CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Thu Dec 13, 2012 8:43pm EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA plans to crash a pair of small robotic science probes into the moon next week after a successful year-long mission to learn what lies beneath the lunar surface, officials said on Thursday.

The twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft will make suicidal plunges on Monday into a mountain near the moon's north pole, a site selected to avoid the chance of hitting any of the Apollo or other lunar relics.

The impacts, which are not expected to be visible from Earth, will take place about 20 seconds apart at 5:28 p.m. EST (2228 GMT) on Monday.

"They're going to be completely blown apart," GRAIL project manager David Lehman, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told reporters on a conference call.

Almost out of fuel and currently flying just 7 miles above the lunar surface, the probes will make a final steering maneuver on Friday and shut down their science instruments in preparation for Monday's crash.

The two spacecraft, each about the size of a small washing machine, have been flying in close formation around the moon for nearly a year to map the lunar gravity.

Scientists precisely measure the distance between the two, a figure that slightly changes as they fly over denser regions of the moon. The gravitational pull of the additional mass causes first the leading probe and then the following one to speed up, altering the gap between them.

Gravity maps from the first part of the mission, collected between March and May 2012 when the spacecraft were about 34 miles above the lunar surface, revealed the moon has a shallower and much more fractured crust than expected - the result of asteroid and comet impacts billions of years ago.

"We know that the moon had been bombarded by impacts but what we found is just how broken up and fractured the crust of the moon is," said lead scientist Maria Zuber, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Similar bombardments happened on all the solid bodies of the inner solar system though the evidence on Earth has been erased by erosion, plate tectonics and other phenomena.

"With Mars, there's a questions about where did the water that we think was on the surface go," Zuber said. "These fractures provide a pathway deep inside the planet and it's very easy to envision now how a possible ocean on the surface could have found its way deep into the crust."

Scientists also discovered lava-filled subterranean cracks inside the moon, evidence that the body expanded early in its history.

In addition to planetary science, the gravity maps, along with detailed images of the lunar surface, should help engineers pick landing sites for future robotic and human expeditions to the moon, Zuber said.

"In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined that this mission would have gone any better than it has," she said, adding that NASA will be getting $8 million or $9 million back from the mission's $471 million budget.

The spacecraft will hit the surface at about 3,760 miles per hour. No pictures are expected because the region will be dark at the time of impact, but a sister spacecraft circling the moon, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, will attempt to survey the crash site.

"These are two small spacecraft with empty fuel tanks, so we're not expecting a flash that is visible from Earth," Zuber said.

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Mohammad Zargham)

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1 of 19. The Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Thomas Marshburn, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield blasts off from its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome December 19, 2012.

ALMATY | Wed Dec 19, 2012 12:24pm EST

ALMATY (Reuters) - A Soyuz spacecraft carrying a Russian, an American and a Canadian blasted off on Wednesday to the International Space Station (ISS), where the men are to spend half a year in orbit.

The Russian-built Soyuz TMA-07M lifted off on time, at 1212 GMT, from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

On the crew's two-day trip to the ISS, Canadian Chris Hadfield is joined by U.S. astronaut Tom Mashburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

They will join U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford and Russians Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin, who have been manning the $100-billion, 15-nation research complex since October.

(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Alison Williams)

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Thu Dec 20, 2012 12:51pm EST

n">(Reuters) - A snow storm moving through the Plains states into the U.S. Midwest brought much-needed moisture to drought-hit states, but drought has such a tight grip on the central U.S. that more moisture will be needed, according to weather experts.

"The snow is good, but in most instances it was less than one inch of liquid and if the soils are frozen, there will be little infiltration," said Brian Fuchs, climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Welcomed, yes. A big changer to the overall drought, not really," Fuchs said.

A report issued Thursday by a consortium of federal and state climatology experts said that as of December 18, large swaths of the nation's midsection remained blanketed in extreme and exceptional levels of drought, the worst levels on the measurement scale.

Before the snow storm hit late Wednesday, nearly 27 percent of the High Plains, was considered in the very worst level of drought, exceptional drought. Indeed, "severe," and "extreme" levels of drought also crept higher over the last week, according to the Drought Monitor report.

Severe drought was spread over 86.20 percent of the High Plains, up from 86.12 percent the week before, while extreme drought area was pegged at 59.98 percent of the region, up from 58.39 percent. Exceptional drought was pegged at 26.99 percent, up from 26.91 percent.

Drought conditions were most pervasive in Nebraska, according to the Drought Monitor report.

Overall, roughly 61.79 percent of the contiguous United States was in at least "moderate" drought, a slight improvement from 61.87 percent a week earlier.

The portion of the contiguous United States under exceptional drought expanded, however, to 6.64 percent from 6.49 percent.

The winter storm that hit the region Wednesday night and Thursday brought snowfall of four to eight inches in parts of Nebraska and Kansas, with Iowa and Wisconsin also getting hit.

The storm is expected to move further east across the U.S. Midwest on Thursday, with as much as 12 inches of snow expected in southern Wisconsin.

(Reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City; Editing by Alden Bentley)

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BRUSSELS | Thu Dec 20, 2012 9:38am EST

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union fisheries ministers hammered out a 2013 quota deal on Thursday which they said struck a compromise between protecting over-exploited stocks such as haddock and plaice and safeguarding fishermen's livelihoods.

Ministers agreed to limit the cuts to catches proposed by the European Commission in several North East Atlantic fisheries such as haddock, herring and plaice, but conservation groups accused them of ignoring data on fish stock sustainability.

French Fisheries Minister Frederic Cuvillier welcomed the "balanced deal" reached after two days of quota haggling in Brussels.

"This agreement provides the basis for truly sustainable fishing in the European Union, backed up by indisputable scientific advice," he said in a statement.

A proposed 55 percent cut in haddock quotas in the Irish Sea, Channel and Bay of Biscay was cut back to 15 percent, while North Sea plaice catches would fall by 25 percent next year rather than the 35 percent proposed by the Commission.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said the final deal was not as ambitious as the Commission's original proposal, but described the outcome as satisfactory.

She welcomed a huge improvement in scientific data on stock levels, which meant the bloc had clear advice on catch levels for 85 percent of fish species in 2013, compared with just 39 percent for this year.

VIABILITY

The European Parliament has repeatedly backed the idea of fixing quotas on the basis of long-term management plans for the most important stocks.

However, conservation groups accused ministers of ignoring scientific advice for about half of all fish species covered by the quotas, resulting in catch limits being set above levels that guarantee long-term viability.

"Fisheries ministers are not taking scientific advice into account in their decision-making," conservation group WWF said in a statement.

"As a result every year, just before Christmas, it's a 'fisheries frenzy' where ministers spend days arguing about how much fish can be caught."

The European Union has the third largest fisheries sector in the world after China and Peru, with more than 80,000 EU-registered vessels trawling the oceans.

Europe's leading fishing nations are Spain, France, Britain and Denmark, which jointly account for about half of all EU catches.

(Editing by Sophie Hares)

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LONDON | Thu Dec 20, 2012 11:18am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Global temperatures are forecast to be 0.57 degrees above the long-term average next year, making 2013 one of the warmest years on record, Britain's Met Office said on Thursday.

"It is very likely that 2013 will be one of the warmest 10 years in the record which goes back to 1850, and it is likely to be warmer than 2012," the Met Office said in its annual forecast for the coming year.

Next year was expected to be between 0.43 and 0.71 degrees Celsius warmer than the long-term global average of 14 degrees (1961-1990), with a best estimate of around 0.57, it said.

Its forecast is based on its own research as well as data from the University of East Anglia, the NASA Goddard Institute of Space Studies and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Rising temperatures could be due to the natural variability of the climate and global warming from increasing greenhouse gas emissions, Dave Britton, Met Office forecaster, told Reuters.

A warmer global average temperature does not necessarily mean every region of the world will get hotter, as regional climate variability produces different effects in different parts of the world, he added.

Eleven of the 12 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001, according to data from the World Meteorological Organisation.

Last year is ranked the warmest on record, having been 0.54 degrees above the long-term average, while 2012 is ranked the ninth warmest, with a rise of 0.45 degree Celsius.

Many scientists blame increasing temperatures on man-made greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and say they can lead to rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

Global carbon dioxide emissions hit a record high in 2011, led by China, the International Energy Agency said in May.

This year has already seen several examples of extreme weather events, such as superstorm Sandy which hit the east coast of the United States in October. Parts of the United States also experienced their worst drought in more than half a century this summer.

Britain had been suffering a drought before a record wet spring and early summer.

Last week, a leaked draft report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed global average temperatures could be more than 2 degrees above average by 2100 and may reach 4.8 degrees.

Low-lying island states and other countries vulnerable to rising sea levels, floods and hurricanes have been putting pressure on developed countries to curb greenhouse gas emissions and keep the rise in temperatures to within a limit of 2 degrees this century.

A U.N. conference aimed at curbing emissions ended this month with little progress.

(Editing by David Holmes)

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1 of 14. An automobile sits upside down in the car lot of Mercedes-Benz of Mobile following a winter storm in Mobile, Alabama, December 20, 2012. The first major winter storm of the year took aim at the U.S. Midwest on Thursday, triggering high wind and blizzard warnings across a widespread area, and a threat of tornadoes in Gulf Coast states to the south.

CHICAGO | Thu Dec 20, 2012 10:56pm EST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The first major winter storm of the year hit the U.S. Midwest on Thursday, bringing a blizzard to the Plains and tornadoes to Alabama and Arkansas, and leaving some 133,000 customers without electricity.

Bad driving conditions led to a 25-car pileup on a highway near Clarion, Iowa, that left three people dead, authorities said. Blizzard warnings were in effect in eastern Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and Illinois Thursday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

"It's going to be very windy with considerable blowing and drifting of snow," said Bruce Terry, a senior National Weather Service forecaster at the HydroMeteorological Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. He called the pre-Christmas storm "a major winter snowstorm" for the Midwest and western Great Lakes.

Accumulations of up to a foot of snow were expected in some areas, Terry said, adding there was a potential for severe weather on the so-called "warm side" of the storm in the U.S. Southeast.

Blowing snow led to school closures in parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, plus the closure of all state government offices in Iowa.

"Thunder" snow was reported in Iowa Wednesday night, especially in southeastern Iowa, as thunder and lightning accompanied the storm as it surged across the state.

Travel was not advised on Iowa roads for the rest of the day, according to Annette Dunn with the Iowa Department of Transportation.

"We're going to have visibility and drifting problems through midnight," she said.

Late Thursday morning, troopers responded to a 25-car crash which killed three people on southbound Interstate 35 in northern Iowa. Iowa DOT closed I-35 at Highway 30 due to deteriorating conditions.

The Iowa National Guard has deployed about 80 soldiers from across the state to help highway assistance teams cope with the storm.

In Nebraska, portions of I-80 were closed Thursday due to snow-packed and icy road conditions. The entire road was expected to reopen before 4 p.m. local time.

In Chicago, rain was expected to change to snow Thursday night, with wind gusts of as much as 50 miles per hour, the NWS said.

Due to low visibility, airlines at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport were reporting delays of up to 90 minutes and have canceled more than 200 flights. At Midway Airport in Chicago, airlines canceled 150 flights and Southwest Airlines canceled all flights after 4:30 p.m.

A twister near downtown Mobile, Alabama, damaged buildings, snapped trees, downed power lines and flipped vehicles early on Thursday, but there were no reports of injuries, authorities said.

"The potential is there certainly for some isolated tornadoes," Terry said, referring to a broad swath of Gulf of Mexico coast and inland territory stretching from southeast Louisiana through the western Florida Panhandle.

The National Weather Service confirmed on Thursday that a tornado destroyed a mobile home southwest of Sheridan, Arkansas. There were no reports of injuries.

High winds of around 45 miles per hour in Tennessee knocked down trees and power lines.

While the heavy snow in the Upper Midwest will create potentially dangerous travel conditions, meteorologist Jeff Masters said it put an end to this year's "record-length snowless streaks in a number of U.S. cities."

Writing on his website weatherunderground.com, Masters said the storm would also provide "welcome moisture for drought-parched areas of the Midwest."

The winter storm, named Draco by the Weather Channel, began Tuesday in the Rocky Mountains and marked a dramatic change from the mild December so far in most of the nation.

High winds kicked up a dust storm in West Texas on Wednesday, leading to at least one death in a traffic accident near Lubbock.

Power companies reported electrical outages in Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee, with a peak of 400,000 customers without power Thursday morning. That fell to 133,000 by Thursday afternoon.

(Writing by Tom Brown and Nick Carey; Reporting by Mary Wisniewski in Chicago, Eileen O'Grady in Houston, Kaija Wilkinson in Mobile, Alabama and Keith Coffman in Denver, Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Kay Henderson in Des Moines, Iowa, Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Matthew Waller in San Angelo, Texas and Suzi Parker in Little Rock, Arkansas.; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Greg McCune, Tim Dobbyn and Jim Marshall)

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