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Hurricane Forecasting
Heat content of the ocean is derived from the altimeter data, and plays a vital role in the development
and intensity of hurricanes. Altimeter data are being incorporated into complex atmospheric models
which are being used to both predict hurricane season severity and forecast individual storm intensity.
Relationships between the amount of heat in the upper ocean as storms pass over these regions are also
being formulated.
Additional information on this research is available from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) site.
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Hurricane Opal - Hurricane Opal (yellow marks track) winds increased from 35 ms-1 to 60 ms-1
as she passed over a warm core ring. Altimeter data is one of the tools, along with other remote
sensing and in-situ data, used to both:
- predict the severity of a hurricane season and
- forecast intensity changes of a given storm.
(SHA - Sea surface Height Anomaly, H - Depth of 26C isotherm, Q - Integrated heat content)
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