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Here we are, the last Friday in June, which means two things: we're almost one month into hurricane season and it's time for the NEQ Friday Review. Today I'll review a new insight into hurricanes that may help forecasters predict the extent of damaging winds and waves as a result of the fiercest of tropical cyclones.
Two of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) researchers, Kenneth Oslund and Philip Callahan, have developed a technique using wave height measurements from satellite altimeters to study Atlantic v.s Pacific hurricanes. They did so by combining data from multiple satellite passes over a variety of category 3 or higher storms to create composite views, or templates, of 'typical' hurricanes.
The results of their efforts support that, although equally as strong, Atlantic hurricanes are generally smaller in size than their Pacific counterparts – a likely result of higher oceanic heat content in the Pacific. In fact, storm-generated waves from Pacific hurricanes extend, on average, a distance of over 120 miles further from the storm center than those of Atlantic storms.
Interesting, the study also proved that a hurricane's strongest winds, those that create the highest waves, occur in the right front quarter of the storm – this, my friends, is also considered The Northeast Quadrant – and is one of the roots of this blog's namesake!
Check out a more in-depth look into the satellite wave data project here.
Enjoy your weekend, and remember, the 2005 hurricane season, the most active in history, didn't spin up its first hurricane until July 4 weekend. Be ready!
Earlier today, AccuWeather.com posted an exclusive video that featured The Northeast Quadrant and its blogger and manager, Devin Matthew Toporek.
The video tells the story of how social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are allowing anyone to instantly broadcast weather-related information, and the idea that perhaps storm chasing be left to the pros... Or should it? You decide as AccuWeather's Katie Fehlinger looks in-depth at how the ease of today's communication impacts news credibility.
The video is just over six minutes in length and worth the watch, but if you want to see just The Northeast Quadrant and Devin, scroll to minute 3:10! View the video here.
By early this month several winter storms had left snow cover over much of The Northeast Quadrant. Mostly clear skies over the eastern United States and Canada allowed the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite this unobstructed view on March 6.
The navy blue of the eastern Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean contrasts with the snow cover in this true-color image. South of Lake Ontario, the Finger Lakes resemble giant claw marks in otherwise snow-covered New York. Snow appears the most opaque in Ohio, central New York, and between Lake Huron and its neighboring lakes to the east. In Canada, the mottled appearance likely results from a combination of snow cover and forest.
Terra, which launched ten years ago on Dec. 18, 1999, is a multi-national NASA scientific research satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth. It is the flagship of NASA's Earth Observing System. Terra carries a payload of five remote sensors designed to monitor the state of Earth's environment and ongoing changes in its climate system. In the decade since Terra launched, scientists have gained insight into the intricate connections that shape our planet's climate.
Congratulations to NASA on this Terra-ific decade in orbit!
This cartoon appeared this week in the New Yorker magazine. Spending the last couple months managing workload and the blog, especially during all the recent exciting wintry weather, this image pretty much depicts our daily routine! 
Today marks two months The Northeast Quadrant has been online! Thanks for following, and stay tuned later this week for an exciting blog post recapping an interview we are doing with an Accuweather.com Forensic Meteorologist! Awesomeness!
Here we are, the last Friday in June, which means two things: we're almost one month into hurricane season and it's time for the NEQ Friday Review. Today I'll review a new insight into hurricanes that may help forecasters predict the extent of damaging winds and waves as a result of the fiercest of tropical cyclones.
