Hurricanes are massive, complex systems that can span hundreds of miles as they swirl around the low pressure of the storm’s eye.
Hurricanes are massive, complex systems that can span hundreds of miles as they swirl around the low pressure of the storm’s eye. In such a complicated situation, predicting how powerful a hurricane will grow is a difficult undertaking.
A new collaboration between researchers in South Korea and Florida State University is improving hurricane forecasting by incorporating the effects of sea spray into the models that predict hurricane behavior. The work was published in Environmental Research Letters.
“We know forecasts predicting hurricane tracks are pretty good most of the time, but the intensity forecasts have traditionally not been as good, and we’re trying to figure out why,” said Mark Bourassa, a professor in the FSU Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science and paper co-author.
As hurricanes churn through the ocean, wind and waves at the surface disperse droplets of water into the air, known as sea spray. As these droplets of warm water evaporate, they cool while releasing heat and moisture into the atmosphere near the ocean surface. The heat lifts more moisture-laden air, a process that powers hurricanes.
Read more at Florida State University
Photo Credit: Pixabay
