A study to be published in the 15 January 2010 issue of Fisheries Research describes characterization of an oceanic region in the southwest Atlantic Ocean, near the coast of southern Brazil, where juvenile blue sharks (Prionace glauca) are found in high numbers. One of the unusual aspects of the region is that mature blues are not found in the region.

The research paper authored by Santiago Montealegre-Quijano and Carolus M. Vooren of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG) Instituto de Oceanografia, Laboratório de Elasmobrânquios e Aves Marinhas, utilized data from commercial fishing operations. The researchers determined that juvenile blue sharks stay in the region until they are about 1.3 meters in length. Then, the juvenile sharks disperse, with the young male sharks heading north, and the young female sharks heading south, south of the Subtropical Convergence Zone, waiting to head north until late austral summer.

Sea surface temperatures from MODIS, analyzed with Giovanni, a data exploration analysis and visualization tool developed in part by a collaborative effort involving SESDA II scientists and engineers were used to characterize the location of the Subtropical Convergence Zone during the study period. These data helped to determine the location of the convergence zone during the periods when the fishing stations were observed. According to the authors, the Subtropical Convergence Zone occurred in the study area from late autumn into spring. The study describes possible migration routes of pregnant female blue sharks through the southwest Atlantic and how they return to the nursery zone to give birth to baby blue sharks.

The planetarium show “Journey to the Stars” opened in New York City on July 4, 2009 at the Hayden Planetarium of the Rose Center for Earth and Space, part of the American Museum of Natural History.

Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, this show uses NASA imagery and computer simulations to explore the life and death of stars, including our own Sun. SESDA II staff were instrumental in providing images of the solar corona from the STEREO mission, which are used dramatically in the presentation.

Dennis Overbye of the New York Times described “Journey to the Stars” as “easily the most beautiful planetarium show I have ever seen.” Of the part of the show based on the data provided by SESDA II staff, Mr. Overbye says “The filmmakers are not afraid to get in our faces. Showing us the Sun’s corona, the feathery hot gases that extend invisibly except during total solar eclipses far out into space, they pull the Sun down over our heads until it takes up half the planetarium dome squatting over us like a spider with rays fanning out around it, sort of like Doctor Octopus in ‘Spider-Man 2.”

Watch the show at Journey to the Stars.

The Science Tools software suite contains all of the software that the community will use to analyze the data obtained from the LAT data server. As the analysis process matures, refinements and extensions to these tools will be required but the SESDA II team’s strong configuration management procedures, combined with their scientific expertise, will allow them to quickly modify, test and release robust new versions of the software to meet the needs of the scientific community and the Fermi mission team.