mentor: dr. jinchun yuan

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

The effect of Sea Surface Temperature on the Wind Speeds of Major Hurricanes of 2005, a Reexamination of Satellite Remote Sensing Data

Mentor: Dr. Jinchun Yuan

Members: Jean Bevins, Cedric Hall, Ashley Basnight, Nicholas Tabron


Overview •Introduction •Controversy•Abstract•Reexamination•Process and data

Collecting Data from NASAPlaces data in Microsoft ExcelSorting data and Calculating Creating ChartsAnalyzing and Relations

•Results•References•Questions


Introduction In 2005, the hurricane season in the Atlantic was the most dynamic season, so much so that it surpassed preceding records in history. The impact of these storms left over 3,000 deaths and record damages of approximately 130 billion (US) dollars. The First Storm formed on June 8th of 2005, and the last storm ended January 6, 2006

Tropical Storm – TS

Categories – 1,2,3,4,5

Tropical Depression - TD


Controversy

The Effect of Sea Surface Temperature on the strength of Hurricanes has been very controversial for some time. Many theories and atmospheric models all predicted a stronger hurricane at higher Sea Surface temperature. However, field observations of sea surface temperature and wind speed yielded inconclusive or contradicting results.


Abstract The effect of Sea Surface Temperature on the Wind Speeds of Major Hurricanes of 2005, a Reexamination of Satellite Remote Sensing Data


Process1. Collect Data from NASA hurricane

satellite website2. Place data from “data viewer”

into excel3. Sort data4. Create graphs5. Analyze correlations


Using Resources

Using the NASA Website (http://Poet.jpl.NASA.gov) we were able to insert specific data from each hurricane

http://poet.jpl.nasa.gov/


Using Resources


Poet Data View


Poet Data View (Photo)

Temperature Wind Speed


ASCII Chart

The American Standard Code for Information Interchange


Data in ExcelPlacing data in Excel•Text File•Replacing 255’s•Sort•Look for Highest Wind Speed


Data in Excel


Calculations Calculating The Distance:

Formula

=sqrt((x2-x1)^2+(y2-y1)^2)

=sqrt((x2-$x$1)^2+(y2-$y$1)^2)


Creating Graphs

25 25.5 26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 290

1020304050

Hurricane Ophelia

Sea Surface Temperature (°C)

Win

d Sp

eed

(m/s

)

28 28.5 29 29.5 30 30.5 310

1020304050

Hurricane Katrina


Win

d Sp

eed

(m/s

)

Take the data of the highest wind speed, then the distance, temperature, longitude, and latitude (which was sorted from the smallest to largest) and place them in a separate excel document. Next, you create the graph, wind speed being the y axis, and sea surface temperature being the x axis. This is done for every hurricane of 2005. Placing all of the final data together from each storm, will accumulate the final correlations analyze.


Graphs

25.5 26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29 29.5 30 30.505

101520253035

Hurricane Dennis


Win

d Sp

eed

(m/s

)

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2905

1015202530354045 Hurricane Harvey


Win

d Sp

eed

(m/s

)

27.4 27.6 27.8 28 28.2 28.4 28.6 28.8 29 29.2 29.405

1015202530

Hurricane Stan


Win

d Sp

eed

(m/s

)

22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5 25 25.5 26 26.5 27 27.52324252627282930

Series1

Tropical Storm Bret


Problems

1.Copying and pasting data into Excel was time consuming.

2.Replacing invalid data


Results

22 24 26 28 30 320

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Final Correlation of 2005 Hurricane Data


Win

d Sp

eed

(m/s

)

Based on the Final Correlation graph, Higher wind speed only occurs in higher temperatures. In areas with lower temperature, high wind speed doe not occur. Thus supporting the belief that sea surface temperature is not a primary factor in hurricane formation.


ReferencesNASANational Hurricane CenterIncreasing Destructiveness of tropical cyclones over past 30 years – Kerry Emanuel Sea-Surface temperatures and tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin – Patrick J. MichealsChanges in Tropical Cyclone Number, Duration, and Intensity in a Warming Environment NHC preliminary summary of 2005 wind speed and death


Questions

mentor: dr. jinchun yuan

Documents

invalid data oceanography

hurricane oceanography

excel oceanography team

final data

resources oceanography

data viewer

nasaplaces data

processcollect data