Latest news with #GOES
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Artificial intelligence among new tech shaping forecasts during 2025 hurricane season
MIAMI – In light of hurricane season starting this weekend, NOAA's National Hurricane Center (NHC) provided a sneak peek into how the agency has updated its approach to forecasting hurricanes, particularly by using new technology. NHC Director Michael Brennan told FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross on Friday that some of those changes include upgrading NOAA's hurricane analysis and forecast system hurricane models this summer. They will also apply updates to how his team forecasts rapid intensification, which is when a tropical cyclone's maximum sustained winds increase by at least 35 mph in a 24-hour period. Brennan said progress has been made in this field since Katrina hit in August 2005, allowing forecasters to improve their understanding of how intensity works. Another update to the NHC's forecasting includes using a new Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES. Brennan noted how the satellite, which has been parked over the Atlantic and the eastern U.S., is already being used as the primary tool for monitoring the tropics, or the area of the Atlantic where tropical storms form. Noaa's Goes-19 Weather Satellite Begins Operations In Orbit Perhaps one of the newest types of technology the NHC will use in developing its forecasts is artificial intelligence (AI). Traditionally, some of the more accurate forecasts are developed by taking the so-called "averages" of multiple weather models. This year, meteorologists at the NHC will begin to test models produced by AI in the context of traditional modeling when they build their forecasts. "They're (AI) not going to be part of our official sort of consensus or blended models this year, but we may make some additional ones on the side that we're going to test out and see how they do and perform," Brennan said. He noted how AI might especially show a lot of promise when it comes to forecasting the path of a hurricane. However, he looks at that potential with a keen eye. "It's important for us to look at it ourselves, do our own evaluation and see how it fits in," he said. NOAA said this hurricane season is expected to see 13-19 named storms, or storms with maximum sustained winds strong enough to classify them as either tropical storms or hurricanes. In fact, NOAA predicts that 6-10 of those named storms will be hurricanes, and about half of those are expected to become major hurricanes with sustained winds of at least 111 mph. 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook FOX Weather will premiere two specials on the FOX Weather channel and FOX Weather app as the U.S. kicks off hurricane season. The first special will be "Hurricane HQ: Eye on the Season," which will air on Sunday at noon ET. In this special, FOX Weather Meteorologist Ian Oliver revisits hard-hit communities from last year's deadly storms, while Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross breaks down the driving forces behind the season ahead. On Monday at 9 a.m. ET, Norcross will answer hurricane questions live during a unique, interactive hourlong special called "Hurricane HQ&A with Bryan Norcross." How To Watch Fox Weather In addition to the two specials, FOX Weather will also kick off the official start of the 2025 hurricane season with "Hurricane HQ Week." The network's meteorologists will share the latest predictions, heartfelt stories of survival and talk with those still rebuilding from last year's destructive storms. You can watch FOX Weather on your favorite platform or streaming device and on your FOX Weather article source: Artificial intelligence among new tech shaping forecasts during 2025 hurricane season
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Florida hurricane season: Science behind satellite images of tropical storm sizes
To us here on Earth, most of us never give a second thought to satellites, which may appear like small shining stars among many in the night sky – if they appear at all. But as hurricane season approaches in Florida, satellites will get a detailed view of our planet from far away. From all the way up in orbit, the spacecrafts provide a critical tool for scientists and other officials to monitor the development of tropical storms and keep the public informed about incoming danger. While hurricane season doesn't begin until June 1, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has already started its daily tropical outlooks – highlighting areas showing potential for tropical development within about a week's time. That means its National Hurricane Center will turn to its fleet of orbital satellites for data, which can keep an eye on tropical storms much more effectively than land-based observations alone. First introduced in 1975, geostationary satellites have become a standard instrument for weather forecasting, especially during the Atlantic hurricane season, win runs June 1 to Nov. 30 every year. Technology has greatly improved in the decades since, enabling the satellites to relay data faster back to Earth while transmitting better quality images and storm detection details. Geostationary satellites orbit Earth at a speed allowing them to stay fixed over the same area of the planet so they can continuously monitor a tropical storm and its development. NOAA is responsible for the GOES satellites that are constantly monitoring Earth for weather threats. The latest among them, the GOES-U satellite, launched in June 2024 from Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida. The GOES-U satellite – Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U – is designed to not only enable earlier storm detection, but also give forecasters more time to warn the public. Images from the GOES satellites reach NOAA at about five-minute intervals. But the next generation of satellites the agency is planning − GeoXO − will see the forecasting capabilities improve even further. The GOES-U satellite was due to become operational in spring 2025 after undergoing a test period in fall 2024. The last in NOAA's current series of satellites known as GOES-R − named after the first satellite of the series − the satellite is improved over previous iterations to detect not only a weather system's structure but its exact location. Those capabilities should prove crucial during hurricane season, when GOES-U and other satellites will play a critical role in Florida's early warning system, Michael Brennan, director of the NOAA National Hurricane Center in Miami, previously told FLORIDA TODAY, a USA TODAY Network newspaper. "Satellite imagery is our first line of defense against hurricanes," Brennan said. "It's how we monitor systems that develop, it's how we estimate how strong they are before we can fly an aircraft into them." It's not just satellites that can monitor hurricanes from high in the sky. NASA's International Space Station, which orbits Earth from around 250 miles high, also routinely captures imagery of tropical storms and hurricanes that provide a striking bird's-eye view. For instance, as Hurricane Milton moved in on Florida in October 2024, the U.S space agency released photos and a timelapse video showing the eye of the storm as it churned and swirled its way toward the coast. External cameras on the International Space Station first captured a glimpse of the gathering tempest Oct. 7 while orbiting above Florida. At the time, the Category 5 storm was packing winds of 175 mph as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico, later renamed by the U.S. government as the Gulf of America. Contributing: Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY Network This article originally appeared on Florida Today: What does a hurricane look like from space? Satellites keep an eye
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
How a 'mudball' meteorite survived space to land in the jungles of Central America
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The pieces of a meteorite that fell in Costa Rica in 2019 are so unusual that scientists believe it had moved through space relatively unscathed — that is, until it encountered our planet. This is in stark contrast to other typical meteorites that show the wounds of having been in numerous collisions before reaching Earth. The meteorites were recovered from near the Costa Rican town of Aguas Zarcas, and are of a type referred to as 'mudballs', in the sense that they contain water-rich minerals. The findings have resulted in a reappraisal of these so-called mudball meteorites. It had been assumed that their high content of water-rich minerals would make them structurally weaker than other types of meteorites, rendering them more susceptible to damage or burning. But, "Apparently, [the presence of water-rich minerals] … does not mean they are weak," said Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer from the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center in California, in a statement. Scientists say the discovery rivals one of the largest discoveries of meteorites nearly 50 years prior. "Twenty-seven kilograms [60lbs] of rocks were recovered, making this the largest fall of its kind since similar meteorites fell near Murchison in Australia in 1969," said Jenniskens. The Murchison meteorite fall occurred just two months after the Apollo 11 mission. The recovered pieces showed that evidence of having been altered by liquid water on its parent body before an impact smashed apart that parent body and sent the Murchison and, later, the Aguas Zarcas meteoroids spinning into space. (Meteoroids are what we call meteorites when they are in space.) Video camera footage shows the 2019 mudball meteor entering the atmosphere from the west-north-west direction over Costa Rica at a steep, almost vertical angle of 81 degrees, and at a velocity of 9 miles (14.6 kilometers) per second. This steep angle allowed the meteor passed through less of Earth's atmosphere than it would have if it had approached on a shallower angle. That means more of the original meteoroid survived the fiery passage through the sky above Costa Rica. Based on the incoming meteor's trajectory, "We can tell that this object came from a larger asteroid low in the asteroid belt, likely from its outer regions," said Jenniskens. As it entered Earth's atmosphere, the rocky body is estimated to have been about 23.6 inches (60 centimeters) across. Friction with the atmosphere generated heat that melted its surface, stripping away much of the rock in a process known as ablation as it began to burn up. "It penetrated deep into Earth's atmosphere, until the surviving mass shattered at 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, where it produced a bright flash that was detected by satellites in orbit," said Jenniskens. Those satellites were the Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites (GOES) 16 and 17 and their lightning detectors, which are Earth-observing satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAO). The fragments scattered themselves across the soft ground of Costa Rican jungle and grasslands, where they were subsequently found by meteorite hunters and volunteers. But the meteorites had a slightly unusual appearance. "The Aguas Zarcas fall produced an amazing selection of fusion-crusted stones with a wide range of shapes," said meteor scientist Laurence Garvie of the Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University. "Some stones have a beautiful blue iridescence to the fusion crust." The fusion crust is the glassy, melted surface of a meteorite after it has endured ablation. Usually, meteorites have some flat sides, where they have broken apart as the result of stress fractures in the original meteoroid that were placed there by collisions in space with other meteoroids. The rounded rather than flat shapes of the Aguas Zarcas meteorites suggested that the meteoroid had travelled through space relatively unscathed after being blasted off its parent body. It has even been possible to calculate how long ago that was. Exposure to cosmic rays alters the composition of a meteoroid, so the degree of alteration tells us how long a meteoroid has been in space after breaking off its parent body. "The last collision experienced by this rock was two million years ago," said cosmochemist Kees Welton of UC Berkeley, who led this part of the study. "After getting loose, it took two million years to hit the tiny target of Earth, all the time avoiding getting cracked," added Jenniskens. This seems surprisingly recent, given the 4.6-billion-year history of the solar system. "We know of other Murchison-like meteorites that broke off at approximately the same time [as Murchison], and likely in the same event, but most broke much more recently," said Welton, with the Aguas Zarcas meteorites exemplifying the point. RELATED STORIES: — What are meteorites? — Watch (and hear!) a meteorite impact on doorbell camera video in a world 1st — Meteorites could have brought all 5 genetic 'letters' of DNA to early Earth Perhaps it is appropriate that the last word goes to Gerado Soto of the University of Costa Rica in San José, who draws similarities with the Murchison meteorite fall and its closeness in time to Apollo 11. "The fall of Aguas Zarcas was huge news in the country. No other fireball was as widely reported and then recovered as stones on the ground in Costa Rica in the past 150 years," he said. "The recovery of Aguas Zarcas [meteorites], too, was a small step for man, but a giant leap in meteoritics." The findings were published on March 29 in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Wildfires erupt along Eastern Seaboard as weekend dominated by dry, windy weather
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – A dry, windy day across the Eastern Seaboard sparked dozens of pop-up wildfires from the Delmarva Peninsula and Jersey Shore southward to the Carolinas and Georgia, as more than 45 million residents were under Red Flag Warnings due to the conditions. The FOX Forecast Center warned that the combination of low humidity, gusty winds and dry vegetation, led to increased dangers of fires quickly growing out of control. Relative humidity values were reported to be between 15% and 30% on Saturday, while wind gusts were upwards of 40 mph, which caused the fires to quickly grow. Firefighters warned that the conditions were a perfect recipe for wildfires to ignite, with sparks from cars and campfires capable of growing into towering infernos. Some of the largest fires were reported to be around areas such Mott State Park in New Jersey, Horry County in South Carolina and Polk County in western North Carolina. Where homes were close to flames, such as in the Grand Strand and the western region of Tar Heel State, evacuation notices were issued, but as of Saturday evening, local authorities had not reported that any of the fires had destroyed homes. Several of the wildfires occurred in areas where the remnants of Hurricane Helene had knocked over trees and other vegetation, causing increased concerns for erratic fires. Watch: Fedex Jet Engine Burst Into Flames After Bird Strike Over Newark The fire weather conditions were produced by the flow ahead of a strong cold front, which was expected to push through the region during the overnight hours. Behind the frontal boundary, temperatures were expected to drop by 20 to 30 degrees and winds were expected to turn more out of the north and northwest. GOES satellite imagery on Saturday showed smoke plumes ahead of the advancing frontal boundary, but the cold front was not expected to increase precipitation. The dry air mass ahead of the front will continue to linger behind the boundary, leaving firefighters with little moisture to work with in their battle against the fires. By Monday, winds were expected to taper off, providing temporary relief before another frontal boundary works its way into the region during the middle part of the workweek. The next system is expected to arrive on Wednesday and bring much-needed precipitation to an area that has been plagued by a lack of rainfall for months. Forecast models show upwards of an inch of rainfall is possible with locally heavier amounts in thunderstorms. National Hurricane Center Director: Changes Coming For Upcoming Hurricane Season According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, drought conditions stretch from Florida and Georgia into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, with parts of the Garden State even experiencing extreme drought conditions. The lack of rainfall has made the landscape more susceptible to brush fires, and authorities warn that the dry conditions will likely continue to pose a threat through spring until more substantial beneficial rains arrive later in the article source: Wildfires erupt along Eastern Seaboard as weekend dominated by dry, windy weather
