Alex

The first information from Dominica is emerging, hours after the island was hammered by the full force of Hurricane Maria.

Unconfirmed reports state that at least six people have died.

One fatality is said to have occurred in Morne Prosper, and the other five in Dos Dane, a village close to Portsmouth.

Until the last 30 minutes there was no communication with anyone on the island since 4am local time.

WIC News understands 90% or more of the island’s buildings have been destroyed. When contact was lost, initial reports were that 70% had been damaged.

As well as buildings, trees have been uprooted and power lines have been ripped to the ground. It is understood that landslides have blocked a number of roads across the country.

Are the actual structures of the four nucleotides that make up DNA:

Bighit, I’m impressed. Oh, and one more thing:

The four main colours of this MV’s concept I’d say are probably red, yellow, blue and white, or something along those lines yeah?

Well with DNA, Cytosine and Guanine (C & G) and Thymine and Adenine (T & A) match up. Meaning that if we were to substitute the four colours I mentioned to the closest nucleotide from above we’d end up with:

Cytosine = white

Guanine = blue

Thymine = yellow

Adenine = red

So that means we’d end up with white and blue being paired up, and yellow and red doing the same. And if you look closely at the floor:

White+Blue and Yellow+Red?

C+G and T+A?

Using our unique ability to view Earth from space, we are working together with NOAA to monitor an emerging success story – the shrinking ozone hole over Antarctica.

Thirty years ago, the nations of the world agreed to the landmark ‘Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.’ The Protocol limited the release of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere.

Since the 1960s our scientists have worked with NOAA researchers to study the ozone layer. 

We use a combination of satellite, aircraft and balloon measurements of the atmosphere.

The ozone layer acts like a sunscreen for Earth, blocking harmful ultraviolet, or UV, rays emitted by the Sun.

In 1985, scientists first reported a hole forming in the ozone layer over Antarctica. It formed over Antarctica because the Earth’s atmospheric circulation traps air over Antarctica.  This air contains chlorine released from the CFCs and thus it rapidly depletes the ozone.

Because colder temperatures speed up the process of CFCs breaking up and releasing chlorine more quickly, the ozone hole fluctuates with temperature. The hole shrinks during the warmer summer months and grows larger during the southern winter. In September 2006, the ozone hole reached a record large extent.

But things have been improving in the 30 years since the Montreal Protocol. Thanks to the agreement, the concentration of CFCs in the atmosphere has been decreasing, and the ozone hole maximum has been smaller since 2006’s record.

That being said, the ozone hole still exists and fluctuates depending on temperature because CFCs have very long lifetimes. So, they still exist in our atmosphere and continue to deplete the ozone layer.

To get a view of what the ozone hole would have looked like if the world had not come to the agreement to limit CFCs, our scientists developed computer models. These show that by 2065, much of Earth would have had almost no ozone layer at all.

Luckily, the Montreal Protocol exists, and we’ve managed to save our protective ozone layer. Looking into the future, our scientists project that by 2065, the ozone hole will have returned to the same size it was thirty years ago.

Dominica has suffered “widespread damage” from Hurricane Maria, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says.

“We have lost all that money can buy,” he said in a Facebook post.

The hurricane suddenly strengthened to a “potentially catastrophic” category five storm, before making landfall on the Caribbean island.

Hurricanes are the most violent storms on Earth. People call these storms by other names, such as typhoons or cyclones, depending on where they occur.

The scientific term for ALL of these storms is tropical cyclone. Only tropical cyclones that form over the Atlantic Ocean or eastern and central Pacific Ocean are called “hurricanes.”

Whatever they are called, tropical cyclones all form the same way.

Tropical cyclones are like giant engines that use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why they form only over warm ocean waters near the equator. This warm, moist air rises and condenses to form clouds and storms.

As this warmer, moister air rises, there’s less air left near the Earth’s surface. Essentially, as this warm air rises, this causes an area of lower air pressure below.

This starts the ‘engine’ of the storm. To fill in the low pressure area, air from surrounding areas with higher air pressure pushes in. That “new” air near the Earth’s surface also gets heated by the warm ocean water so it also gets warmer and moister and then it rises.

As the warm air continues to rise, the surrounding air swirls in to take its place. The whole system of clouds and wind spins and grows, fed by the ocean’s heat and water evaporating from the surface.

As the storm system rotates faster and faster, an eye forms in the center. It is vey calm and clear in the eye, with very low air pressure.

Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land, because they are no longer being “fed” by the energy from the warm ocean waters. However, when they move inland, they can drop many inches of rain causing flooding as well as wind damage before they die out completely. 

There are five types, or categories, of hurricanes. The scale of categories is called the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale and they are based on wind speed.

How Does NASA Study Hurricanes?

Our satellites gather information from space that are made into pictures. Some satellite instruments measure cloud and ocean temperatures. Others measure the height of clouds and how fast rain is falling. Still others measure the speed and direction of winds.

We also fly airplanes into and above hurricanes. The instruments aboard planes gather details about the storm. Some parts are too dangerous for people to fly into. To study these parts, we use airplanes that operate without people. 

Learn more about this and other questions by exploring NASA Space Place and the NASA/NOAA SciJinks that offer explanations of science topics for school kids.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

How Hurricane Harvey’s Record-Setting Rainfall Is Happening Right Now

“The worst-case scenario for a storm is where it develops in the ocean, strengthens as it moves over land, and then migrates to make landfall right where the directions of the prevailing winds change: at around 30 degrees latitude. The greatest flooding and devastation occurs when the storm either remains stationary, right on a coastal area for a long time, or when it moves along a coastal region, constantly being fed by the ocean waters as it does so. Houston, Texas, is located right at 29.8° N latitude, right by the gulf coast; it is at the right location, unfortunately, to experience this perfect type of storm. ”

As I write this, the gulf coast is currently being battered by Hurricane Harvey, with a few locations already having accumulated more than three feet of rainfall. This storm shows no signs of letting up anytime soon, as it’s forecast to remain roughly where it is for days to come. This is being billed as a 500-year-storm, but the truth is far scarier and more sobering: this should be exactly what you’d expect for a city located where Houston is. The way hurricanes form, along with other tropical storms, is when fast-moving winds occur over high-temperature ocean waters. As global temperatures have increased, so have the severity of hurricanes. When one of them makes landfall and rises in latitude, the critical transition occurs at 30° north or south of the equator, where the prevailing winds change direction. As Hurricane Harvey sits right on that boundary, it seems poised to remain where it is for up to a week, potentially leading to even more catastrophic flooding than occurred during Hurricane Katrina.

Algunos de nuestros servicios ilustrados por nuestro diseñador @edsher-goheyko.

by Roger Culver

On August 21, a total solar eclipse will be visible across parts of the United States.

As the Earth and moon sweep through space in their annual journey around the sun, the three bodies align in such a way that the Earth passes into the shadow of the moon. Observers then witness a sun that is gradually covered and uncovered by the moon’s disk – a spectacular celestial event.

But until astronomers were able to explain this phenomenon, a solar eclipse could be a terrifying event. In many cultures throughout human history, the sun was seen as an entity of supreme importance, crucial to their very existence. It was regularly worshipped as a god – Amun-Ra to the Egyptians and Helios to the Greeks – or as a goddess, such as Amaterasu for the Japanese and Saule for many Baltic cultures.