{"id":3628,"date":"2004-09-19T14:15:10","date_gmt":"2004-09-19T19:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/?p=3628"},"modified":"2013-07-24T16:41:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T21:41:50","slug":"monthly-news-summary-september-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/articles\/3628","title":{"rendered":"Monthly News Summary – September 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hurricanes wreak havoc in the Atlantic<\/h1>\n

This issue of\u00a0SSEC In the News\u00a0covers news and research results primarily from August and September 2004. Use images freely with credit to the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, but please notify\u00a0SSEC’s Public Information Officer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Understanding tropical storm activity with CIMSS’ Tropical Cyclone Research Team<\/h5>\n

by Jen O’Leary<\/p>\n

In the Atlantic Ocean, the summer months officially mean hurricane season. Residents in areas along the coastline find themselves facing flooding and destructive winds. As nature continues to wreak havoc, Christopher Velden and the\u00a0CIMSS Tropical Cyclone Research Team<\/a>\u00a0find themselves inundated in a different way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"sep.2004charley1\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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MODIS image taken August 13 of Hurricane Charley<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

While Florida continues to cope with the reality of tropical cyclones, namely Hurricanes Charley and Frances with Ivan trailing not far behind, Velden and his team of atmospheric scientists analyze the continuous stream of data. From their perch in the Space Science and Engineering Center on the UW-Madison campus, the Tropical Cyclone Research Team watched as Hurricane Charley developed off the coast of Africa and then as it intensified right before it crashed into the Florida coast.<\/p>\n

Under Velden\u2019s leadership, the Tropical Cyclone Research Team develops technology to help meteorologists use satellite information to better understand the characteristics of tropical cyclones. Their work will allow more accurate forecasts and, consequently, more effective warnings for the public.<\/p>\n

The media have criticized hurricane forecasters for failing to predict this intensification. However, as Velden points out in a\u00a0Wisconsin State Journal<\/em>\u00a0article from August 18, the changes that generally cause storms to intensify are often subtle and difficult to forecast. He also mentions that experts predicted Charley\u2019s landfall four days prior to its occurrence, which is earlier than it would have been even a few years ago. Forecasting technology has improved immensely and continues to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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An image of Frances produced by Rick Kohrs<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Through their research, Velden and his team have contributed to the advancement of forecasting technology. For example, in 1998, the Tropical Cyclone Research Team came up with a computer-based algorithm as a way to remove subjectivity from the\u00a0Dvorak Technique<\/a>used to determine the strength and potential path of the storm. It uses digital infrared information to objectively create a profile for a storm. The meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, among others, utilize this algorithm.<\/p>\n

In order to\u00a0understand the tropical storm activity<\/a>\u00a0this year and the tools used to look at it, many media outlets have sought out the expertise of Velden and his team of hurricane specialists.<\/p>\n

Conversations with the Tropical Cyclone Experts<\/h1>\n

Herald<\/span><\/em>-ing the storms<\/span>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The September 13 edition of the UW-Madison student paper\u00a0The Badger Herald<\/em>\u00a0ran an article featuring\u00a0Christopher Velden\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Robert Wacker<\/strong>, a PhD candidate in Velden\u2019s Tropical Cyclone Research Team. Velden and Wacker discussed the importance of CIMSS products and imagery the prediction and subsequent analysis of the hurricanes this summer.<\/p>\n

On the evening news<\/span>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Christopher Velden\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Rick Kohrs<\/strong>\u00a0imparted their tropical cyclone wisdom to the masses on a September 2 FOX 47 news report. Velden provided a researcher\u2019s point of view and Kohrs a product developer\u2019s. They had a chance to discuss their research and products as well as show off some of SSEC\u2019s imagery.<\/p>\n

CIMSS Tropical Cyclone page popular with Web surfers<\/span>\u2013As one might imagine in light of the activity of this year\u2019s hurricane season, curious storm trackers have found their ways to the\u00a0Tropical Cyclone Research team\u2019s webpag<\/a>e in droves. By mid-September and the arrival of Hurricane Ivan, the page received over 25 million hits and expected about 10-15 million more in the following few days. Goar J. D\u00edaz Acosta of Cuba has used the site to follow Hurricane Ivan at the recommendation for his daughter, D\u00e9sir\u00e9e D\u00edaz, a teaching assistant at UW-Madison. ” I want to congratulate you, because the information is very complete (more complete than in other places) and very well organized. […] Thank you for the work that you make,” Mr. D\u00edaz said in a Sept 14 e-mail. While hurricanes pound the Atlantic coastline, Internet users seek out further details to supplement the media coverage.What better place to look than a webpage made by atmospheric scientists?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"sep.2004hurricane-ivan_small-tn\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Ivan animation<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Satellite Animation<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0UW- Madison\u2019s Communications Office to publicized SSEC\u2019s new satellite animation tool through a September 2 news release. Developed by programmer\u00a0Rick Kohrs<\/strong>, the tool provides close to real-time movies of tropical cyclones. It updates every half hour using satellite information.Christopher Velden<\/strong>\u00a0says the new tool will remain online throughout the hurricane season.<\/p>\n

In the wake of Charley<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 Looking at winds \u2013\u00a0Jim Kossin<\/strong>\u00a0with CIMSS provided insight in to mesovortices in the\u00a0St. Petersburg Times<\/em>. On August 20, the\u00a0St. Petersburg Times<\/em>\u00a0put out a story looking at Hurricane Charley\u2019s winds. Kossin discussed how winds in a mesovortex are selective in what they destroy.<\/p>\n

Analyzing Charley<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 On August 18, the\u00a0Wisconsin State Journal<\/em>\u00a0printed an article about SSEC\u2019s involvement in forecasting and, subsequently, attempting to understand\u00a0Hurricane Charley<\/a>.Christopher Velden<\/strong>\u00a0was called upon to discuss the technology used to forecast hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Improving, but not perfect<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 The\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0<\/em>quoted\u00a0Christopher Velden\u00a0<\/strong>in an article about tracking tropical storms. Velden used an analogy to illustrate how unpredictable nature can be: \u201cYou can think of a hurricane as a piece of wood in a river. The hurricane is embedded in a steering current, which controls its direction, like a current in a river controls which way a piece of wood goes. Small eddies in the current can change the course.\u201d He also discussed how, currently, satellites mostly gather infrared data while newer tools will tap into the microwave portion of the light spectrum, allowing scientists to look at the structure underneath a storm.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin worries<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 In an August 14\u00a0Wisconsin State Journal\u00a0<\/em>article about how the Floridian hurricanes affect Madison residents,\u00a0Christopher Velden<\/strong>\u00a0talked about how the Tropical Cyclone Research Team watches developing storms. The article also mentioned the\u00a0computer-based algorithm<\/a>developed at SSEC in order to objectively determine a storm\u2019s strength and potential path.<\/p>\n

Bracing for a double whammy<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 NewScientist.com called on the knowledge of\u00a0Derrick Herndon<\/strong>, one of the experts in the Tropical Cyclone Research Team. In an article printed on August 13 about Hurricane Charley and tropical storm Bonnie, he discussed the threat of storm surge and tornadoes that often correlate with hurricanes. He also pointed out the \u201cworst-case-scenario\u201d geometry of the hurricane\u2019s projected path.<\/p>\n

Doing what they do best<\/span>\u00a0\u2013 The Tropical Prediction Center in Miami acknowledge the usefulness of CIMSS products in forecasting this summer\u2019s tropical activity. Both CIMSS imagery and products proved instrumental in the analysis prior to and following the storms.<\/p>\n

Imagery Galore<\/h1>\n\n\n\n\n
\"sept.2004Ivan\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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MODIS image of Hurricane Ivan<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As the media attempt to cover the tropical activity raging around the Atlantic, various organizations have used images from SSEC. On their Web site, NASA used an image of Hurricane Charley procured by SSEC from the MODIS sensor on NASA\u2019s Terra satellite. The true-color image showed Charley rapidly intensifying approximately 90 minutes before it reached category 4 status. They also used a MODIS image of Hurricane Ivan from September 14 as it approached the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0Liam Gumley<\/strong>produced this image.<\/p>\n

Across the pond in London, TV Channel 4 used Rick Kohrs\u2019\u00a0Hurricane Ivan animation<\/a>\u00a0on their evening news for September 10.<\/p>\n

Yahoo News used a McIDAS image of Hurricane Frances in a September 1 posting.<\/p>\n

Accompanying an article about work done by the Tropical Cyclone Research Team, the\u00a0Wisconsin State Journal<\/em>used an image of tropical storm Bonnie sitting over the Gulf of Mexico while Hurricane Charley waits in the wings. This image is also one produced by SSEC.<\/p>\n

CNN.com also used a\u00a0UW-credited image of Hurricane Charley<\/a>\u00a0as it approaches the Florida coast in an article from August 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the News – September 2004<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-summary"],"acf":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3628"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4329,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628\/revisions\/4329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}