AOML’s Hurricane Research Division tasked all three NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft to perform science operations into Hurricane Teddy, now a category-3 tropical cyclone and still intensifying in the mid-Atlantic.
NOAA’s P-3 aircraft wraps up its sequence of missions into Hurricane Sally prior to the system’s eventual landfall along the central Gulf Coast. Tasked by the National Hurricane Center (NHC), its final flight took off on September 15 at 9:30 EDT from Lakeland, FL.
NOAA’s G-IV and two P-3 Hurricane Hunter aircraft took off from Lakeland, FL at 10:30 AM, 1:30 PM and 4:30 PM EDT on September 14th to investigate Hurricane Sally’s circulation. AOML scientists providing onboard and remote support for these missions ensure that Tail Doppler Radar, dropsonde, and Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) measurements allow for adequate coverage of the storm environment.
In a new article published in the Journal of Climate, scientists at AOML and the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Science, with collaborators at Boston University, Texas A&M, and North Carolina State University, document the role of ocean dynamics in linking Pacific atmospheric variability to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event generation. The results of the study could be used as a potential predictor of ENSO events up to a year in advance.
A very active peak in this year’s Atlantic hurricane season has prompted NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC), Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), and AOML’s Hurricane Research Division to task their G-IV and both P-3 aircraft to investigate multiple storms in the Gulf of Mexico and mid-Atlantic.
A new paper appearing in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health examines how the presence of children’s open wounds and abrasions during play at the beach may put them at greater risk of skin infections from marine bacteria and other pathogens they encounter. The study finds that children with existing or newly-acquired wounds while at the beach are more susceptible to infection.
NOAA’s P-3 Hurricane Hunter aircraft completed a flight into Tropical Storm Nana in the Caribbean on the morning of September 2. AOML scientists onboard the aircraft, and from the ground, quality controlled and sent dropsonde and radar data to the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) and National Hurricane Center (NHC) in real time.
A recent paper published in Atmosphere introduces a new update to the Basin-Scale Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF-B) model, which pairs an atmospheric model with an ocean model via new coupling technology to forecast several tropical cyclones simultaneously. This model, shown to improve forecast skill, was developed at AOML in collaboration with NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center and the Developmental Testbed Center.
Despite their differences, it is still widely thought that Atlantic Niño is analogous to El Niño in many ways. Specifically, the atmosphere-ocean feedback responsible for the onset of Atlantic Niño is believed to be similar to that of El Niño, a process known as Bjerknes feedback. The near-surface trade winds blow steadily from east to west along the equator. When weaker-than-normal trade winds develop in the western Atlantic basin, downwelling equatorial Kelvin waves propagate to the eastern basin, deepening the thermocline and making it harder for the colder, deeper water to affect the surface.
AOML hurricane scientists coordinated with ground crews stationed in the path of Laura’s trajectory to obtain valuable measurements that captured the structural evolution of major Hurricane Laura upon landfall, while successfully completing all operational mission objectives.
