Press releases from the NASA centers and from NASA researchers.
Unusually Hot, Cold Oceans Create Corridor for More Storms
September 22 Three current storms captured by a NASA satellite show how
unusual sea temperatures are creating a clear corridor in the Atlantic for
more severe storms. The storms?tropical storms Harvey and Hilary and
Hurricane Bert?are being powered by abnormally warm Atlantic sea-surface
temperatures and cold Pacific waters, said Timothy Liu of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. More
NASA to Study U.S. Forests with Laser Instrument
September 9 A NASA research aircraft will fly over selected U.S. forests
this month with an innovative laser instrument to find out for the first
time just how much vegetation is in these forests. When this technology is
launched into space next year aboard the Vegetation Canopy Lidar
spacecraft, it will create the first global maps of forest vegetation. More
Federal Agencies Map Beaches Hit by Hurricane Dennis
September 8 Scanning 5,000 data points per second, a NASA aircraft will
fly over the beaches of North Carolina to survey changes from Hurricane
Dennis' pounding of the shore for more than a week. The laser topographic
mapping instrument can map in a day what would take more than a month using
traditional surveying methods, said Bill Krabill of NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility. More
New Landsat 7 Images Available to Public, Scientists
September 7 After soaring into space last spring, NASA's latest
Earth-imaging satellite has completed its checkout phase and is now "open
for business." New images from the Landsat 7 spacecraft are now available
for viewing and purchase by scientific researchers and the general public
via the Internet from the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA. More
New Ocean Radar Watches Breakup of Giant Iceberg
September 3 A NASA satellite instrument is keeping an eye on an iceberg
the size of Rhode Island, the first time this space technology has been
used to track a potential threat to international shipping. NASA's new
orbiting SeaWinds radar instrument, flying aboard the QuikScat satellite,
will monitor Iceberg B10A, which snapped off Antarctica seven years ago
and has since drifted into a shipping lane. The massive iceberg measures
about 24 miles by 48 miles and extends about 300 feet above water and may
reach as deep as 1,000 feet below the ocean's surface. More
El Ni�o Used to Help Predict Severity of Hurricane Season
September 1 The severity of hurricane seasons can be predicted by
studying the influence of the El Ni�o weather pattern, concludes a study by
Robert Wilson of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The study also found
that one consequence of El Ni�o is less hurricane development in the
Atlantic Ocean in years when El Nino is not present. More
Impact of Summer Drought Studied with Satellite Maps
September 1 Researchers at the University of Montana have developed a new
tool to identify areas first affected by a lack of rainfall and keep watch
on regions that have been hardest hit by this summer's record-breaking
drought. The "drought map" relates ground surface temperature with a
measurement of vegetation greenness across the United States. Hot surfaces
tell scientists where areas are succumbing to drought. More
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