Sponsors:National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)NASA New York City Research Initiative (NYCRI)Queensborough Community CollegeContributors:Paul MarcheseTak D. CheungDonald E. CohenJames OjiChristian Segarra

AbstractThe purpose of this research was to study hurricane activity. With the aid of satellite data from Unisys Weather, we studied hurricane tracks and tried to find a pattern in hurricane activity, such as, whether or not hurricane activity was increasing or decreasing over the years. We also tried to see how the hurricane season of one year differed from the hurricane season of another year. We also aimed to discover if hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean affected Hurricane activity in the East Pacific Ocean.

ProcedureWe gathered hurricane data from the Unisys Weather database and used it to study hurricane tracks in the Atlantic Ocean and the East Pacific ocean. For each ocean, we found the average wind speeds for every day. Then we squared it to find the total kinetic energy for each day. We used this information to find the totals for every month and year. Next, we put the data into graphs and compared them to see if Hurricane activity was decreasing or increasing over the years. We also compared the length of hurricane seasons and compared the yearly Hurricane Energy graphs of the Atlantic and East Pacific Oceans to see if hurricane activity in one ocean affected hurricane activity in the other ocean.

Background InformationAll hurricanes originally start out as Tropical Depressions. As the tropical depression travels over water warmer than 790F water begins to evaporate and spirals upward where it meets with cool air. When cool air and warm air meet, condensation occurs and as a result, storm clouds and raindrops form. This also releases latent heat which causes the cool air to rise and make room for more warm air to spiral upwards. This continuous exchange of heat creates wind patterns that circle around a center called the eye. A tropical depression will decrease in wind speed if it travels over water cooler than 790F or if it hits land. It will increase in wind speed if it continues to travel over water warmer than 790F. The Saffir-Simpson System was developed to categorize hurricanes based on wind speed and destructive potential.The Earth is getting warmer, which means the waters are getting warmer. Warmer waters cause more hurricanes.

Results

ConclusionsAlthough we have no solid conclusions yet, it would appear that hurricane activity in the Atlantic and hurricane activity in the East Pacific are inversely related. The chart shows that generally, increased hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean will mean decreased hurricane activity in the East Pacific Ocean. Future research will be geared to find out why hurricane activity in the Atlantic and East Pacific Oceans are inversely related to each other and towards finding out what makes one hurricane season longer or worse than another.

Hurricane ActivityBy: Christian Segarra

Gulfport, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. (Hurricane Katrina caused 81.2 billion dollars in damages).

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We plotted the yearly hurricane energy of the Atlantic and East Pacific Oceans on the same graph.

1995 had a hurricane season of average length, while 2007 had an abnormally long hurricane season.

1997 was had the lowest total hurricane energy in the Atlantic Ocean, while 2005 had the highest total hurricane energy.

We plotted the total hurricane energy in the Atlantic Ocean versus the total hurricane energy in the East Pacific Ocean and found that they were inversely related to each other with a correlation coefficient of -.54444.

We inverted the plot line of East Pacific Ocean and the graph shows that now the plot lines of the East Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean have a similar shape.

ReferencesAOML

Unisys Weather