NASA Satellite Video of Tornadoes from Space

5 Days of Tornado-Generating Storms in U.S. Midwest [HD Video]

The U.S. Midwest was hammered by severe storms for the last several days and this animation of satellite imagery from the GOES-13 satellite shows the progression of storms from May 20 to 25, 2011. This animation includes the storms that spawned the deadly Joplin, Missouri tornado on May 22 (around 5:30 p.m.) and the Oklahoma tornado event (Oklahoma City and Piedmont, Oklahoma) on May 24, 2011.

The video shows the progression of the May 24 storms moving from Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri into Mississippi, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. The May 24 event killed people in Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, according to the Associated Press. The National Weather Service reported that several twisters touched down in Oklahoma City and some of its suburbs.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 covers weather events over the eastern U.S. and the Atlantic Ocean. The GOES series of satellites is operated by NOAA, and the NASA GOES Project creates images and animations from the GOES series of satellites. This movie is in a large-format 720x1280 H264-encoded digital movie from the GOES-13 satellite.

Movie Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project, Dennis Chesters
Caption: NASA/Rob Gutro

Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

Missouri Tornado Chasers' Raw Footage

Tornado chasers captured the Joplin, Missouri tornado on video as it developed on the ground and then drove through the aftermath minutes following the destruction.

One hundred sixteen people have been reported killed with more missing and injured. The death toll is expected to rise. Joplin's main hospital took a direct hit. One-third of the city suffered catastrophic damage.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) - A massive tornado that tore a six-mile path across southwestern Missouri killed at least 116 people as it smashed the city of Joplin, ripping into a hospital, crushing cars and leaving behind only splintered tree trunks where entire neighborhoods once stood.

Authorities warned that the death toll could climb as search-and-rescue workers continued their efforts. Their task was made more miserable early Monday by a new thunderstorm that brought strong winds, heavy rain and hail.

More tornadoes touched down throughout the Midwest, with damage reported in Kansas, Minnesota and Oklahoma, as well as in Missouri. Dangerous weather is expected to continue across the region.

A brief moment of light with a rare double rainbow following the tornado:



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"I'm a Climate Scientist"

Climate scientists have come together to remind those who dispute climate change that the skeptics are not climate scientists. In this video (clean version), the climate scientists rap speak for themselves. Who's a climate scientist? Watch the video to find out.

The Flood is Released

The Army Corps of Engineers has opened the floodgates on the Morganza Spillway in an attempt to control the flow of the floodwaters by diverting them around Baton Rouge and New Orleans into the Atchafalaya river basin, a low-lying area of central Louisiana.

(Left) Landsat 5 image of the Mississippi River in the Memphis, Tenn. Area on May 12, 2006. (Right) Landsat 5 image of the Mississippi River in the Memphis, Tenn. Area on May 10, 2011. 
Credit: USGS/NASA

The Morganza Spillway was built in the 1950's to relieve flood pressure on Mississippi River. It was last opened in 1973 and is twenty miles (32.2km) long with one-hundred twenty-five gates that can release up to 600,000 cubic feet/sec (17,000 cubic metres/sec).



The water will flow south, purposely flooding homes and farms in the state's Cajun country under an expected ten to twenty feet of water while bypassing the larger cities. If all goes according to plan, the water will run south to Morgan City - where workers are rushing to reinforces levees - and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Corps spokesman Col Ed Fleming said: "It's a historic day, not only for the entire Mississippi River but for the state of Louisiana. Today's the first day in the history of our nation that we have had three floodways open."

Col Fleming said the opening would be slow to, "make sure folks have the understanding that water is coming their way and they evacuate according to their local procedures".

Wildlife has also required time to get to higher ground. The residents of the low lying areas of Louisiana whose homes and farms are being sacrificed to save the more populous cities are doing the same.

Fishing for Sustainable Practices to Conserve Fisheries

From the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Global fish production has reached an all-time high, according to Nourishing the Planet’s research for the Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online publication.

Aquaculture, or fish farming—once a minor contributor to total fish harvest—increased 50-fold between the 1950s and 2008 and now contributes nearly half of all fish produced worldwide.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization an estimated 53 percent of fisheries are considered fully exploited—harvested to their maximum sustainable levels—with no room for expansion in production. Population growth and a higher demand for dietary protein are putting increasing pressure on depleted stocks and threatened ecosystems.

Increased farming of large predators, such as salmon and tuna, has led to overfishing of prey fish—including anchoveta and herring, which are commonly used as fishmeal. It generally takes at least three kilograms of feed to produce one kilogram of salmon. The shrinking of the numbers of prey species threatens the entire food chain, putting further stress on large predator stocks.

Depleting fisheries also negatively affect the economies of developing countries, home to the nearly 60 percent of the world’s fishers that are classified as small-scale commercial or subsistence fishers. Continued...

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Big Oil's Political Ploy

by William S. Becker

Whatever else we might say about Big Oil in the United States, we have to give the industry credit for one thing: It has mastered the art of scamming us with a perfectly straight face.

The scam has been underway for decades. This year’s example is the debate about repealing $21 billion in federal subsidies for big oil companies over the next decade. To their credit, President Obama and several Democrats in Congress are pushing the idea.

Oil executives have launched a counteroffensive reminiscent of Gordon Gekko’s argument that “greed is good”. Requiring taxpayers to subsidize America’s biggest oil companies is in the best interest of the country, they say, and anyone who disagrees is playing politics.

ExxonMobil, for example, has issued a statement that President Obama and congressional Democrats are engaging in “political theatre” on this issue. Perhaps. But the real plot line is that big oil companies are fighting once again to keep largesse they don’t need and the nation can’t afford.   Continued...

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The Case for Young People and Nature: A Path to a Healthy, Natural, Prosperous Future

The Case for Young People and Nature: A Path to a Healthy, Natural, Prosperous Future describes what governments need to do to stabilize climate, fulfilling their obligation to young people and future generations. This is the science basis attached to suits being filed this week and in the future in different states and countries.

- Dr. James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute of Space Sciences, Columbia University Earth Institute, New York

by James Hansen, Pushker Kharecha, Makiko Sato, Paul Epstein, Paul J. Hearty, Ove HoeghGuldberg, Camille Parmesan, Stefan Rahmstorf, Johan Rockstrom, Eelco J.Rohling, Jeffrey Sachs, Peter Smith, Karina von Schuckmann, James C. Zachos

Abstract. We describe scenarios that define how rapidly fossil fuel emissions must be phased down to restore Earth's energy balance and stabilize global climate. A scenario that stabilizes climate and preserves nature is technically possible and it is essential for the future of humanity. Despite overwhelming evidence, governments and the fossil fuel industry continue to propose that all fossil fuels must be exploited before the world turns predominantly to clean energies. If governments fail to adopt policies that cause rapid phase-down of fossil fuel emissions, today's children, future generations, and nature will bear the consequences through no fault of their own. Governments must act immediately to significantly reduce fossil fuel emissions to protect our children's future and avoid loss of crucial ecosystem services, or else be complicit in this loss and its consequences. Continued...

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Defending the Atmosphere

by William S. Becker

In response to a lawsuit that argues greenhouse gas emissions are a “public nuisance”, three of Congress’s most active opponents of responsible climate policy filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last February. Rep. Fred Upton, Rep. Ed Whitfield and Sen. James Inhofe told the Justices it is inappropriate and unnecessary for courts to get involved in America’s climate policy.

Upton chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce; Whitfield chairs the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power; and Inhofe is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. All three are prominent Republican opponents of climate action, working among other things to scuttle EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.  Continued...

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Getting “More Crop Per Drop” to Strengthen Global Food Security

From the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Increasing demand for water continues to put a strain on available water sources, threatening the livelihood of millions of small-scale farmers who depend on water for their crops. At a time when one in eight people lack access to safe water, Nourishing the Planet points to low-cost, small-scale innovations to better manage this vital resource. These efforts are increasing the availability of water for crops and helping farmers improve crop productivity and become more food-secure.

Seventy percent of the world’s freshwater is used for irrigation, and global water resources are drying up as climate change takes hold and population growth continues. 60 percent of the world’s hungry people live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa—most of them on small farms—where they do not have a reliable source of water to produce sufficient yields. Only 4 percent of the cultivated land in sub-Saharan Africa is currently equipped for irrigation. 95 percent of cropland in the region depends on rain, and climate scientists predict that rainfall on the continent will decline in the coming decades. But there is great potential to expand irrigation with small-scale solutions.  Continued...

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The Oil War at Home

by William S. Becker

Who should we blame for high gasoline prices? The president? Oil companies? Price gougers? Protesters in the Arab Spring? People who drive Hummers?

The answer to that question is one of the first serious issues of the 2011 presidential campaign. It's an issue that could -- and perhaps should -- become an oil war at home, politically speaking.

The issue is heating up because gas prices affect us all, whether we're buying fuel, food or consumer goods. Rising gas prices threaten our recovery from the recession and our ability to put Americans back to work.

To anticipate how the price of oil might unfold as a campaign issue, we can look to California in 2006. One of the initiatives on California's ballot that year was Proposition 87 to establish a new tax on petroleum extracted from the state's oil fields. The tax would have raised $400 million annually to fund alternative energy programs, with the goal of cutting the state's oil consumption 25 percent over 10 years.

Proposition 87 contained a clear prohibition against oil companies passing the cost of the tax to consumers by raising fuel prices. The tax would have to come out of profits. In July 2006, polls indicated that 51 percent of California's voters supported the initiative.

Then in August, opponents launched an aggressive campaign of television ads supported in part by more than $30 million from Chevron. The ads claimed Proposition 87 would result in higher gasoline prices -- despite the prohibition in the initiative.  Continued...

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