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

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

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

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

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

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

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.

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

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

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

Process1. Collect Data from NASA hurricane

satellite website2. Place data from “data viewer”

into excel3. Sort data4. Create graphs5. Analyze correlations

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Using Resources

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

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Using Resources

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Poet Data View

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Poet Data View (Photo)

Temperature Wind Speed

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ASCII Chart

The American Standard Code for Information Interchange

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

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

Data in Excel

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Calculations Calculating The Distance:

Formula

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

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

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

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

Sea Surface Temperature (°C)

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.

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

Graphs

25.5 26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29 29.5 30 30.505

101520253035

Hurricane Dennis

Sea Surface Temperature (°C)

Win

d Sp

eed

(m/s

)

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2905

1015202530354045 Hurricane Harvey

Sea Surface Temperature (°C)

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

Sea Surface Temperature (°C)

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

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

Problems

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

2.Replacing invalid data

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

Results

22 24 26 28 30 320

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Final Correlation of 2005 Hurricane Data

Sea Surface Temperature (°C)

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.

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

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

Oceanography Team 2009-2010

Questions