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Where Does
the Water Go? Perhaps, says Dr. Frank Robertson of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville, Ala. But we need to know the details of "how" in order to anticipate when and where these events will occur in the future. While El Nino is getting a lot of press for weather and climate problems, Robertson says we are just now learning what questions to ask as we try to understand how Earth's weather and climate work. Robertson's specialty is the role of water in absorbing, moving, and dumping energy in the atmosphere and how that drives climate. A broad array of sensors now aboard satellites, and to be launched soon in the Earth Observing System program, will let scientists use El Nino and other events as experiments run by Mother Nature. The data can be used to validate computer models or "hold their feet to the fire" and see how to refine them for improving prediction capabilities. Contact: Dr. Franklin Robertson at the GHCC, 205-922-5836. |
Searching
for the Solar Dynamo: In recent years, ground and space telescopes have let astronomers detect and measure gas flows jostling up and down in granules, or across the globe in jet streams, at speeds ranging up to 2 km/s (4,500 mph). While energetic, most of these are small-scale circulation patterns that don't account for all of the energy movement in the sun. Hathaway is trying to filter out that hurly-burly in a quest for signs of giant cells moving at just 10 meters a minute (20 mph). Giant cells would represent much larger movements below the surface of the sun and may hold the key to its inner dynamics of the sun - including the dynamo that drives its magnetic field through a 22-year cycle - and to the comings and goings of sunspots. Contact: Dr. David Hathaway, 205-544-7610. |
A Clearer
View of Cataracts: Dr. David Noever of NASA-Marshall says that aspects of NASA's protein crystal research could be used on cataracts. Diagnostic instruments being developed to detect the onset of crystal formation in space could be used to detect the earliest stages of cataracts. And understanding the mechanics of protein crystallization could help us understand why cataracts start and how they grow. Contact: Dr. David Noever at (205) 544-7783. |
Mystery of
the Broken Tether: Dr. Stone and members of the Tether science team believe that air, trapped inside the tether, leaked out of a small in the insulation and ignited an electrical arc that burned the tether. After the break, the continued gas leakage and tether material vaporized by the arc apparently kept the current going. Despite the loss of the satellite, Stone says that results form the TSS-1R mission compose one of the best data sets available on the behavior of electrically charged bodies in space and the collection of current from space plasmas. Even the surprising behavior of the system after the tether break may lead to more efficient designs for future space power systems. Contact: Dr. Nobie Stone, 205-544-7642 |
Curator: Linda Porter
NASA Official: Gregory S.
Wilson
Autumn
blizzards in the West, droughts in Africa ... blame El Nino, right?
to top
In the middle
of a hurricane it's tough to look for the gentle currents that move the
ocean. That's what Dr. David Hathaway of NASA/Marshall is doing as he looks
for the dynamo that drives the sun's magnetic fields and its sunspots.
As many
people grow older their eyesight fails when their lenses - which focus light
on the retina - harden and turn cloudy and finally opaque. The problem,
which has a public health cost of about $7 billion a year, lies partly in
the structure of the lens - it's 35 percent protein (double the ratio of
lean muscle). During protein crystallization, whether in a solution or in
the body, salts can cause the protein molecules to aggregate and eventually
form solid crystals. It's similar to methods NASA uses to grow protein crystals
in space for analysis on the ground.
When
an electrical wire breaks, current stops flowing and the lights go out.
Scientist were, therefore, amazed that when the wire in the Tethered Satellite
System broke, current continued to flow! In February, 1996, the Tethered
Satellite System deployed a satellite on a long, conducting tether to a
distance of 19.7 km (almost 12 miles) above the Space Shuttle. As the system
approached full deployment, the tether suddenly snapped and the satellite,
dangling its 19.7 km of tether hardware, drifted off into space and was
lost. The system was designed so that the electrical circuit was closed
by equipment on the Orbiter. Yet, for 90 seconds after the tether broke,
one ampere of current continued to flow through the tether as the satellite
and its tether drifted rapidly away from the Orbiter. How could a current
flow through the broken wire?