Hurricane Sandy in Marinexplore.org
Hurricane Sandy in Marinexplore.org By Detelina Ivanova [email protected]
Hurricane Sandy caused about $50 billion damages and at least 285 fatali6es se7ng up a record of one the most catastrophic hurricanes in the U.S history. The forecast failed to predict its extra-‐tropical landfall showing rather a path toward the open sea. Data collec6ons such as Marinexplore.org can help to improve the model forecasts (by assimila6ng them in the forecas6ng model in real 6me) and to understand beGer the processes behind this hard to predict storm behavior and eventually improve the model physics.
Sudden changes in the storm tracks can be triggered by changes in the underlying surface (ocean-‐land contrast, warm-‐cold ocean contrast). The goal of this project is by using the available data sets in Marinexplore.org to evaluate the ocean pre-‐condi6oning and changes in response to the passage of Hurricane Sandy. Subsets of daily gridded data during the Sandy period-‐ 10/24-‐10/29/2012 were extracted from the blended products NOAA/NCDC 0.25° sea surface winds and G1SST 1km sea surface temperature. Below are shown snapshots of sea surface winds vectors and speed (color field) and the spa6al sea surface temperature anomaly. The black line represents the storm track of Hurricane Sandy from its genesis on 10/22/12 in the Caribbean Sea south of Jamaica, trough its stage of a major hurricane (category 3) when over eastern Cuba (10/25/12, pos.4) to its extra-‐tropical landfall near Brigan6ne, New Jersey on 10/29/12. The black sun-‐like symbol shows the current day storm posi6on.
In-‐situ data from ships, buoys and floats available in the area during that period were extracted to provide insights into the changes in the upper ocean structure in response to the passing storm. Here are shown the ver6cal sec6ons of the upper 200m temperature layer along the storm track in three of the storm period dates. On October 23 the storm is in the beginning of his trail (posi6on 2) and the ver6cal temperature structure in the later loca6ons is s6ll in pre-‐storm condi6ons. The later is characterized by the convergence of warm upper layers of equatorial waters and cold deeper layers of extra-‐tropical waters. The second temperature sec6on from October 27 demonstrates the ocean response to the passing storm revealing intense warming at all levels down to 200m. Just 2 days a_er (boGom panel) a strong cold waters upwelling occurs behind the storm center (which is at that 6me in posi6on 8).
Similar conclusions can be reached by analyzing the ver6cal temperature profiles at par6cular loca6ons at different dates. Further Analysis of the salinity, ocean currents, as well as, precipita6on and air temperature will give us beGer understanding of the air-‐sea interac6on processes affec6ng the storm evolu6on.
Anima=on
Hurricane Sandy caused about $50 billion damages and at least 285 fatali6es se7ng up a record of one the most catastrophic hurricanes in the U.S history. The forecast failed to predict its extra-‐tropical landfall showing rather a path toward the open sea. Data collec6ons such as Marinexplore.org can help to improve the model forecasts (by assimila6ng them in the forecas6ng model in real 6me) and to understand beGer the processes behind this hard to predict storm behavior and eventually improve the model physics.
Sudden changes in the storm tracks can be triggered by changes in the underlying surface (ocean-‐land contrast, warm-‐cold ocean contrast). The goal of this project is by using the available data sets in Marinexplore.org to evaluate the ocean pre-‐condi6oning and changes in response to the passage of Hurricane Sandy. Subsets of daily gridded data during the Sandy period-‐ 10/24-‐10/29/2012 were extracted from the blended products NOAA/NCDC 0.25° sea surface winds and G1SST 1km sea surface temperature. Below are shown snapshots of sea surface winds vectors and speed (color field) and the spa6al sea surface temperature anomaly. The black line represents the storm track of Hurricane Sandy from its genesis on 10/22/12 in the Caribbean Sea south of Jamaica, trough its stage of a major hurricane (category 3) when over eastern Cuba (10/25/12, pos.4) to its extra-‐tropical landfall near Brigan6ne, New Jersey on 10/29/12. The black sun-‐like symbol shows the current day storm posi6on.
In-‐situ data from ships, buoys and floats available in the area during that period were extracted to provide insights into the changes in the upper ocean structure in response to the passing storm. Here are shown the ver6cal sec6ons of the upper 200m temperature layer along the storm track in three of the storm period dates. On October 23 the storm is in the beginning of his trail (posi6on 2) and the ver6cal temperature structure in the later loca6ons is s6ll in pre-‐storm condi6ons. The later is characterized by the convergence of warm upper layers of equatorial waters and cold deeper layers of extra-‐tropical waters. The second temperature sec6on from October 27 demonstrates the ocean response to the passing storm revealing intense warming at all levels down to 200m. Just 2 days a_er (boGom panel) a strong cold waters upwelling occurs behind the storm center (which is at that 6me in posi6on 8).
Similar conclusions can be reached by analyzing the ver6cal temperature profiles at par6cular loca6ons at different dates. Further Analysis of the salinity, ocean currents, as well as, precipita6on and air temperature will give us beGer understanding of the air-‐sea interac6on processes affec6ng the storm evolu6on.
Anima=on
