China’s Wen: second global downturn possible

May 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

May 31 (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned on Monday that global economic growth remained vulnerable to sovereign debt risks and the possibility of a second downturn, while saying his own country’s growth remain on track.

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“The world economy is stable and beginning to revive, but this revival is slow and there are many uncertainties and destabilising factors,” Wen told a meeting with Japanese business leaders in Tokyo.

Wen mentioned problems of countries including Greece and added: “Is this phenomenon over? Now it seems that it is not so simple.” (Reporting by Chris Buckley)

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Japanese researchers film artificial butterfly in flight

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 20 (ANI): A group of Japanese researchers has succeeded in building a fully functional replica model – an ornithopter – of a swallowtail butterfly, and they have filmed it flying.

The wing area is very large relative to the body mass of Swallowtails. This combined with their overlapping fore wings gives them a low flapping frequency and a severely restricted wing motion.

As a result, swallowtails”” ability to actively control the aerodynamic force of their wings is limited and their body motion is a passive reaction to the simple flapping motion, and not – as common in other types of butterfly – an active reaction to aerodynamics.

The researchers built a lifelike ornithopter in the same dimensions as the butterfly in order to replicate this phenomenon.

Using motion analysis software, the researchers were able to monitor the ornithopter””s aerodynamic performance, showing that flight can be realised with simple flapping motions without feedback control, a model that can be applied to future aerodynamic systems. (ANI)

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Listening to Mozart ‘doesn’t make you brainier’

May 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 11 (ANI): People, who were listening to Mozart in the hope of boosting their intelligence, can stop now – as according to scientists the Austrian composer’s creations won’t make you smart.

For over 15 years, scientists have been discussing alleged performance-enhancing effects of hearing classical music. Now, University of Vienna researchers Jakob Pietschnig, Martin Voracek and Anton K. Formann present quite definite results on this so-called “Mozart effect” in the US journal Intelligence.

These new findings suggest no evidence for specific cognitive enhancements by mere listening to Mozart”s music.

In 1993, in the journal Science, the “Mozart effect” was first suggested by a scientific study, reports The Telegraph.

That study showed that teenagers who listened to Mozart”s 1781 Sonata for Two Pianos in D major performed better in reasoning tests than adolescents who listened to something else or who had been in a silent room.

However, now a team from Vienna University”s Faculty of Psychology has analysed all studies since 1993 that have sought to reproduce the Mozart effect and found no proof of the phenomenon”s existence.

“Those who listened to music, Mozart or something else – Bach, Pearl Jam – had better results than the silent group. But we already knew people perform better if they have a stimulus,” said Jakob Pietschnig, who led the study.

“I recommend everyone listen to Mozart, but it”s not going to improve cognitive abilities as some people hope,” he added. (ANI)

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Consumer”s “positivity bubble” easy to burst

April 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 20(ANI): People build a “positivity bubble” while choosing between two good products. However, a new study has found that it is quite easy to burst the bubble.

Ab Litt and Zakary L. Tormala from Stanford University have explained the phenomenon in the new study.

Tormala said: “From routine cereal-aisle shopping to expensive big-ticket purchases, consumers are often free to choose among many similarly attractive options.

“In these contexts, it can be difficult to resolve one”s preferences to arrive at a purchasing decision.”

When decisions are difficult because the choices are equally appealing, people often become more positive in their attitudes and behaviors toward their chosen option after they choose it. But the authors found that this enhancement of a product is surprisingly fragile, and collapses easily in the face of even minor negative information about it.

The authors wrote: “We show that the process is more like inflating a ”positivity bubble,” where there”s an appearance of strong positive attitudes, but which masks a heightened vulnerability to ultimately collapsing.”

In three experiments, researchers asked consumers to make easy or difficult decisions to select one of two products (digital cameras or car stereos). Easy decisions were between a liked and disliked option, based on participants” earlier ranking of products. Difficult decisions were between two options that were ranked and liked similarly in that earlier stage.

The experts added: “Difficult decision scenarios with heightened stakes-such as shopping for expensive durable goods, choosing a gift for a loved one, or choosing a job, college, or house-are precisely those in which people would most hope to have accurate and stable attitudes.

“Perversely, our results suggest that in these cases their attitudes might actually be the most fragile and bubble-like, appearing strong but actually quite vulnerable to collapse.”

They concluded: “For consumers, our results suggest that the motivation to enhance and build up products chosen with difficulty (especially in important decisions) might boost happiness with them in the short term, but carry the risk of even greater dissatisfaction over time and experience.”

The study has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research. (ANI)

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Brainstorming and creativity do not go hand in hand

March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 30 (ANI): Brainstorming may not be the best way to get creative juices flowing among people, groups, or organizations, according to an upcoming study from Applied Cognitive Psychology.

The researchers from Texas A&M University show that group brainstorming exercises can lead to fixation on only one idea or possibility, blocking out other ideas and possibilities, and leading eventually to a conformity of ideas.

“Fixation to other people’s ideas can occur unconsciously and lead to you suggesting ideas that mimic your brainstorming partners. Thus, you potentially become less creative,” said lead researcher Nicholas Kohn.

The researchers used AOL Instant Messenger as their electronic discussion format when conducting the experiments, which included groups of two, three, and four subjects.

The study and other researches have also shown that taking a break (allowing for a mental incubation period in participants) can stem the natural decline in quantity (production deficit) and the variety of ideas, and encourage problem solving.

Thus, group creativity may be an overestimated method to generate ideas and individual brainstorming exercises (such as written creativity drills) may be more effective.

If ideas are to be shared in a group setting, members of the group need to be aware of this fixation phenomenon, and take steps to prevent conformity.

This will lead to a more vibrant, fresh discussion and a wider range of possible solutions.

The study is published in the latest issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology. (ANI)

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Police undeterred by militant threats: J-K police chief

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Jammu/Doda (Jammu and Kashmir), Mar 26 (ANI): In response to bills issued by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) threatening local cops if they don”t quit their jobs, Jammu and Kashmir”s Director General of Police (DGP), Kuldeep Khuda, has said the state police is undeterred by the threats and would continue its frontal role in countering terrorism.

Khuda also said the threats were not a new phenomenon.

“We used to receive these kind of threats, of all types, in the past as well and Jammu and Kashmir Police, which is at the forefront and is playing a frontline role on anti-militancy front, will continue to do so and these threats have no meaning for us,” said Khuda.

Lashkar District Commander Gul Mohammad alias Molvi had issued the bills in the Sazaan area of Doda district. (ANI)

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Secrets behind sharp memory in ‘super-aged’ individuals revealed

March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 24 (ANI): The secret behind the super-sharp memory in elderly people—the so-called “super-aged” individuals—has now been unveiled.

Dr. Changiz Geula, and colleagues said that the “super-aged” individuals, actually somehow escaped formation of brain “tangles”, which consist of an abnormal form of a protein called “tau” that damages and eventually kills nerve cells.

Named for their snarled, knotted appearance under a microscope, tangles increase with advancing age and peak in people with Alzheimer”s disease.

“This discovery is very exciting. It is the first study of its kind and its implications are vast. We always assumed that the accumulation of tangles is a progressive phenomenon throughout the normal aging process. Healthy people develop moderate numbers of tangles, with the most severe cases linked to Alzheimer”s disease. But now we have evidence that some individuals are immune to tangle formation. The evidence also supports the notion that the presence of tangles may influence cognitive performance. Individuals with the fewest tangles perform at superior levels. Those with more appear to be normal for their age,” said Geula.

The findings are based on examination of the nine brains from super-aged individuals.

Subjects who volunteer for this study get a battery of memory and other tests and agree to donate their brains for examination after death. They are considered ”super- aged” because of their high performance on the tests.

The tests include memory exercises to evaluate their ability to recall facts after being told a story or their ability to remember a list of more than a dozen words and recall those words sometime later.

Geula said the new study is unique in its focus on what”s right with the brains of older people.

It looks for insights into what lifestyle, genetic, or other factors may protect super-aged individuals from the age-related memory loss that affects most other people.

The scientists found that super-aged people appear to fall into two subgroups— Those who are almost immune to tangle formation and those that have few tangles.

“One group of super-aged seems to dodge tangle formation. Their brains are virtually clean, which doesn”t happen in normal-aged individuals. The other group seems to get tangles but it”s less than or equal to the amount in the normal elderly. But for some reason, they seem to be protected against its effects,” explained Geula.

He said that the next step involves determining why one subgroup is immune to tangle formation and the other seems to be immune to its effects. Environment, lifestyle, and genetics may be key factors.

“Ultimately, chemistry is one of the keys to understanding what makes these tangles form. By understanding the specific anatomic, pathological, genetic, and molecular characteristics of high-performing brains, we may eventually be able to protect normal brains from age-related memory loss,” said Geula.

The study was presented at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). (ANI)

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When buying for others, consumers go for less healthy food items

March 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 23 (ANI): Consumers choose foods that are less healthy when they are purchasing for others, a new study has found.

The study has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research.

In a series of studies on food choice, author Juliano Laran (University of Miami) discovered that consumers exert more self-control when they make choices for themselves.

In one study, participants were asked to make a sequence of four choices from 16 items that were healthy (items like raisins, celery sticks, and cheerios) or indulgent (items like chocolate bars, cookies, Doritos, ice cream, and doughnuts). Half of the participants were asked to choose four items for themselves, while the others were asked to choose four items for a friend.

“When making choices for themselves, participants chose a balance of healthy and indulgent food items,” Laran writes. “When making choices for others, however, participants chose mostly indulgent food items.”

The author conducted another study of real consumers exiting a supermarket, which confirmed the earlier results, and showed that consumers bought equally indulgent items when purchasing for their families, friends, or roommates. A final study showed that consumer choices became more balanced after they were made aware of a healthy goal when making choices for others.

The author suggests that education could help consumers make more balanced choices when they are shopping for others. He also suggests that this phenomenon may be affecting public health.

“One of the reasons the population gets more and more obese is that a lot of the food we consume is chosen by other people, like friends throwing a party or parents buying for their children,” Laran writes. “Taking responsibility for their own choices instead of letting others choose could help consumers fight against obesity and lead a healthier lifestyle.” (ANI)

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Aussie dads lead world in parenting

March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, March 22 (ANI): Australian dads are better when compared to those in Italy, France or Denmark, says a study.

Lyn Craig, a senior research fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of NSW, found fathers Down Under worked harder than Danish, French or Italian ones and the same as Americans in terms of their long hours in paid work combined with their domestic labours.

For example, Australian fathers spend 10 to 11 hours a day in paid and domestic work as compared to eight hours for Danish men, according to researchers.

””They do less than Australian women but they compare favourably to men in some other countries,”” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Dr Craig as saying.

She added: ””Intensive parenting seems to be a phenomenon of Anglo countries. ”Australian men and women -but especially women – spend more time with their children than do parents in the other countries, with only the US coming close.”” (ANI)

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Pak Army’s offensive in tribal areas pushing country towards ‘civil war’: Imran Khan

March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar.19 (ANI): Criticising the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) led government for launching military operations in country’s tribal regions, cricketer turned politician Imran Khan has warned that the Pakistani army”s offensive is pushing the country to the brink of “civil war”.

“It”s civil war in the making,” Imran told London”s Evening Standard newspaper.

He also blasted the joint operation of Pakistani and the US forces in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, saying the offensive were actually turning more people against the government and America.

“They were like a bull in a china shop, fighting one or two guerrillas with aerial bombing of villages.That turned people against the army and a new phenomenon was created: the Pakistan Taliban,” The Dawn quoted Imran, as saying.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said instead of waging a war against its own people, the government should work for the development of the deprived strata of the society, which would help in preventing people from taking to militancy.

“You will have no problem with extremists in Pakistan if you have democracy with a welfare state,” Imran said. (ANI)

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”Paid news” a serous concern: Ambika Soni

March 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, March 5 (ANI): Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on Friday described the ”paid news” as a serious matter and, said right of the public to receive correct and balanced information needs to be ensured.

In response to a ”Calling Attention Notice” on the issue, Soni said in the Rajya Sabha today, ” There exists strong circumstantial evidence of the malpractices,” and added that the phenomenon of ”paid news” is a serious matter as it influences functioning of a free press.

“When paid information is presented as news content, it could mislead the public and thereby hamper their judgement to form a correct opinion. Thus, there is no denying the fact that there is an urgent need to protect public”s right to correct and unbiased information,” she added.

Soni claimed the issue has wide ranging implications on the democratic structure and, it was important for all sections of society to look into the matter seriously.

The Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) has named six newspapers carrying numerous ”paid news” stories, she said in response to the notice given by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury.

Concerned over the issue, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley said there should be a check on these malpractices and a regulator should be employed in the field to impose ”deterrent” penalties.

Jaitley sought to know from the Central Government whether they would take appropriate steps to root out the problem. (ANI)

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Men worry more about mates’ beliefs rather than partners’ when it comes to size of penis

September 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Melbourne, September 16 (ANI): An Australian study suggests that men seem to be more concerned about what their mates think rather than their partners, when it comes to the stature and size of their penis.

Annabel Chan, a PhD student at Melbourne’s Victoria University who obtained penis measurements from more than 500 men worldwide, describes this phenomenon as the “locker room syndrome”.

She has revealed that the men also answered questions designed to probe the link between penis size, male body image and mental health.

“It’s the locker room syndrome,” the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

“That’s when they feel they should be bigger whereas when they are on their own they are actually quite happy with themselves,” she added.

During the study, the researchers asked the men, aged 18 to 76, to indicate their ideal body size, and compare that to what they believed other men would nominate.

About 65 per cent of the participants said that their ideal male body size would be smaller than the ideal size suggested by others.

The men were also asked whether they believed they would be a better sexual partner if they had a bigger penis.

Chan said: “(The men were) more concerned about how their overall body-size compared to the perceived male ideal than they are about how their size might impact on their sexual relations.”

The online survey asked men to measure their erect penises.

Chan said that she expected to receive some overstated measurements, but the self-reported data fell within the normal range of about 10 to 15cm.

“I thought people would report themselves as being very big, but they have been quite average,” she said.

The study showed that men with larger than average penises also reported higher levels of self-esteem, better general health and higher overall body satisfaction.

It further revealed that men who were happy with the size of their penis were also less likely to have used an online dating service, or to have used Viagra.

Overweight men had lower self-esteem, higher body dissatisfaction and greater use of the Internet for socialising, said the researchers.

“We have relatively little data about the body image of men because most of the research in this area concentrates on women,” Chan said.

“It means men don’t really get much help in terms of therapy, and options out there to get help,” she added. (ANI)

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Jupiter made comet its temporary moon for 12 years in mid-20th century

September 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, September 14 (ANI): An international team of astronomers has discovered that Jupiter had captured the comet 147P/Kushida-Muramatsu as its temporary moon in the mid-20th century, in an irregular orbit for about twelve years.

There are only a handful of known comets where this phenomenon of temporary satellite capture has occurred and the capture duration in the case of Kushida-Muramatsu, which orbited Jupiter between 1949 and 1961, is the third longest.

The phenomenon was detected by an international team led by Dr. Katsuhito Ohtsuka that modeled the trajectories of 18 “quasi-Hilda comets”, objects with the potential to go through a temporary satellite capture by Jupiter that results in them either leaving or joining the “Hilda” group of objects in the asteroid belt.

Most of the cases of temporary capture were flybys, where the comets did not complete a full orbit.

However, Dr. Ohtsuka’s team used recent observations tracking Kushida-Muramatsu over nine years to calculate hundreds of possible orbital paths for the comet over the previous century.

In all scenarios, Kushida-Muramatsu completed two full revolutions of Jupiter, making it only the fifth captured orbiter to be identified.

According to Dr. David Asher, “Our results demonstrate some of the routes taken by cometary bodies through interplanetary space that can allow them either to enter or to escape situations where they are in orbit around the planet Jupiter.”

Asteroids and comets can sometimes be distorted or fragmented by tidal effects induced by the gravitational field of a capturing planet, or may even impact with the planet.

The most famous victim of both these effects was comet D/1993 F2 (Shoemaker-Levy 9), which was torn apart on passing close to Jupiter and whose fragments then collided with that planet in 1994.

Previous computational studies have shown that Shoemaker-Levy 9 may well have been a quasi-Hilda comet before its capture by Jupiter.

“Fortunately for us Jupiter, as the most massive planet with the greatest gravity, sucks objects towards it more readily than other planets and we expect to observe large impacts there more often than on Earth,” said Dr. Asher.

“Comet Kushida-Muramatsu has escaped from the giant planet and will avoid the fate of Shoemaker-Levy 9 for the foreseeable future”, he added. (ANI)

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Taliban now terrorise 80% of Afghanistan after eight years of war: Report

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Kabul, Sep. 11 (ANI): Almost eight years after the war began in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 carnage, the Taliban insurgency has spread across 80 percent of the country.

The violent incidents this week have drawn attention to the deteriorating security situation of northern Afghanistan, which had largely remained peaceful so far, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

The northern provinces are facing difficult times as heavy insurgent activity has spread to 80 percent of the country – up from 54 percent two years ago, the report says.

The militants’ focus has shifted to northern parts following continuous pressure from their Pakistani counterparts to attack NATO’s second supply route situated here, it adds.

“[Militants] have been trying to widen the ground for the insurgency in Afghanistan and now they have got momentum. The militants are eager to target this route to prevent a smooth supply chain from northern Afghanistan,” the report quoted Waliullah Rahmani, executive director of the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies, as saying.

Last week’s airstrike targeted two fuel tankers headed to supply NATO troops in Kabul that had been hijacked by the Taliban.

Although the increase in violence is only a recent phenomenon, the conditions had worsened long ago, the report says.

The violence can be linked to districts with large Pashtun populations, whose grievances the government has failed to address – making them sympathetic to the Taliban, who share their ethnicity and language, it adds.

“The districts which are turning violent are those which have had a very recent history of abuses against the Pashtuns.

The government has allowed these conditions to go unaddressed and this is now being addressed by the population by giving shelter to the Taliban and other insurgents,”the report quoted Prakhar Sharma, the head of research at the Center for Conflict and Peace Studies, as saying.(ANI)

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Aniston says her vocal performance in The Goree Girls “won’t be bad”

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 11 (ANI): Jennifer Aniston has promised that her vocal performance in The Goree Girls “won’t be bad”.

The former Friends star is back to rehearsing the seven notes as she prepares for her role in The Goree Girls, a film about a 1940s band formed by all-female prison inmates.

The 40-year-old Aniston who has attended New York’s High School of the Performing Arts as a teenager is now learning to play the guitar and says she won’t disappoint her fans.

Contactmusic quoted her as telling People.com: “I can carry a tune. It won’t be bad. Here’s the good news: the band – they weren’t musicians. They basically created a band in prison in order to get paroled.

“So you’re dealing with new singing voices and new instrument playing and somehow they find a way and become a huge phenomenon. It’s a true story.” (ANI)

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Soon, robot controlled by human brain cells

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Sept 10 (ANI): Scientists from University of Reading are working on developing a robot that would be controlled by human brain cells.

Lead researchers Kevin Warwick and Ben Whalley have already used rat brain cells to control a simple wheeled robot.

During the study, the researchers grew around 300,000 rat neurons in a nutrient broth and device producing spikes of electrical activity were connected to the output of the robot’s distance sensors.

The neurons could successfully steer the robot around a small enclosure.

Based on the findings rat models, the researchers are now working on steering the robot with the help of human brain cells.

The researchers believe that understanding how the neuron culture responds to stimulation could lead to deeper insights of neurological conditions such as epilepsy.

For instance, the way large numbers of neurons sometimes spike in unison – a phenomenon known as “bursting” – may be similar to what happens during an epileptic seizure.

The research team suggests if the behavior could be altered by changing the culture chemically, electrically or physically, it might pave way for potential therapies.

To make the system a better model of human disease, a culture of human neurons will be connected to the robot once the current work with rat cells is completed.

They will analyze the differences in the behavior of robots controlled by rat and human neurons.

“We’ll be trying to find out if the learning aspects and memory appear to be similar,” New Scientist quoted Warwick as saying. (ANI)

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Ang Lee ‘working on film version of Life of Pi’

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Nevada (US), Sept 9 (ANI): Oscar winner Ang Lee is working with a writer on film adaptation of Yann Martel’s fantasy “Life of Pi” about a boy from Pondicherry, India, who survives 227 days after shipwreck, according to reports.

Lee is quoted as saying: “It’s a very strong story, but it’s hard to crack.”

Acclaimed Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed, welcoming the film adaptation of this India influenced story, urged Lee to handle the Pi’s spirituality exploration and holistic edge with cultural sensitivity.

Expected to be released in 2011, Canadian Martel’s (Manners of Dying) Man Booker Prize and other awards winning novel is an adventure tale about 16-years old Pi Patel stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, orangutan, an injured zebra, and a hungry Bengal tiger in Pacific Ocean on his voyage from India to Canada.

It has sold well over one million copies and was a global publishing phenomenon. Keith Robinson adapted it into a play and toured England.

Oscar nominated M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men), and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen); and Dean Georgaris (What Happens in Vegas) have already dropped this project after preliminary exploration.

The Fox 2000 high profile film adaptation will be produced by Gil Netter (Personal Effects). (ANI)

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Angry Hindus in Karachi demand safe return of missing nurse

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Karachi, Sep.9 (ANI): Dozens of Hindus protested outside the Karachi Press Club demanding the safe return of a Hindu nurse, Bano, who went missing nearly three weeks ago.

People belonging to Maheshwari community protested outside the club carrying placards and banners and shouting slogans blaming police for Bano’s mysterious disappearance.

“Though the police have registered a case, nothing has been done for her return so far,” they said.

The elders of the community feared that Bano, who worked in a private hospital, might have been killed or forced to convert her religion.

One of the elders, Narain told the media persons that Bano had an altercation with the hospital administration just before she disappeared.

Angry agitators demanded that the government and concerned authorities ensure the safe release and return of Bano.

Forced conversion of Hindu women is not a new phenomenon in Sindh province as several such cases have been reported across the region in the past too, The Daily Times reported. (ANI)

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Susan Boyle story set to woo Japan

August 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, August 30 (ANI): The story of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ star Susan Boyle is set to end up in a TV show with a Japanese crew eager to record her fairytale rise to stardom.

The Scottish songbird, who turned into an overnight celebrity with her jaw dropping rendition of her audition song ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, will have her story filmed for a special documentary.

Japanese TV bosses will jet into the singing sensation’s hometown of Blackburn, West Lothian, reports the Mirror.

Filmmakers will also interview fans at the Happy Valley Pub where the 48-year-old star used to sing karaoke.

Her brothers Gerry, 55, and John, 52 may also for a part of the show set to be screened on primetime TV in mid-October.

Kanako Hiramoto, from NHK, said: “We wanted to tell the story of the Susan Boyle phenomenon and how the world responded to her remarkable performance on Britain’s Got Talent. People in Japan are fascinated by the story.” (ANI)

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Indian origin scientist finds tropical storms endure over wet land, fizzle over dry

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, August 27 (ANI): A scientist of Indian origin from Purdue University, in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, has determined in a new research that tropical storms endure over wet land, and fizzle when conditions are dry.

More than 30 years of monsoon data from India showed that ground moisture where the storms make landfall is a major indicator of what the storm will do from there.

If the ground is wet, the storm is likely to sustain, while dry conditions should calm the storm.

“Once a storm comes overland, it was unclear whether it would stall, accelerate or fizzle out,” said Dev Niyogi, Indiana state climatologist and associate professor of agronomy and earth and atmospheric sciences.

“We found that whether a storm becomes more intense or causes heavy rains could depend on the land conditions – something we’d not considered. Thus far we’ve looked at these storms based mainly on ocean conditions or upper atmosphere,” he added.

Niyogi said tropical storms gain their strength from warm ocean water evaporation.

“The same phenomenon – the evaporation from the ocean that sustains the storms – could be the same phenomenon that sustains that storm over land with moisture in the soil,” he said.

“The storm will have more moisture and energy available over wet soil than dry,” he added.

Storm data fed into a model showed that higher levels of ground moisture would sustain Indian monsoon depressions.

The model’s prediction was proven when compared to ground conditions for 125 Indian monsoons over 33 years, where storms sustained when the ground was wet at landfall.

Knowing the sustainability of a storm could lead to better predictions on flooding and damage inland before a monsoon or a hurricane makes landfall.

“We think the physics is such that we could see similar results more broadly, such as in the United States,” Niyogi said.

Niyogi said the next step is to use the model and ground moisture data to test these theories for hurricanes in the United States. (ANI)

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