NASA reveals a new fuel Source in the eye of a hurricane.

[windstorm99]

Not sure if this was posted on the forum or not but a couple of nights ago i finished reading over some papers includeing a study done on the TRIM sateliite.Overall nasa reveals a new fuel source inside the eye of a hurricane.I found the study quite interesting indeed.Adrian



Complete article here

[southerngreen]

excellent article - i had seen a small bit on this some time back, but this is much more detailed. (it should be mandatory reading for all s2k users! - like Hurricane 101)

[Aric Dunn]

excellent article - i had seen a small bit on this some time back, but this is much more detailed. (it should be mandatory reading for all s2k users! - like Hurricane 101)

yeah i had posted something on that awhile back but nobody payed attention to it

they are called "hot towers"
the calm in the eye and the fast rotating winds of the eyewall crate mini vortices's and rapidly pull air in then up.. i actaully think during isabel some of the visible images may have caught some of them ,.,not sure though

[Aric Dunn]

yeah here it is ... those may be them

ok that was too big .. of a picture. .here is the link

http://images.spaceref.com/news/2003/83 ... 003.lr.jpg

[Aric Dunn]

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a0 ... index.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

http://www.livescience.com/php/video/pl ... hot_towers" target="_blank

http://www.livescience.com/environment/ ... owers.html

[artist]

those are awesome pics Aric!

[cpdaman]

i remember noting the shapes insides these eye's often represented geometric shapes known as "sacred" geometry

this probably means nothing... to most ah the beauty of nature

[Stephanie]

i remember noting the shapes insides these eye's often represented geometric shapes known as "sacred" geometry

this probably means nothing... to most ah the beauty of nature

I remember those pictures quite well. They were beautiful and horrifying at the same time. You KNEW that if there was land in the way of that hurricane or underneath it at that time that there would be nothing left. The East coast was VERY LUCKY that she died down quickly before hitting the VA coast.

I'm sure that there's many other elements that we have yet to learn about that play a part in the strengthening/weakening of a hurricane. That was a very interesting article.

[curtadams]

I thought air in the eye had warmed by descent and as a result was also comparatively dry. How does it get the moisture to thermodynamically favor ascent against? Spray? If it's purely temperature-mediated what's driving it down in the eye and up in the eywall?

[x-y-no]

I thought air in the eye had warmed by descent and as a result was also comparatively dry. How does it get the moisture to thermodynamically favor ascent against? Spray? If it's purely temperature-mediated what's driving it down in the eye and up in the eywall?

Good question ... and from the article, it appears that spray is probably the right answer:

"While the 'in-up-and out' pattern has been the prevailing paradigm for the past five decades, when you closely examine intense hurricanes it's apparent that a second family of moist air parcels often travels from the border of the eyewall to the eye, where it picks up moisture from the ocean surface," said co-author Michael Montgomery, professor of meteorology at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. "These moisture-enriched air parcels then rather quickly return to the main eyewall and collectively raise the heat content of the lower eyewall cloud, similar to increasing the octane level in auto fuel."

...

Vortices are created in response to the rapid change in wind speed from the fierce eyewall to the calm eye. Near the surface, air spiraling inward collides with these vortices to force air up, forming updrafts. Strong updrafts in the eyewall carry moisture much higher than normal and help create hot towers.

(emphasis mine)

[OuterBanker]

Thanks windstorm for the link. Downloaded the 184mb wide screen and it looks fabulous on a 1680 x 1050 native reso 22" wide screen. What a fabulous site with treasure trove of hurricane related animation's. Have fun if you don't know about this site. One word of caution, it downloads slow (around 60 to 70 kps). If any here know if this is a time of day issue please let me know, I'm capable of 200+ kps. One other note, don't ever buy a wide screen because you'll never go back and you will spend way too much time in front of it.

Link to hurricane animations.

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/advsea ... req=search

[TampaSteve]

I thought air in the eye had warmed by descent and as a result was also comparatively dry. How does it get the moisture to thermodynamically favor ascent against? Spray? If it's purely temperature-mediated what's driving it down in the eye and up in the eywall?

Moisture from the ocean surface.