Your friendly neighborhood astronomer
Seriously, back this Kickstarter project and help change the public’s perceptions of climate scientists (who, let’s face it, have been getting a lot of flack from special interests lately). More preview photos and behind the scenes from the shoots at climatemodels.org.
Hint.fm’s wind map has been producing some incredible imagery of the wind patterns of the United States throughout Hurricane Sandy. But this is as amazing as it is disturbing:
Now keep in mind, this is simply a mashup of wind data, and not a radar map or a satellite image. But the pattern of Sandy is very clear. The white streaks indicate wind speeds of 30 mph, but the truth is that winds are much, much faster than that, with gusts up to 80 mph in some locations.
And that vortex is situated right in the area I grew up and not far at all from where I currently live. But it also means that there are a lot of folks I know, and many more I don’t know, without power tonight.
As I write this, my home state of Maryland is under a state of emergency, along with the entire Mid-Atlantic region and New England. And there’s a good reason why, check this out:
That’s a time-lapse view of Hurricane Sandy as seen from geostationary orbit – 22,300 miles (35,800 km) above Earth – by NOAA’s GOES-14 satellite. The images were taken once per minute from 7:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Tiem on October 28, 2012. The result is about 12 hours from sunup to sundown compressed into a 30-second video.
You can really start to see an eye develop around the 20-second mark as it makes its way out to sea, gaining strength as she goes.
As amazing as it is, Sandy is not to be trifled with, so please keep an eye on the National Hurricane Center’s website for updates. I’ll be doing the same, as we appear to be right along the path of Sandy as she comes through. Stay dry!
NASA animation by Kevin Ward, using images from NOAA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies.