Hurricane Scientist – Science

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ambience: Fiji Hurricane

With more people living on the coasts of the United States than ever before, accurate prediction of hurricane direction and intensity has never been more important. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Robbie Hood is an Atmospheric Scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center. Along with her colleagues, she is working to develop more accurate models for predicting hurricane behavior.

“When we were studying the genesis of hurricanes, one of our major discoveries was studying hurricane Emily. It had a very intense thunderstorm imbedded in its eye. Very tall, convective features, that is updrafts and lightning and intensity up to very high altitudes, but it was also to capture a storm this intense that early in the season is highly unusual.”

Scientists use remote sensing devices on aircraft to capture different information about the hurricane, including temperature, precipitation and infrared energy.

“Looking at the mapping of the precipitation; we see indications of hailstones at the top of the hurricane. Which is somewhat unusual. I mean it can happen, but we haven’t captured it with our information as often as at other times.”

Researchers have collected data from aircraft flying at both 40,000 and 60,000 feet in order to get a more three-dimensional view of the hurricane.

“The data that we collected during our experiment, we’re going to be analyzing as a team and looking at all the observations together. Our next step will then be working with our partners who develop computer models to simulate hurricanes because we want to both learn from how their models give us interpretations of our data, but then also how our data compares to their models so they can build more accurate models of the future. And in this way, we hope by working together, we will be developing new technologies that will improve hurricane forecasting of the future.“

Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. With additional support from NASA. I’m Jim Metzner.

music

Hurricane Scientist - Science

What is the science that goes in to making hurricane maps and predictions? One researcher explains.
Air Date:08/04/2006
Scientist:
Transcript:

music
ambience: Fiji Hurricane

With more people living on the coasts of the United States than ever before, accurate prediction of hurricane direction and intensity has never been more important. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Robbie Hood is an Atmospheric Scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center. Along with her colleagues, she is working to develop more accurate models for predicting hurricane behavior.

“When we were studying the genesis of hurricanes, one of our major discoveries was studying hurricane Emily. It had a very intense thunderstorm imbedded in its eye. Very tall, convective features, that is updrafts and lightning and intensity up to very high altitudes, but it was also to capture a storm this intense that early in the season is highly unusual.”

Scientists use remote sensing devices on aircraft to capture different information about the hurricane, including temperature, precipitation and infrared energy.

“Looking at the mapping of the precipitation; we see indications of hailstones at the top of the hurricane. Which is somewhat unusual. I mean it can happen, but we haven’t captured it with our information as often as at other times.”

Researchers have collected data from aircraft flying at both 40,000 and 60,000 feet in order to get a more three-dimensional view of the hurricane.

“The data that we collected during our experiment, we’re going to be analyzing as a team and looking at all the observations together. Our next step will then be working with our partners who develop computer models to simulate hurricanes because we want to both learn from how their models give us interpretations of our data, but then also how our data compares to their models so they can build more accurate models of the future. And in this way, we hope by working together, we will be developing new technologies that will improve hurricane forecasting of the future.“

Pulse of the Planet is made possible by the National Science Foundation. With additional support from NASA. I'm Jim Metzner.

music