In 2018, Hurricanes Florence and Michael made catastrophic landfalls over the United States.
They caused extreme flooding, record-breaking winds,
and storm surges that devastated communities.
Understanding how hurricanes behave is critical to saving lives.
How a hurricane forms, develops and dissipates
is a complex problem though;
it involves many different processes that are highly interconnected.
But from space and the air, NASA satellites and aircraft
can break down the underlying physics by monitoring each component of a hurricane.
There are key ingredients for hurricanes to form.
First, we need warm waters that provide fuel for the storms.
Water evaporates from the warm ocean
and creates humid air, which then rises and cools to form clouds and rain.
3D structures to look for inside storms are long rain bands and a near-circular eyewall.
The warmer the ocean, the stronger the storm can be,
which often means heavy rainfall
and extreme winds.
Understanding each component is just part of the puzzle.
The key is to figure out how they fit together and to do this, scientists step into the digital world.
This is a computer-generated model of a hurricane.
Inside this digital environment, the atmosphere is programmed to behave
as much as possible like the real world, governed by the laws of physics.
What makes this a valuable research tool is that scientists can put satellite observations
into this digital world to see how the entire system evolves.
The impact of a hurricane lasts long after the storm has dissipated.
Satellites and aircraft can also be used to monitor damage and recovery.
In 2017, Hurricane Maria caused the longest electric power blackout
in U.S. history in Puerto Rico.
Over the following year, satellite data helped first responders
monitor where and when power was restored.
And after Hurricane Maria, aircraft were used to map the island's recovering forests.
Satellites, aircraft, and computer models help us understand each stage of a hurricane including the aftermath.
As we learn more, not only will other agencies better forecast weather,
but communities will have more time to prepare and evacuate
from potentially dangerous storms.