An upper-level low pressure system is sapping the cloud and thunderstorm development on the western side of Cyclone Victoria in the Southern Indian Ocean. New NASA satellite imagery showed that the bulk of rainfall was located east of the storm's center.
Heavens
Tropical Cyclone Victoria is now a remnant low pressure area in the Southern Indian Ocean after running into strong wind shear that has been tearing the storm apart. When NASA's TRMM satellite passed over the storm on April 12 it saw limited areas with moderate rainfall pushed far from the center of circulation.
On April 11, 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Mexico and Central America, and acquired this true-color image of dozens of fires burning across the region.
Fires dot the landscapes of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in this image. Each red mark that appears is an area where the thermal detectors on the MODIS instrument recognized temperatures higher than the background which means that most likely those dots are fires.
Durham, NC —Evolution skeptics argue that some biological structures, like the brain or the eye, are simply too complex for natural selection to explain. Biologists have proposed various ways that so-called 'irreducibly complex' structures could emerge incrementally over time, bit by bit. But a new study proposes an alternative route.
Stem cells can be coaxed to grow into new bone or new cartilage better and faster when given the right molecular cues and room inside a water-loving gel, researchers at Case Western Reserve University show.
By creating a three-dimensional checkerboard—one with alternating highly connected and less connected spaces within the hydrogel—the team found adjusting the size of the micropattern could affect stem cell behaviors, such as proliferation and differentiation.
April 11, 2013, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- Researchers are suggesting new ways to use existing Internet tools to recruit more study participants for clinical pain trials and to increase the likelihood they will remain throughout the study period. An innovative website allowed recruiters to reach out broadly to target and recruit potential subjects and to avoid many of the common difficulties of pain research, according to results presented today at the 29th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.
Stem cells can be coaxed to grow into new bone or new cartilage better and faster when given the right molecular cues and room inside a water-loving gel, researchers at Case Western Reserve University show.
By creating a three-dimensional checkerboard—one with alternating highly connected and less connected spaces within the hydrogel—the team found adjusting the size of the micropattern could affect stem cell behaviors, such as proliferation and differentiation.
An ice cloud taking shape over Titan's south pole is the latest sign that the change of seasons is setting off a cascade of radical changes in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon. Made from an unknown ice, this type of cloud has long hung over Titan's north pole, where it is now fading, according to observations made by the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) on NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
The M6.5 flare on the morning of April 11, 2013, was also associated with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), another solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later. CMEs can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME began at 3:36 a.m. EDT on April 11, leaving the sun at over 600 miles per second.
When NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Cyclone Victoria in the Southern Indian Ocean it captured a visible image of the storm and it appeared to look like the letter "J." A band of thunderstorms wrapping into the center from the east of low-level center of circulation extended north, creating the appearance of the letter.
An area of low pressure moving toward Cyclone Imelda from the west has turned the storm to the south from its westward track, as NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead and captured a visible and an infrared image of the powerful storm that showed the effects of wind shear.
Cyclone Victoria continued to intensify overnight from April 9 to April 10, and imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed a tighter storm circulation and a possible eye developing.
On April 10, 2013 at 0300 UTC, Victoria had maximum sustained winds near 60 knots (69 mph/111 kph). Victoria was located near 15.2 south and 103.8 east, about 735 nautical miles northwest of Learmonth, Australia. Victoria was moving to the south-southeast at 8 knots (9 mph/15 kph).
Cyclone Imelda has continues to strengthen, and infrared NASA satellite imagery indicated powerful convection throughout the storm.
Infrared satellite imagery indicates cloud top temperatures, and the colder the temperatures, the higher the cloud top is in the troposphere. Higher cloud tops indicate stronger uplift in the air, and that means stronger thunderstorms can develop. When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Cyclone Victoria on April 9 at 0935 UTC (05:35 a.m. EDT), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument captured infrared data on the strengthening cyclone.
There are a number of fires burning in Victoria, Australia and smoke and heat signatures were captured from them by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The image was taken on April 9, 2013 at 04:35 UTC (12:35 a.m. EDT). The smoke plumes appear as a light brown color and the fires appear as a red area. In the southeast, smoke is streaming over the Tasman Sea.
Dozens of red hot spots cluster at the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. To the south, fires also speckle the neck of the Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize. Each hot spot, which appears as a red mark, is an area where the thermal detectors on the MODIS instrument recognized temperatures higher than background. When accompanied by plumes of smoke, as in this image, such hot spots are diagnostic for fire.