NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Educators can now bring NASA hurricane expert Dr. Jeffrey Halverson into their classroom! This web page contains 35 separate, 1-4 minute long, video segments that were derived from a live interactive professional development event that used Internet2. The lecture, which took an in-depth look at the life cycle of hurricanes, used myriad scientific visualizations made from NASA satellite imagery. The web page provides educators with an index that describes: each segment of the lecture, the scientific visualization used in the segment, and linkages to national standards. Each of the segments is viewable in your browser and is also available for download as a Quicktime. Plus, the individual media content used in the segment is also available for download. So, take this opportunity to learn more about hurricanes from one of NASA’s top researchers, and then, use the videos as part of your own lecture.

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1. Hurricanes
	Hurricanes are the most powerful accumulations of energy on Earth. Nothing else even comes close. They are fearsome tropical storms that spring to life roughly the same time every year, churning up oceans and shredding the nerves of residents who live along coastal zones. + Read more / View video + Download Quick Time
National Standards: D.1, 5-8; students should develop an understanding of structure of the earth system. D.1, 9-12; students should develop an understanding of energy in the earth system.

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2. Introduction
	It is typical for there to be, on average, 8 to 10 hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin per year. However, since 1995, the number of hurricanes has dramatically increased to numbers that include 21, 25 and 27 per year. The 2005 hurricane season alone broke 17 separate records. Why is this happening? + View video + Download Quick Time
Media Content: This image is a montage of the five vicious storms of 2005 as captured by weather satellites - but mercifully, not all at once! + Download media National Standards: E.2, K-4: students should develop understanding about science and technology. D.1, 5-8; students should develop an understanding of structure of the earth system. D.1, 9-12; students should develop an understanding of energy in the earth system.

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3. Parade of Storms
	This segment asks the question "Why have the past ten years witnessed such a high incidence of hurricanes in the Atlantic?" Hurricanes in the Atlantic operate according to 20-30 year cycles of alternating low and high activity. + View video + Download Quick Time
Media Content: This visualization shows all 27 named storms that formed in the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and examines some of the conditions that made hurricane formation so favorable. It shows some of the actual data that NASA and NOAA satellites measured in 2005 - data used to predict the paths and intensities of hurricanes. Satellite data play a vital role in helping us understand the land, ocean, and atmosphere systems that have such dramatic effects on our lives. + Download media National Standards: E.2, K-4: students should develop understanding about science and technology. D.1, 5-8; students should develop an understanding of structure of the earth system. D.1, 9-12; students should develop an understanding of energy in the earth system.

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4. Birth of a Hurricane
	This segment looks to a continent across the Atlantic - Africa - which amazingly is the region that spawns 90% of the destructive hurricanes striking U.S. soil. Modern satellite technology now lets us track nascent cloud disturbances from their birth location over the Ethiopian Highlands, thence on a several thousand mile journey toward the U.S. East Coast. + View video + Download Quick Time
Media Content: Where do Atlantic hurricanes come from? This sequence illustrates the birth of Hurricane Isabel over a continent away, thousands of miles across the Atlantic to our east in Africa. + Download media National Standards: D.1, 5-8; students should develop an understanding of structure of the earth system. D.1, 9-12; students should develop an understanding of energy in the earth system. B.4, 9-12; students should develop an understanding of motions and forces.

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5. African Easterly Waves
	Easterly Wave Many ingredients must come together for cloud disturbances coming off Africa to gain rotation and spin up into named tropical storms. These include high sea surface temperature, absence of destructive winds (wind shear) in the upper atmosphere, and absence of giant dust clouds blowing off the Sahel. + View video + Download Quick Time
Media Content: These are the Ethiopian Highlands, an undulated spine of mountains towering to heights of 15,000-16,000 feet, the "root of Africa." And we see them here in remarkable detail, revealed by an instrument flown on the Space Shuttle called SRTM, which stands for Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. SRTM mapped the terrain of the Earth with unprecedented detail. The mountains project far up into tropical wind currents. As these currents streams across the rocky divide, they develop a perturbation …much like a jagged stone in a fast river creates turbulence downstream. + Download media National Standards: E.2, K-4: students should develop understanding about science and technology. D.1, 5-8; students should develop an understanding of structure of the earth system.

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