2000 EARTH SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| 2000 Hurricane Resource Compilation | G00-038 | 05/19/00 | 00:19:16 | With the official start of hurricane season looming like a rising tide, forecasters are deploying their latest analytic tools for predicting and studying the giant storms. The formal prediction for 2000 is calling for a statistically higher number of hurricanes than average. One of the causes considered likely to produce a high number of storms is the demise of La Nina, a vast body of cool water in the Pacific Ocean. In this video compilation, we take a look at recent developments in hurricane prediction, visualization, and our understanding about the nature of these storms.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): HOW HURRICANES WORK - Unwrapping the Clouds - TRMM has enabled scientists to look inside hurricanes and better understand how they work by using a unique suite of active and passive sensors capable of measuring rainfall and sea surface temperature. These powerful storms act essentially as engines, drawing energy up from warm tropical ocean waters to power the churning, swirling winds of their radial arms.
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| ITEM (2): HOW HURRICANES WORK - Releasing Energy from Water Molecules - As water vapor evaporates from the warm ocean surface, it's forced upward in towering convective clouds that surround the eyewall 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.
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| ITEM (3): HOW HURRICANES WORK - Towering Clouds - The release of latent heat warms the surrounding air, making it lighter and thus promoting more vigorous cloud development. It's believed that rapid bursts of cloud growth, particularly in the eyewall region of hurricanes, may relate to the intensification phase of a storm. It is also interesting to note that because of the intense winds speeds surrounding the eye clouds are often absent from the center of a hurricane; they're simply thrown out from the center.
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| ITEM (4): Predicting Hurricane Intensity Far from Land - For years scientists have known of a strong correlation between sea surface temperature and the intensity of hurricanes. But one of the major stumbling blocks for forecasters has been the precise measurement of those temperatures when a storm begins to form. Traditional techniques for sea surface temperature measurement can not see through clouds. Now researchers using the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite have developed a technique for looking through clouds with microwaves.
This technique is likely to enhance forecasters' abilities to predict the intensity of hurricanes before their massive energies fully develop.
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| ITEM (5): HURRICANE TRAILS AND WIND SPEED - 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, notice how winds speeds increase due to temperature increases in surface water around the storm.
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| ITEM (6): COOLING OFF THE ENGINE: COLDER WATERS AFFECT HURRICANE STRENGTH - As a hurricane churns up the ocean, it's central vortex draws surface heat and water into the storm. That suction at the surface causes an upwelling of deep water. At depth, tropical ocean waters are significantly colder than water found near the surface. As they're pulled up to meet a storm, those colder waters essentially leave a footprint in the storm's wake which might last as long as two weeks. Forecasters can quantify the difference in surface temperatures between this footprint and the surrounding temperatures and use that information to better predict stormintensity. If another storm intersects with this cold water trail, it's likely to lose significant strength due to the fact that the colder water does not contain as much potential energy as warm water.
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| ITEM (7): HURRICANE CAT SCANS WITH TRMM - Bonnie from the Inside Out - These images of Hurricane Bonnie comes from the rain radar flying aboard TRMM. They show a cumulonimbus (storm) cloud towering 59,000 feet into the sky from the eyewall. Scientists believe that towering cloud structures like this are probably precursors to hurricane intensification. These images were obtained August 22, 1998.
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| ITEM (8): HURRICANE CAT SCANS WITH TRMM - Hurricane Floyd Precipitation Rates - This 3D image shows the precipitation rates and the height of the rain column in Hurricane Floyd. Red color indicates rain rates in excess of 2 inches per hour. This animation sequence of Hurricane Floyd was initially captured at 5:40AM on September 13, 1999.
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| ITEM (9): HURRICANE CAT SCANS WITH TRMM - Gert Churns the Caribbean - This 3D image shows the precipitation rates and the height of the rain column in Hurricane Gert. This animation sequence of Hurricane Gert was captured at 4:00 a.m. on September 15, 1999.
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| ITEM (10): HURRICANE CAT SCANS WITH TRMM - Tropical Storms Emily & Cindy - This 3D image shows the precipitation rates and the height of the rain column in Tropical Storms Emily & Cindy. Parts of the image colored red indicate rain rates in excess of 2 inches per hour. Tropical Storm Cindy appears on the upper right;Tropical Storm Emily appears at the lower left. Both storms were captured on August 25, 1999.
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| ITEM (11): HURRICANE CAT SCANS WITH TRMM - Hurricane Dennis - This animation shows the position of Hurricane Dennis. Red sections of the image highlight rain rates in excess of 2 inches per hour. The image was recorded August 27, 1999.
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| ITEM (12): TRMM SPACECRAFT ANIMATION - The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is the first Earth Science mission dedicated to studying tropical and subtropical rainfall. Tropical rainfall, that which falls within 35 degrees north and 35 degrees
south of the equator, comprises more than two-thirds of global rainfall.
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| ITEM (13): GOES TRACKS HURRICANE PATHS - Hurricane Mitch - Here are three 3D video sequences of Hurricane Mitch as it approached the Mexican coastline. The images were taken October 26 and 27, 1998 by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-8.
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| ITEM (14): GOES TRACKS HURRICANE PATHS - Hurricane Georges - This video sequence shows the path of Hurricane Georges when it moved through the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. The images were collected September 21-29, 1998 by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-8.
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| ITEM (15): GOES TRACKS HURRICANE PATHS - Hurricane Bonnie - These images of Hurricane Bonnie were taken by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-10 on August 25 and 26, 1998.
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| ITEM (16): GOES TRACKS HURRICANE PATHS - Hurricane Bret and Dennis - These images of Hurricanes Bret and Dennis show the storms churning the Caribbean from August 20 to August 30, 1999.
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| ITEM (17): GOES TRACKS HURRICANE PATHS - Hurricane Bonnie and Danielle - These images show the storm tracks of Hurricanes Bonnie and Danielle in the late summer of 1998.
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| ITEM (18): GOES SPACECRAFT ANIMATION - 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.
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| ITEM (19): STORM PORTRAITS TAKEN BY SEAWIFS- Hurricane Dennis - This image of Hurricane Dennis shows the storm pounding the eastern U.S. on September 1, 1999.
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| ITEM (20): STORM PORTRAITS TAKEN BY SEAWIFS- Hurricane Lenny - SeaWiFS captured this image of Hurricane Lenny on November 14, 1999.
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| ITEM (21): STORM PORTRAITS TAKEN BY SEAWIFS- Hurricane Floyd - SeaWiFS captured this image of Hurricane Floyd on September 13, 1999.
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| ITEM (22): SEAWIFS SPACECRAFT ANIMATION - SeaWiFS is just one component of the SeaStar satellite. SeaStar blasted into space on August 1, 1997 lifted by an extended Pegasus rocket. SeaWiFS is considered a low cost mission, many orders of magnitude less expensive than earlier Earth observing instruments. One of its great assets is its full time dedication to a single aspect of study, in this case ocean color.
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| ITEM (23):
CHASING HURRICANES IN AIRPLANES - In an effort to better understand the mechanics of hurricanes, researchers employ specialized aircraft to study the storms.
A) The sleek ER-2 is outfitted with a variety of instruments prior to its storm survey. The ER-2 airplane is a close relative to the famous U-2 spy plane, able to fly not only at high altitudes, but also for extended periods.
B) Researchers in a specially outfitted DC-8 canfly into active hurricane areas and take precise
measurements from the air.
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| ITEM (24): STORM DAMAGE - Hurricanes can pack a wallop in terms of dollars, as well as sheer destruction. Property damage from soaking rains and sustained winds often exceeding 100 miles an hour can render wide areas of development into little more than soggy piles of splinters.
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