(Press-News.org) Infrared data provides a look at cloud top temperatures in tropical cyclones and there were very cold cloud tops in the thunderstorms banding around the south of newborn Tropical Storm Usagi's Center.
On Sept. 16, low pressure System 99W strengthened into Tropical Depression 17W. The depression became Tropical Storm Usagi very late in the day.
The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Usagi on Sept. 16 at 16:59 UTC/12:59 a.m. EDT. The image showed the highest storms and coldest cloud top temperatures around and south of the center of circulation. The cloud top temperatures exceeded -63F/-52C in those areas, indicating high thunderstorms, with the potential for heavy rainfall.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC is the forecast organization for this tropical storm. JTWC noted that animated infrared satellite imagery revealed the low-level circulation center was consolidating, although partially exposed to outside winds. The circulation center has become more tightly wrapped and a central dense overcast feature has started to build along the southern edge of the center.
When NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite called TRMM passed overhead on Sept. 17 at 1050 UTC/6:50 a.m. EDT, the TRMM Microwave Imager, or TMI showed that the low-level center was continuing to consolidate and wrap more tightly, while thunderstorms and convection continued to strengthen.
On Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 1500 UTC/11 a.m. EDT Usagi had maximum sustained winds near
40 knots//46 mph/74 kph. Usagi was centered near 17.6 north and 130.6 east, about 559 nautical miles/643 miles/1,035 km south-southeast of Kadena Air Base. Usagi was moving to the west at 5 knots/5.7 mph/9.2 kph.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center forecast takes Usagi west toward the northern Philippines but turning to the northwest before reaching the country, and heading toward Taiwan.
INFORMATION:
Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA spots wide band of strong thunderstorms south of Tropical Storm Usagi's center
2013-09-18
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Algorithm finds missing phytoplankton in Southern Ocean
2013-09-18
VIDEO:
This video shows the concentration of phytoplankton observed by satellites in the Southern Ocean over the summer months.
Click here for more information.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17: NASA satellites may have missed more than 50% of the phytoplankton in the Southern Ocean, making it far more difficult to estimate the carbon capture potential of this vast area of sea.
But now, new research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, Three improved satellite chlorophyll ...
Fluorescent compounds allow clinicians to visualize Alzheimer's disease as it progresses
2013-09-18
What if doctors could visualize all of the processes that take place in the brain during the development and progression of Alzheimer's disease? Such a window would provide a powerful aid for diagnosing the condition, monitoring the effectiveness of treatments, and testing new preventive and therapeutic agents. Now, researchers reporting in the September 18 issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron have developed a new class of imaging agents that enables them to visualize tau protein aggregates, a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative ...
Young stars cooking in the Prawn Nebula
2013-09-18
Located around 6000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion), the nebula formally known as IC 4628 is a huge region filled with gas and clumps of dark dust. These gas clouds are star-forming regions, producing brilliant hot young stars. In visible light, these stars appear as a blue-white colour, but they also emit intense radiation in other parts of the spectrum — most notably in the ultraviolet [1].
It is this ultraviolet light from the stars that causes the gas clouds to glow. This radiation strips electrons from hydrogen atoms, which ...
'Guns do not make a nation safer,' say doctors
2013-09-18
Philadelphia, PA, September 20, 2013 – A new study reports that countries with lower gun ownership are safer than those with higher gun ownership, debunking the widely quoted hypothesis that guns make a nation safer. Researchers evaluated the possible associations between gun ownership rates, mental illness, and the risk of firearm-related death by studying the data for 27 developed countries. Their findings are published in the current issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
Gun ownership in the US has been a hotly debated issue for more than 200 years. A popular ...
Fragile X syndrome protein linked to breast cancer progression
2013-09-18
Claudia Bagni (VIB/KU Leuven, Belgium, and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy), has identified the way Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein or FMRP contributes to the progression of breast cancer. For this research the group of Bagni collaborated with colleagues from the VIB/KU Leuven departments of Bart De Strooper and Peter Carmeliet (VIB/KU Leuven), with Patrick Neven (UZ Leuven) and with several research centers and Hospitals in Italy and the UK. The researchers demonstrated that FMRP acts as a master switch controlling the levels of several proteins involved ...
Drivers of financial boom and bust may be all in the mind, study finds
2013-09-18
Market bubbles that lead to financial crashes may be self-made because of instinctive biological mechanisms in traders' brains that lead them to try and predict how others behave, according to a study part-funded by the Wellcome Trust.
The research offers the first insight into the processes in the brain that underpin financial decisions and behaviour leading to the formation of market bubbles. Publication of the study coincides with the five year anniversary of the infamous collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank in 2008.
A 'bubble' happens when active trading ...
Brain dysfunctions: Shared mechanisms in fragile X syndrome, autism and schizophrenia
2013-09-18
Several psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, autism and intellectual disabilities share the same brain cell abnormalities: the contacts (synapses) between brain cells are poorly developed and not functional. Claudia Bagni and her group associated with the VIB, KU Leuven, and Tor Vergata University in Italy, in collaboration with leading laboratories in the Netherlands, France, USA and UK have unraveled how a single protein (CYFIP1) orchestrates two biological processes to form proper contacts between brain cells. Importantly, the researchers identified various ...
Dinosaur wind tunnel test provides new insight into the evolution of bird flight
2013-09-18
A study into the aerodynamic performance of feathered dinosaurs, by scientists from the University of Southampton, has provided new insight into the evolution of bird flight.
In recent years, new fossil discoveries have changed our view of the early evolution of birds and, more critically, their powers of flight. We now know about a number of small-bodied dinosaurs that had feathers on their wings as well as on their legs and tails: completely unique in the fossil record.
However, even in light of new fossil discoveries, there has been a huge debate about how these ...
Research team uncovers root cause of multiple myeloma relapse
2013-09-18
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Sept. 18, 2013 — Researchers have discovered why multiple myeloma, a difficult to cure cancer of the bone marrow, frequently recurs after an initially effective treatment that can keep the disease at bay for up to several years.
Working in collaboration with colleagues at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, researchers from Mayo Clinic in Arizona and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix were part of the team that conducted the study published in the Sept. 9 issue of Cancer Cell.
The research team initially analyzed 7,500 ...
Moderate exercising encourages a healthier lifestyle
2013-09-18
The obesity epidemic has massive socio-economic consequences, and decades of health campaigns have not made significant headway. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen are therefore pursuing the development of new, interdisciplinary methods for preventing and treating this widespread problem.
The subjects in the test group that exercised the least talk about increased energy levels and a higher motivation for exercising and pursuing a healthy everyday life.
"Obesity is a complex social problem requiring a multidisciplinary approach. In a new scientific article ...