AGU: hurricane forecasting
Hurricane researchers have a new idea: Get the oil industry to help pay for research into better forecasting the approach and impact of hurricanes.
After the devastating 2005 hurricane season, scientists scrambled for new ways to better improve hurricane science - in particular, forecasts of hurricane intensity, which lag far behind forecasts of hurricane trajectories. Greg Holland, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, described the result today: the Hurricane Intensity Forecast Improvements and Impact Projections, or HiFi.
It's a research push estimated to cost $250 million over ten years. Project leaders plan to hit up oil industry, who maintain their own hurricane information in a patchwork fashion - wind meters on their offshore oil platforms, and the like - but who have yet to share that information with the rest of the community.
It's a good idea. One can only hope the money is forthcoming, and a decade from now we will never see the likes of Katrina again.
