Atlantic Hurricanes With Dr. Jeff Halverson: Understanding the 21st Century's New Threat
| 6. Question and Answer | |
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| 7. Investigating Hurricane Genesis | |
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The first step in studying hurricanes is looking at how and why they form. To understand the complexity of hurricane genesis, scientists from NASA and NOAA use a combination of satellite, airplane, and ground-based observations. + View video + Download Quick Time |
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National Standards: D.1, 5-8; students should develop an understanding of structure of the earth system. D.1, 9-12; students should develop an understanding of energy in the earth system. |
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| 8. Tools for Studying Hurricanes | |
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What high-tech tools do scientists use to study hurricane formation? These tools include high-altitude research aircraft, a sensor web of about 30 satellites orbiting the Earth, and supercomputer simulations of storms. + View video + Download Quick Time |
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Media Content: NASA has for years maintained an orbiting fleet, a sensor web, of satellites that monitor the Earth's natural systems. As you can see in this movie, the sensor web is in a constant state of motion, and each satellite is designed to look at a different aspect of the Earth. + Download media NASA also maintains an airborne sciences division, which comprises a fleet of high altitude, high-tech scientific research aircraft. One of these is the DC-8. With aircraft such as this, scientists can get inside the clouds of a developing hurricane. Getting a good satellite overpass during the exact time and location of a developing hurricane is a matter of luck. But with an aircraft, you can pilot it or target it directly into the location where critical storm elements are coming together, and you can stay there to study the atmospheric processes for hours. + Download media Perhaps NASA's most unusual aircraft is the ER-2, a research version of the U-2 spy plane. Its long, narrow wings distinguish this aircraft. It flies at an altitude of 70,000 feet - so high that the single pilot must wear a pressurized spacesuit. From these great heights, the aircraft flies over the dome-like top of the hurricane. + Download media National Standards: E.2, K-4: students should develop understanding about science and technology. |
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| 9. Hurricanes and Saharan Dust Clouds | |
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Who would think that to study the formation of hurricanes - which contain prodigious amounts of moisture - one of the most important factors occurs in the form of exceptionally dry, dust-laden air blowing off Africa? + View video + Download Quick Time |
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Media Content: One of the most vexing questions surrounding the birth rites of hurricanes in the Atlantic is dust blown off the Saharan desert. In this dramatic image, we observe a massive orange plume of dusty soil exiting the African continent. Propelled on easterly trade winds, these clouds may contain several billion tons of dust particles. + Download media National Standards: E.2, K-4: students should develop understanding about science and technology. D.1, 5-8; students should develop an understanding of structure of the earth system. |
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| 10. The Use of Numerical Simulation to Study Hurricanes | |
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Processes occurring in the atmosphere are very difficult to visualize. After all, air is largely invisible. But we can represent air's various properties - pressure, temperature, winds, spin - in terms of numbers, and manipulate these numbers according to the physical laws governing energy and water. This is the science of numerical storm simulation. + View video + Download Quick Time |
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Media Content: One of the most vexing questions surrounding the birth rites of hurricanes in the Atlantic is dust blown off the Saharan desert. In this dramatic image, we observe a massive orange plume of dusty soil exiting the African continent. Propelled on easterly trade winds, these clouds may contain several billion tons of dust particles. + Download media National Standards: E.2, K-4: students should develop understanding about science and technology |
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