Is there a connection between the incidence of hurricanes and warming oceans? What do we know?
Travis Miles and Scott Glenn, physical oceanographers at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, have answers.
The following quotes from Miles and Glenn are available to the media covering the issue.
To arrange interviews, contact Kitta MacPherson at kitta.macpherson@rutgers.edu
Quote from Miles:
“Hurricanes draw their fuel from the oceans, intensifying over warm upper ocean features and weakening over cold ones. As our oceans warm ,we expect there to be more frequent major hurricanes with strong winds, as well as increases in precipitation. The impacts of these storms will be further enhanced with increased sea level rise. To better understand and predict the impacts of these storms, we work with a consortia of partners to collect data ahead of and beneath these powerful storms with fleets of ocean robots.”
Quote from Glenn:
“Motivated by our shared experience in Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, we continue to build broad partnerships to better characterize the upper ocean heat content well ahead of landfalling hurricanes, and to better understand the rapid co-evolution of the ocean and atmosphere during intense hurricane forcing. Better observations and understanding of these extreme hurricane events leads to better forecasts, and that saves lives.”
More information:
- Miles and Glenn are partnering with other institutions to “fly” autonomous underwater robots known as gliders under hurricanes including Hurricane Idalia. This is part of active research in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean to observe what happens to oceans ahead of and during hurricanes.
- Their research is providing data to the National Weather Service to enable better hurricane forecasting models.
