Bleeding in the second eye of the hurricane

2007/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Teknologia
• Fisika

Hurricane predictions have improved greatly in recent years and most of the time they invent the path the hurricane will take, even if approximately. But predicting the hurricane's strength is another thing: it depends on the wall surrounding the hurricane's eye, which must be observed very resolutely to make the announcement. And so far they don't use such tools.

They have now taken a small step forward with the RAINEX project of the US Science Foundation. Three aircraft have been used to observe the eye and wall of the hurricane with high-resolution devices. Specifically, three hurricanes were observed in 2005: Rita, Katrina and Ofelia. And they saw that the fluctuations of the hurricane force occur when one eye disappears and another emerges.

When the eye is dying, a second eye may start to grow, and if a dry wind zone, called a hole, is located between the two, that hole may match the second eye. Then the eye expands and the hurricane loses strength, then contracts and the hurricane strengthens.