(Press-News.org) Tropical Cyclone Lusi is battling vertical wind shear that has been pushing the bulk of precipitation away from its center. NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of the storm that showed the strongest thunderstorms were being pushed away from the center.
On March 12 at 22:25 UTC/6:25 p.m. EDT, The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Lusi in the South Pacific Ocean. The image showed a concentration of thunderstorms just south of the center of circulation.
On March 13 at 0900 UTC Tropical Cyclone Lusi was at hurricane-force with maximum sustained winds near 65 knots/74.8 mph/120.4 kph. Lusi was centered near 24.2 south latitude and 173.9 east longitude, about 406 nautical miles/467.2 miles/751.9 km southwest of Suva, Fiji. Lusi is moving to the southeast at 17 knots/19.5 mph/ 31.4 kph.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that animated multispectral satellite imagery showed Lusi started to weaken as the deep convection has been pushed south of the center from vertical wind shear. The storm's low-level center still appears to be tightly wrapped, however.
Lusi is expected to track south for the next several days into cooler waters which will continue to weaken it, and help transition it into an extra-tropical storm.
The New Zealand Meteorological Service has already issued a watch for heavy rains from Lusi. Lusi is expected to move just west of the North Island on Saturday, March 15 before crossing the South Island late Sunday, March 16. The Met Service expects rain and easterly winds to start affecting northern New Zealand late in the day on Friday, March 14 and then expand.
According to the Watch, heavy rain can be expected in Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula late Friday or Saturday, and for Bay of Plenty and northern Gisborne on Saturday. For updated watches and warnings, visit: http://www.metservice.com.
INFORMATION:
Text credit: Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA sees wind shear affecting Tropical Cyclone Lusi
2014-03-13
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
NASA sees Tropical Cyclone Gillian's remnants hoping for comeback
2014-03-13
Ex-Tropical Cyclone Gillian weakened to a remnant low pressure area after making landfall in the Western Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia then returned into the Gulf of Carpentaria. NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the tropical low as it struggled to re-intensify.
The MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Gillian moving through Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria on March 13 at 4:25 UTC/12:45 a.m. EDT. Gillian appeared to have moved about two-thirds ...
Prostate specific antigen screening declines after 2012 USPSTF recommendations
2014-03-13
New York, NY, March 13, 2014 – Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center have assessed the impact of the 2012 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations against routine prostate specific antigen (PSA) cancer screenings, which cited evidence that the risks of screening outweigh the benefits. Results of the current study indicate that the USPSTF recommendations have resulted in a decrease in the number of PSA screenings ordered by doctors, with the greatest decline seen among urologists. The findings are ...
Performing cardio and resistance training during the same session: Does the order matter?
2014-03-13
Although the remarkable benefits of combined training have been clarified by numerous investigations, fitness enthusiasts struggle with the same question: Does the order of cardio- and resistance training influence the effectiveness of a training program?
This question has now been the focus of a series of investigations in the Department of Biology of Physical Activity at the University of Jyväskylä. The international research group led by Professor Keijo Häkkinen and coordinated by PhD student Moritz Schumann has recruited a total of almost 200 recreationally active ...
'Velcro protein' found to play surprising role in cell migration
2014-03-13
VIDEO:
Without Twist1 expression, mammary duct tissue fragments maintain a smooth surface (left). When Twist1 is turned on, cells rapidly detach and migrate away from the tissue (right). Both tissue fragments...
Click here for more information.
Studying epithelial cells, the cell type that most commonly turns cancerous, Johns Hopkins researchers have identified a protein that causes cells to release from their neighbors and migrate away from healthy mammary, or breast, tissue ...
Novel marker and possible therapeutic target for cardiovascular calcification identified
2014-03-13
Cardiovascular calcification (deposits of minerals in heart valves and blood vessels) is a primary contributor to heart disease, the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"Unfortunately, there currently is no medical treatment for cardiovascular calcification, which can lead to acute cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction and stroke, as well as heart failure," says Elena Aikawa, MD, PhD, Director of the Vascular Biology Program at the Center for Interdisciplinary ...
Robotic fish designed to perform escape maneuvers described in Soft Robotics journal
2014-03-13
New Rochelle, NY, March 13, 2014—A soft-bodied, self-contained robotic fish with a flexible spine that allows it to mimic the swimming motion of a real fish also has the built-in agility to perform escape maneuvers. The innovative design and capabilities of this complex, autonomous robot is described in Soft Robotics (SoRo), a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Soft Robotics website at http://www.liebertpub.com/soro.
Andrew Marchese, Cagdas Onal, and Daniela Rus, from MIT (Cambridge, MA) and Worcester ...
Mathematical and biochemical 'design features' for cell decoding of pulses revealed
2014-03-13
Every cell in the body has to sense and respond to chemicals such as hormones and neurotransmitters. They do so by relaying information from receptors to intracellular biochemical pathways that control cell behaviour, but relatively little is known about how cells decode the information in dynamic stimuli.
A team of researchers have found that differences in response kinetics working down the intracellular signalling pathway dictate differential sensitivity to different features of pulsatile hormone inputs.
The study funded by the BBSRC and published today [14 March] ...
Researchers describe oxygen's different shapes
2014-03-13
Oxygen-16, one of the key elements of life on earth, is produced by a series of reactions inside of red giant stars. Now a team of physicists, including one from North Carolina State University, has revealed how the element's nuclear shape changes depending on its state, even though other attributes such as spin and parity don't appear to differ. Their findings may shed light on how oxygen is produced.
Carbon and oxygen are formed when helium burns inside of red giant stars. Carbon-12 forms when three helium-4 nuclei combine in a very specific way (called the triple alpha ...
Creating a graphene-metal sandwich to improve electronics
2014-03-13
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Researchers have discovered that creating a graphene-copper-graphene "sandwich" strongly enhances the heat conducting properties of copper, a discovery that could further help in the downscaling of electronics.
The work was led by Alexander A. Balandin, a professor of electrical engineering at the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside and Konstantin S. Novoselov, a professor of physics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Balandin and Novoselov are corresponding authors for the paper just published ...
UT Arlington research says treadmill workstation benefits employees, employers
2014-03-13
Employees who use treadmill workstations not only receive physical benefits but also are more productive at work, according to a recently published study by researchers from The University of Texas at Arlington, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota.
Darla Hamann, an assistant professor in the UT Arlington School of Urban and Public Affairs, and four colleagues wrote "Treadmill Workstations: The Effects of Walking while Working on Physical Activity and Work Performance", which was published by the journal PLoS One Feb. 20.
In the study, sedentary employees from ...