Towers in the Tempest
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- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah
- View full credits
This visualization won Honorable Mention in the National Science Foundation's Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge in September 2007. It was also shown during the SIGGRAPH 2008 Computer Animation Festival in Los Angeles, CA. 'Towers in the Tempest' is a 4.5 minute narrated animation that explains recent scientific insights into how hurricanes intensify. This intensification can be caused by a phenomenon called a 'hot tower'. For the first time, research meteorologists have run complex simulations using a very fine temporal resolution of 3 minutes. Combining this simulation data with satellite observations enables detailed study of 'hot towers'. The science of 'hot towers' is described using: observed hurricane data from a satellite, descriptive illustrations, and volumetric visualizations of simulation data. The first section of the animation shows actual data from Hurricane Bonnie observed by NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft. Three dimensional precipitation radar data reveal a strong 'hot tower' in Hurricane Bonnie's internal structure. The second section uses illustrations to show the dynamics of a hurricane and the formation of 'hot towers'. 'Hot towers' are formed as air spirals inward towards the eye and is forced rapidly upwards, accelerating the movement of energy into high altitude clouds. The third section shows these processes using volumetric cloud, wind, and vorticity data from a supercomputer simulation of Hurricane Bonnie. Vertical wind speed data highlights a 'hot tower'. Arrows representing the wind field move rapidly up into the 'hot tower, boosting the energy and intensifying the hurricane. Combining satellite observations with super-computer simulations provides a powerful tool for studying Earth's complex systems. The complete script is available here . The storyboard is available here . There is also a movie of storyboard drawings with narration below.
Towers in the Tempest - full narrated version
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animators
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Helen-Nicole Kostis (USRA)
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
- James W. Williams (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
- Marte Newcombe (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Visualizer
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
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Writers
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
- Michael Starobin (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- Scott Braun (NASA/GSFC)
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Video editor
- Stuart A. Snodgrass (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Scientist
- Scott Braun (NASA/GSFC)
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Narrator
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
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Project support
- John Jacobi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Joycelyn Thomson Jones (NASA/GSFC)
- Kevin Mahoney (CSC)
- Randall Jones (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
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MM5
ID: 586Model dataset from Penn State and The National Center for Atmospheric Research
This dataset can be found at: http://met.psu.edu/tropical/charm/
See all pages that use this dataset -
TRMM
ID: 109 -
TRMM
ID: 111
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.