High up in the hills above Hong Kong, Yip Ki-hok uses nothing but his bare hands to remove a honey-filled nest of swarming bees—a remarkable skill he learned after the hardship of China's famine years.
Ecology
Apr 14, 2019
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257
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Aug. 25, 2017, then stalled over Texas for three days as a tropical storm. The category-four storm claimed 80 lives, displaced multitudes of people, and damaged more than 80,000 homes.
Earth Sciences
Apr 10, 2019
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26
Tropical Cyclone 23S has developed north of the Kimberley coast, and generated warnings. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed overhead as the low pressure area consolidated into a tropical cyclone.
Environment
Apr 05, 2019
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15
Visible imagery from NASA's Terra satellite revealed that strong wind shear was adversely affecting Subtropical Cyclone Joaninha in the Southern Indian Ocean.
Environment
Apr 01, 2019
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15
One day makes a big difference when you're a tropical cyclone. On March 28, Tropical Cyclone Joaninha still maintained an eye, and on March 29, once outside winds ramped up, the storm weakened quickly. NOAA's NOAA-20 satellite ...
Environment
Mar 29, 2019
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11
Tropical Cyclone Joaninha is not yet ready to close its eye and weaken. Visible imagery from NASA's Terra satellite showed Tropical Cyclone Joaninha maintaining an eye thanks to low wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures.
Environment
Mar 28, 2019
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12
When tropical cyclone Idai made landfall near Beira, Mozambique on March 14, a spokesperson for the UN World Meteorological Organization called it possibly the the worst weather-related disaster to hit the southern hemisphere.
Earth Sciences
Mar 21, 2019
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13
Tropical storms are likely to become more deadly under climate change, leaving people in developing countries, where there may be a lack of resources or poor infrastructure, at increased risk, new research from Oregon State ...
Environment
Mar 20, 2019
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48
Tropical Depression 03W has dissipated in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, but not without one last show of strength on infrared satellite imagery.
Environment
Mar 18, 2019
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13
Tropical Cyclone Savannah continued to move in southerly direction in the Southern Indian Ocean, and move away from Indonesia. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible image of the storm. Savannah is no threat to ...
Environment
Mar 15, 2019
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13
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones feed on heat released when moist air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor contained in the moist air. They are fueled by a different heat mechanism than other cyclonic windstorms such as nor'easters, European windstorms, and polar lows, leading to their classification as "warm core" storm systems. Tropical cyclones originate in the doldrums near the equator, about 10° away from it.
The term "tropical" refers to both the geographic origin of these systems, which form almost exclusively in tropical regions of the globe, and their formation in maritime tropical air masses. The term "cyclone" refers to such storms' cyclonic nature, with counterclockwise rotation in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise rotation in the Southern Hemisphere. Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred to by names such as hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, and simply cyclone.
While tropical cyclones can produce extremely powerful winds and torrential rain, they are also able to produce high waves and damaging storm surge as well as spawning tornadoes. They develop over large bodies of warm water, and lose their strength if they move over land. This is why coastal regions can receive significant damage from a tropical cyclone, while inland regions are relatively safe from receiving strong winds. Heavy rains, however, can produce significant flooding inland, and storm surges can produce extensive coastal flooding up to 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the coastline. Although their effects on human populations can be devastating, tropical cyclones can also relieve drought conditions. They also carry heat and energy away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes, which makes them an important part of the global atmospheric circulation mechanism. As a result, tropical cyclones help to maintain equilibrium in the Earth's troposphere, and to maintain a relatively stable and warm temperature worldwide.
Many tropical cyclones develop when the atmospheric conditions around a weak disturbance in the atmosphere are favorable. The background environment is modulated by climatological cycles and patterns such as the Madden-Julian oscillation, El Niño-Southern Oscillation, and the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Mode. Others form when other types of cyclones acquire tropical characteristics. Tropical systems are then moved by steering winds in the troposphere; if the conditions remain favorable, the tropical disturbance intensifies, and can even develop an eye. On the other end of the spectrum, if the conditions around the system deteriorate or the tropical cyclone makes landfall, the system weakens and eventually dissipates. It is not possible to artificially induce the dissipation of these systems with current technology.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
