Sandy at Atlantic City

Analysis of data from Sandy as it moved toward Atlantic City, NJ on October 29, 2012 and then as it moved inland and away from Atlantic City on October 30th, 2012.

by Sci5

Graph 1: Air Temperature

We made several different graphs in TinkerPlots of the observations from the Atlantic City, NJ airport to try to figure out what happened in the storm.



Graph 1: As Sandy moves toward land, the air temperature gets warmer. At landfall, the air temperature peaks at about 17°C. As Sandy moves inland, the temperature cools. After Sandy, the air temperature is about 6°C.

This shows that Sandy was bringing warm air. The air was warmed because of the warm sea surface of the Atlantic, which was about 5°C warmer than usual for this time of year.

After Sandy, the wind was blowing from the South-West, bringing colder air into the area.

Graph 2: Wind Speed

Graph 2: As Sandy came closer to land, the winds increased. The winds peaked at about 40 mph. As the eye of the storm passed over Atlantic City, there was sudden drop in wind speed, down to about 10 mph. After about an hour, the winds quickly rose back to peak strength.

As Sandy moves inland and away from Atlantic City, the wind speeds drop significantly.

Graph 3: Air Pressure

Graph 3: As Sandy moves toward Atlantic City, the air pressure gets lower. As the air pressure gets lower, the storm gets stronger. The air pressure is at its lowest when the eye is passing over Atlantic City.

After landfall and Sandy is moving inland, the air pressure gets higher. As the air pressure increases, the storm gets weaker.

Graph 4: Wind Speed vs Air Pressure

Graph 4: If we look at wind speed and air pressure together, we see a diagonal line from upper left to lower right.

This means these two measurements must be connected.

As air pressure decreases, the wind speeds increase.

Tropical cyclones are stronger when there is lower air pressure. Areas of high air pressure cause the storms to get weaker.

Graph 5: Precipitation

Graph 5: There was not very much rain during this storm. It peaked at about 0.6 inch per hour.

The heaviest rains were as Sandy made landfall.

The air in front of Sandy had more moisture than the air behind Sandy.

Sandy caused warm, humid air to blow from off the Atlantic from the East as it approached. After Sandy left, colder, drier air blew in from off the land South-west of Atlantic City.

NASA IceBridge

	NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE)
11/21/12, 1:48 PM New story and video about #IceBridge mission over Recovery Glacier: Anatomy of an IceBridge Mission. go.nasa.gov/10uIcfE

Sci5: Analysis of Sandy

Sci5 is investigating data from JFK airport for October 29-30, 2012. The approach and departure of Superstorm Sandy.

The first graph we made was to look at the changes in air temperature over the course of Sandy at JFK airport.

We noticed that as Sandy approached, the air got warmer and then as Sandy departed the air got cooler. The temperature peaked at about 4:30 pm on 10/29 when Sandy was at its closest point to us.

At Mark Elliot's (of The Weather Channel) suggestion, we looked at the direction the winds were coming from and how they related to the temperature of the air.

As Sandy approached, it was pulling air from the NE. This air was coming from off the Atlantic Ocean and was warmer and more humid. As Sandy departed, the winds switched around to the SW, pulling dryer and colder air from inland.

Stay tuned for more analysis.

Sandy Stories

These are first-hand accounts, observations, and reflections on the experiences of 4th and 5th Graders as they rode out the storm known as "Hurricane Sandy," "Superstorm Sandy," or "Frankenstorm" the week of 29 October 2012.

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Track of Hurricane Sandy
Position of Landfall

"A few days ago my family and I collected all lot of toys and clothing for kids in shelters who were effected by Hurricane Sandy. It was great knowing that I was making someone who is less fortunate than I am happier. It also let me appreciate how much I have, and that there are people in the world who now do not have anything."

"The Sandy storm did not affect me although I do hope that everyone is ok.  I heard that Staten Island and Fire Island got it really bad.  On Monday night, the night that the hurricane made landfall, I looked out the window from my apartment and saw that the scaffolding on the street across from me was flying around and almost hit a car moving on the street.  There were a lot of pieces of metal going around and around."

"The worst part for me is when your house loses power. The first time it happend my heart jumped but luckily we were prepared so, we had candles already lit. The second time we lost power I stood up immediately and started breathing very hard.  It was very quiet for a moment and I was very scared  because we were not prepared and couldn't find the candles and flash lights, we rushed to go find the candles but then the power went on again. That is the worst part for me it always makes me very aware of every little sound and motion and it makes me freeze like a statue. Your senses go up very quick and your mind starts to get frantic because of the sudden total darkness."

"The night it happend there was a huge tree by my bedroom window and it was swaying very hard which I thought was very unusual for trees and my parents told me to stay out of my room. When I openend my window it sounded almost as piercing as when you open the car window on a highway."

"Nothing really hit me but I was watching the crane that was dangling and it looked pretty bad. I also was watching Atlantic City and almost the whole Atlantic City was flooded. I barely got any rain but it was pretty windy neer me, and some trees fell.

"I saw the water of the Hudson River rise up the Palisades.  This was the highest I have ever seen the river flood."

"During Hurricane Sandy when I went into my room I saw the glass shaking and it was cold inside because the wind was moving the glass back and letting the cold air in. I pushed the window back and I felt how strong the wind was. It was a little frightening to think that the window might break, but luckily it stayed in one piece."

"In the storm, 3 trees fell on people's houses in my neighborhood  and the one that I saw was about 6 inches away from falling on my neighbor's house. The wind was LOUD then soft and it made a wooshing sound on and on that night. We thought the power or electricity would go out about an hour before it did but the lights where flickering."  

"My Story about Sandy is that during the storm, I had power. Then on Saturday the 3rd of November, a circuit blew on the pole that held all the power cords to all the people on my street, and we think it's because a tree was putting pressure on the cords. I wasn't going to get power until November 9th, on Friday, but I got it back on November 5th, on Monday."

"It really didn't hit us that bad. Probably not as bad as it hit you. A tree fell down in our neighborhood."

"In my neighborhood a tree fell it brought up the whole sidewalk. I was so scared because it fell on my friend's grandma's car. I was also sacred that the tree would go the the other way and damage the building next to it. Up the street three cars had power lines fall on them. Near my local library a tree fell on a house and near the library they lost power. It was a scary time!"

How Astronomy Came of Age

	Guardian Science (@guardianscience)
11/2/12, 12:14 PM How astronomy came of age: changing models of the solar system - video gu.com/p/3bfz6/tf

This is a really good video that explains how our understanding of the cosmos has changed as we have learned more. Science is not static. Keep asking questions keep questioning what we think we understand. 

SlowMo Sandy from Earth Observatory (@NASA_EO)

	Earth Observatory (@NASA_EO)
10/31/12, 6:51 PM Hurricane Sandy in slow motion, October 25-31 from GOES-14 Rapid Scan bit.ly/T8B04u

Tweet from NASA Goddard Time Lapse of Sandy

	NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard)
10/30/12, 2:18 PM Check out this global view of Hurricane Sandy's birth to landfall [hd video] bit.ly/VBD70O

NASA Satellite of Sandy

	NASA (@NASA)
10/29/12, 7:19 PM Hurricane #Sandy just before it made landfall this afternoon. Image from our Suomi @NASANPP satellite. go.nasa.gov/S9El2t

Sandy From the ISS

	Amiko Kauderer (@amikokauderer)
10/29/12, 5:45 PM Stunning view of today's #ISS pass over Hurricane #Sandy: go.nasa.gov/TQyIFL

NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE) Mascot

	NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE)
10/23/12, 11:02 PM The #IceBridge mascot overseeing scientific data collection today on a DC-8 mission over Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica. pic.twitter.com/Y9Mcd1MK

MSL Curiosity Observing Martian Soil

	MSL Curiosity (@MSL_101)
10/21/12, 2:20 PM That is number 4! twitpic.com/b692ce #MSL

Tweet from NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE)

	NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE)
10/21/12, 10:41 AM The #IceBridge mascot in action over the Bellingshausen Sea. Help us choose a name by sending us your suggestions. pic.twitter.com/FGsHWaeS

Sci5: Evaporation Lab Part 2

Evaporation Lab Data & Analysis

by Sci5

Based on our data, we see a diagonal line where the data clusters. In general, as the temperature of the water increases, so does the relative humidity in the chamber. We think this means that warmer water creates higher evaporation rates.

To test our data, we need to test water that is about 50°C. If we are correct, the relative humidity should be about 75%.

Sci5: Evaporation Lab

Evaporation Lab
by Sci5

We are trying to figure out if evaporation is different over different temperatures of water. We are also trying to figure out if this is part of what causes the wind in hurricanes.

Lab Setup

We are testing this by putting a beaker of water at different temperatures into closed chamber. We put probes into the chamber to test the changes in air temperature, water temperature and relative humidity inside the chamber over a ten minute period. We are using Vernier LabQuests and LoggerPro to record the data.

We are also running a control trial with each water temperature, but the beaker and probes are not in the closed container. They are sitting in a table in the classroom. We noticed that the humidity does not change on the control. We think that the humidity doesn't change because the is a bigger air volume in the room than the chamber.

Our predictions were that there would be more evaporation over hot water. We noticed that Nadine was stronger over warmer water. The hotter water is, the more steam it lets off.

Posted with Blogsy

Sci4: The Big Chill

Math5: Typical Commute

Sci5: Chat With Pilot Phil Hall

Chat with Global Hawk Pilot Phil Hall
by Sci5

Our class got a chance to have an online chat with NASA/NOAA Global Hawk Pilot Phil Hall. We got a chance to ask him a lot of questions about the plane and his work and he shared a lot of interesting stuff with us. Phil joined us from NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Emily joined us from NASA Ames Research Center, both in California.

eschaller:We have a classroom in New York online. The students are logging in right now.
pghall1:Very good!

eschaller: How many students are in your classroom right now?
MWMathSci:We have 11 students.

MWMathSci:Hi Phil. Thanks for sharing your time with us today.
pghall1:I'm happy to. I like talking about our project.

MWMathSci Phil how long were you on mission duty for each flight.
pghall1: Hi! Our duty time depends... when we are flying at Wallops, we launch and recover the aircraft, so we fly 3-4 hours each day. When we are flying at Dryden, we are mostly over the ocean, so we fly up to 12 hrs, but usually it is 10 hours... It is very odd, flying an aircraft off the coast of Africa... from California!

NASA Dryden Mission Control

 

MWMathSci:Do you use satellite relays to communicate with the plane?
pghall1:Yes- we use a number of different commercial satellites....most of them were designed for voice or TV, but we use them for controlling the aircraft and getting data back from the aircraft, such as images and science data.

MWMathSci: What has your goal been in this research?
pghall1:The goal of this research is to study the formation and intensification of tropical storms and hurricanes. It's very important work, and the Global Hawk is very, very well suited for this because it carries large payloads and flies for very long durations- up to 30 hours!

MWMathSci: What interested you in being a pilot?
pghall1:I've been flying the GH for about 3 years. I love flying, and learning about things that fly. I'm also an aerospace engineer.

MWMathSci:What is the most surprising data you have collected?
pghall1:The most surprising data? That was when we fly to the north pole, it was the warmest air that we ever flew in! Who would have guessed that? not me.

MWMathSci:Is piloting the plane physically hard?
pghall1:Flying the GH is very different than other aircraft. Most of the input is with a mouse and keyboard, so no, it's not physically difficult, like say a fighter plane is.
eschaller: Phil, does flying the Global Hawk almost feel like playing a video game?
pghall1:Actually, it does not feel that way at all to me. Primarily because it's a 30,000lb aircraft flying around other aircraft, so it is much more intense than a game.

MWMathSci:When is the test flight for AV1? What's the flight plan for tomorrow?
pghall1: AV-1 should fly this Friday. We are doing testing right now. Tomorrow, we have a full test of AV-1 to test that all systems are working.... if that works out, we'll fly on Friday, just a short local flight to check everything out on the aircraft.

pghall1:Here is a very cool video of an entire GH flight, compressed down to less than 4 minutes!

MWMathSci:What was the approximate altitude of the flight in the video?
pghall1:The video was as high as 65,000 ft.
pghall1:On this video, you can see the GH with the proteus is a research project.

eschaller: Tropical Storm Nadine is still out in the Atlantic. There is a new tropical depression that may also form into a tropical storm http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
MWMathSci:Emily, is Nadine approaching record duration?
eschaller:The record is 28 days for a hurricane. Since Nadine has been a tropical storm for so long, I'm not sure if it qualifies. Nadine has been active for 21 days. I just checked and that means it has earned a spot among the top-five longest-lived tropical cyclones in Atlantic history going back to 1851.
pghall1:Emily, I wonder how they tracked stroms in 1851 w/o satellites?
eschaller:Phil, I've searched around and as best as I can tell, before satellites, they relied on ship and tropical island weather observations.
pghall1:That's pretty interesting. It must be much easier now that we can actually measure winds from space.
eschaller:Definitely!
MWMathSci:yes, shipboard obs were key... makes one wonder how much extrapolation has been used to estimate plots and intensities. Such a different world after GEOS!
pghall1:It's interesting that the GOES downlink for east coast is also at Wallops.
MWMathSci:Wallops is definitely an underrated center. A lot done there that most people don't know about. Happy to see them using social media to reach out more

MWMathSci:What got you interested in this research?
pghall1:I was interested in how unmanned aircraft could be used for environmental science for NASA and NOAA. The GH is now being used for studying our planet and our understanding of earth's processes. Important work!
MWMathSci:Are you "on loan" from USAF to NASA or is that your post?
pghall1:I am a NOAA (national oceanic and atmospheric administration) commissioned officer. www.noaacorps.noaa.gov/

MWMathSci: What other research platforms do you fly?
pghall1:I fly some of the NOAA aircraft and I am helping NOAA use UAS For their data collection. I fly the NASA King Air and the NOAA Twin Otter as well. http://youtu.be/bDwuF1n2jUA
MWMathSci:What kind of data is collected via those two?
pghall1:The Global Hawk is very different from anything else... can you figure out what would be different from a Twin Otter?
MWMathSci:maybe it cuts through clouds better?
pghall1:Actually, the GH has long skinny wings and does not handle turbulence that well. It also has a laminar flow airfoil (you can look that up). The King Air and Twin Otter are much better at flying in clouds and in bad weather. The NASA King Air does a variety of work, from studying wildfires to studying the ocean. http://goo.gl/j0GKn The NOAA Twin Otter, has a large capacity and flies very low. We study a lot of marine mammal with the Twin Otter. I've flown of *hundreds* of whales, all over the country. The NASA Twin Otter is used for icing research: http://goo.gl/R7uAf
MWMathSci:can King Air or Twin Otter be used for dropsonde deployment?
pghall1:They could, but typically, a higher altitude aircraft is used for dropsondes. NOAA uses a specially modified business jet, the Gulfstream for dropsondes. We are dropping up to 80 from the GH.

MWMathSci:Phil, how do the hand offs between DFRC and WFC work
pghall1:the handoff... It is actually pretty simple, we give the other center a link to the aircraft, so they can get all the aircraft status, we then go through a checklist to talk about what is going on, and then they give us control and we take the rest of the command and control links.

MWMathSci:Phil and Emily thanks so much for all this wonderful information, we have a lot to go back over. We're going to sign off now and head to lunch.
eschaller:Have a great day!
pghall1:Enjoy lunch.
eschaller:Thanks so much for logging in today Phil!
pghall1:I hope that you can follow our flight, we will be flying from Wallops to Dryden on Tuesday!
MWMathSci:Yay! We will check in on Tuesday. In sci class 1115-1200 edt on tues

MWMathSci:Phil this was especially fun because we met at the hanger at DFRC in Aug. I had photos of us in the hanger and mission control to share with them for visual reference
pghall1:Excellent, I enjoyed the questions!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Sci4: First Experimental Trial

Testing Light & Dark Seed Germination
by Sci4AO

We decided to first see if seeds need light to germinate. So we put half of seeds in a dark space and half of the seeds in a space with intense light that was always on. After 2 days, all the seeds in the light and the dark germinated. So that means you don't need light for RCBr seeds to germinate.

The seedlings didn't all look the same though. They grew differently in the dark than in the light.

In the dark, the seedlings had yellow closed cotyledons. The stems are really long and white. The testas were all off.

In the light, the seedlings had dark green open cotyledons that looked like clovers. The stems were shorter and light green. Most seedlings still had the testas attached between the stem and root.

RCBr Seedlings at Day 10
Grown in Dark on right, Grown in Constant Light on left.

We think that the seedlings in the dark didn't grow very well because they couldn't make any food (sugar). Plants need light to make their food. This is called PHOTOSYNTHESIS. No light, no green, no photosynthesis, no food = unhappy plants.

Next we want to try without water and at different temperatures.
We are pretty sure that they won't germinate without water. But we're not sure what will happen at warmer or colder temperatures.

Up, Up and Over Nadine

NASA Global Hawk AV6 
HS3 Mission
by Sci5HS

We have been following the Global Hawk missions from NASA Wallops. These flights are collecting data about hurricanes and tropical storms. Data is collected by drop sondes, and the planes as they fly above the storms at 60,000 feet.

NASA Global Hawk

We have been chatting with Global Hawk scientists, asking them questions about the airplane, the data, the drop sondes, and the hurricanes themselves. We're now trying to figure out how tropical storms and hurricanes get started. We think it has something to do with warm sea surface temperatures, evaporation, cold air temperatures. We think this somehow links to wind speeds. We are now trying to design a lab to test this hypothesis.

Lawn Mower flight path (top)
Wind Speeds (green)
Latitude (red)
Tropical Storm Nadine AV6 Flight

Sci4: Seed Embryo Alarm Clocks

What triggers germination?
by Sci4HR

We are trying to figure out what conditions seeds need to germinate. We are using Brassica rapa (RCBr) seeds, a.k.a. FastPlants to test how seeds react to different conditions. We created an experiment to test germination triggers. Germination triggers are like the seed embryo "alarm clocks."

We did our control trial last week.

Control Conditions:

• room temperature and water temperature are 26°C
• room lighting, lights on while in class, lights off at night and when we are not in the classroom
• constant water
• tap water
• there were no nutrients or soil used

Set Up:
We put a filter paper disk in petri dishes to act as a wick to keep the seeds moist. We put three RCBr seeds in each petri dish. These are our "germination chambers." We put our germination chambers in a small container with a water 1cm deep. Put everything on a counter in the room and waited to see what happened. After only 2 days the root had started to poke out of the testa in all of our seeds. After seven days we have small seedlings with roots, some fuzzy root hairs, the testas have started to come off, they have a stem and 2 clover-shaped, bright green cotyledons.

RCBr Control Trial Germination Chambers Day 7

An Exciting New Project

August-September is a time of renewal for teachers and students across the country. It's a time to start fresh and try new things. I have always looked at this time of year as my "New Year." This year, as I began to think about what I might do with my students this year, a new opportunity came my way. As I readied myself for heading to bed, I was greeted by my wife's iPad thrust in my face and being asked, "have you seen this?"


I found myself looking at a call for applications to a teacher workgroup to create curriculum for a hurricane research project. The project, "Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinal " or HS3, is a joint venture between NASA Dryden Flight Center, NASA Wallops Flight Center, NASA Ames Reseach Center and AERO Institute. NASA will deploy two Global Hawk drone aircraft into active storms to collect data that will help increase our understanding of the factors that influence storm development.

Those who know me are probably as surprised as I was that I had not seen this opportunity. Since Hurricane Mitch, I have developed and taught a semester-long hurricane study as part of my 5th grade science curriculum. This project was a perfect match for me. A couple of minor problems: the Institute was scheduled to start in less than a week in California and the Mars Science Laboratory landing was about to occur and we were committed to the weekend in Washington DC and NASA Goddard. Encouraged to take a risk, I spent the next seval hours pulling together my application (while she went to bed), not knowing how it would all work even if I were accepted. At 3:00am, I hit "send" on the final email in the application process and went to bed. Later that morning about 10:30am, my phone rang with the caller id displaying an unknown number from California! The half-hour phone conversation inviting me to particiapte left me even more sure this was a perfect opportunity for me, and even more nervous about how to make it happen. 24 hours of serious family teamwork and financial and logistical planning later, I was able to accept the offer.

As I write this post, Mars Science Laboratory is less than 100,000 miles from Mars and a pair of tropical storms (Ernesto and Florence) are brewing in the Atlantic. So, a few hours after MSL EDL (Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing) predawn tomorrow morning, my family will whisk me off from Goddard to the airport for my flight to California. 

In the coming days, weeks, and months, I will use this blog to share what I learn about the HS3 Mission, the process of developing a new curriculum, and my students' experience of it as we head throught the second half of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season. 

For more on the NASA HS3 Mission

• NASA HS3 Mission site