Cousin of Weather Tidbits

Goodnight Irene!

The name "Irene" has been retired from the official list of Atlantic hurricane names by the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) hurricane committee, because of the death and destruction it caused in August 2011.

It will be replaced by Irma.

Storm names are reused every six years, unless retired for causing a considerable amount of casualties or damage.

Irene is the 76th name to be retired from the Atlantic list since 1954.

Forecasters formally begin naming Atlantic Basin in 1950, using names from the international phonetic alphabet of the time: Able, Baker, Charlie, and so on. They started using female, English-language names in 1953, and switched to alternating male and female names in 1979. They also began using French and Spanish male and female names at this time.

Irene was directly responsible for 49 deaths: five in the Dominican Republic, three in Haiti, and 41 in the United States. For the USA, six deaths are attributed to storm surge/waves or rip currents, 15 to wind, including falling trees, and 21 to rainfall-induced floods. Including flood losses, damage in the United States is estimated to be $15.8 billion.

"Bye, Bye Birdie"

GOES-7, one of NOAA’s earliest geostationary satellites, was moved into a higher orbit and retired from service. Launched in 1987, GOES-7 first served as a critical weather satellite, capturing images of developing hurricanes and other severe storms that impacted the United States.

On April 12, GOES-7 was “retired” from service through a final burn from its booster, which moved it approximately 186 miles above its operational geostationary orbit to a “graveyard orbit”, such that it will not interfere with other satellites. 

Currently, NOAA operates GOES-13 and GOES-15, which are providing continuous coverage of the United States and the Western Hemisphere. NOAA also has two other geostationary satellites in orbit – GOES-12, which provides data for meteorologists in South America, and GOES-14, which is in storage orbit as a ready replacement.

Sunshine On My Shoulder

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have discovered a previously unreported solar feature -- Coronal Cells -- where high-temperature coronal emission is confined to discrete plumes that extend upward from unipolar concentrations of magnetic flux. The NRL researchers think that future studies of these cellular regions will lead to an improved understanding of magnetic field line reconnection at the boundaries of coronal holes, and how these changes are transmitted outward into the solar wind.