Hurricane eye
Computer image of Hurricane Bonnie, generated from satellite data. Watch Towers in the Tempest, a 4.5 minute narrated animation that explains recent scientific insights into how hurricanes intensify. Photo: NASA .
The calm eye of a hurricane has been found to boost or “turbo charge” the intensity of the storm.
That’s according to research meteorologist Scott Braun at the Goddard Spaceflight Center. He ran computer simulations of Hurricane Bonnie of 1998. In them, swirling thunderstorm clouds appeared near the eye of the hurricane.
Scott Braun: Where that airflow came out of the eye and moved into the eye wall, we found that it basically helped to force rising air motion, in essence to help lift the air and form the thunderstorm updrafts. And so in that sense, the formation and movement of these hot towers within the eye wall are controlled by these intense areas of rotation on the inner edge of the eye wall.
Braun told Earth & Sky that the storm’s eye essentially boosts energy to the hurricane.
Scott Braun: In the low levels of the eye, there’s very warm humid air. This is essentially very fuel-enriched air. And these areas of rotation essentially draw that air out of the eye and pull it into the eye wall, essentially giving these thunderstorm updrafts extra fuel. In some ways you can kind of look at it as being a turbocharger for the hurricane engine.
This is just one more piece of the puzzle, Braun said, in forecasting the behavior of hurricanes.
Our thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand.
NASA’s Close-Up Look at a Hurricane’s Eye Reveals a New ‘Fuel’ Source
Towers in the Tempest
Hurricane imagery from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Our thanks to:
Scott Braun
Research Meteorologist
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Additional Teacher Resources
NASA: Hurricane Web Page
NASAs primary hurricane page, this site provides several resources including the latest hurricane news, multimedia resources, and links to more information.
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