Here’s a photo that really shows how a thunderstorm is constructed.

It was taken by researchers on NASA’s DC-8, a flying laboratory that is studying thunderstorms, over central Oklahoma in May, 2012.

Image Credit: NASA

The image shows the structure of the storm cloud. Vigorous convection has created a strong updraft near the center of the storm where warm, moist air rises quickly upward, sometimes at speeds up to 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour).

The flat bank of cirrus clouds spreading outward and forming the cloud’s anvil mark the edge of the tropopause. The tropopause is the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere, where all Earth’s weather occurs. This cloud has reached the boundary between the troposphere, where air often flows vertically and a higher layer where air flow is mainly horizontal (the stratosphere).

The tropopause behaves like a wall, deflecting the updraft’s rising air and causing it to spread outward in a way that molds the upper part of clouds into the distinctive anvil shape. However, convection sometimes pushes moisture past the top of the cloud and into the tropopause, creating bubbling protrusions called overshooting tops. These protrusions are usually short lived and wispy, but they tend to persist longer above severe storms like this one.

This photo was taken as part of a field campaign called Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3), made up of a team of 100 researchers from 29 organizations. The team, based in Kansas, is sending aircraft to Alabama, Colorado, and Oklahoma to sample how storms affect the chemistry of the upper troposphere.

The researchers are looking at large multicell and supercell storms with powerful updrafts capable of lofting volatile pollutants and moisture-rich air nearly 12,000 meters (40,000 feet) up in the atmosphere, a height that pollutants wouldn’t reach without a boost from a storm. They are particularly interested in understanding how certain pollutants react with nitrogen oxides produced by lightning to generate ozone, a greenhouse gas that has a strong impact on the climate at this altitude.

Bottom line: A photo that clearly illustrates how a thunderstorm is constructed was taken by researchers on NASA’s DC-8, a flying laboratory that is studying thunderstorms, over central Oklahoma in May, 2012.

Read more from NASA’s Earth Observatory

For much of the U.S. this past Memorial Day weekend marked the official beginning of summer. Outdoor activities will soon be in full swing, with kids going off to summer camp and adults hiking and mountain biking their way through the weekends. The trees are green. The flowers are blooming. Isn’t it glorious? Yet we mustn’t get too giddy in our outdoor merriment, lest we forget that there are dangers too. Because there in the woods, in the park, in your lawn even, lurks a trio of villains as bent on destruction as the three alien outlaws from Superman II. I’m speaking, of course, of poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac – three devious plants just itching for the chance to ruin your summer outings.

More Lifeforms from Alex Reshanov

Toxic Avengers

Aside from being flowering plants, members of the toxic trio bear little relation to their benign namesakes.* But they are related to each other. All three belong to the same genus – Toxicodendron – and share the same itch-producing component – an oil called urushiol. It’s a fierce skin irritant. According to the Centers for Disease Control, between 80 and 90% of the U.S. population exhibits an allergic reaction to urushiol, and at doses as low as 50 micrograms (less than a grain of salt).

L-R, poison ivy/oak/sumac. Image Credit: Kerry Wixted, carbon NYC, USDA.

Urushiol is found it all parts of the plant (leaves, stems, even berries). It seeps from any damaged portion and stays active for, ugh, one to five years. While the leaves generally bloom from spring to fall, even the dead and withered remains of the plants can be sufficiently coated in urushiol to cause bouts of wintertime itching.

Tall poison ivy. Image credit: Jaknouse

Toxicodendrons are native to North America, with most U.S. states (and several Canadian provinces) being home to at least one, if not all, of the dreaded poisoners. They’re frustratingly varied in appearance. Poison oak and poison ivy usually (but, sigh, not always) exhibit the infamous “leaves of three” configuration, but poison sumac sports anywhere from seven to thirteen leaves. Leaves vary in color depending on the season, and growth patterns can be different even within the same species. Sometimes they’re shrubs, other times vines. Master of disguise poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) can be a shrub, a trailing vine, or a climbing vine. Good luck staying out of its path.

Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is considered the most potent of the three, but luckily it doesn’t have the widest distribution. That honor goes to the frighteningly ubiquitous poison ivy. Poison sumac also grows in areas that are less fun to hang out in – swamps and bogs and the like. (Though it would be an especially insult-to-injury-adding experience to have to wade through a bog only to discover you’d acquired a case of poison sumac in the process.)

Look what the cat dragged in…

Bad dog! Wait here while I get the hose. Image Credit: HunterJumper.

And if picking up allergic contact dermatitis (medical lingo for miserable plant rash) directly from the source weren’t enough to worry about, you can also get it from your outdoor-loving pets. Cats and dogs don’t seem terribly affected by urushiol, and they’re more than happy to carry it home to you on their furry little backs (and heads, and paws… what a mess). As with anything else that comes into contact with vicious Toxicodendrons, your pet will require thorough washing.

Some animals are so unfazed by urushiol, that they can eat the poisonous plants that cause our species so much grief. Birds consume the berries, deer and other mammals enjoy munching on the leaves. Some birds even use poison ivy vines as nest-making materials (note to self: stay far away from bird nests.) All this means amply broken, urushiol-oozing plants for you to encounter on your next summer picnic.

Family Tree

Not ready to eat. Image Credit: Abhishek Jacob

There’s another urushiol-harboring plant in the Anacardiaceae family that might be of interest to you: the cashew. Yes, delicious snack-tastic cashews were once scary, toxin-coated itch bags. The nut (well, drupe technically) is housed in a double shell, and it is in the shell itself that urushiol is found. When cashews are processed, their shells are removed and any lingering poison is carefully cooked from the nut (even “raw” cashews are steamed before they hit the market.) This explains why cashews are so under-represented in bowls of unshelled nuts waiting to be opened with a festive nutcracker. Cracking a walnut is one thing, but unleashing cashews requires protective clothing.

Shades of red

Some individuals are more profoundly allergic to urushiol than other, and the degree of reaction can change over time. The rash and blistering caused by the toxic oil is slowest to develop after the first exposure. During subsequent interactions with itchy plants, the body freaks out faster.

A number of people seem keen on the idea of building up a tolerance to urushiol so that they can march through poisonous flora with impunity. This isn’t complete insanity. Dermatological experiments on humans have demonstrated some success with this kind of desensitization, though the benefits weren’t always long lasting. However, do note that such studies were done under controlled conditions, using intramuscular injections of urushiol or pills designed to protect the digestive tract from the chemical’s full assault. Should you go out and eat a fistful of poison ivy to see if you can approximate their results on your own? I think you know the answer to that question (hint: it’s NO.)

First Aid

Contrary to popular belief, poison ivy/oak/sumac isn’t contagious, nor does it spread to other parts of your body (though it may seem like it does because the rash takes time to fully materialize). The only way it can be transmitted is through contact with the oil itself, so if you find yourself afflicted with the rash it’s important to track down every last trace of urushiol.

DO: Wash your skin thoroughly the instant you realize you’ve come into contact with itchy plants. If urushiol is washed off before it is fully absorbed into the skin, you can minimize the damage. You’ve got about 10 minutes, so get moving.

DO: Wash everything else that may have touched the poisonous plants. Clothes, shoes, water bottles. Friends and family members. Everything.

DON’T: Attempt to destroy the offending plants or any contaminated items with fire. Urushiol can become airborne when burned, and you do not want to be inhaling that stuff.

Poison oak in red... like your skin after touching it. Image Credit: DavidDennisPhotos.com.

Symptom-wise, you can sooth the itching with the old Leiber/Stoller ocean-of-calamine-lotion remedy. But you might fare a bit better with an estuary of corticosteroid cream and perhaps a small pond of antihistamines, both of which also help reduce the inflammation.

If you’re especially fed up with these sadistic plants, you can also try moving to Alaska or Hawaii, both of which are Toxicodendron-free. However, you may just be trading in contact dermatitis for bigger problems like bears and volcanoes. So at least wait for the swelling to subside before making any rash decisions.

* Poison sumac is the exception, non-itching varieties of sumac are in the same family as the itchy plants (Anacardiaceae.) But poison sumac is the oddball of the three in several ways.

In an earlier post, we outlined the issues related to the invasion of Asian carp into the Great Lakes. Many people have forecasted that the invasion, if it were to occur, would result in the demise of the salmon fishery and the loss of billions of dollars from sport fishing tourism in the region. This forecast is debatable, but what is lost in the story about Asian carp is that such a collapse has already occurred in Lake Huron, due to changes caused by other invasive species in the lake.

U.S. Great Lakes from space. Image provided by the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and ORBIMAGE via Wikimedia Commons.

Image via Great Lakes CircleTour

This is a story of ecological changes in Lake Huron. The protagonists are fish, as well as other plants and animals. Invasive species have wreaked havoc on the Lake Huron ecosystem, causing what some scientists term an invasion meltdown. These invasive species, including sea lamprey and alewife in the 1940s-1970s, have drastically altered abundances (even causing several extinctions), food sources, habitat, and reproductive cycles of native organisms.

The challenges of invasive species expansion were met in the 1960s by major management actions, such as the control of sea lamprey through chemical treatment of spawning streams, as well as reduction of alewife populations by introducing the Pacific salmon as a predator. These actions garnered better results than expected, bringing their populations down to manageable levels by the 1980s.

Salmon fishing on Lake Huron. Pacific salmon were introduced to Lake Huron in the 1960s, to help control invasive alewife and sea lamprey. The effort was successful, but now other invasive species have populated the lake and led to a collapse of the Lake Huron salmon fishing industry. Image via michiganseagrant on Flickr. Used with permission.

Also, the sport fishing industry, largely targeted on Pacific salmon because native game fish had been decimated by invasive species, became a billion dollar industry by 1984. By the 1990s, the lakes had reached a reasonable balance with introduced salmon as the major predator species, relatively controlled populations of invasive alewife and lamprey, and improvements in water quality that resulted in the lakes once again being a major resource, not only for fishing but also for boating and other recreational pursuits.

Recent changes in the Great Lakes have altered this balance once again, particularly in Lake Huron. Zebra mussels were discovered in 1985 and in less than 10 years, spread to all five Great Lakes, as well as the Ohio and Mississippi river basins.

Zebra mussel (left) and quagga mussel, two of the invasive species in Lake Huron. These invasive mussels are not a good source of food for most of the lake's fish, including the alewife on which salmon feed, and they have caused other major changes to the lake ecosystem. Image via michiganseagrant on Flickr. Used with permission.

Introduction and spread of zebra mussels and other invasive species were facilitated by transfer of ballast water from ocean-going vessels, which gained access after opening the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959. Zebra mussels are invertebrates with a voracious appetite for plankton. Their appetite and explosive reproductive rate caused major change in the nearshore areas of the lakes.

Then in the late 1990s, quagga mussels (a close relative) became abundant in Lake Huron, occupying not only nearshore areas but deep offshore waters as well.

These invasive mussels are not a good source of food for most fish. As filter feeders, they strain plankton from the water column. They became extremely abundant in bottom habitats, but they were a poor replacement for energy-rich native invertebrates, such as amphipods that fish prefer to consume. Before the invasion of mussels, plankton was abundant in pelagic (offshore) areas and served as a primary food source for young fish, such as salmon, perch, and whitefish, as well as alewife. The reduction of plankton created a major shift, with limited plankton abundance in open waters and energy diverted to benthic communities of mussels, which were largely not available as food for fish to consume.

These changes occurred throughout the Great Lakes and resulted in water becoming much clearer, reductions in native benthic species, concentration of pollutants in bottom waters, and increases in botulism bacteria affecting survival of waterfowl. However, the changes in the 1990s were just the beginning.

The Lake Huron ecosystem in 1990 was comprised of many invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels, an introduced salmon fishery that relied on consumption of the invasive alewife for food, and a variety of other changes induced by invasive species.

This house of cards began to fall in the early 2000s. Salmon fishing had reached historic levels at that time, and many salmon were stocked to support sport fishing. However, changes in the lake ecosystem were affecting survival of invasive alewife and other forage species in Lake Huron.

Alewife were also an invasive species in Lake Huron. In the 1960s, Pacific salmon were brought in to control the alewife population, and, as a result, sport fishing for salmon boomed on the lake. But, beginning in the 1990s, zebra and quagga mussels helped bring about a crash in alewife populations. Salmon declined dramatically as a result. Image via michiganseagrant on Flickr. Used with permission.

The combination of competition with mussels and predation by record numbers of salmon resulted in a 50% reduction of the alewife population in 2002. Since salmon relied almost entirely on alewife for their food, the salmon fishery declined as well. Salmon harvest in western Lake Huron declined from 10,000 fish in 2002 to 2,000 fish in 2005. People who came to the lake for vacations that included fishing abandoned this pursuit, with charter fishing declining 80% by 2005 and sport fishing harvest showing similar trends.

In the course of about three years, Lake Huron went from the salmon fishing Mecca in the Great Lakes to a ghost of its former self. This not only affected the ecosystem, but the local economy as well. For example, the loss of charter fishing in just 10 small towns on Lake Huron resulted in an economic loss of $11 million a year.

How did this collapse occur so quickly? The increased stocking of salmon was only a small component of this change. There was also an unrecognized amount of natural reproduction of salmon occurring in Canadian tributaries of Lake Huron, and as much as 85% of the salmon population originated from natural reproduction, not stocking. Unfortunately, there was no evidence of this natural reproduction at the time. This meant that the lake had far too many salmon to support by the declining alewife population. The alewife population was undergoing a reduction of its own due to invasive mussel increases in the lake. With those two negative forces, a population crash was inevitable, but the speed with which it occurred surprised most scientists and managers who study the lakes.

In the 10 years that have elapsed since the alewife collapse, there has been no evidence of their populations returning to pre-2002 levels. In fact, they dropped to nearly zero by 2005 and have remained low in abundance since that time.

However, the lake itself has undergone further dramatic changes. Many native populations of fishes, including walleye, smallmouth bass, and emerald shiners, have shown resurgences and are now very abundant. Other species, such as lake whitefish, have begun to feed on zebra and quagga mussels, resulting in increased population levels and health of their stocks. The lake has changed from one dominated by human management to one that is more in tune with natural population trends.

Charter fishing on Lake Huron. Other species, such as lake whitefish, have begun to feed on zebra and quagga mussels, resulting in increased population levels and health of their stocks. But the Lake Huron economy has not recovered as quickly as the lake. Image via michiganseagrant on Flickr. Used with permission.

However, the economy has not recovered as quickly as the lake. The loss of salmon fishing continues to hold tourism for sport fishing in Lake Huron at all-time lows, and the rebounding of other species has not resulted in increased tourism for fishing on their stocks. Communities along the lake have promoted ecotourism and other non-consumptive recreational pursuits in an effort to recover some of their tourism trade. These efforts have been positive, but have not replaced the economic loss from salmon fishing.

This story about the dramatic ecosystem changes that have occurred in Lake Huron is extremely important to bring to light. Changes that have already occurred in Lake Huron are equally or perhaps even more dramatic than those made in the most dire predictions for the invasion of Asian carp. The billion dollar question is whether similar changes will happen in the other Great Lakes as a result of the invasion meltdown.

A warning for the future occurred this year, with a dramatic decline in the alewife populations in Lake Michigan. While the fishery there has not collapsed, immediate action is being taken by planning for dramatic reductions in the number of salmon stocked to keep from overexploiting the alewife population. Stay tuned for the next steps in this development there and on the other Great Lakes.

Bottom line: Invasive species in Lake Huron – including zebra and quagga mussels in the late 20th century – have have wreaked havoc on the Lake Huron ecosystem, causing what some scientists term an invasion meltdown. Now native populations of fishes are becoming more abundant again, but the Lake Huron economy has yet to recover.

When you think of light, you probably think of what your eyes can see. But the light to which our eyes are sensitive is just the beginning; it is a sliver of the total amount of light that surrounds us. The electromagnetic spectrum is the term used by scientists to describe the entire range of light that exists. From radio waves to gamma rays, most of the light in the universe is, in fact, invisible to us!

Light is a wave of alternating electric and magnetic fields. The propagation of light isn’t much different than waves crossing an ocean. Like any other wave, light has a few fundamental properties that describe it. One is its frequency, measured in Hertz, which counts the number of waves that pass by a point in one second. Another closely related property is wavelength: the distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next. These two attributes are inversely related. The larger the frequency, the smaller the wavelength – and vice versa.

You can remember the order of the colors in the visible spectrum with the mnemonic ROY G BV. Image via University of Tennessee.

The electromagnetic waves your eyes detect – visible light – oscillates between 400 and 790 terahertz (THz). That’s several hundred trillion times a second. The wavelengths are roughly the size of a large virus: 390 – 750 nanometers (1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter). Our brain interprets the various wavelengths of light as different colors. Red has the longest wavelength, and violet the shortest. When we pass sunlight through a prism, we see that it’s actually composed of many wavelengths of light. The prism creates a rainbow by redirecting each wavelength out a slightly different angle.

The entire electromagnetic spectrum is much more than just visible light. It encompasses of range of wavelengths of energy that our human eyes can't see. Credit: NASA (via Wikipedia)

But light doesn’t stop at red or violet. Just like there are sounds we can’t hear (but other animals can), there is also an enormous range of light that our eyes can’t detect. In general, the longer wavelengths come from the coolest and darkest regions of space. Meanwhile, the shorter wavelengths measure extremely energetic phenomena.

Astronomers use the entire electromagnetic spectrum to observe a variety of things. Radio waves and microwaves – the longest wavelengths and lowest energies of light – are used to peer inside dense interstellar clouds and track the motion of cold, dark gas. Radio telescopes have been used to map the structure of our galaxy while microwave telescopes are sensitive to the remnant glow of the Big Bang.

This image from the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA) shows what the galaxy M33 would look like if you could see in radio waves. This image maps atomic hydrogen gas in the galaxy. The different colors map velocities in the gas: red shows gas moving away from us, blue is moving towards us. Credit: NRAO/AUI

Infrared telescopes excel at finding cool, dim stars, slicing through interstellar dust bands, and even measuring the temperatures of planets in other solar systems. The wavelengths of infrared light are long enough to navigate through clouds that would otherwise block our view. By using large infrared telescopes, astronomers have been able to peer through the dust lanes of the Milky Way into the core of our galaxy.

This image from the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes show the central 300 light-years of our Milky Way galaxy, as we would see it if our eyes could see infrared energy. The image reveals massive star clusters and swirling gas clouds. Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, Q.D. Wang, and S. Stolovy (via Wikipedia)

The majority of stars emit most of their electromagnetic energy as visible light, the tiny portion of the spectrum to which our eyes are sensitive. Because wavelength correlates with energy, the color of a star tells us how hot it is: red stars are coolest, blue are hottest. The coldest of stars emit hardly any visible light at all; they can only be seen with infrared telescopes.

At wavelengths shorter than violet, we find the ultraviolet, or UV, light. You may be familiar with UV from its ability to give you a sunburn. Astronomers use it to hunt out the most energetic of stars and identify regions of star birth. When viewing distant galaxies with UV telescopes, most of the stars and gas disappear, and all the stellar nurseries flare into view.

A view of the spiral galaxy M81 in the ultraviolet, made possible by the Galex space observatory. The bright regions show stellar nurseries in the spiral arms. Credit: NASA (via Wikipedia)

Beyond UV, comes the highest energies in the electromagnetic spectrum: X-rays and gamma rays. Our atmosphere blocks this light, so astronomers must rely on telescopes in space to see the x-ray and gamma ray universe. X-rays come from exotic neutron stars, the vortex of superheated material spiraling around a black hole, or diffuse clouds of gas in galactic clusters that are heated to many millions of degrees. Meanwhile, gamma rays – the shortest wavelength of light and deadly to humans – unveil violent supernova explosions, cosmic radioactive decay, and even the destruction of antimatter. Gamma ray bursts – the brief flickering of gamma ray light from distant galaxies when a star explodes and creates a black hole – are among the most energetic singular events in the universe.

If you could see in x-rays, over long distances, you'd see this view of the nebula surrounding pulsar PSR B1509-58. This image is from the Chandra telescope. Located 17,000 light-years away, the pulsar is the rapidly spinning remnant of a stellar core left behind after a supernova. Credit: NASA (via Wikipedia)

Bottom line: the electromagnetic spectrum describes all the wavelengths of light – both seen and unseen. The shorter the wavelength, the more energetic the light. By using telescopes sensitive to different wavelength ranges of the spectrum, astronomers get a glimpse into a wide variety of objects and phenomena in the universe.

Host: Jorge Salazar
Lead Producer: Mike Brennan

ES 22 Producers: Deborah Byrd, Ryan Britton, Emily Howard

Science news of the week:

A new map of the human brain.

New map of human brain.

Astronomer Jill Tarter steps down as SETI director.

First named storm of North Atlantic hurricane season.

One million observations by citizen scientists.

Song of the week:

Heartless Bastards’ “Only for You” from their new album Arrow.

Henry Rollins' new show on National Geographic Wild premieres this week. It explores how different cultures around the world interact with animals. Photo by Heidi May

This week’s featured stories:

Exploring an Animal Underworld with Henry Rollins Jorge Salazar speaks with Henry Rollins about his new program on National Geographic Wild, premiering this week, in which he explores how different cultures around the world interact with animals.

Global Night Sky Jorge Salazar and Deborah Byrd talk about how to see Mars and Venus in early evening.

No, it's not the moon. This amazing photo of a crescent Venus, deep in the western twilight, was taken on May 18, 2012 by our friend Duke Marsh from the Louisville Astronomical Society's Urban Astronomy Center. He says the exposure was short, but camera was zoomed in to about a 500mm focal length, giving the view that you'd see looking through 10X binoculars.

Thanks for listening in to your 22 minutes of science and music!

This week’s musical contributors:

Heartless Bastards

Ocote Soul Sounds

The Black and White Years

One Hundred Flowers

Sleep Good

Northern Italy – which underwent a strong 6.0-earthquake on May 20, 2012 – suffered another strong quake on the morning of May 29. At least one person is dead from today’s 5.8-magnitude quake, which struck at 9 a.m. local time (7 UTC, or 2 a.m. CDT) 40 kilometers north-northwest of the city of Bologna, Italy.

What does a jump in earthquake magnitude really mean?

Here are the details of the May 29 quake according to the U.S. Geological Survey:
Region: NORTHERN ITALY
Geographic coordinates: 44.814N, 11.078E
Magnitude: 5.8 Mw
Depth: 9 km
Universal Time (UTC): 29 May 2012 07:00:03
Time near the Epicenter: 29 May 2012 09:00:03

Location with respect to nearby cities:
40 km (25 miles) NNW (330 degrees) of Bologna, Italy
60 km (37 miles) E (88 degrees) of Parma, Italy
71 km (44 miles) S (175 degrees) of Verona, Italy
149 km (92 miles) NW (313 degrees) of SAN MARINO

Map via USGS

The May 20 earthquake in northern Italy – now being called the 2012 Emilia earthquake – killed eight people and injured about 100 people. According to media reports, the May 20 earthquake caused thousands of people to flee their homes, and 7,000 people are still living in about 89 tent camps erected in fields, sports fields, car parks and schools. The camps can take up to 9,000 people.

Strong earthquake in northern Italy on May 20

Speaking of today’s earthquake, Alberto Silvestri, the mayor of the San Felice sul Panaro told Italian television channel SkyTG24:

There are victims… The situation is very serious. Some people are stuck under the rubble.

The USGS assigned a yellow alert level for for shaking-related fatalities in today’s quake: some casualties are possible. (one reported dead so far).

The USGS assigned an orange alert level for economic losses from today’s quake. In other words, significant damage is likely and the disaster is potentially widespread. Estimated economic losses are less than 1% of GDP of Italy. Past events with this alert level have required a regional or national level response.

This region of Italy is seismically active because two of Earth’s tectonic plates – or great sideways-shifting plates of land – converge here. The African plate is pushing northward with respect to the Eurasian plate along a complex plate boundary in the Mediterranean region, according to USGS.

Bottom line: A strong 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck in northern Italy today, in nearly the same region as a 6.0-magnitude earthquake nine days ago. One person is reported dead so far.

As of Sunday evening – May 27, 2012 – Tropical Storm Beryl is intensifying, with winds just below hurricane status. This storm could cause greater impacts than previously expected in the U.S. Southeast, for example, in Georgia and Florida. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday evening that Beryl was expected to make landfall late Sunday or early Monday.

Subtropical Storm Beryl forms just in time for Memorial Day

Tropical Storm Beryl hovers near U.S. Southeast coastline on Sunday, May 27, 2012. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC MODIS Rapid Response

As of 8 p.m. EDT (midnight UTC) on May 27, Beryl had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (113 kph), just below hurricane-strength of 74 mph, according to the Washington Post, which also said Beryl was not expected to strengthen much more and should weaken after making landfall.

On his local Georgia blog Athens GA Weather, EarthSky weather blogger Matt Daniel said:

At 5:30 PM EDT, hurricane hunters were flying into Tropical Storm Beryl and are finding a lower pressure reading around 993 mb. Lowering pressure indicates a strengthening storm system. Sustained winds could be around 70 mph. Regardless, a strengthening system pushing onshore is more dangerous than a weakening Category 1 hurricane pushing onshore.

Bottom line: Tropical Storm Beryl is intensifying on Sunday evening, May 27, 2012, as it approaches the southeastern coast of the U.S. Its winds on Sunday evening were just below hurricane status at 70 mph. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday evening that Beryl was was expected to make landfall late Sunday or early Monday.

UPDATE MAY 26, 2012. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Saturday that Hurricane Bud was seen to weaken early Saturday before making landfall in Mexico. It has become increasingly disorganized in the Pacific, although it may still drop another inch or two of rain along Mexico’s southwest coast. Bud is expected to dissipate within the next day or so.

Bud has now degenerated to a remnant low, according to the National Hurricane Center. Maximum sustained winds were near 30 mph (48 kph) as the storm hovered about 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the coast of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico.

EarthSky weather blogger Matt Daniel said that, in weakening suddenly and unexpectedly in this way, Hurricane Bud reminded him of 2011′s Tropical Storm Don. Don tracked across the Gulf of Mexico and reached a peak intensity of 50 mph (85 km/h) before moving ashore in Texas on July 30, 2011 as a tropical depression. Initially, Don was hoped to be a possible catalyst for relief to drought-stricken Texas. But the system dissipated rapidly after making landfall, providing very little in the way of help to the state, which went on to suffer several more months of extreme drought and is still in drought conditions today.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Southeast coast is being threatened with rain from Subtropical Storm Beryl. In a way also reminiscent of Don in 2011, that part of the U.S. is hoping for much-needed rain.

Subtropical Storm Beryl forms just in time for Memorial Day

MAY 25, 2012. Hurricane Bud is expected to make a quick landfall in western Mexico this weekend before turning back to sea. Heavy rainfall from hurricane Bud’s slow movement may result in severe flooding and dangerous landslides as it moves over Mexico’s rugged coastal terrain. Bud’s outer bands were already affecting coastal Mexico yesterday (May 24).

This visible image of Hurricane Bud was taken by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite on May 24, 2012, at 18:15 UTC (2:15 p.m. EDT/U.S.) and shows Bud's eye.. Image credit: Credit:

NASA’s TRMM and Aqua satellites have been flying over Bud as it nears the Mexican coast and are providing rainfall, temperature, pressure, visible and infrared data to forecasters.

On May 25, 2012 at 11 a.m. EDT, Bud was still a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale with maximum sustained winds near 100 mph (160 kph). It was moving to the north at 7 mph (11 kph) and had a minimum central pressure of 975 millibars. Bud was closing in on the coast and was near 18.4 North and 105.6 West, about 95 miles (150 km) west-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles (55 km) from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles (185 km). Manzanillo was experiencing rain with sustained winds near 17 mph (27.3 kph) from the southeast at 11 a.m. EDT/U.S. on Friday, May 25.

Several watches and warnings are in effect. They include: A hurricane warning is in effect from Manzanillo to Cabo Corrientes; A tropical storm warning is in effect from Punto San Telmo west to Manzanillo; A hurricane watch is in effect from Punto San Telmo west to Manzanillo; and a tropical storm watch is in effect from Cabo Corrientes to San Blas.

NASA's TRMM satellite passed above Hurricane Bud on May 25 at 12:49 a.m. EDT/U.S. and it saw a large area of moderate to heavy rainfall with rates of over 30mm/hr (~1.2 inches). Bud's past and predicted locations are shown overlaid in white. Heavy rainfall is indicated in red, falling at 2 inches/50 mm/hr. Image credit: NASA/TRMM, Hal Pierce

Bud is expected to bring a lot of rainfall as it continues to head for a landfall. The National Hurricane Center expects total rain accumulations of 6 to 10 inches (152 to 254 mm) along the southwestern coast of Mexico with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches (381 mm). As always with heavy rainfall in this region, life-threatening flash floods and mudslides will be possible.

Along the coast a dangerous storm surge is expected to produce significant coastal flooding near and to the east of where the center of bud makes landfall. In addition, the southern and southwestern coasts of Mexico are expected to experience dangerous swells, surf and rip currents.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasters expect Bud to make landfall and then turnaround and head back out into the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Once Bud begins interacting with the coast, the Rapid decay is expected as western Mexico’s high terrain separates the circulation of the storm. Bud is forecast to become a remnant low in 72 hours and dissipate in 96 hours.

Bottom line: Hurricane Bud was expected to make a quick landfall in western Mexico this weekend, but now it is dissipating.

Via EurekAlert

Orbiting about 360 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth, the Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of a spiral galaxy, called ESO 498-G5, with a fascinating spiral structure at its heart.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the spiral galaxy known as ESO 498-G5. One interesting feature of this galaxy is that its spiral arms wind all the way into the centre, so that ESO 498-G5's core looks a bit like a miniature spiral galaxy. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

ESO 498-G5 is located 100 million light years away in the direction of a small, inconspicuous constellation in the southern hemisphere, Pyxis. Look closely at the center of the galaxy. See the spiral? What’s happening here is that ESO 498-G5′s spiral arms wind all the way into the galaxy’s center. That fact makes ESO 498-G5′s core look like a miniature spiral galaxy at the heart of the larger spiral.

Astronomers refer to the distinctive spiral-like bulge of galaxies such as ESO 498-G5 as disc-type bulges, or pseudobulges. Meanwhile, bright elliptical centers of spiral galaxies are called classical bulges.

Bottom line: The spiral galaxy ESO 498-G5 has a smaller spiral structure at its heart. This type of structure in a spiral galaxy is called a pseudobulge. Bright elliptical centers of spiral galaxies are called classical bulges. The Hubble Space Telescope took this photo.

Read more about this galaxy from NASA

Astronomers announce biggest, most distant galaxy clusters

Will a nearby supernova harm life on Earth in 2012? Nah.

Water Vapor imagery of Subtropical Storm Beryl this morning on Saturday, May 26, 2012 at 6 AM EDT. Image Credit: NHC

If you are planning on a wonderful beach getaway during Memorial Day Weekend 2012 across the U.S. Southeast coast, Subtropical Storm Beryl might ruin them. On the evening of May 25, 2012, the National Hurricane Center has designated an area of low pressure off the southeastern coast of the United States as Subtropical Storm Beryl. Beryl was initialized to have sustained winds of 45 miles per hour with a barometric pressure of 1001 millibars. Beryl will push to the southwest and impact parts of northern Florida, the Georgia coast, and parts of South Carolina. Beryl, unlike most storms, can actually be a blessing for these areas as they are experiencing severe to exceptional drought conditions and could use the rain. Beryl will affect the U.S. Southeast coast late Saturday evening and continue to produce soaking rains in the region through Memorial Day.

Infrared image of Subtropical Storm Beryl. Image Credit: CIMSS

Here’s are the latest update of Subtropical Storm Beryl as of 5:00 AM EDT Saturday, May 26, 2012:

Location: 32.3°N 75.6°W
About 180 miles…285 kilometers southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina
About 260 miles…415 kilometers east of Charleston, South Carolina
Sustained Winds: 45 mph
Pressure: 1001 mb
Movement: West-Southwest at 5 mph

The National Hurricane Center has issued Tropical Storm Warnings for Volusia/Brevard County line in northeast Florida northward into Edisto Beach, South Carolina. Warnings have been issued for the entire stretch of the Georgia coastline and includes Savannah, Georgia. Tropical Storm Watches have been issued north of Edisto Beach south to south Santee River, South Carolina.

Tropical storm warnings (highlighted in blue) and watches (green) have been issued by the NHC for this weekend. Image Credit: NHC

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) designated Beryl as a subtropical storm because it did not meet the full criteria for tropical storm status. To become a tropical system, you must have all of the follow characteristics (taken from the NHC):

-A warm-core non-frontal synoptic-scale cyclone
-originating over tropical or subtropical waters with organized deep convection
-a closed surface wind circulation about a well-defined center.
-Must be maintained by the extraction of heat energy from the ocean at high temperature and heat export at the low temperatures of the upper troposphere. In this they differ from extratropical cyclones, which derive their energy from horizontal temperature contrasts in the atmosphere (baroclinic effects).

Based on these criteria, the make or break it point for Beryl is the idea that convection needs to continue to build around the center of the storm so it can lift the tropopause (the highest part of the troposphere before you enter the stratosphere in our atmosphere) and erode the upper level low. Once it accomplishes this, it will become fully tropical. As of 5 AM EDT, clouds tops have warmed slightly, which does not indicate a strengthening storm system. Colder cloud tops show a strengthening storm system as convection, or thunderstorm activity, increases and continues to rise and build in the cyclone.

The track of Subtropical Storm Beryl

NHC forecast track for Beryl. Image Credit: NHC

The track of Beryl has had very good consensus among the model outputs. The majority of the models take Beryl pushing southwest into the Georgia and Florida coast by late Sunday night into early Monday morning. High pressure to the north of the system will act as a barrier for it to travel out to sea this weekend. As it pushes inland, the biggest question will be how long will the system remain over land and how far west will it travel. The system will eventually push northeast out of southern Georgia as a trough from the west- the same system that produced tornadoes in parts of Kansas on Friday, May 25, 2012- helps kick Beryl out of the U.S. Southeast. Beryl could then redevelop as it emerges back over ocean waters and could impact parts of South Carolina and North Carolina by the middle of next week around Wednesday and Thursday.

Intensity forecast

Beryl is currently trying to transition to become a fully tropical cyclone. It is battling out some dry air and moderate wind shear. Many of the models are very conservative with Beryl and do not show any significant strengthening with the system. In fact, many of them maintain the system as a weak tropical storm. Beryl will likely cross over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, which will be the best area to see some strengthening. For now, the NHC gives Beryl less than a 10% chance for the storm to become a hurricane with wind speeds sustained at 74 mph. NHC believes the storm will peak in intensity at 50 mph. Storm tracks are typically the strongest area to forecast for the NHC, but intensity forecasts are still a work in progress. We can tell if areas can be conducive for further strengthening, but it does not mean a system will strengthen. Beryl is a much larger storm than Tropical Storm Alberto from last week, so it will likely take a little longer for the storm to wrap up and become stronger. With that said, I think it is possible for Beryl to peak in intensity around 50 knots, or 60 mph.

Rare tropical season

The formation of Beryl this early in the season is quite rare. The Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1, but we already have two named storms prior the start of the season. The last time we saw two named storms in the Atlantic basin prior to the month of June was back in 1908 and 1887. According to James Belanger, a meteorologist from Georgia Tech, if Beryl makes landfall near Jacksonville or on the Georiga coast, it will be the first system to do so in that location since record keeping began. The closest system was an unnamed tropical storm back in 1934 that first made landfall in southern Florida and then moved northward along the Georgia coast. In the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Bud intensified into a major hurricane with 115 mph late Thursday evening. According to Jeff Masters from Weather Underground, Bud became the strongest Eastern Pacific hurricane on record for so early in the year and is tied with Hurricane Alma of 2002 as the second strongest May hurricane on record. As of now, Bud has completely collapsed on itself as wind shear and dry air has practically dissipated the system this morning as it approached Mexico.

Beryl is mostly good news

Beryl will bring much needed rainfall for the drought stricken areas of the U.S. Southeast. Image Credit: U.S. Drought Monitor

Subtropical Storm Beryl is mainly good news for the U.S. Southeast. Although it will dampen Memorial Weekend plans for the coast, the area could really use the rainfall. Most of the area is experiencing severe to exceptional drought and could use the rain. Many areas could experience at least three to five inches of rain along the coast and possibly one to two inches further inland. The downside of Beryl is that it will bring rip currents along the coasts and could cause problems along the Georgia coastline with flooding and beach erosion.

Possible rainfall totals for the next five days, valid Saturday evening into Thursday evening. Image Credit: HPC

Bottom line: Subtropical Storm Beryl is forecast to push southwest and impact parts of Florida and Georgia. It will eventually push northeast towards the middle of next week and impact South Carolina and North Carolina as a cold front picks the system up. Beryl is likely to stay at tropical storm force, and the NHC only gives the system less than a 10% chance of becoming a hurricane. The main threats along the coasts will be rip currents, flooding, and maybe isolated tornadoes. Beryl is expected to make landfall late Sunday evening into early Monday morning. Everyone along the coast should monitor the storm and pay attention to your local National Weather Service for updates as the storm develops and continues to inch closer to the U.S. Southeast coast.