NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
When I was told that I had to pick a topic that was related to science I knew that I was going to write about hurricanes. I have had this fascination with this a monstrous turbulence since I can remember. The definition for hurricane is a disturbance that forms over warm water and has sustaining winds that exceed over 74 mph. My report will give you a brief summary of what a hurricane is and how today's technology is helping with the prediction of hurricanes. You " re probably sitting there wondering, "What is there to know about a hurricane? It's just another wonder of God's. " Well, I think this report will change your state of mind and opinion of what exactly is a hurricane.
Since 1944, the United States Navy (USN) and the United States Air Force (USAF) have been flying consecutive missions into the eye of the hurricane to help warn civilians as well as military personnel of approaching typhoons and hurricanes. During the late 1940 's and early 1950 's scientist Dr. Robert H. Simpson, had used these missions to take scientific measurements of hurricanes.
but it wasn't until 1954, when Hurricane Carol, Edna and Hazel (Hurricane Hazel went right over Washington D. C. ) that policymakers took the hurricane threat seriously enough to finance such research. Congress in 1955 authorized the funding to United States Weather Bureau (USWB) to create the National Hurricane Research Project (NHRP) which was to conduct research into hurricanes in hopes of improving scientific understanding of them, which in turn would improve forecasting and predictions of landfall. Dr. Simpson was appointed Director of the twenty-two person "project" and in one year he had operational headquarters set up at an airplane wing located West Palm Beach, Florida Airport. USAF# loaned three aircrafts.
On August 13, 1956 the first NHRP# flight was made into Hurricane Betsy off the Turks and Caicos Islands. The USAF aircraft used in the first three years were equipped with instruments to take the temperature, humidity, and pressure measurements and punch them on computer cards. Researchers were initially interested in describing the three dimensional structure of hurricanes and in observing the middle and upper level winds which were thought to steer the storm. Observing the next several years an experiment was carried out in which a balloon radio beacon was released in hurricane's eye and the wind center was tracked remotely. The "project" also involved setting up upper-air stations around the Caribbean and installing WSR- 57 radars in American coastal locations. One program of photographing hurricanes from low flying rockets that was soon made obsolete by the introduction of weather satellites.
In 1958 was what they, the meteorologists, thought was their most productive year, with twenty-three missions being flown. Unfortunately, at the end of 1958 's hurricane season the USAF withdrew their aircrafts from the "project" and Dr. Simpson left the head position to become the director of STORMFURY. A year later the "project" was moved south to the Miami Aviation Building, co-locating it with the NHC#. With the introduction of the IBM 650 computer at this time not only allowed for quicker processing of field data, but facilitated the first attempts at numerical modeling of hurricanes. There was a break in field research activity until 1960 when NHRP acquired two new aircrafts for to be flown in hurricane missions.
Also in 1961 the USN# and USWB# flew seeding experiments into Hurricane Esther. This lead to the formal organization of Project STORMFURY in 1963, as a joint venture of the USN, USWB, and the National Science Foundation. This project would continue for more than twenty years and include NHRP, RFF# in it's operations. A good deal of NHRP's research during the early years of STORMFURY were in areas critical to weather and modification, such as cloud physics, storm structure, and dynamics. Ironically, studies into natural hurricane variability would eventually lead to questions of effectiveness of STORMFURY. Satellites had a dramatic impact on hurricane investigation and research during the early 1960 's.
It was no longer necessary to send aircraft on 'long fishing expeditions', just looking for signs of tropical disturbances. Using the satellites forecasters could pinpoint where the Hurricane Hunters needed to fly. And researchers for the first time could watch the formation of a hurricane from the very start. However the cirrus clouds (Central Dense Overcast) of hurricanes still made it necessary to fly planes into these storms to collect information. In 1964 NHRP was redesignated the National Hurricane Research Laboratory (NHRL) to signify a more permanent status. The "project" was initially suppose to run for only a few years: time enough, it was thought, to answer all the basic questions about hurricanes.
As the complex nature tropical storms became apparent it was realized that hurricanes research will always be an on-going thing. The Knollenberg probes (pictured on the left) allowed HRD# cloud physicists to image individual cloud particles by using an array of laser diodes. As particles pass through the array a laser shadow is cast upon the receiving diodes and the image of the particle is entered into memory. Scientists can see what sort of particles they are flying through in real time, whether rain, or ice. Also the FSSP probe allows the instantaneous compilation of particle size statistics.
Project STORMFURY came to a formal end in 1982, as no hurricane modification experiments had been flown in over a decade, and as serious doubts about the assumptions of STORMFURY came to be expressed. In part the new cloud physics data showed that the amount of supercooled liquid water available in a hurricane was far less than had been thought, and studies of the natural cycles of storm strength showed that the effect of seeding might have been nugatory. HRD scientists published a paper in 1985 demonstrating many of the flaws in the original STORMFURY premises. The NOAA# was decommissioned in 1981. In 1982 Doppler Radar, picture to the left shows a sample of what Doppler Radar really looks like. processing added to the tail radars.
Doppler allowed scientists to derive the hurricane's wind fields by either using radar data from both planes, from a plane and a land based Doppler radar. Instead of just having wind information from along the aircraft's track, the wind field from the entire inner core could be mapped out. This provided researchers with greater insight into hurricane structure and dynamics. In 1982 the Lab began a series of experiments using Omega dropwindsondes to fill in the vast oceanic data voids in the forecast models.
One or both P 3 s would fly synoptic scale patterns around the hurricane, and every 20 minutes or so drop a sonde out of the plane. The dropwindsonde would drift down on a parachute and radio back to the plane the temperature, humidity, and pressure, and using the Omega navigational signals, triangulate its position. This information was used by the plane's computer to estimate the winds the sonde was falling through. Put together with other drops a three dimensional profile of the synoptic-scale atmosphere surrounding the storm was synthesized.
Including this vital information in the hurricane track forecast models was shown to improve the accuracy by 20 -...
Free research essays on topics related to: hurricanes, three dimensional, national hurricane, hurricane, missions
Research essay sample on Three Dimensional National Hurricane
