Earthsky Interviews
Private: Scientists explore hurricanes from inside
April 25, 2006 - Earth
_JB:_ They pass through hundreds of kilometers of cloud bands and rain surrounding the eye of the hurricane. About 40 kilometers – 25 miles – from the eye, they reach the eyewall.
_Barry Damiano:_ The eyewall is the area of very, very strong thunderstorms that surrounds the eye or the calm center of the hurricane and this is where most of your damage occurs when a storm makes landfall.
_DB:_ For a couple of minutes, inside the eyewall, the plane experiences violent updrafts and downdrafts.
_Barry Damiano:_ That would be the most exciting portion of the flight. I won’t use the word dangerous, or maybe the portion of the flight where I would be the most concerned. Because once you break through the eyewall, and get into the eye, the turbulence diminishes rapidly. It is calm in the eye. If it’s a daytime flight, you can see the sun shining through. You can see the blue sky above and the ocean surface below. It is fairly spectacular. And even at night, in some of the stronger storms, you could have a full moon, you could have the moonshine reflecting off the inner eyewall of the storm.
_JB:_ To see “photos from inside a hurricane”:hurricane-hunter come to earthsky.org. Our thanks to NOAA – the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.
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?
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