Earthsky Interviews
Private: Meteorologist explains urge to chase hurricanes
04-26-2006 - Earth
_JB:_ He’s a man who flies with a crew of other specialists straight into hurricanes.
_Barry Damiano:_ You’re going out, you’re facing Mother Nature up close, there’s an awful lot to be learned out there. You’re not sitting at a desk. You know?
_DB:_ Damiano is a meteorologist working for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We asked him why he does it.
_Barry Damiano:_ I think 50 percent of my time is spent out inside the airplane flying to all these exotic locations around the world, meeting all different types of people, flying all different types of weather. And there is some excitement to it, but there’s also a fulfilling challenge that you’re going out there, you’re providing information to people which may eventually save lives.
_JB:_ Last year, hurricanes striking the U.S. did over $100 billion in damage and killed more than 1,300 people. They might have been more devastating without forecasts that helped people evacuate. Those hurricane forecasts are so accurate, in part, because some people – like Damiano – fly into hurricanes. To see photos taken from inside a hurricane, come to earthsky.org. Our thanks today to “NOAA”:http://www.noaa.gov. We’re Block and Byrd for “Earth & Sky”:/http://208.96.63.114/.
For more from Barry Damiano, read the Earth & Sky “interview”:http://208.96.63.114/?p=2276.
Where can I see photos from inside a hurricane?
Come see Earth & Sky’s Photo Gallery: “Eyewitness photos from inside a hurricane”:http://208.96.63.114/?p=2502.
Does anyone else hunt hurricanes?
This radio segment highlights the work of NOAA Hurricane Hunters, but NOAA isn’t the only organization flying through hurricanes for the public good. The U.S. Air Force Reserve’s “53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron”:http://www.hurricanehunters.com/ also gets into the act.
How do hurricanes work?
Read “Hurricane Structure”:http://hurricanes.noaa.gov/prepare/structure.htm, from NOAA. And check out “Anatomy of a hurrricane”:http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/storm/about/anatomy.html, from the Palm Beah Post.
For a wonderful account of an early hurricane hunting experience by Robert Simpson in 1954, read “A Flight Through the Eye of a Hurricane”:http://hurricanes.noaa.gov/prepare/structure_eye.htm, from Scientific American.
How did the 2005 hurricane season compare to previous years?
Read “Climate of 2005: Atlantic Hurricane Season, from NOAA’s Climatic Data Center”:http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2005/hurricanes05.html.
Wouldn’t it be safer just to use satellites to monitor hurricanes?
Hurricane hunters fly airplanes through hurricanes and collect weather measurements by releasing dropsondes – small tube-shaped devices that measure wind speed, moisture, temperature and pressure inside the storm. The data is beamed back to the National Hurricanne Center in Miami. There, the data is used – along with satellite and radar data – to determine the hurricane’s strength and likely path.
Scientists use satellites to monitor hurricanes, but sometimes satellites can’t completely see through clouds or rainfall to measure the wind speeds, temperatures and pressures inside. And land based radars can track storms when they’re close to land, but aren’t useful when the storm is more than about 200 miles away. So forecasters want that extra bit of information that can only be gathered by hurricane hunter aircraft.
Thanks to:
Barry Damiano
Flight Director/Meteorologist
NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center
MacDill Air Force Base
Tampa, FL