About 40% of the U.S. population lives in a coastal area and in Hawai‘i, nearly everyone is vulnerable to the effects of tropical storms and hurricanes.
Tropical cyclones, regionally known as hurricanes or typhoons, have been moving across ocean basins faster since 1982, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters.
The study, led by Sung-Hun Kim, a post-doctoral researcher in the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the time of the work, also determined the North Atlantic region has experienced an increase in the frequency of hurricanes and that tropical cyclone activity has shifted toward the poles in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
The researchers, including Pao-Shin Chu, atmospheric sciences professor in SOEST, focused on tropical cyclones since 1982, when modern, reliable satellite data became available.
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