(Press-News.org) Typhoon Rumbia developed from a low pressure area east of the Philippines and crossed the country from east to west before moving into the South China Sea. NASA's TRMM satellite flew over Rumbia as it nears southeastern China and identified areas of heavy rainfall in the southern quadrant of the storm.
On Sunday, June 30, NASA infrared satellite imagery revealed tightly curved bands of thunderstorms over the southern quadrant of the storm were wrapping into the northern quadrant of the low-level center. However, in the northwestern quadrant, the quadrant that will make landfall first, there was a lack of strong convection and thunderstorms. Those satellite observations held true 24 hours later.
Typhoon Rumbia was located east of Hainan Island, China in South China Sea early on July 1. It is headed for landfall today, July 1, in southeastern China, south of Hong Kong.
When NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite flew over Rumbia on July 1 at 0412 UTC (12:12 a.m. EDT) the Precipitation Radar instrument noticed some areas of heavy rainfall in bands of thunderstorms south of the center of circulation. Heavy rainfall was falling at rates of over 2 inches/50 mm per hour. TRMM imagery continued to show the strong band of thunderstorms continued wrapping around the southern quadrant of the storm and into the low-level center.
On July 1 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT), Rumbia's maximum sustained winds increased from 45 knots (52 mph) to 65 knots (74 mph/120 kph) making it a minimal typhoon. It was located near 20.3 north latitude and 110.9 east longitude, about 217 nautical miles southwest of Hong Kong. Rumbia is moving to the west-northwest at 13 knots (15 mph/24 kph).
Rumbia's western quadrant is already interacting with the land of Hainan Island, China, breaking up the band of thunderstorms in that part of the storm. Because the interaction with land is already weakening the storm the forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) expect Rumbia to continue to weaken as it heads for landfall.
JTWC expects that Rumbia may make landfall near Zhanjiang, a prefecture-level city at the southwestern end of Guangdong province. Areas that Rumbia's center are expected to pass near include Leizhou Bay and Zhanjiang Port.
Residents along southeastern China are already feeling the effects of Rumbia with tropical-storm force winds, heavy rainfall, flash flooding and very rough surf along the coasts.
INFORMATION:
Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA sees heavy rainfall as Typhoon Rumbia heads for landfall in China
2013-07-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Researchers pinpoint sources of fibrosis-promoting cells that ravage organs
2013-07-02
HOUSTON – Scientists have tracked down and quantified the diverse origins of cells that drive fibrosis, the incurable, runaway wound-healing that scars and ultimately destroys organs such as the lungs, liver and kidneys.
Findings from research conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and continued at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are reported in an advance online publication at Nature Medicine on June 30.
"Answering a fundamental question about the origin of these ...
Surprise superconductor
2013-07-02
Washington, D.C.—Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity—maintain a flow of electrons—without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found in certain materials under specific low-temperature and high-pressure conditions. Research to create superconductors at higher temperatures has been ongoing for two decades with the promise of significant impact on electrical transmission.
New research from a team led by Choong-Shik Yoo at Washington State University—and including Carnegie's Viktor Struzhkin, Takaki Muramatsu, ...
Altitude sickness may hinder ethnic integration in the world's highest places
2013-07-02
Ethnic segregation in nations straddling the world's steepest terrains may be reinforced by the biological tolerance different peoples have to altitude, according to one of the first studies to examine the effect of elevation on ethnic demographics.
Research from Princeton University published in the journal Applied Geography suggests that people native to low-lying areas can be naturally barred from regions such as the Tibetan Plateau, the Andes or the Himalayas by altitude sickness, which is caused by low oxygen concentration in the air and can be life-threatening. ...
Doctor-patient communication about dietary supplements could use a vitamin boost
2013-07-02
Vitamins, minerals, herbs and other dietary supplements are widely available in supermarkets and drug stores across the nation without a prescription, so it's no surprise that nearly half of all Americans take them.
But they do carry risks, including potentially adverse interactions with prescription drugs, and some people may even use them in place of conventional medications. So it's important that primary care physicians communicate the pros and cons of supplements with their patients. In fact, both the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of ...
New American Chemical Society video focuses on ancient secrets of alchemy
2013-07-02
The pursuit that obsessed some of the world's greatest geniuses for centuries — alchemy and its quest for the "Philosopher's Stone" that would transform lead and other base metals into gold — is the topic of a new episode in the American Chemical Society Bytesize Science video series. The video, from the world's largest scientific society, is at http://www.BytesizeScience.com.
It features Laurence Principe, Ph.D., a noted historian of science and expert on alchemy, which, far from being solely a misguided pseudoscience, helped set the stage for the emergence of modern ...
Biomedical research revealing secrets of cell behavior
2013-07-02
TEMPE, Ariz -- Knowing virtually everything about how the body's cells make transitions from one state to another – for instance, precisely how particular cells develop into multi-cellular organisms – would be a major jump forward in understanding the basics of what drives biological processes.
Such a leap could open doors to far-reaching advances in medical science, bioengineering and related areas.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Arizona State University, with a partner at Imperial College London, report on taking at least a step toward better comprehension ...
Vitamin C helps control gene activity in stem cells
2013-07-02
Vitamin C affects whether genes are switched on or off inside mouse stem cells, and may thereby play a previously unknown and fundamental role in helping to guide normal development in mice, humans and other animals, a scientific team led by UC San Francisco researchers has discovered.
The researchers found that vitamin C assists enzymes that play a crucial role in releasing the brakes that keep certain genes from becoming activated in the embryo soon after fertilization, when egg and sperm fuse.
The discovery might eventually lead to the use of vitamin C to improve ...
Cattle flatulence doesn't stink with biotechnology
2013-07-02
The agriculture industry is researching new technologies to help feed the growing population. But feeding the world without harming air quality is a challenge.
According to a new article in Animal Frontiers, biotechnologies increase food production and reduce harmful gas output from cattle.
"We are increasing the amount of product with same input," said Clayton Neumeier, PhD student at University of California, Davis, in an interview.
In the Animal Frontiers paper, Neumeier describes a recent experiment using biotechnologies. In the experiment, a test group of cattle ...
UCSB astronomer uncovers the hidden identity of an exoplanet
2013-07-02
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– Hovering about 70 light-years from Earth –– that's "next door" by astronomical standards –– is a star astronomers call HD 97658, which is almost bright enough to see with the naked eye. But the real "star" is the planet HD 97658b, not much more than twice the Earth's diameter and a little less than eight times its mass. HD 97658b is a super-Earth, a class of planet for which there is no example in our home solar system.
While the discovery of this particular exoplanet is not new, determining its true size and mass is, thanks to Diana Dragomir, ...
It's about time: Disrupted internal clocks play role in disease
2013-07-02
Thirty percent of severe alcoholics develop liver disease, but scientists have not been able to explain why only a subset is at risk. A research team from Northwestern University and Rush University Medical Center now has a possible explanation: disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms can push those vulnerable over the edge to disease.
The team studied mice that essentially were experiencing what shift workers or people with jet lag suffer: their internal clocks were out of sync with the natural light-dark cycle. Another group of mice had circadian disruption due to a faulty ...