How strong a hurricane?
The stronger the near-ground winds in a hurricane, the greater the damage to infrastructure and the higher the risk to human lives. A hurricane’s inner core drives storm intensity, however little is known about inner core dynamics because few direct observations have been made; lacking observational data, scientists have only slightly improved hurricane-intensity forecasts in 30 years. Hoping to advance and enhance such predictions, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently launched the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP), providing funding for both in-the-field research and hurricane modeling efforts. The field observations will not only help scientists refine understanding of processes occurring in the hurricane’s eye wall, where the strongest wind and rainfall occur, they will provide a means of testing and improving weather-model output. Model output evaluation is critical. The inner core of a hurricane spans a limited geographic area (at its wid
