This viewgraph presentation provides information on the development of a wind sensor for use during hurricanes. The objectives of this presentation are: (1) Educate the user unfamiliar with the modules as to what is available/lacking; (2) Share where some changes could be made; (3) Look at alternative approaches made possible by new releases/modules; (4) Use feedback to improve processes/approaches. The current pad wind sensors are cup-and-vane type anemometers.
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, WIND MEASUREMENT, ANEMOMETERS, VANES, Randazzo,...
For the interval 1945-2011, the length of the hurricane season in the North Atlantic basin averages about 130 +/- 42 days (the +/-1 standard deviation interval), having a range of 47 to 235 days. Runs-testing reveals that the annual length of season varies nonrandomly at the 5% level of significance. In particular, its trend, as described using 10-yr moving averages, generally has been upward since about 1979, increasing from about 113 to 157 days (in 2003). Based on annual values, one finds a...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, STANDARD DEVIATION, STORMS, ATLANTIC OCEAN,...
This document is the final report of the work of the Office of the Lead Scientist (OLS) of the U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP) and for Coordination of the World Weather Research Program (WWRP). The proposal was for a continuation of the duties and responsibilities described in the proposal of 7 October, 1993 to NSF and NOAA associated with the USWRP Lead Scientist then referred to as the Chief Scientist. The activities of the Office of the Lead Scientist (OLS) ended on January 31, 2005...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), RESEARCH, METEOROLOGY, HURRICANES, AIR QUALITY, Gall, Robert
Some of the highlights of the Nimbus six-year history are reviewed. From the hundreds of thousands of pictures and other results available, attempts have been made to select those which best represent the many data types and application areas. These results provide a capsule summary of the history and achievements of the Nimbus program.
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), NIMBUS PROJECT, SATELLITE-BORNE PHOTOGRAPHY, CLOUD...
NASA is preparing for the Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) field experiment in July 2005, a joint effort with NOAA to study tropical cloud systems and tropical cyclone genesis in the Eastern Pacific. A major thrust of the TCSP program is the improvement of the understanding and prediction of tropical cyclone genesis, intensity, motion, rainfall potential, and landfall impacts using remote sensing and in-situ data, as well as numerical modeling, particularly as they relate to the...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), CLOUD PHYSICS, HURRICANES, HEAT TRANSFER, TROPICAL STORMS,...
No abstract available
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), SPACE WEATHER, EARTH SCIENCES, ECOSYSTEMS, CLIMATOLOGY,...
Three periods within the life cycle of Hurricane Camille (1969) are studied with radiometric and camera measurements from Nimbus-3 and camera information from ATS-3 in conjunction with conventional information. These periods are the deepening phase, the interaction of Camille with midlatitude westerlies, and the excessive rain producing period when the cyclone was over the central Appalachian Mountain. Just prior to significant deepening, the Nimbus-3 Medium Resolution Infrared Radiometer...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES, FLOOD PREDICTIONS,...
The statistics of North Atlantic basin tropical cyclones for the interval 1945-2007 are examined and estimates are given for the frequencies of occurrence of the number of tropical cyclones, number of hurricanes, number of major hurricanes, number of category 4/5 hurricanes, and number of U.S. land-falling hurricanes for the 2008 hurricane season. Also examined are the variations of peak wind speed, average peak wind speed per storm, lowest pressure, average lowest pressure per storm,...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), CYCLONES, TROPICAL STORMS, PERIODIC VARIATIONS, EL NINO,...
This plan establishes policy and sets forth guidance, responsibilities and procedures utilized by Federal Electric Corp., communications department in support of the KSC Emergency Preparedness Plan, Annex A, Hurricane Control Plan (GP-355) dated 27 May 1971. This plan covers all FEC communications department personnel, facilities, and equipment situated at the Kennedy Space Center that are the responsibility of FEC contract NAS 10-4967.
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), CAPE KENNEDY LAUNCH COMPLEX, HURRICANES, ACCIDENT PREVENTION,...
In the photo at bottom right, a U.S. Park Police officer is demonstrating a battery-powered communications system, sufficiently compact to be packed in a briefcase-size container, which can send and receive signals over great distances by means of satellite relay. Key to the system's efficacy is the high-powered transmitting and receiving equipment aboard such NASA satellites as the Applications Technology Satellite6 (ATS-6) and the joint U.S.-Canadian Communications Technology Satellite (CTS);...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY SATELLITE, GROUND SUPPORT...
Ten-year moving averages of the seasonal rates for 'named storms,' tropical storms, hurricanes, and major (or intense) hurricanes in the Atlantic basin suggest that the present epoch is one of enhanced activity, marked by seasonal rates typically equal to or above respective long-term median rates. As an example, the 10-year moving average of the seasonal rates for named storms is now higher than for any previous year over the past 50 years, measuring 10.65 in 1994, or 2.65 units higher than...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, PERIODIC VARIATIONS, TRENDS, CLIMATE CHANGE,...
The 28-foot storm surge from Hurricane Katrina pushed inland along bays and rivers for a distance of 12 miles in some areas, contributing to the damage or destruction of about half of the fleet of boats in coastal Mississippi. Most of those boats had sought refuge in back bays and along rivers. Some boats were spared damage because the owners chose their mooring site well. Gulf mariners need a spatial analysis tool that provides guidance on the safest places to anchor their boats during future...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, HAZARDS, DAMAGE, MARINER SPACECRAFT, STORM...
No abstract available
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), NASA PROGRAMS, ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL...
The current study is attempting to overcome the problem of uncertain heights of the satellite winds. The effective heights of the satellite wind vectors were determined. Satellite, aircraft, rawinsonde and surface wind measurements were integrated into a three dimensional analysis of the storm in flow layer over water. Similar analyses of the thermodynamic field in the inflow layer were conducted. Diagnostic budget analyses of moisture, sensible heat kinetic energy and momentum in the inflow...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), DATA ACQUISITION, HEIGHT, HURRICANES, SATELLITE IMAGERY,...
Data from 17 tropical cyclones during the 1974 through 1979 hurricane seasons are used to investigate whether the high level winds far to the northwest, north and northeast of the hurricane center can be used to predict hurricane track recurvature. When the man 200-mb winds 1500 to 2000 km northwest and north of the storm center equal or exceed 20 m/s, 80 per cent of the storms recurved before traveling as much as 12 degrees of longitude farther west. The high winds were also used to predict...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), CURVATURE, CYCLONES, TROPICAL STORMS, HURRICANES,...
Tropical Storm Chantal during August 2001 was a storm that failed to intensify over the few days prior to making landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula. An observational study of Tropical Storm Chantal is presented using a diverse data set including remote and in situ measurements from the NASA ER-2 and DC-8 and the NOAA WP-3D N42RF aircraft and satellite data. The authors discuss the storm structure from the larger scale environment down to the convective scale. Large vertical shear (850-200 hPa...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), CYCLONES, HURRICANES, TROPICAL STORMS, VORTICES, METEOROLOGY,...
During August and September 2004, four hurricanes tested the mettle of Space Coast residents and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) leadership and workforce. These threats underscored two important points: the very real vulnerability of KSC and its valuable space program assets to the devastating power of a hurricane, and the planning required to effectively deal with such threats. The damage was significant even though KSC did not experience sustained hurricane-force winds. To better understand...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, WIND (METEOROLOGY), ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION,...
When a 1981 tornado in Minnesota revolutionized the retail approach of Sound of Music, which later changed its name to the now very familiar Best Buy, those who founded the company never imagined that a series of hurricanes twenty years later would also help give it a cutting-edge lead in customer service and disaster planning. That original "Tornado Sale'' introduced low prices in a "no-frills" environment that gave the company higher sales than the industry average and paved...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), COMMERCE, DISASTERS, PERSONNEL, STORMS, FEEDBACK, HURRICANES,...
NASA fs Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) project operates from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The team provides unique satellite data to the National Weather Service (NWS) and other agencies and organizations for weather analysis. While much of its work is focused on improving short-term weather forecasting, the SPoRT team supported damage assessment and response to Hurricane Superstorm Sandy by providing imagery that highlighted regions without...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), INFRARED IMAGERY, PREDICTIONS, DISASTERS, WEATHER...
Hurricane Katrina hit southwestern Mississippi on August 29, 2005, at 10 a.m. CDT as a category 3 event with storm surges up to approximately 9 m and sustained winds of approximately 120 mph. The hurricane ravaged several coastal towns, destroying or severely damaging hundreds of homes. Hurricand Katrina deposited millions of tons of debris and caused severe damage to coastal forests. In response, several Federal agencies have been using a broad range of remotely sensed data (e.g., IKONOS) to...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), DAMAGE ASSESSMENT, HURRICANES, IMAGERY, MISSISSIPPI, REMOTE...
The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) is a new airborne passive microwave synthetic aperture radiometer designed to provide wide swath images of ocean surface wind speed under heavy precipitation and, in particular, in tropical cyclones. It operates at 4, 5, 6 and 6.6 GHz and uses interferometric signal processing to synthesize a pushbroom imager in software from a low profile planar antenna with no mechanical scanning. HIRAD participated in NASA s Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), AIRBORNE EQUIPMENT, CALIBRATING, HURRICANES, ANTENNAS,...
The controversial role of the dry Saharan Air Layer (SAL) on tropical storm intensification in the Atlantic will be addressed. The SAL has been argued in previous studies to have potential positive influences on storm development, but most recent studies have argued for a strong suppressing influence on storm intensification as a result of dry air, high stability, increased vertical wind shear, and microphysical impacts of dust. Here, we focus on observations of Hurricane Helene (2006), which...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), TROPICAL STORMS, SATELLITE OBSERVATION, AMPLIFICATION, FLIGHT...
We describe a variational continuous assimilation (VCA) algorithm for assimilating tropical rainfall data using moisture and temperature tendency corrections as the control variable to offset model deficiencies. For rainfall assimilation, model errors are of special concern since model-predicted precipitation is based on parameterized moist physics, which can have substantial systematic errors. This study examines whether a VCA scheme using the forecast model as a weak constraint offers an...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), ALGORITHMS, RAIN, HURRICANES, GEOS 3 SATELLITE, TROPICAL...
A multi-scale modeling system with unified physics has been developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The system consists of an MMF, the coupled NASA Goddard finite-volume GCM (fvGCM) and Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model (GCE, a CRM); the state-of-the-art Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) and the stand alone GCE. These models can share the same microphysical schemes, radiation (including explicitly calculated cloud optical properties), and surface models that have been...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), MULTISCALE MODELS, CLOUD PHYSICS, MESOSCALE PHENOMENA,...
There are no author-identified significant results in this report.
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, OCEAN SURFACE, SURFACE ROUGHNESS, WIND VELOCITY,...
Landsat/Seasat remote sensing was used by Ames Research Center to evaluate environmental influence on ancient Mayan civilization. Over 35 archeological sites were imaged and valuable information concerning Maya settlement patterns, environment, and resource usage resulted. The imagery was also used by Mexican authorities to develop coastal management plans, establish Biosphere Reserves and assess damage from the 1988 Hurricane Gilbert. Imagery showed evidence of ancient coastlines, changes in...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), ARCHAEOLOGY, IMAGERY, LANDSAT SATELLITES, REMOTE SENSING,...
The economic losses sustained in the U.S. coastal zones were studied for the purpose of quantitatively establishing economic benefits as a consequence of improving the predictive quality of destructive phenomena in U.S. coastal zones. Improved prediction of hurricane landfall and improved experimental knowledge of hurricane seeding are discussed.
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), COASTAL PLAINS, ECONOMIC FACTORS, SEASAT SATELLITES, UNITED...
Traditionally climate changes have been detected from long series of observations and long after they have happened. Our 'inverse sequential' procedure, for detecting change as soon as it occurs, describes the existing or most recent data by their frequency distribution. Its parameter(s) are estimated both from the existing set of observations and from the same set augmented by 1,2,....j new observations. Individual-value probability products ('likelihoods') are used to form ratios which yield...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), CLIMATE CHANGE, DETECTION, FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION,...
The effectiveness of techniques for creating "bogus" vortices in numerical simulations of hurricanes is examined by using the Penn State/NCAR nonhydrostatic mesoscale model (MM5) and its adjoint system. A series of four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4-D VAR) experiments is conducted to generate an initial vortex for Hurricane Georges (1998) in the Atlantic Ocean by assimilating bogus sea-level pressure and surface wind information into the mesoscale numerical model....
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), ASSIMILATION, MATHEMATICAL MODELS, VORTICES, COMPUTERIZED...
An unusually large amount of aircraft, rawinsonde, satellite, ship and buoy data from hurricane Frederic (1979) are composited over a 40 hr period. These are combined with Frank's (1984) analysis of Frederic's core and Powell's (1982) surface wind analysis to analyze Frederic's three dimensional low level structure between the storm center and a radius of 10 deg. latitude. The analysis is improved significantly by determining the levels at which low level cloud motion winds (CMW's) are in the...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), CYCLOGENESIS, HURRICANES, STORM DAMAGE, WIND PROFILES,...
This paper provides insights about the behavior of chaotic complex systems, and the sensitive dependence of the system on the initial starting conditions. How much does a small change in the initial conditions of a complex system affect it in the long term? Do complex systems exhibit what is called the "Butterfly Effect"? This paper uses an agent-based modeling approach to address these questions. An existing model from NetLogo library was extended in order to compare chaotic complex...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, ECOSYSTEMS, FLAPPING, SENSITIVITY, WINGS,...
An analysis of data collected in a hurricane research program is presented. The data were collected with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) during five aircraft flights in the Atlantic in August and September, 1976. Work was conducted in two areas. The first is an analysis of the L-band SAR data in a scatterometer mode to determine the surface windspeeds in hurricanes, in a similar manner to that done by an X-band scatterometer. The second area was to use the SAR to examine the wave patterns in...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR, WIND MEASUREMENT,...
The following analysis is a comparison of analytical methods for calculation of wind load pressures. The analytical methods specified in ASCE Paper No. 3269, ANSI A58.1-1982, the Standard Building Code, and the Uniform Building Code were analyzed using various hurricane speeds to determine the differences in the calculated results. The winds used for the analysis ranged from 100 mph to 125 mph and applied inland from the shoreline of a large open body of water (i.e., an enormous lake or the...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), COMPUTATION, DYNAMIC LOADS, HURRICANES, SHORELINES,...
Statistical aspects of major (intense) hurricanes, those of category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale (e.g., having a maximum sustained wind speed of greater than or equal to 50 M s (exp -1)), in the Atlantic basin during the interval of 1950-1998 are investigated in relation to the El Nino-Southern Oscillation cycle and to the postulated "more" versus "less" activity modes for intense hurricane activity. Based on Poisson statistics, when the hurricane season is...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, ATLANTIC OCEAN, EL NINO, SOUTHERN OSCILLATION,...
In 1963, during the ninth orbit of the Faith 7 capsule, astronaut Gordon Cooper skipped his nap and took some photos of the Earth below using a Hasselblad camera. The sole flier on the Mercury-Atlas 9 mission, Cooper took 24 photos - never-before-seen images including the Tibetan plateau, the crinkled heights of the Himalayas, and the jagged coast of Burma. From his lofty perch over 100 miles above the Earth, Cooper noted villages, roads, rivers, and even, on occasion, individual houses. In...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), SATELLITE IMAGERY, EARTH OBSERVATIONS (FROM SPACE),...
Winds in excess of 74.5 knots could cause severe damage to a space shuttle on the launch pad. Current plans exist for rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building, but require 48 hour leadtime to implement. Decisions based upon cost/loss are evaluated to ascertain whether predetermined forecast probabilities for rollback/rideout decisions can be made far in advance of hurricane seasons for use in decision making.
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, NUMERICAL WEATHER FORECASTING, SPACE SHUTTLES,...
No abstract available
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), SPACE WEATHER, AIR QUALITY, MODIS (RADIOMETRY), HURRICANES,...
No abstract available
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), OZONE, METEOROLOGY, AIR MASSES, CYCLOGENESIS, HURRICANES,...
No abstract available
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, MICROWAVE RADIOMETERS, EMISSIVITY, WIND VELOCITY,...
No abstract available
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), OZONE, STRATOSPHERE, SATELLITE SOUNDING, WEATHER FORECASTING,...
Results provided by two different assimilation methodologies involving data from passive and active space-borne microwave instruments are presented. The impact of the precipitation estimates produced by the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) in a previously developed 1D variational continuous assimilation algorithm for assimilating tropical rainfall is shown on two hurricane cases. Results on the impact of the SeaWinds scatterometer on the intensity and...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), MICROWAVE IMAGERY, ASSIMILATION, ATMOSPHERIC MODELS,...
Precipitation is a vital aspect of our lives droughts, floods and other related disasters that involve precipitation can cause costly damage in the economic system and general society. Purpose of this project is to determine what, if any effect do hurricanes have on annual precipitation in Maryland Research will be conducted on Marylands terrain, climatology, annual precipitation, and precipitation contributed from hurricanes Possible connections to climate change
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, PRECIPITATION (METEOROLOGY), MARYLAND, CLIMATE...
No abstract available
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, IMAGING TECHNIQUES, WIND VELOCITY, DROPSONDES,...
Glenn Research Center awarded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts to ManTech SRS Technologies, of Newport Beach, California, to develop thin film inflatable antennas for space communication. With additional funding, SRS modified the concepts for ground-based inflatable antennas. GATR (Ground Antenna Transmit and Receive) Technologies, of Huntsville, Alabama, licensed the technology and refined it to become the world s first inflatable antenna certified by the Federal...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), ANTENNAS, INFLATABLE STRUCTURES, TELECOMMUNICATION,...
The Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) has recently been deselected from the Earth Observing System (EOS). A broad range of orbital altitudes and laser power are being considered for future wind lidar missions. As a result, as was anticipated in the proposed work, it may be impossible to meaningfully study tropical cyclones with lidar wind data because data coverage (i.e., swath width) is insufficient. Research on this grant has focused on how to maximize the benefits of a wind lidar...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), CYCLOGENESIS, DOPPLER RADAR, EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM (EOS),...
Officially, the North Atlantic basin tropical cyclone season runs from June 1 through November 30 of each year. During this 183-day interval, the vast majority of tropical cyclone onsets are found to occur. For example, in a study of the 715 tropical cyclones that occurred in the North Atlantic basin during the interval 1945-2010, it was found that about 97 percent of them had their onsets during the conventional hurricane season, with the bulk (78 percent) having had onset during the late...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), TROPICAL STORMS, HURRICANES, GLOBAL WARMING, ATLANTIC OCEAN,...
During the interval of 1944-1997, 120 intense hurricanes (i.e., those of category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane damage potential scale) were observed in the Atlantic basin, having an annual frequency of 0-7 events per year, being more active prior to the mid 1960's than thereafter (hence a possible two-state division: more active versus less active), and being preferentially lower during El Nino years as compared to non-El Nino years. Because decadal averages of the frequency of...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), HURRICANES, TRENDS, STRUCTURAL BASINS, EL NINO, PERIODIC...
Hurricane Katrina was responsible for trapping 25,000 people in the New Orleans Superdome and isolating many others throughout Louisiana and Mississippi. The transport of these evacuees to the Reliant Park (Houston, Texas) used 500 buses each containing about 55 people. Processing the arriving evacuees included addressing their health status and medical needs as follows: an initial triage at disembarkation, a secondary triage in the Reliant Astrodome and Center, and definitive clinical care in...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), EMERGENCIES, HURRICANES, FOOD, MEDICAL SERVICES, CLINICAL...
An extended forecast of the frequencies for the 2009 North Atlantic basin hurricane season is presented. Continued increased activity during the 2009 season with numbers of tropical cyclones, hurricanes, and major hurricanes exceeding long-term averages are indicated. Poisson statistics for the combined high-activity intervals (1950-1965 and 1995-2008) give the central 50% intervals to be 9-14, 5-8, and 2-4, respectively, for the number of tropical cyclones, hurricanes, and major hurricanes,...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), TROPICAL STORMS, CYCLONES, HURRICANES, FORECASTING, EL NINO,...
The glaciers and ice sheets of the world contain enough ice to raise sea level by approximately 70 meters if they were to disappear entirely, and most of this ice is located in the climatically sensitive polar regions. Fortunately changes of this magnitude would probably take many thousands of years to occur, but recent discoveries indicate that these ice masses are responding to changes in today s climate more rapidly than previously thought. These responses are likely to be of great societal...
Topics: NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS), GLACIERS, ICE, CLIMATE CHANGE, SEA LEVEL, POLAR REGIONS,...
