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Tropical cyclone activity in the Northwest Pacific Basin has been elevated since April 2026, when Sinlaku surged to super typhoon strength and battered Micronesia, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Twenty-five named storms later, the basin still hummed with activity in late October.

When the EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) on the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite captured this image (above) on October 29, 2026, Super Typhoon In-fa churned near the Mariana Islands. At the same time, the remnants of Typhoon Champi approached Alaska amid a parade of storms moving across the Bering Sea. In-fa is the fifth typhoon to affect the Mariana Islands this year.

The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the image of In-fa below on October 30, when the storm was just west of the island chain. In-fa was unusually intense at the time of the image, with a nearly circular shape and large eye—a collection of characteristics that meteorologists use to identify a subset of tropical cyclones known as annular storms. These storms typically lack prominent outer spiral-shaped rainbands—a common feature of standard tropical cyclones—which is why meteorologists have a habit of calling annular storms “doughnuts” or “truck tires.”

Annular storms are rare, accounting for just 4 percent of tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific, according to one analysis. Their eyes average about 45 kilometers (30 miles) in diameter, compared to about 25 kilometers for standard tropical cyclones, and the storms typically maintain their strength longer in unfavorable conditions.

In-fa was still a tropical cyclone when EPIC captured the image at the top of the page, but Champi’s leftovers had gone through the process of extratropical transition and become a whole different type of storm as they entered the Bering Sea’s busy storm track. Tropical cyclones are warm-core storms fueled by the heat and moisture of warm ocean water, but extratropical cyclones typically have cold cores and draw energy from temperature contrasts between warm and cold air masses.

Unlike tropical cyclones, extratropical cyclones typically develop fronts and huge, spiraling cloud bands shaped like commas. “One of the calling cards of extratropical transitions is the expansion of a storm’s wind field,” said Gary Partyka, a meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It’s not that the winds necessarily grow stronger, but they cover a much larger area,” he said.

In this case, there likely would still have been a midlatitude storm over the Bering Sea, possibly with large, comma-shaped clouds on October 30, even without Champi’s remnants, he added. “But it looks like Champi became intertwined with and helped intensify that system,” he said.

Champi’s transformation came after a long and destructive tour through the West Pacific, during which the typhoon achieved maximum sustained winds of nearly 300 kilometers (185 miles) per hour, prompting some observers to call it one of the strongest storms of the season.

Despite narrowly skirting Taiwan and Guam, the powerhouse storm brought damaging winds and intense rains to both places, as well as to parts of China and Japan. When the remnants hit Alaska, the state avoided catastrophic damage on the scale of what happened after ex-typhoon Halong struck in October 2025, but some areas did see high winds and heavy rain and snowfall, according to news reports.

Champi is the fourth ex-typhoon to enter Alaskan waters this year, noted University of Alaska Fairbanks meteorologist and climatologist Rick Thoman, following Bang-Lang in August, Dujuan in September, and Choi-wan in early October. The autumns of 1997 and 2015—both very strong El Niño years—had three each, he added. Roughly 60 ex-typhoons have impacted the state since 1970, according to Thoman.

Partyka described 2026 as a “particularly active year” for Pacific tropical cyclones, increasing the chances that Alaska would be affected by storms that have gone through extratropical transitions. The strong El Niño underway in the Pacific is a “likely contributor” to the increased activity, he added.

El Niño is a climate pattern that emerges roughly every two to seven years, marked by warmer-than-normal water temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific. In the Northwest Pacific, the phenomenon tends to cause storms to more readily curve northward rather than continuing westward to East Asia and Southeast Asia, some experts say, bringing more storms toward Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Michala Garrison, using data from DSCOVR EPIC and MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Story by Adam Voiland.

References & Resources

• AccuWeather (2026, October 26) Super Typhoon In-fa is the 5th typhoon to affect the Mariana Islands this year. Accessed November 2, 2026.     
• Camargo, S. & Sobel, A. (2005) Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Intensity and ENSO. Journal of Climate, 18(15), 2996–3006.
• Colorado State University (2026) Real-Time Northwest Pacific Ocean Statistics by Storm for 2026. Accessed November 2, 2026.
• DW (2026, September 23) How El Nino is shaping tropical storms worldwide. Accessed November 2, 2026.
• Fox Weather (2026, October 31) Brewing Super El Niño helps support monster Super Typhoons across the Western Pacific. Accessed November 2, 2026.
• Knaff, T., et al. (2008) Objective Identification of Annnular Hurricanes. Weather and Forecasting, 18, 204-223.
• Knaff, T., et al. (2003) Annular Hurricanes. Weather and Forecasting, 18, 204-223.
• KYUK (2026, October 28) Ex-typhoon Champi tracks toward Bristol Bay, impacts expected across Western Alaska. Accessed November 2, 2026.
• National Weather Service (2026, October 30) Northern Alaska Forecast Discussion. Accessed November 2, 2026.
• National Weather Service (2026, October 29) Marianas Synopsis. Accessed November 2, 2026.
• Plumb & Thoman (2025, November 13) Typhoon Halong hits Alaska. Accessed November 2, 2026.
• Thoman, R. via Bluesky (2026, October 29) Ex-typhoon Champi into the SW Bering Sea Thu AM. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Sixty-five years ago, a bold vision took root in Houston: a NASA center dedicated to human spaceflight. Since its founding, NASA’s Johnson Space Center has helped lead the nation’s human spaceflight program, supporting missions from Project Mercury through Artemis.

Today, Johnson serves as NASA’s Center of Excellence for Human Spaceflight, and its workforce is helping to usher in a Golden Age of innovation and discovery. Johnson is home to America’s astronaut corps, the Mission Control Center, and the teams behind some of humanity’s greatest achievements in space. As NASA’s human spaceflight programs evolve, Johnson remains at the forefront of these efforts.

Houston is home to NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, comprising International Space Station operations and commercial partnerships and destinations in low Earth orbit. For missions beyond low Earth orbit, Johnson houses the Moon Base Program⁠ and Orion Program⁠, while NASA’s Human Health and Performance Directorate⁠ and Human Research Program⁠ work to protect crew health and performance as missions extend farther from Earth.

On May 25, 1961, the center’s story began when President John F. Kennedy gave a speech before a joint session of Congress, committing the nation to achieve the goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of the decade.

NASA’s Space Task Group, in charge of America’s human spaceflight program, was already working on Project Mercury to put astronauts into Earth orbit, but with the additional task of a human lunar landing, it soon outgrew its facilities at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The agency decided it needed a dedicated field center for human spaceflight and on Sept. 19, 1961, after evaluating multiple sites around the country, NASA announced that the new Manned Spacecraft Center would be built near Houston, Texas. The agency established the center on Nov. 1, 1961, and construction began in 1962. In 1973, it officially became NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in honor of President Johnson for his ardent support of America’s space program from its foundation.

Manned Spacecraft Center to Johnson Space Center

The Manned Spacecraft Center officially opened on Nov. 1, 1961, and while construction continued on the Clear Lake site, employees worked in 13 leased buildings in southeast Houston. The design phase took six months and construction of the first buildings took 18 months, with the first employees moving onto the new site in late 1963.

Over the decades, the number of buildings grew, and continues to grow, to meet the demands of new spaceflight programs.

Project Management Building

Construction of the nine-story Project Management Building began on Dec. 5, 1962, and concluded on March 15, 1964. Robert Gilruth, the center’s first director, moved into his office on March 5, 1964, on the top floor of the edifice then known as Building 2. The building swapped numbers with the Public Affairs Building, originally known as Building 1, on June 30, 1974.

Neutral buoyancy spacewalk training

The use of neutral buoyancy for spacewalk training began with the Gemini XII mission in 1966. In 1967, workers installed an above-ground circular pool called the Water Immersion Facility for astronaut training that supported Apollo and pre-Shuttle spacewalk training.. To accommodate the larger size of the space shuttle payload bay, spacewalk training moved to the Weightless Environment Training Facility iin 1980. Astronauts used it for nearly all shuttle spacewalk training until 1997, when the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in the Sonny Carter Training Center entered operations for both shuttle and space station training, as well as testing future space suits and lunar surface activities. 

Lunar Receiving Laboratory (Building 37)

To prevent any back contamination from any possible lunar microorganisms, NASA designed the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Building 37. Construction began in August 1966, with the first employees moving into their offices in June 1967. The astronauts from Apollo 11, 12, and 14 completed their three-week postflight quarantine in the lab, and scientists in the various laboratories studied the lunar samples all the Apollo missions returned.

Following the Apollo program, Life Sciences division and laboratories moved into the building until they relocated in 2017. Following demolition of Building 37, the Lunar Receiving Park, dedicated in 2026, honors the history of the laboratory.

Spacecraft mockup training facilities (Building 9)

Construction of Building 9 began in December 1965 and finished in March 1967. The building initially housed the Technical Services Facility. In April 1969, workers converted a portion of the building to include a mock lunar surface scene, complete with a mockup of a Lunar Module, used by Apollo 11 astronauts. To support the space shuttle program, workers completed an addition that housed the Mockup and Integration Laboratory in September 1974. Astronauts for all 135 shuttle missions used the mockups for training. An extension on the northwest side of thebuilding begun in 1986 and completed in 1988. It received mockups of Space Station Freedom and later of the International Space Station, and the building was renamed the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. Today, the facility also houses training mockups of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, commercial mockups, and the Active Response Gravity Offload System, known as ARGOS. 

Mission Simulation and Training Facility (Building 5)

Construction of Building 5, the Mission Simulation and Training Facility completed inApril 1965 and began supporting missions beginning with Gemini IV in June 1965. The building originally contained the Gemini spacecraft simulator and a Gemini translation and docking simulator. Apollo program simulators, including a command module and lunar module simulator, began arriving in December 1965. From 1967 and 1978, astronauts used the Water Immersion Facility for spacewalk training. In the early 1970s, the building also housed full-scale, high-fidelity trainers and simulators of Skylab’s components, which all nine Skylab astronauts used for mission training. In the late 1970s, the facility underwent major renovations to support the space shuttle program, with the addition of fixed base and motion base simulators. The Space Station Training Facility addition, completed in 1991, supported first Space Station Freedom and now International Space Station crew training, and also contains Orion and Starliner simulators.  

Mission Control Center

Construction of Building 30 housing the Mission Control Center began in June 1963 and finished in November 1964, with technicians installing the real-time computer in April 1964 and the first employees moving in two months later. The center initially housed two mission operations control rooms to support Gemini and Apollo missions and simulations. By January 1965, the center monitored the uncrewed Gemini 2 mission and the crewed Gemini 3 mission in a flight following mode.  

In June 1965, Houston had full control of Gemini IV and has controlled each of NASA’s human space flight missions ever since. The control center received a major upgrade to its computer systems in the mid-1970s to support upcoming space shuttle flights. On April 4, 2011, the building was renamed the Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center, in honor of the man who created the concepts still in use today in human spaceflight control. The control center continues to support the space station around the clock as well as Artemis missions taking humans back to the Moon. 

For more information, contact Joel W. Sills, Langley Research Center, joel.w.sills@nasa.gov.

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An instrumented hammer test does not require an idealized single half-sine waveform. When the complete force and response are measured accurately, crest ripples and separated contacts remain known inputs. Force shape changes excitation, but does not inherently invalidate the record. Adequacy depends on measurement accuracy, bandwidth, signal-to-noise ratio, and coverage of the test objective.

Background: What the Hammer Actually Measures
Hammer tests support modal analysis [2–4] and can precede pyroshock testing [6]. Figure 1 compares a half-sine, maintained-contact rippling, and separated contacts. During a zero-force interval, the structure continues to vibrate; re-contact acts on that vibration.

If an exact model and test article receive the same force and initial conditions, uniqueness gives identical responses for each bounded measured history. An approximate model can show different errors as inputs excite different frequencies, amplitudes, or nonlinear states. See [1] for the exact-model derivation.

Analysis: A Half-Sine Is Broadband, but Not Flat
Figure 2 shows that a finite half-sine is broadband but contains spectral zeros at f/fo = 3, 5, 7, …, with fo = 1/(2T) for pulse duration T. Its appearance alone cannot establish adequate excitation.

Analysis: Spectral Content Is Determined by the Measured Force History
Figure 3 normalizes each spectrum to its own DC value. Crest rippling adds content and can fill half-sine notches. Timing between separated contacts creates deterministic interference. For adequacy, inspect the unnormalized measured spectrum and response signal-to-noise ratio.

Recommended Practice: Evaluate Test Adequacy Against the Intended Objective
• Measure the complete applied force with adequate bandwidth, calibration, dynamic range, and time synchronization.
 • Verify that the response measurements have adequate bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio and are not clipped or saturated.
 • Confirm that the excitation covers the frequency, amplitude, and nonlinear-response ranges required by the intended test objective.
• Reject or repeat a test only for an identified measurement, excitation, or coverage deficiency.

Conclusion
Half-sine appearance neither establishes validity nor guarantees adequacy. Judge each hammer test by its purpose and by accurate, complete force and response measurements over the required range.

References
1. A. Majed, J. Sills, E. Henkel, V. Babuska, S. Yunis, D. Hamilton, J. Akers, and T. Kinney, Validity and Predictability of Measured Hammer Tap Inputs: Linear and Nonlinear Structural Systems, September 2026.
2. D. J. Ewins, Modal Testing: Theory, Practice and Application, 2nd ed., 2000.
3. ISO 7626-5:2019, Mechanical Vibration and Shock—Experimental Determination of Mechanical Mobility—Part 5
4. K. G. McConnell and P. S. Varoto, Vibration Testing: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed., 2008.
5. A. H. Nayfeh and D. T. Mook, Nonlinear Oscillations, 1979. 6. NASA-STD-7003, Pyroshock Test Criteria, 1999

The four-member Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) crew poses outside for the first time in more than a year following the end of their simulated Mars journey on Oct. 31, 2026. Crew members Matthew Montgomery (left), James Spicer (middle left), Ross Elder (middle right), and Ellen Ellis (right) spent more than a year testing systems, maintaining crops, managing limited resources and communication delays, conducting extravehicular activities and more in efforts to help NASA better understand how crews adapt to long-duration stays. Insights from their experiences will help NASA design its future Moon Base and plan for missions on Mars.

Image credit: NASA/James Blair

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