Recent News
June 29, 2022
After 36 years of federal service as a physical oceanographer, we celebrate the career of Elizabeth “Libby” Johns as she retires from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). Libby began her career at NOAA in 1986 when she accepted a position at AOML as an Oceanographer.
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AOML Scientist “Libby” Johns Retires After 36 Years of Federal Service
June 29, 2022
After 36 years of federal service as a physical oceanographer, we celebrate the career of Elizabeth “Libby” Johns as she retires from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). Libby began her career at NOAA in 1986 when she accepted a position at AOML as an Oceanographer.
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Hurricane, Climate, Coastal and Ocean Research.
Our Research Makes an Impact
Project: Monitoring the Ocean Improves Weather Forecasts
AOML plays a key role in collecting and maintaining sustained ocean observations that monitor the temperature and salinity of ocean features using drifters, Argo floats, XBTs, moorings, and other platforms.
Impact: Adding Ocean Data from Directly Beneath a Storm Leads to More Accurate Hurricane Forecasts
Unmanned Ocean Glider data improve our understanding of the current ocean state and are used to initialize hurricane models. Data from gliders passing under Hurricane Gonzalo improved the intensity forecast by one category on the Saffir Simpson Scale.
Project: Monitoring Commercially Important Sportfish Populations
AOML developed a sportfish model that the US Army Corps of Engineers adopted to evaluate the impacts of Everglades Restoration on south Florida’s economically and ecologically important sportfish populations.
Impact: Empowers Managers to Evaluate Different Scenarios and Plan for the Future
The majority of sportfish in south Florida are dependent upon healthy estuaries with natural freshwater runoff. The model shows how sea trout would respond to different management scenarios, giving managers actionable information.
Project: HWRF's High Resolution Moving Nest Module
AOML developed a high resolution moving nest in NOAA's regional hurricane model known as HWRF, increasing resolution over the storm environment. We transition the HWRF model into operations in joint partnership with NOAA's Environmental Modeling Center.
Impact: Improved Forecast Accuracy Better Informs Coastal Communities
The HWRF model has improved intensity forecasts by 10- 5 kts in the critical decision making period of 48-72 hours before landfall. This allows people to make informed decisions to prepare their families, homes, and communities.
Featured Publication
Pre-Exposure to a Variable Temperature Treatment Improves the Response of Acropora Cervicornis to Acute Thermal Stress
Abstract: Given that global warming is the greatest threat to coral reefs, coral restoration projects have expanded worldwide with the goal of replenishing habitats whose reef-building corals succumbed to various stressors. In many cases, however, these efforts will be futile if outplanted corals are unable to withstand warmer oceans and an increased frequency of extreme temperature events. Stress-hardening is one approach proposed to increase the thermal tolerance of coral genotypes currently grown for restoration…
Read the Full Paper.
Abstract: Given that global warming is the greatest threat to coral reefs, coral restoration projects have expanded worldwide with the goal of replenishing habitats whose reef-building corals succumbed to various stressors. In many cases, however, these efforts will be futile if outplanted corals are unable to withstand warmer oceans and an increased frequency of extreme temperature events. Stress-hardening is one approach proposed to increase the thermal tolerance of coral genotypes currently grown for restoration…
Read the Full Paper.
AOML & GFDL’s Grassroots Collaboration
New Opportunities in a Virtual Environment
“This is a great starting point; it gave people a list of more than 10 topics with researchers at both labs working on similar problems. We now know who is a person we can contact, and that they are interested in collaborating because they gave a talk at the workshop.”
-Renellys Perez, Organizer and Participant
Frequently Asked Questions about Hurricanes
Why Don't Nuclear Weapons Destroy Hurricanes?
The amount of energy that a storm produces far outweighs the energy produced by one nuclear weapon. Additionally, the downside of radioactive fallout from such an operation would far outweigh the benefits and may not even alter the storm.
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How Much Energy is Released from a Hurricane?
The energy released from a hurricane can be explained in two ways: the total amount of energy released by the condensation of water droplets (latent heat), or the amount of kinetic energy generated to maintain the strong, swirling winds of a hurricane. The vast majority of the latent heat released is used to drive the convection of a storm, but the total energy released from condensation is 200 times the world-wide electrical generating capacity, or 6.0 x 1014 watts per day. If you measure the total kinetic energy instead, it comes out to about 1.5 x 1012 watts per day, or ½ of the world-wide electrical generating capacity. It would seem that although wind energy seems the most obvious energetic process, it is actually the latent release of heat that feeds a hurricane’s momentum.
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What Causes Tropical Cyclones?
The tropical atmosphere is often unstable. The amount of energy accumulated in the lower layers though the evaporation of water eventually overcomes any stable cap. This allows clusters of thunderstorms to form. These clusters move along with the prevailing winds as tropical disturbances. Occasionally, cyclonic circulations will develop within these disturbances. These circulations can be amplified and the disturbance will form a tropical cyclone. Only about 10% of disturbances become tropical cyclones, so large-scale influences impinging on such disturbances play a big role in cyclone formation.
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Why are Tropical Cyclone Winds Usually Stronger on One Side?
A hurricane is usually a symmetrical spiral. But if it is moving forward, then this motion makes the wind field asymmetrical. The side of the spiral with winds blowing in the direction of movement will add the forward speed to the wind speed. The side of the spiral with the wind blowing in the opposite direction will be subtract the forward speed from the wind speed.
For example, a hurricane with 90mph winds moving forward at 10mph would have a 100mph wind speed on the forward-moving side and 80 mph on the side with winds blowing backward to the motion.
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How are Hurricanes Named?
Names are assigned to organized tropical cyclones once their winds exceed 39 mph (17.5 m/s, 34 knots). The names are drawn from a list that is created prior to the season by the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization. Each tropical cyclone basin has its own name list, which is maintained by a WMO Regional Committee. If a particularly damaging storm occurs, the name of that storm can be retired. If a storm happens to move across basins, it keeps the original name. The only time it is renamed if it dissipates to a tropical disturbance and then reforms.
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