Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Post-Tropical Storm Little Claudette and Not-so-Little Pluto: July 14, Update A

As expected, Little Claudette didn’t last through the day today. She is now only slightly larger than Pluto (the PLANET) as seen from your home. Winds are currently at 45mph, central pressure is 1004mb, but although she has some circulation she is really part of a front, not a storm. The NHC are done with Claudette, and so am I. The next one is D for Danny-boy, who will be followed by elegant Erika.

But I’m not quite done with this post though! Being a cool and obviously trendy sciency sort of geek, I can’t leave without an honorary mention for New Horizons and Pluto today! Here it is (just in case you somehow missed it), taken with the LORRI and Ralph instruments on the spacecraft …  


(complete with a 'heart'). And here is a really nice video of images taken over the last week that NASA put together…http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

New Horizons took over 9 years to get to Pluto, about 3 billion miles away. It will continue to transmit data back, but is now continuing its journey away from the Solar System, and into the Kuiper Belt (which consists of icy 'objects' - or as Sharon H. says, UBOs - Unidentified Belted Objects - I expect it looks and probably feels a bit like the asteroid belt*) and on to er… new horizons actually! :-)

Eeek... and a real close up of Pluto shows even more details of the surface! 

(from R. Paul Wilson via K. Grazier). ;-)

I think it’s definitely time to raise (another) glass to NASA and the New Horizons team!

Ciao for now,
J.

*Due to a geek-a-luscious conversation with Trent F. I had to modify my initial description of the Kuiper Belt to the slightly more accurate version above. :-) 

Blogs archived at http://jyotikastorms.blogspot.com/
Twitter @JyovianStorm
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DISCLAIMER: These remarks are just what I think/see regarding tropical storms - not the opinion of any organization I represent. If you are making an evacuation decision, please heed your local emergency management and the National Hurricane Center's official forecast and the National Weather Service announcements. This is not an official forecast. If I "run away, run away" (Monty Python), I'll let you know.
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Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Tropical Storm 'Little Claudette': July 13, Update A

I missed short-lived Tropical Storm Bob (I was probably having a 10-minute power nap at the time), and almost missed our pretty pathetic ‘Tropical Storm’ Claudette too! This is not what I would call a robust tropical storm by any stretch of the imagination. She officially came into being less than 12 hours ago, at 37.4N, 68.1W (quite a bit north of the ‘tropics’). She did try and have some convection, but is not doing so well at the moment. You can see a few drops of rain to the northeast of her center of circulation in the latest infrared satellite images: 

She does have some circulation in the lower half of the troposphere, so I would agree that she’s a tropical storm in structure. She is now at around 38.9N, 64.9W. Maximum winds are estimated to be 50mph, central pressure is estimated to be 1004 mb. 

She is moving over fairly cold water for a storm – the sea surface temperature is around 25 deg C. As she is moving to the ENE at a very rapid 20mph (too fast for any self-respecting decent storm), I agree with the NHC that she will soon decrease in intensity as she continues to move over colder waters.

There’s not much else to say about Little Claudette really. Obviously not much to worry about unless you are a fish. Or sailing in the middle of the north Atlantic.

More excitingly… are you following the exciting adventures of New Horizons and its 9 year journey to boldly go where no cartoon has gone before? Tomorrow is the day we get to Pluto! What an achievement for science and engineering and all such good things! Most definitely worthy of a celebratory glass or two! :-)

More tomorrow!

Toodle pip!
J.

Blogs archived at http://jyotikastorms.blogspot.com/
Twitter @JyovianStorm
-------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: These remarks are just what I think/see regarding tropical storms - not the opinion of any organization I represent. If you are making an evacuation decision, please heed your local emergency management and the National Hurricane Center's official forecast and the National Weather Service announcements. This is not an official forecast. If I "run away, run away" (Monty Python), I'll let you know.
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