News by Subject Atmospheric Science

NASA's Aqua satellite provided a near visible image and analyzed the cloud top temperatures in Tropical Cyclone Blake, located along the northern coast of Western Australia. Tropical Cyclone Blake is just north of Broome, a coastal town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Scientists have developed a new method for detecting oxygen in exoplanet atmospheres that may accelerate the search for life. UC Riverside helped develop the new technique, which will use NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to detect a strong signal that oxygen molecules produce when they collide. This signal could help scientists distinguish between living and nonliving planets.

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided forecasters with an image of Tropical Cyclone Sarai and it showed a much weaker storm near Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean.

Visible imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite on Dec. 31, 2019 revealed that Tropical Cyclone Calvinia had moved south of the island of Mauritius in the Southern Indian Ocean.

The sea encircling Antarctica mixes water from all the ocean basins. This circulating pattern influences the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO2) between the ocean and the atmosphere. A study by an international research team, led by Dr. Torben Struve from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, indicates that the complex equilibrium of water masses reacts sensitively to wind conditions over the Southern Ocean. Future climate change could lead to increased release of CO2, the scientists suggest.

NASA's Terra satellite passed over the Southern Pacific Ocean on Dec. 30, 2019 and found that Tropical Storm Sarai continued to move further away from Fiji and toward Tonga.

Tropical Cyclone Calvinia formed on Dec. 29 and by the next day, its clouds from a band of thunderstorms on its western side had blanketed the island of Mauritius in the Southern Indian Ocean.

NASA analyzed the cloud top temperatures in Tropical Storm Sarai using infrared light to determine the strength of the storm. Sarai has triggered warnings for Fiji and Tonga in the Southern Pacific Ocean,

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible image of Phanfone as it continues moving through the South China Sea. Visible imagery showed that the storm is less organized and elongated as the storm weakened from a typhoon to a tropical storm.

Tropical Storm Phanfone brought typhoon-force winds and heavy rains across sections of the Philippines on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Phanfone is known as Ursula in the Philippines. Now the storm has moved into the South China Sea and NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of the tropical cyclone.