Earth ID: 1605

Hurricanes as Heat Engines

Visualizations by Susan Byrne Released on May 3, 2000

See Conceptual Image Lab animation #10049 for additional Hurricane Heat Engines material.

As water vapor evaporates from the warm ocean surface, it is forced upward in the convective clouds that surround the eyewall and rainband regions of a storm. As the water vapor cools and condenses from a gas back to a liquid state, it releases latent heat. The release of latent heat warms the surrounding air, making it lighter and thus promoting more vigorous cloud development.

The release of latent heat warms the surrounding air, making it lighter and thus promoting more vigorous cloud development.

Two hurricances approaching the coast of the United States, with the second hurricance slowed due to cooler waters caused by the track of the first.

For More Information

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/stories/hurricanes/index.html

Visualization Credits

Susan Byrne (HTSI): Lead Animator
Robert Adler (NASA/GSFC): Scientist

Please give credit for this item to:
Studio 13

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/1605

This item is part of this series:
Hurricanes

Goddard TV Tape:
G2002-031

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
DLESE >> Natural hazards
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Phenomena >> Hurricanes
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0