Hurricanes
by Olivia Reed and Jacqueline Palmer
Have you ever wondered how a hurricane is caused?
where they occur
how the devlop (reference pic)
how they are categorized
So, what is the purpose of this activity?
The purpose of this activity is to examine authentic sea surface temperature data to explore how hurricanes extract heat energy from the ocean surface.
Bibliography
Partner 1 (Olivia Reed)
Partner 2 (Jacqueline Palmer)
Explain the effect on the temperature in your line plot after the hurricane passed. The effect of the hurricane passing over longitude 90W (-90) and latitude 27N was that the temperature dropped drastically. It went from 29.5°C on September 17 to about 25.3°C on September 25. The days the hurricane went through the Gulf of Mexico from September 18 to September 24, 2005.
- How long did it take for the SST to return to the previous temperature? In the graph,the SST doesn't reach the same temperatures in September before the hurricane as in October after the hurricane passes. The closest the SST gets to becoming normal again is from October 5-9. The water was a little over 28.5°C on those days. The reason the water didn't turn back to normal very quickly was because the season was changing to fall in the northern hemisphere as the hurricane passed.
Question 1 (Olivia Reed)
Question 2 (Jacqueline Palmer)
2. What other effects on SST may be occurring?
Some factors that affect the SST of an ocean other than hurricanes include the Sun, the seasons, and clouds. The sun heats the water, so a direct hit from sunlight will warm the water. If clouds block the sunlight, the water won't receive direct sunlight, and therefore won't be as warm. Similarly, the seasons affect how warm the water is because the seasons