Tropical Cyclone Update

At 2:00 p.m. today, the Low Pressure Area (LPA) was estimated based on satellite and surface data at 200 kms East of Mindanao (8.1°N, 128.5°E). Northeast monsoon affecting Northern Luzon.

NASAHurricane Twitter

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Typhoon Mirinae on October 30 at 1 p.m. Asia/Manila Time approaching the Philippines (left), part of which are already under a part of Mirinae's clouds

If there's a tropical wave that is has any potential for development, and it's cited by one of the forecast centers, NASAHurricane's Twitter will explain what it is, and where it is. For example, if there's a tropical wave in the Atlantic Ocean, Twitter provides the opportunity to highlight it and give a status on it.NASAHurricane Twitter is excited about communicating 'in-real-time' to hurricane enthusiasts worldwide," said climatologist Bill Patzert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. "'Tweeting' the latest in NASA research and technology, developing hurricane events and impacts cranks up NASA's commitment to rapidly providing the most up-to-date and useful hurricane information to every level of society."

Ida the Coastal Low

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's damage assessment teams were touring Hampton Roads, Virginia this week and documenting damages. The assessment will help determine if the state of Virginia is eligible for federal disaster assistance.


Residents in eastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina were hit especially hard by the heavy rains from last week's coastal low pressure area, formerly known as hurricane Ida. Employees at NASA's Wallops Island facility in Wallops Island, Virginia had a first-hand experience with "Ida the coastal low."



After receiving almost a foot of water in various areas, clean up efforts will continue for some time to come. "The basement of my home did experience some flooding," Powell said. "Although frustrating, I know it can be cleaned up and repaired, however others weren't as lucky, so I won't complain."

Tropical Storm Anja

Anja has continued to weaken over the last 24 hours, and NASA's QuikScat satellite has confirmed that the once mighty Category 4 Cyclone is now a tropical storm in the southern Indian Ocean. Two instruments on NASA's Aqua satellite have also helped forecasters determine Anja's location and change of shape.

NASA's QuikScat satellite uses microwave technology to peer through a tropical cyclone's clouds, and actually read the speed of the rotating surface winds. In an overpass from space at 7:58 p.m. ET last night, November 18 (Nov. 19 at 0058 UTC), QuikScat noticed Anja's maximum sustained winds have dropped to 63 mph, making it a tropical storm

Cyclone Anja Now a Category 4 Storm in Southern Indian Ocean

zt 1500 UTC (10 a.m. ET) on November 17, Anja's maximum sustained winds were sustained at 75 knots (86 mph). Anja's center was located 715 miles east-northeast of La Reunion Island, near 18.3 South and 66.5 East. Anja is moving south-southwest at 12 mph. The storm seems to be spreading out as its weakening, as tropical storm force winds now extend out to 115 miles from the center (earlier today, they only extended 75 miles out from the center).

When the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Anja on November 15 at 0904 UTC it had a well-defined eye and was increasing in strength from a category 2 tropical cyclone (on the Saffir-Simpson scale) to a powerful category 3 tropical cyclone later that day. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.

Cyclone Anja Now a Category 4 Storm in Southern Indian Ocean

Overnight Cyclone Anja continued on its power trip. Yesterday, November 16, Anja was a Category 3 Cyclone. Today, Anja has reached Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson scale as the storm's maximum sustained winds have increased to 115 knots (132 mph).

At 10 p.m. ET on November 16 (0300 UTC November 17), Anja was located about 715 miles east-northeast of La Reunion Island, near 16.4S and 67.3E. Reunion Island is located east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The nearest island is Mauritius which is 120 miles to the northwest. Anja was moving toward the south-southwest near 13 mph.

Tropical Cyclone Anja

On Monday, November 16, Anja had grown into a Category Three cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, packing maximum sustained winds near 105 knots (120 mph). NASA's Terra satellite flew over Anja, and the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument captured an image of the storm that showed a cloud-filled eye in the center of circulation. Anja was located 795 miles east-northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius, near 13.4 North and 69.3 East. Anja was moving southwest at 4 mph.

Anja was a medium-sized cyclone with tropical storm-force winds extending out to 100 miles from its center, and cyclone (or hurricane)-force winds out to 45 miles from its center. Anja was generating waves as high as 24 feet, and is not threatening any landmasses.

Cyclone Phyan (Arabian Sea)

Cyclone Phyan's remnants over Tibet on November 12. At that time, Phyan was still showing some moderate rainfall and cold cloud tops (in blue) as cold as -27F.

NASA's MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite captured this stunning visual image of Tropical Cyclone Phyan making landfall north of Mumbai on November 11 at 0845 UTC (3:45 ET).

Luxury car

A vehicle is a mechanical means of conveyance, a carriage or transport. Most often they are manufactured although some other means of transport which are not made by humans also may be called vehicles; examples include icebergs and floating tree trunks.

Vehicles may be propelled or pulled by engines or animals including humans, for instance, a chariot, a stagecoach, a mule-drawn barge, an ox-cart or rickshaw. However, animals on their own, though used as a means of transport, are not called vehicles, but rather beasts of burden or draft animals. This distinction includes humans carrying another human, for example a child or a disabled person. Means of transport without a vehicle or animal would include walking, running, crawling, or swimming.

Hydrogen

GM has prided its research and prototype development of hydrogen powered vehicles, to be produced in early 2010, using a support infrastructure still in a prototype state. The economic feasibility of the technically challenging hydrogen car, and the low-cost production of hydrogen to fuel it, has also been discussed by other automobile manufacturers such as Ford and Chrysler.

In June 2007, Larry Burns, vice president of research and development, said he's not yet willing to say exactly when hydrogen vehicles will be mass produced, but he said it should happen before 2020, the year many experts have predicted. He said "I sure would be disappointed if we weren't there" before 2020

A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. The term may refer to a personal transportation vehicle, such as an automobile, or any other vehicle that uses hydrogen in a similar fashion, such as an aircraft. The power plants of such vehicles convert the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy (torque) in one of two methods: combustion, or electrochemical conversion in a fuel-cell:

* In hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles, the hydrogen is combusted in engines in fundamentally the same method as traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.

* In fuel-cell conversion, the hydrogen is reacted with oxygen to produce water and electricity, the latter being used to power an electric traction motor.

Hydrogen fuel does not occur naturally on Earth and thus is not an energy source, but is an energy carrier. It can be made from a number of sources, currently it is most frequently made from methane or other fossil fuels. Hydrogen production via electrolysis of water is inefficient and expensive and is rarely used.

Many companies are working to develop technologies that can efficiently exploit the potential of hydrogen energy.