December 1, 2004 — The powerful hurricanes that caused chaos in Florida and other states this past hurricane season also served as a treasure trove of data for NOAA hurricane researchers working to improve hurricane predictions and understand the behavior of these often highly destructive storms.

Despite a very active 2004 hurricane season, NOAA Hurricane Research Division scientists and staff successfully supported their operational partners within NOAA and other federal agencies, while continuing with their own hurricane research projects.

Overall, HRD (part of the NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory) provided hundreds of hours of support for both NOAA operational and research missions into Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. During the 2004 hurricane season, HRD participated in 54 NOAA aircraft missions and played a critical role in:

• Transferring NOAA’s Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer technology from research to operational mode SFMR is a remote sensing technology used to continuously collect and report surface wind speeds from zero to 10 meters above the ground.
• Utilizing NOAA H*Wind technology to combine and analyze wind data from several different platforms as one comprehensive unit.
• Conducting NOAA Coupled Boundary Layer Air-Sea Transfer experiments to conduct hurricane intensity and ocean winds research. The fine scale interaction between the wind and ocean surface is what drives hurricane intensity, so these observations will be critical in developing more advanced hurricane intensity models.

HRD also provided support for wind swath and landfall post analyses of each hurricane for the Department of Homeland Security's HAZUS model for damage estimates. The HAZUS model is FEMA’s advanced GIS-based risk assessment tool used to provide critical emergency response information to key decision makers both in the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the White House.

HRD Studies the Same Hurricanes that Threatened NOAA Facilities in Florida
Peter Black, the 2004 HRD field program director, summarized the successes of NOAA hurricane researchers during one of the most intense hurricane seasons ever recorded.

"I think each and every one of us has to knows in his or her gut that we have done a fantastic job this season in support of the NOAA National Hurricane Center's forecasts and warnings, the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center's numerical model guidance, and for hurricane research. ... this has been an extraordinary year for our ability to support operations and for our research efforts."

In addition, NOAA facilities in Florida, AOML in Miami and the NOAA Aircraft Operation Center in Tampa, came under hurricane warnings twice, threatening colleagues’ families and forcing NOAA to add facility and aircraft evacuation planning into the mix of operational and research flights. In spite of these obstacles, HRD had many notable successes this year thanks to the total dedication of their employees and similar efforts from colleagues at the U.S. Air Force 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, the NOAA AOC and NOAA National Hurricane Center.

SFMR and Wind Speed Estimates
The ability of the NOAA AOC to provide reliable, frequent surface wind data to NHC in an operational mode was a phenomenal success that was made possible by the
outstanding efforts of HRD and the AOC electronic technicians and engineering staff. The data were collected using the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (also known as SMFR), which uses remote sensing technology to continuously collect and report wind speeds at a height of 10 meters above the ocean surface. SFMR, which was originally developed at the University of Massachusetts, is an exceptional example of research successfully being transitioned to operations. SFMR is located underneath the aircraft, and were in use on each of NOAA’s WP-3D Orion aircraft this season. (Click NOAA image to the right for a larger view of SMFR/wind speed estimates for Hurricane Jeanne on Sept. 25, 2004. Please credit "NOAA.")

Also important was the onboard data screening of this SFMR data by HRD scientists. Further quality control efforts were completed at NHC using surface wind analysis made possible by HRD employees, who invested countless hours as each storm approached landfall. The collective ability to check the SFMR data against surface wind estimates from industry standard GPS dropsondes (devices that measure wind, temperature, humidity and pressure of storms), and to co-locate the instrument’s location in storm relative coordinates was crucial in establishing its credibility.

HRD made a concerted effort to gather more than 150 real time GPS surface wind observations and compare them to the SFMR surface wind observations to show a mean error of only 2.5 knots. This analysis further enhanced the credibility of the SFMR as an operational tool in hurricane wind observation. (Click NOAA image
to the right for a larger satellite image of Hurricane Jeanne taken on Sept. 23, 2004. Please credit "NOAA.")

This wind speed data proved invaluable to NHC in providing the most accurate peak surface winds (i.e., strongest surface winds observed) and wind radii (i.e., how far the winds extend from the center of the storm) estimates ever recorded. The SFMR data also directly affected the timing and extent of warnings issued by NHC. Because of the SFMR capability, AOC flew more surveillance missions than previous years for surface wind observation whenever each of the four storms was within 48 hours of U.S. territory landfall.

H*Wind Surface Wind Analysis Maps
Since 1996, HRD has operated the hurricane surface wind analysis (also known as the H*Wind) Project. The purpose of H*Wind is to develop the technology needed to integrate wind data in and around a hurricane from a variety of platforms into a single wind analysis representing all known surface wind speeds in a given hurricane. This analysis provides guidance to the hurricane specialists at the NHC on the observed extent and strength of the wind field. More than 120 H*Wind analyses were generated this season, one for almost every mission that included SFMR observations and all landfall periods.

H*Wind analyses and the HRD inland hurricane decay model were also used to generate real-time wind swath analyses so the Federal Emergency Management Agency could estimate inland damage. Members of FEMA’s Risk Assessment Branch also found the H*Wind products critical as input to their HAZUS model for all four of the Florida hurricanes.

Oliver Clifford, chief of FEMA’s Risk Assessment Branch said, “I would like to express our great appreciation for all the hard work put in by HRD in supporting our efforts to make significant improvements in estimating damages from landfalling hurricanes. HRD’s support of our efforts has been absolutely essential.”

Coupled Boundary Layer, Air-Sea Transfer Experiment Intensity Research and Ocean Winds Experiment
The season’s hurricane intensity research project, the NOAA Coupled Boundary Layer Air-Sea Transfer experiments, required the deployment of multiple ocean buoys and floats ahead of Hurricane Frances by two aircraft from the U.S. Air Force 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. The strategic placement of these probes allowed a subsequent bull’s eye hit by Hurricane Frances directly over the instrument array and corresponding flights directly overhead by NOAA WP-3D aircraft. The success of such coordination and timing was made possible by the extraordinarily accurate 48 hour track forecast provided by NHC. The observational data set from these buoys and floats was more than doubled when Hurricane Jeanne passed over the array during her slow, looping turn towards the Bahamas and Florida 10-15 days after the Frances deployment. Such an alignment of pre-deployed ocean instruments and a direct pass by not only one, but two, hurricanes has only been attempted a handful of times in research history — and never with this degree of accuracy and volume of data returned. (Click NOAA image upper right for a larger satellite image of Hurricane Ivan taken on Sept. 10, 2004. Please credit "NOAA.")

HRD and its research partners also completed other CBLAST observations, such as NASA Scanning Radar Altimeter directional wave fields. HRD also was able to make crucial ocean thermal profile observations in Ivan and Jeanne, which together with the CBLAST observations provided an excellent picture of the upper ocean and surface conditions as the storms passed.

The University of Massachusetts Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (the principal instrument used in the NESDIS Ocean Winds experiment), in combination with GPS dropsondes, provided vertical wind profiles used to document the atmospheric boundary layer near the air/ocean interface, revealing fine scale boundary layer structure never before seen in such detail. IWRAP, GPS dropsondes and the SFMR are being used together to characterize the impacts of precipitation and high wind speeds on these ocean surface wind estimates. This knowledge will help NOAA better understand satellite-based ocean surface wind estimates taken during limiting environmental conditions.

Gulfstream-IV Surveillance Missions
Continued support was given to the operational GIV flights. HRD employees drew the flight tracks for optimal observations, and participated in all 31 missions, providing quality control and transmission of all dropsonde data to the NOAA Environmental Modeling Center. Efforts were committed to debugging newly designed flight track design software, at times by HRD staff that was half way around the world assisting Taiwanese researchers in their own typhoon observations. The often two flights per day tested the resolve of NOAA’s hurricane hunters and could not have been done without the combined efforts of AOC crew and HRD scientists.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA National Weather Service

Hurricane Awareness and Preparation

WP-3D Remote Sensors

NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER REMOTE SENSING DEVICE GETS HIGH MARKS FOR
MEASURING HURRICANE SEA SURFACE WIND

SCIENTISTS GATHER DATA DURING FRANCES TO SAVE LIVES, PROPERTY BUT ALSO TO ADVANCE RESEARCH

NOAA RESEARCHERS RETRIEVE WEALTH OF DATA AFTER CHASING HURRICANE ISABEL

NOAA CREATES HISTORICAL DATABASE ON 150 YEARS OF ATLANTIC HURRICANES

IMPROVEMENTS IN HURRICANE TRACK FORECASTING WITH THE GULFSTREAM JET:
A NOAA SUCCESS STORY

NOAA CREATES “HISTORICAL HURRICANES MAPPING & ANALYSIS TOOL

O'DARK THIRTY: Observations of NOAA Aircraft Production Controller/WP-3D Flight Engineer

Media Contact:
Jana Goldman, NOAA Research, (301) 713-2483 or Erica Rule, NOAA Hurricane Research Division, (305)361-4541