2003 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| HURRICANE RESOURCE REEL 2003 | G03-036 | 05/29/03 | 00:28:45 | The 2003 hurricane season started early for the United States: In late April, Ana became the earliest tropical storm in U.S. waters since weather- casters started naming storms. Starting May 15 for the Eastern Pacific and June 1 for the Atlantic, hurricanes and tropical storms typically ravage U.S. coastlines through the end of November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts the 2003 hurricane season will likely have above normal levels of activity. This resource tape contains highlights from NASA's research on hurricanes, animation illustrating the inner workings of these super storms, illustrations showing the impacts of El Nino and La Nina, and some of the best satellite views of hurricanes our researchers could get their hands on.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Hot Water - Hurricane Fuel
- Researchers and forecasters often study sea surface temperatures for an indication of hurricane potential. Scientists say above normal Atlantic Ocean temperatures is one reason for the "above normal" hurricane forecast. Hurricanes convert heat from the tropical atmosphere and oceans to wind and waves, just as a car engine converts gasoline into motion. This animation shows a year in the life of global and Atlantic ocean temperatures, June 2, 2002 to May 11, 2003. Green indicates the coolest water, yellow the warmest. The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on the Aqua satellite saw through the clouds to provide sea surface temperatures.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (2): El Nino's Demise and the Forecast - NOAA forecasters attribute their "above normal" hurricane activity predictions for 2003 in part to changing conditions in the Pacific Ocean, such as the demise of El Nino. This sequence traces the evolution of the warmer-than- normal waters associated with the weak El Nino that developed in the late fall 2002. By January, the warm conditions began to dissipate. Fewer Atlantic hurricanes generally form when El Nino is present. Researchers say the Pacific may transition to the colder-than- normal La Nina phase. Areas in red indicate warmer than normal temperatures; areas in blue, cooler than normal. June 2, 2002 to May 11, 2003 SST anomalies from AMSR-E on Aqua.
Courtesy: NASA/TRW
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| ITEM (3): The El Nino Connection (G99-045) - El Nino tends to suppress the formation of Atlantic hurricanes. During El Nino (here, red, warm Pacific waters), the subtropical jet is displaced southward toward hurricane generation areas in the Atlantic. The quick-moving air aloft tends to blow the tops off the developing clouds in a hurricane, inhibiting full growth of the system and decreasing the number making North American landfall. In La Nina (blue, cool Pacific waters), the jet is displaced northward, away from hurricane generation areas. The quick-moving air does not shear hurricanes, so they more readily develop and make North American landfall.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (4): The Africa Connection - Increased rainfall in the fall in the Sahel (northwestern) region of Africa often has been associated with an increase in the number and intensity of hurricanes in the North Atlantic the following summer. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) captured these images of higher than normal rainfall (shown in green and light blue) in the Sahel this fall. This sequence shows the monthly average rainfall anomalies in the region for September 2002. TRMM is a joint NASA/ Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) mission.
Courtesy: NASA/NASDA
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| SEEING INSIDE STORMSITEM (5): Hurricane Heat Engine (G99-045) - Hurricanes essentially act as engines, drawing energy up from warm tropical ocean waters to power the churning winds. Water vapor from the warm ocean surface evaporates and is forced up into towering convective clouds that surround the eye wall and rainband regions of the storm. As the water vapor cools and condenses from a gas back to a liquid state, it releases latent heat. The release of heat warms the surrounding air, making it lighter, which promotes more clouds. Because the hurricane speeds surrounding the eye clouds are often absent from the center of a hurricane, the clouds are thrown out from the center.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (6): Cause and Effect: Bonnie's Trail Weakens Danielle (G00-025) - A hurricane gathers energy from warm waters found in tropical latitudes. As Hurricane Bonnie crosses the Atlantic, it leaves a trail of cooler water in its wake. When Hurricane Danielle crosses Bonnie's path, the wind speed of the second storm drops markedly, as available energy to fuel the storm's Engine drops off. But once Danielle crosses Bonnie's wake, wind speeds increase as water surface temperatures increase around the storm.Temperatures range from mid 70's (blue) to mid 90's F (red).
Courtesy: NASA/NASDA
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| ITEM (7): Hurricane Cat Scans - Rainfall Rates(G00-045) - The world's first spaceborne rain radar allows scientists to create 3-D views of precipitation and height of the rain column inside powerful hurricanes. Red shows highest rain rates, more than 2 inches per hour.
Isidore - September 26, 2002
Floyd makes landfall - September 15, 1999
Floyd - September 13, 1999
Mitch - October 27, 1998
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (8): "Super-ensemble" Model for Rainfall Prediction (G00-007) - In September of 1999, Hurricanes Floyd and Irene drenched the southeastern United States. Using the new "super-ensemble" forecasting techniques, the following visualizations compare September's collected one-day forecasts to the collected daily observations of actual rainfall. This new forecasting technique is a major improvement over earlier methods. Daily rainfall predictions are notoriously difficult in the tropics; in this depiction, the overall forecasting trend over time is more significant than precise matching of the rainfall areas shown.
Courtesy: NASA/NASDA
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| ITEM (9): Hurricane Cat Scans - Temperature (G02-031) - Here is the first look at the three dimensional distribution of temperatures at the eye of a hurricane. First we see 2001's Hurricane Erin's rainfall distribution, with red being the area of highest activity and blue lowest. The image then fades to clouds and the hurricane's heat engine, its temperature distribution, appears, shaded in red. The warm, humid, rising air is the key to the hurricane's power. The rising air draws in air from the surface to take its place, creating winds. Data from dropsondes.
Courtesy: NASA/USFS
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| ITEM (10): Dropsondes Away!(G01-071) - Described by a researcher as "Pringles cans with parachutes", scientists dropped sensors called 'dropsondes' into 2001's Hurricane Erin to gain temperature, pressure, moisture and wind readings throughout different locations in the hurricane. An ER-2 allows for eight dropsondes deliveries, while the fully staffed DC-8 plane drops as many as 15 dropsondes within the hurricane.
Courtesy: NASA
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| HISTORIC HURRICANESITEM (11): Hurricanes 2002 (G02-005):
Hurricane Isidore, September 23, 2002 - SeaWiFS images (3 views)
Hurricane Lili, October 1, 2002 - SeaWiFS image
Hurricane Lili, October 2, 2002 - SeaWiFS images (3 views)
Courtesy: NASA
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| OTHER RECENT HURRICANESITEM (12): Hurricane Mitch (G98-064) - The deadliest hurricane on record, Mitch took over 10,000 lives worldwide. This 3-D video sequence shows Hurricane Mitch approaching the Mexican coastline, October 26-27, 1998. Data come from NOAA/National Weather Services' Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-8. Approximated photo-realistic colors: red from the visible, green from the enhanced visible, and blue from the inverted 11-micrometer infrared channel.
Courtesy: NASA/NOAA
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| ITEM (13): Hurricane Andrew (G98-003)
- The costliest U.S. hurricane ever, the national hurricane center re-classified 1992's Hurricane Andrew as a category 5 in 2002.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (14): Hurricane Floyd (G99-056) - These still images of Hurricane Floyd were captured by the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS), onboard the Sea Star spacecraft. Floyd was the third-most costly hurricane on record to hit the U.S.
1-3) 1:30 p.m. September 14, 1999
4-7) Making landfall September 15, 1999
Courtesy: NASA/TRW
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| ITEM (15): Hurricane Floyd Grows Nasty(G99-056) - These sequences of Hurricane Floyd show its development into a hurricane and landfall from September 12 through September 15, 1999. Images from the NOAA/National Weather Services Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-8. The video was enhanced and rendered at the NASA GSFC Laboratory for Atmospheres.
Courtesy: NASA/NOAA
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| ITEM (16): Miracle Swath (G98-064) - TRMM captured this dramatic view of four storms (remnants of tropical storm Howard, Hurricane Isis, Hurricane Earl, Hurricane Danielle) in a single pass on September 2, 1998.
Courtesy: NASA/NASDA
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| ITEM (17): AQUA (G02-017) - The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on board the Aqua satellite saw through the clouds to provide sea surface temperatures. Aqua and its sibling spacecraft Terra are part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research effort to understand our home planet. The satellites follow different but related orbits and cover almost the entire surface of our planet every day in 36 channels ranging from visible to thermal infrared wavelengths. Daily, Aqua ascends across the equator at 1:30 p.m. in every time zone.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (18): GOES (G97-001) - The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) is actually one of a constellation of instruments positioned in fixed orbits over North America. The GOES satellites monitor large scale weather systems, as well as other aspects of the changing planet beneath.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (19): SeaWiFS (G98-064) - SeaWiFS (Sea-Viewing Wide Field of View Sensor) is the scientific portion of the OrbView-2 satellite, orbiting 423 miles above Earth. By providing a regular picture of the planet's color, SeaWiFS helps researchers learn about the state of the world's interconnected ecosystems. OrbView-2 blasted into space on August 1, 1997. A low cost mission, many orders of magnitude less expensive than other Earth observing instruments, this little instrument has proven to be one of the space agency's star performers. Its highly focused mission parameters net huge scientific returns for researchers studying a wide variety of questions.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (20): TRMM (G98-064) - The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite measures tropical rainfall in a band around the Earth stretching 35 degrees north and south of the equator. The satellite uses several instruments to study rainfall, including radar, microwave imaging, and lightning sensors. TRMM data is available to researchers around the world. A joint mission between the Japanese Space Agency (NASDA) and NASA, a team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, manages the satellite.
Courtesy: NASA
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