Irene Plows Through Bahamas

  It’s  been said that if weather satellites could only see hurricanes, they would still be worth ten times the cost. The image below is from GOES (courtesy NASA Goddard) and is remapped on the “NASA blue marble” background. Beware that it’s a huge image! The latest NWP models are all in close agreement for the next three days and indicate that Irene will pass very near the Outer Banks …

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Quake Waves Travel Across U.S. and Irene Strengthens

Callan Bentley over at Mountain Gateway here on the AGU Blogosphere has the best post on the net about the quake in VA. I saw the link to this video in the comments section, and it’s well worth a view. It’s from the Iris Transportable Array. First the quake and now possibly a hurricane? NWP Guidance this evening is indicating that Irene may skirt the Outer Banks and then come …

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23 August 2011

The Big East Coast Shake

The view from two seismographs near the epicenter. The quake has been rated at 5.9 and was very shallow at 6 km. It was felt in Montgomery, Alabama and in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Will add more data on this page soon. There are two types of earthquake waves. Body waves and surface waves. Body waves travel in the Earth and are either P waves or S waves. P waves are …

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Irene Reaches Cat 2 Status and Threatens Bahamas

Hurricane Irene is now away from the Dominican Republic and is gaining strength rapidly this evening, as it moves toward the Bahamas. Intensity forecasts on any tropical system are very difficult but several of the more reliable models are indicating that Irene will reach Cat 3 or perhaps higher. A Category 3 storm is a major hurricane with winds of 154-177 km/hr (83-95knots).   Almost all of the track models …

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21 August 2011

Irene Getting Stronger- Heads Up To East Coast Residents

    Irene is now packing winds of 50 mph, and has become much better organized during the afternoon hours on Sunday. There has been a significant shift in the track guidance overnight with almost all of the NWP models and statistical models are trending toward an east coast threat. A tropical storm watch is now posted for the SE Bahamas and I suspect the government there will raise this …

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Change in Night Time Lights 1992-2009

From NOAA’s Environmental Visualization Lab-

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20 August 2011

Weekend Science Digest

Images, blog posts, quotes and other geeky science things that caught my eye this week. Rivers of Ice The image above is from research published in SCIENCE this week by Eric Rignot et al. NASA released a fantastic movie that shows the flow much better:   Note to HM- Give Cox a Knighthood. The BBC reported Friday that there has been a sharp increase in the number of students taking …

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