PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

NASA satellite finds an unusually tall storm-cell in Cyclone Evan

NASA satellite finds an unusually tall storm-cell in Cyclone Evan
2012-12-20
(Press-News.org) NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite found an unusually tall towering thunderstorm in Cyclone Evan.

According to Owen Kelley of the TRMM satellite team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md, the most startling feature of the December 16 overflight of Tropical Cyclone Evan was the extremely tall storm-cell in the north side of the eyewall. At the time TRMM passed overhead and captured an image of the storm, Evan was about to rake across the northern coast of the islands of Fiji.

The updrafts in this tower extended high enough to lift precipitation-size ice 17 km (10.5 miles) above the ocean surface. Tall precipitation cells are generally taken to be anything at least 14.5 km (9 miles) high and are nicknamed "hot towers," but what was seen in Evan's eyewall was a different category of storm cell.

Storm-cells as tall as the one in the eyewall of Evan have been long known to occur occasionally over land, but before the TRMM satellite, there were not thought to occur over ocean far from land. While field campaigns have periodically studied one location or other over the ocean, what TRMM has taught us is that such sporadic observations are insufficient if you want catch rare events. After 15 years of continuous operation, TRMM satellite reveals the rare features and challenges our understanding of how the weather works. The ocean is an unlikely place to find extremely tall oceanic cells because the ocean surface stays roughly constant in temperature, unlike the land which quickly heats up over the course of a day, increasing low-level instability, and encouraging tall cells to form.

During the first 10 years of the TRMM mission, only 5 thunderstorm cells as tall as the one seen in cyclone Evan were observed in South Pacific tropical cyclones. Due to their rarity, perhaps these 17-km-tall (10.5 mile) cells deserve their own nickname. To distinguish them from run-of-the-mill hot towers, one can call these cells "titans," "super towers," or just extremely tall.

Over all of the tropical oceans, only 174 such extremely tall cells were observed during the first 10 years of TRMM (1). That's 174 extremely tall cells out of the approximately 9 million oceanic storms that TRMM saw during that time. It is worth noting however, that even TRMM has its limitations. It does not observe the whole earth continuously and frequently misses short-lived events. With this in mind, these extremely tall cells most likely occur more often than TRMM observes them although they do make up a very small fraction of the ocean's weather.

TRMM also observed cloud top temperatures. At the north side of the eyewall, was the upper-level outflow from the extremely tall tower, i.e. the tower's "exhaust fumes." The exhaust moves outward horizontally in every direction, including toward the eye at the center of the tropical cyclone. It is through a process called "forced subsidence" that the exhaust from eyewall towers may warm the air in the tropical cyclone's eye. Warming the air in the eye lowers the surface pressure and encourages intensification of the winds circling the eye.

The TRMM satellite is a joint mission between the United States and Japan.



INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
NASA satellite finds an unusually tall storm-cell in Cyclone Evan

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Why our backs can't read braille

Why our backs cant read braille
2012-12-20
Johns Hopkins scientists have created stunning images of the branching patterns of individual sensory nerve cells. Their report, published online in the journal eLife on Dec. 18, details the arrangement of these branches in skin from the backs of mice. The branching patterns define ten distinct groups that, the researchers say, likely correspond to differences in what the nerves do and could hold clues for pain management and other areas of neurological study. Each type of nerve cell that the team studied was connected at one end to the spinal cord through a thin, wire-like ...

NASA's Operation IceBridge data brings new twist to sea ice forecasting

NASAs Operation IceBridge data brings new twist to sea ice forecasting
2012-12-20
Shrinking Arctic sea ice grabbed the world's attention again earlier this year with a new record low minimum. Growing economic activity in the Arctic, such as fishing, mineral exploration and shipping, is emphasizing the need for accurate predictions of how much of the Arctic will be covered by sea ice. Every June, an international research group known as the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) publishes a summary of the expected September Arctic sea ice minimum known as the Sea Ice Outlook. The initial reports and monthly updates aim to give the scientific community ...

LSUHSC research discovery provides therapeutic target for ALS

2012-12-20
New Orleans, LA –Research led by Dr. Udai Pandey, Assistant Professor of Genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that the ability of a protein made by a gene called FUS to bind to RNA is essential to the development of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This discovery identifies a possible therapeutic target for the fatal neurological disease. The research will be available online in the Advanced Access section of the journal Human Molecular Genetics website, posted by December 21, 2012. It will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal. ...

Small changes in eating prompts weight loss

2012-12-20
Making small easy changes to our eating habits on a consistent basis - 25 days or more per month - can lead to sustainable weight loss, according to research by Professor Brian Wansink in Cornell University's Food and Brand Lab. The challenge is to figure out which changes work for specific individuals and how to stick with changes long enough to make them second nature. To explore this issue, Cornell researchers launched the National Mindless Eating Challenge (NMEC), an online healthy eating and weight loss program that focused on simple eating behavior changes, instead ...

MicroRNAs present exciting opportunities for cancer therapy and diagnosis

2012-12-20
Amsterdam, NL, December 19, 2012 – As many as 50 percent of all human protein-coding genes are regulated by microRNA (miRNA) molecules. While some miRNAs impact onset and progression of cancer, others can actually suppress the development of malignant tumors and are useful in cancer therapy. They can also serve as potential biomarkers for early cancer detection. In a new issue of Cancer Biomarkers, investigators report on non-coding miRNAs as appealing biomarkers for malignancy. "MiRNA-based therapies are attractive partly due to the fact that these molecules can target ...

California's graduate students in environmental sciences lag behind in technology, computation

Californias graduate students in environmental sciences lag behind in technology, computation
2012-12-20
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have conducted a study showing that many skills and practices that could help scientists make use of technological and computational opportunities are only marginally being taught in California's formal graduate programs in the environmental sciences. The researchers found, too, that graduate students in the state were, in general, not engaged in data management practices. Of the students surveyed who had already completed their graduate degree, only 29.3 percent had made their research data products ...

Delusions of gender: Men's insecurities may lead to sexist views of women

2012-12-20
He loves her, he loves her not. A new study led by Joshua Hart, assistant professor of psychology, suggests that men's insecurities about relationships and conflicted views of women as romantic partners and rivals could lead some to adopt sexist attitudes about women. The study was recently published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, a peer-reviewed journal. Hart and his co-authors, Jacqueline Hung '11, a former student of Hart's, and psychology professors Peter Glick of Lawrence University and Rachel Dinero of Cazenovia College, surveyed more than 400 ...

Young offenders who work, don't attend school may be more antisocial

2012-12-20
Many high school students work in addition to going to school, and some argue that employment is good for at-risk youths. But a new study has found that placing juvenile offenders in jobs without ensuring that they attend school may make them more antisocial. The study, by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University, and the University of California, Irvine, appears in the journal Child Development. While evidence suggests that working long hours during the school year has negative effects on adolescent antisocial behavior among middle- and upper-income ...

Topics of teen sibling fights affect anxiety, depression, self-esteem

2012-12-20
Fights between siblings about simple things, like whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher, aren't harmless. Rather, such fights are about equality and fairness, and they can lead to depression, according to a new study. The longitudinal research, by researchers at the University of Missouri, appears in the journal Child Development. Although teen siblings fight about a lot of different issues, many of their fights can be categorized as being about equality and fairness (for example, whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher) or invasion of personal space (for example, ...

Supportive role models, coping lead to better health in poor teens

2012-12-20
Low-income teenagers who have supportive role models and engage in adaptive strategies have lower levels of a marker for cardiovascular risk than low-income teens without such resources, according to a new study. The study, by researchers at Northwestern University and the University of British Columbia, is published in the journal Child Development. "Low socioeconomic status is one of the strongest determinants of chronic disease in developed countries," notes Edith Chen, professor of psychology and faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Milky Way-like galaxy M83 consumes high-speed clouds

Study: What we learned from record-breaking 2021 heat wave and what we can expect in the future

Transforming treatment outcomes for people with OCD

Damage from smoke and respiratory viruses mitigated in mice via a common signaling pathway

New software tool could help better understand childhood cancer

Healthy lifestyle linked to lower diverticulitis risk, irrespective of genetic susceptibility

Women 65+ still at heightened risk of cervical cancer caused by HPV

‘Inflammatory’ diet during pregnancy may raise child’s diabetes type 1 risk

Effective therapies needed to halt rise in eco-anxiety, says psychology professor

Nature-friendly farming boosts biodiversity and yields but may require new subsidies

Against the odds: Endometriosis linked to four times higher pregnancy rates than other causes of infertility, new study reveals

Microplastics discovered in human reproductive fluids, new study reveals

Family ties and firm performance: How cousin marriage traditions shape informal businesses in Africa

Novel flu vaccine adjuvant improves protection against influenza viruses, study finds

Manipulation of light at the nanoscale helps advance biosensing

New mechanism discovered in ovarian cancer peritoneal metastasis: YWHAB restriction drives stemness and chemoresistance

New study links blood metabolites and immune cells to increased risk of urolithiasis

Pyruvate identified as a promising therapeutic agent for ulcerative colitis by targeting cytosolic phospholipase A2

New insights into the clinical impact of IKBKG mutations: Understanding the mechanisms behind rare immunodeficiency syndromes

Displays, imaging and sensing: New blue fluorophore breaks efficiency records in both solids and solutions

Sugar, the hidden thermostat in plants

Personality can explain why some CEOs earn higher salaries

This puzzle game shows kids how they’re smarter than AI

Study suggests remembrances of dead played role in rise of architecture in Andean region

Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections

Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds

Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance

Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting

[Press-News.org] NASA satellite finds an unusually tall storm-cell in Cyclone Evan