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Hurricane Dean
| Title |
Hurricane Dean |
| Description |
Hurricane Dean was the first hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The storm system formed off the coast of South America on August 13. It traveled west, building strength from the warm waters as it headed towards the South American coast and the southern arc of the Caribbean Islands. By August 17, it had grown in power to become a Category 3 hurricane, [ http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshs.shtml ] and forecasters were calling for it to potentially gain yet more strength as it passed over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. Dean was projected to cause major damage. Mexican authorities, according to news sources, were warning residents in the Yucatan Peninsula of the danger of the coming storm, which was projected to strike the peninsula. The storm might also brush against the islands of Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Cuba among others. Some forecasters were concerned about the possibility of Dean developing into super storm in the Gulf of Mexico, where storm surge and waves as well as winds might pose significant dangers to the oil and gas platforms. This data visualization of the hurricane shows observations from the QuikSCAT satellite on August 16, 2007, at 6:55 p.m. local time (21:55 UTC). At this time, Dean was poised to cross the Windward Islands of the Caribbean, while grazing the coast of Venezuela on the South American mainland. Peak winds were around 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour, 85 knots) at this time, according to Unisys Weather's Hurricane information page, [ http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/ ] making Dean a Category 2 hurricane. The image depicts wind speed in color and wind direction with small barbs. White barbs point to areas of heavy rain. QuikSCAT measurements of the wind strength of Hurricane Dean and other tropical cyclones can be slower than actual wind speeds. QuikSCAT's scatterometer sends pulses of microwave energy through the atmosphere to the ocean surface and measures the energy that bounces back from the wind-roughened surface. The energy of the microwave pulses changes depending on wind speed and direction. To relate the radar signal to actual wind speed, scientists compare measurements taken from buoys and other ground stations to data the satellite acquired at the same time and place. Because the high wind speeds generated by cyclones are rare, scientists do not have corresponding ground information to know how to translate data from the satellite for wind speeds above 50 knots (about 93 km/hr or 58 mph). Also, the unusually heavy rain found in a cyclone distorts the microwave pulses in a number of ways, making a conversion to exact wind speed difficult. Instead, the scatterometer provides a nice picture of the relative wind speeds within the storm and shows wind direction. NASA image courtesy of David Long, Brigham Young University, on the QuikSCAT Science Team [ http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/ ], and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
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Isla Blanquilla, Venezuela:
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
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The small island of Blanquil
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ISS015-E-07771
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
ISS015-E-07771 |
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Maracaibo City and Oil Slick
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nasa, nasaimageofthedaygalle
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This astronaut photograph de
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ISS014-E-14618
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-02-23 |
| creator |
NASA -- Featured astronaut photograph eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=ISS014&roll=E&frame=14618 ISS014-E-14618 was acquired February 23, 2007, with a Kodak 760C digital camera using a 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. The spaceflight.nasa.gov/home/index.html International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. |
| identifier |
ISS014-E-14618 |
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Hurricane Dean: Natural Haza
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nasa, nasanaturalhazards
Hurricane Dean was the first
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dean_qsc_2007228
| mediatype |
IMAGE |
| mediatype |
image |
| date |
2007-08-16 |
| creator |
NASA -- NASA Image Of The Day |
| identifier |
dean_qsc_2007228 |
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| General Description |
International Space Station Imagery |
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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -
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| Description |
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A pair of brown pelicans rest on a wall near the turn basin at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The turn basin was carved out of the Banana River when KSC was built. The birds' habitat is sandy coastal beaches and lagoons, ranging along the Atlantic Coast from North Carolina south to Venezuela. It nests in colonies. KSC shares a boundary with the Merritt Island Wildlife Nature Refuge. The refuge is a habitat for more than 310 species of birds, 25 mammals, 117 fishes and 65 amphibians and reptiles. In addition, the Refuge supports 19 endangered or threatened wildlife species on Federal or State lists, more than any other single refuge in the U.S. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton |
| Release Date |
02/12/2007 |
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