Jun 15 2001
From The Space Library
Shang-Ping Xie of the University of Hawaii’s International Pacific Research Center and Meteorology Department and W. Timothy Liu of NASA’s JPL published in the journal Science the results of their study of Hawaii’s so-called tail, demonstrating that a strong ocean current connects Hawaii with Asia. The researchers had concluded that the current was the result of the wind whipping around the small Pacific Islands and creating wakes eastward toward Asia. Scientists had long recognized that the Hawaiian Islands cause an eastward current, but common knowledge had suggested that the current’ reaches less than 200 miles (322 kilometers). However, using data from NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite, the European Sensing Satellites, and the United States-Japan Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, Xie and Lie had traced the eastward-flowing current farther, discovering that it actually extends nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers). From an historical perspective, the discovery provided evidence in support of the tradition that early Hawaiian settlers had sailed to the islands from the Far East. (Shang-Ping Xie et al., “Far-Reaching Effects of the Hawaiian Islands on the Pacific Ocean-Atmosphere System,” Science 292, no. 5524 (15 June 2001): 20572060; NASA, “Satellites Reveal Hawaii’s Long Tail of Wind and Water,” news release 01-121, 14 June 2001.)
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