Nine months. Four oceans, five continents. Over 40,000 nautical miles. There's a reason why they call the Volvo Ocean Race the world's toughest
ocean challenge - and here it is. A trophy desired by so many, but
lifted by so few, every three years, the best sailors on the planet step
out of the comfort zone to truly test themselves against Mother Nature.
Climate is changing faster than ever. Alex has become a hurricane near the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It marks the first Atlantic hurricane to form in the month of January since 1938 and is the first Atlantic hurricane to exist during January since Alice in 1955. Alex formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, making it one of the earliest tropical systems to form in the Atlantic Hurricane Basin since records began in 1851. Images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show Hurricane Alex as it moves north over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday. (NOAA)
The low pressure area known as System 90L developed rapidly since Jan. 13 and became Hurricane Alex on Jan. 14. Several satellites and instruments captured data on this out-of-season storm.
NASA's RapidScat instrument observed sustained winds shift and intensify in the system and NASA's Aqua satellite saw the storm develop from a low pressure area into a sub-tropical storm.
NOAA's GOES-East satellite data was made into an animation that showed the development of the unusual storm.
Early on Jan. 13 (left) NASA's RapidScat instrument saw the strongest sustained winds near 27 meters per second (60.4 mph/97.2 kph) northwest of center.
Eight hours later strongest sustained winds near 30 mps (67.1 mph/108 kph) shifted east of center. Credit: NASA JPL/Doug Tyler
Twice on Jan. 13 NASA's RapidScat instrument measured the strongest sustained winds in what was then a tropical low pressure area called "System 90L."
RapidScat flies aboard the International Space Station. RapidScat's earliest view of System 90L showed strongest sustained winds were near 27 meters per second (mps)/60.4 mph/97.2 kph) and were located northwest of center.
Eight hours later at 1200 UTC (7 a.m. EST) strongest sustained winds shifted east of center and increased to near 30 mps (67.1 mph/108 kph), making them tropical-storm force.
Later in the day at 2100 UTC (4 p.m. EST) satellite images indicated that the low pressure system developed into a subtropical storm and was named Alex.
At the time, Alex was located near 27.1 degrees north latitude and 30.8 degrees west longitude, about 782 miles (1,260 km) south-southwest of the Azores.
By 1500 UTC (10 a.m. EST) on January 14, hurricane force winds extended outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 150 miles (240 km).
Hurricane Alex on Jan. 14 at 15:30 UTC (10:30 a.m. EST) in the central Atlantic Ocean.
The
image revealed an eye and showed bands of thunderstorms spiraling into
the low level center of circulation. Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid
Response
An animation of GOES-East satellite visible and infrared imagery from Jan. 10 to 14 showed the development of Hurricane Alex in the Central Pacific Ocean.
The animation was created at the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The animation showed the sub-tropical low pressure area consolidate quickly on Jan. 13 and reach hurricane status on Jan. 14, 2016.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Hurricane Alex on Jan. 14 at 15:30 UTC (10:30 a.m. EST) in the central Atlantic Ocean.
The image revealed an eye and showed bands of thunderstorms spiraling into the low level center of circulation.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Alex is the first hurricane to form in the month of January since 1938.
Alex is also the first North Atlantic hurricane thriving in January since Alice of 1955, which formed on Dec. 30, 1954. Alice developed on December 30, 1954 from a trough of low pressure in the central Atlantic Ocean in an area of unusually favorable conditions.
This animation of GOES-East satellite imagery from Jan. 10 to 14 shows the development of Hurricane Alex in the Central Pacific Ocean. Credit; NASA/NOAA GOES Project
The Azores Meteorological Service has issued a Hurricane Warning for the islands of Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, Graciosa, and Terceira in the central Azores, and a Tropical Storm Warning for the islands of Sao Miguel and Santa Maria in the eastern Azores.
A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, Graciosa, and Terceira in the central Azores and a Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Sao Miguel and Santa Maria in the eastern Azores.
At 10 a.m. EST (1500 UTC), the National Hurricane Center said that the center of Hurricane Alex was located near latitude 31.5 North, longitude 28.4 West.
Alex was moving toward the north-northeast near 20 mph (31 kph) and a turn toward the north with an increase in forward speed is expected over the next day or two.
On the forecast track, the center of Alex will move near or over portions of the Azores Friday morning, Jan. 15.
Maximum sustained winds are near 85 mph (140 kph) with higher gusts. Little change in strength is forecast through Friday.
The estimated minimum central pressure is 981 millibars.
NHC's Forecaster Pasch said "Remarkably, Alex has undergone the transformation into a hurricane. A distinct eye is present, embedded within a fairly symmetric mass of deep convection.
It is very unusual to have a hurricane over waters that are near 20 degrees Celsius, but the upper-tropospheric temperatures are estimated to be around -60 degrees Celsius, which is significantly colder than the tropical mean.
The resulting instability is likely the main factor contributing to the tropical transition and intensification of Alex."
Alex is expected to maintain hurricane status on Friday, Jan. 15 and transition into an extra-tropical storm by Jan. 16 as it continues to move north toward Greenland.
The European refugee crisis
isn’t so much a crisis as it is a catastrophe.
Fleeing violence in
Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria, more than a million
migrants crossed by sea into Europe in 2015.
Almost 4,000 of them lost their lives in the journey.
The sea crossings can be especially dire, as leaky, unsafe boats
capsize or break apart in rough water.
In Greece the danger has proven
massive, particularly off the island of Lesvos, which takes in an
average of 2,000 refugees daily.
Every day around Lesvos the Coast Guard must rescue boats that have
capsized, run out of fuel, or simply broken down.
Which is why the Coast
Guard invited a team from Texas A&M University’s Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue to launch a pilot project this week for a very special robot—Emily, the Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard.
Think of Emily as a life preserver melded with a jet ski. It’s about
four feet long and shaped like a pickle spear.
An operator remotely
controls the robot, tethered to a rope up to 2,000 feet long, to
migrants struggling at sea.
The victims take hold of the buoyant bot and
a rescuer reels the line in.
Quadcopter drones called Fotokites, themselves tethered on 30-foot ropes near the operators, pipe back an overhead view.
In fact, NGOs on the island had already been thinking about using
UAVs to aid rescue efforts, says Robin Murphy, the Texas A&M
roboticist running the project.
“In the meantime we were saying, ‘You’re
talking about people drowning,'” Murphy says.
“There’s this new
technology, Emily, these robots that are life preservers.”
UAVs turn out
to run afoul of Greek aviation regulations anyway—and a tethered
quadcopter isn’t considered a UAV.
Combined with Emily, the drones make
for a powerful (and legal) way to spot and save people in the water.
It's deployable from both boat and land and hit speeds of 20 mph
At a constant full speed of 20 mph, the robot has enough juice for 20
minutes at sea, plenty of time to make several trips to fetch
victims—especially since it only needs to propel itself on the outbound
leg.
And it’s buoyant enough to hold five people at once.
“We can run the boat out there and we can start plucking people that
can actually hold on and get them out of the way,” says John Sims, a
fire captain formerly of the US Coast Guard, who’s operating the robots
for the deployment.
“And then the live lifeguard can do his job and get
out there to get the unconscious people.”
That’s the plan, anyway. Emily has never faced a test like this.
The
robot has helped struggling swimmers here in there in America, but
deploying it in Greece is a tremendous scale-up.
“One has to be a little bit careful,” says M. Ani Hsieh, co-chair of
the Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics committee at the IEEE Robotics
and Automation Society.
“What many people who work with rescue robots
will tell you is a lot of things start with good intentions.”
You never
really know what the best use is for a robot “until you actually have
people on the ground and see things being tested.”
It may well be, for
instance, that Emily is more useful for plucking a single swimmer out of
the water instead of big groups.
The buoyant bot can hold around 5 people.
And as with any interaction between humans and increasingly
sophisticated robots, the pilot project has risks.
Its designers know,
for example, that Emily’s long tether could get tangled in the propeller
of a Coast Guard boat.
(Those kinds of concerns led the Coast Guard to
prohibit the 81 NGOs on Lesvos from operating their own boats without
specific permission.)
But the important distinction here is the team has the Coast Guard’s
blessing.
Coordination among NGOs, independent volunteers, and the Greek
government has been lousy on Lesvos, says Boris Cheshirkov, spokesman
on Lesvos for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.
The Texas A&M roboticists hope to avoid those conflicts.
“As long as it’s coordinated with the government,” Cheshirkov says, “it
can only be a welcome addition to the response.”
The Emily team is confident enough in the robot’s abilities that it’s
already raising funds to leave one of the robots behind in Greece.
The
machine can’t stop war or uncapsize boats, but but any tool that helps
in the fight against catastrophe is a good one.
