Newswise — Tropical Storm Nate became the 14th named storm of the season on September 5, continuing the unprecedented pace of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. In this record-breaking year, where will the next research breakthroughs in hurricane forecasting, tracking, and impacts come from?
Below are details on hurricane-related efforts at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and its parent organization, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), as well as visuals to illustrate your hurricane stories.
Experts are available to describe
+ hurricane-related deaths in the near term and long after the storm+ how hurricanes spin up and gain or lose strength (intensity)+ how even weak tropical storms and hurricanes can lead to devastating floods+ how a warming planet may be augmenting hurricane strength
-----How strong will it get? Research on hurricane intensification-----
A multiagency team of researchers flew near Katrina and continues to gather data from coordinated flights over the Atlantic to examine how swirling rainbands may help hurricanes gain strength.
---Links---
NSF News Release: Hurricane Katrina: Scientists Fly Into Eye of the Stormhttp://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104386&org=NSF&from=news
NCAR News Release: Radar Probes Hurricane Rainbandshttp://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2005/rainex.shtml
Feature Story: Hurricanes--Keeping an eye on weather's biggest bullies (hurricane basics and a research roundup with numerous links to resources within and beyond NCAR and UCAR)http://www.ucar.edu/news/features/hurricanes/
-----Hurricane Experts at NCAR and UCAR-----
Greg HollandSenior Scientist, Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division, NCAR
Profile: http://www.ucar.edu/communications/staffnotes/0503/holland.html--Specialties include hurricane structure, intensity, and behaviorGreg Holland is director of NCAR's division studying weather on the local and regional scale, MMM. His background is in tropical meteorology and severe weather, with a strong emphasis on tropical cyclones and hurricanes. Before coming to NCAR he employed his expertise in robotic aircraft, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), as director of the company Aerosonde. Holland spent 22 years as a forecaster, lecturer, and research scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre in his native Australia."
Ilan KelmanVisiting Scientist, Center for Capacity Building, NCAR
Home Page: http://www.ilankelman.org--Specialties include disaster impacts (people, communities, built environment), mortality, vulnerability of islands, disaster diplomacyIlan Kelman's research focuses on disasters, their effects on people and the built environment, and the vulnerabilities of communities. He is particularly interested in the vulnerability and sustainability of islands, coastal areas, and other isolated regions. He explores disaster diplomacy, a field that looks at how disasters do or do not reduce conflict and assist diplomatic and international relations. He is also interested in disaster deaths, analyzing what sort of people die in disasters and why. Kelman's background is in environmental engineering, with specific projects ranging from floods and volcanoes to refugee shelters and safe schools.
Matthew KelschHydrometeorologist, Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training, UCAR
Profile: http://www.ucar.edu/news/people/Kelsch--Specialties include post-hurricane, urban, and flash floodingAs a hydrometeorologist, Matt Kelsch specializes in weather events involving water, such as floods, droughts, rain, hail, or snow. For UCAR's COMET program he develops and delivers educational materials designed for groups ranging from National Weather Service forecasters to the military, private clients, and scientists and professionals from abroad. Kelsch is also a local observer for the National Weather Service and a local coordinator for the Colorado Climate Center's Community Collaborative Rain and Hail Study (CoCoRaHS).
Wen-Chau LeeScientist, Earth Observing Laboratory, NCAR
UCAR RAINEX home page: http://www.joss.ucar.edu/rainex--Specialties include hurricane and tornado winds, hurricane intensityWen-Chau Lee is the chief scientist for NCAR's ELDORA Doppler radar, which flies on the tail of a P-3 research aircraft operated by the Naval Research Laboratory. ELDORA captures detailed images of precipitation and winds produced by hurricanes and severe thunderstorms. Lee has also developed a mathematical technique to pull more information out of ground-based radar depictions of intense, fast-changing weather systems, including hurricane eyewalls.
Kevin TrenberthSenior Scientist, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, NCAR
Home Page: http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cas/trenbert.html--Specialties include global warming and its influence on the water cycle (rain and snow, drought, hurricanes; El Nino)Kevin Trenberth heads the Climate Analysis Section of NCAR's division dedicated to understanding Earth's climate system, CGD. His main interests are climate variability and El Nino; global climate change, the hydrological cycle, and climate observations. His research emphasizes the analysis of observational data to understand what happens in the real world. Trenberth has been involved for many years in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, serving as a convening lead author and lead author for the IPCC Scientific Assessments of Climate Change. Trenberth received the Jule G. Charney award from the American Meteorological Society in 2000 and is a fellow of the AMS, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the New Zealand Royal Society.
-----Visuals-----
Four stills: Eyeing Katrinahttp://www.ucar.edu/news/features/hurricanes/index.shtml#eyeingThe peak winds of over 100 miles per hour that buffeted New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina could have been much worse had the storm made landfall at a different moment in the cycle of its eyewall. Long-lived, intense hurricanes often go through an eyewall replacement cycle that takes a day or so to complete. The result is collapse of the main eyewall and temporary weakening of the storm. Then an outer eyewall contracts and takes its place, allowing for restrengthening. Katrina appears to have been going through the weaker stage as it approached land. The two top images capture Katrina with an intact eyewall at 5:45 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday, August 28, as it moved over warm water in the Gulf of Mexico. By 5:45 a.m. on Monday, the weakened eyewall is being further disrupted by interaction with the land surface. (GEMPAK images by Jeff Weber, UCAR; data from water vapor and infrared bands of NOAA GOES-E satellite.)
Animation: Spinning up troublehttp://www.ucar.edu/news/features/hurricanes/index.shtml#spinningThis detailed simulation of cyclone behavior was created by the Visualization Lab in NCAR's Scientific Computing Division. The simulation displays data collected from an East Asia coastal cyclone that formed a bit north of the tropics and then lashed the coasts of China, Korea, and Japan with strong winds and heavy rains. The animation is available in a choice of formats.
Illustration: Cross sections of hurricane eye, eyewall, rainbands, inflow and outflow http://www.ucar.edu/news/features/hurricanes/index.shtml#insideThis 3-D Illustration identifies four components of a hurricane: inflow, rainbands, eye and eyewall, and outflow. Warm, moist air enters the hurricane at low levels (large orange arrows), rises through intense updrafts in the eyewall (spiral at center), and departs the storm at high altitudes (large blue arrow). A weaker downdraft makes the eye itself relatively calm and clear. Rising air also helps create concentric rainbands (short orange arrows) outside the eyewall, with sinking air (short blue arrows) in between the rainbands. (Illustration courtesy The COMET Program, UCAR.)
NCAR'S primary sponsor is the National Science Foundation.Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
RSS