Cold wakes associated with 2018 Hurricanes Michael and WillaMonday, November 26, 2018Hurricanes Michael and Willa of 2018 were both storms that intensified rapidly, one in the Gulf of Mexico and the other in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Hurricane Michael was one of strongest storms (peak winds of 155 mph) to make landfall in the continental United States, devastating the Florida panhandle. |
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Modeling marine fish species spatiotemporal distributions utilizing NASA earth system data in a maximum entropy framework (February, 2018)Thursday, February 1, 2018Fishermen rely on their on-the-water experience to know where and when to find certain species of fish in the Gulf of Maine, and managers use their knowledge of fish and the fishery to design management policies, such as seasonal closures, aimed at ensuring sustainability. |
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2017, another strong year for hurricanes (October, 2017)Tuesday, October 3, 2017From a distance, up beyond the destruction, hurricanes are wondrous acts of nature. They form as a way for very warm ocean waters to discharge heat quickly. They’re these efficient and complex areas where the ocean and atmosphere trade energy; Earth’s way of rapidly transporting accumulated heat energy from the tropical regions to the extra-tropics when the regular oceanic or atmospheric... |
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When it rains, it drains (July, 2017)Tuesday, July 25, 2017Where does trash on the streets go during a rain storm? A group of scientists set out to discover if fine resolution satellite imagery from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and MODIS-Aqua would be useful for examining the environmental impacts of stormwater runoff in the Southern California Bight. |
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Record Texas Flooding Left a “Horseshoe” in the Gulf of Mexico (December, 2016)Tuesday, December 6, 2016SMAP SSS revealed a unique "horseshoe" pattern in the Gulf of Mexico in 2015. This signature was caused by the freshwater plume from the Texas flood, the typical Mississippi River plume, an unusually strong Loop Current and its anticyclonic eddy to the west. |
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Waves and Satellites: Effect of El Niño on Big Wave Surfing (January, 2016)Monday, January 25, 2016Strong El Niño events are associated with recreational benefits, namely snow sports and surfing. The last two major El Niño events, 1982/1983 and 1997/1998, have both proven to be record breaking years for large, consistent surf along the U.S. West Coast. The current 2015/2016 El Niño is proving to be no exception. |
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El Niño Watch: A Comparison of Current Conditions with Past Events (September, 2015)Thursday, September 3, 2015Anomalous ocean conditions in the Equatorial Pacific in 2015 are compared with past El Niño events to gain a potential sense about future El Niño development and related impacts. |
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A View from Above: Wastewater Diversion Plumes in Southern California (October, 2014)Wednesday, October 22, 2014The Hyperion Treatment Plant (HTP) and the Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) are wastewater treatment facilities that discharge into the Southern California Bight. HTP and OCSD wastewater is diverted on occasion to shorter outfall pipes at shallower depths that increase risks to human health and water quality. Here the utility satellite data to detect such diversions is examined. |
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Unusual summertime warming off California Coast (September, 2014)Thursday, September 4, 2014Recently an episode of intensified coastal warming off California has been detected in satellite sea surface temperature (SST) imagery along many portions of central-to-southern California and down to Baja California. This is an ongoing and highly unusual event during a seasonal period that is typically associated with strong coastal upwelling of cool subsurface water that chills the coastal... |
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NASA's RapidScat to Unveil Hidden Cycles of Sea Winds (July, 2014)Thursday, July 17, 2014Ocean waves, the hot sun, sea breezes -- the right combination makes a great day at the beach. A different combination makes a killer hurricane. The complex interactions of the ocean and the air above it that can create such different outcomes are not yet fully known. Scientists would especially like to understand the role that the daily heat of the sun plays in creating winds. |