Hurricane Hunting NASA Style—Using Space-Based And Airborne Measurements To Improve Understanding And Prediction Of Hurricanes

In this talk, Dr. Braun will discuss the current state of understanding of hurricanes and the amazing suite of tools that NASA provides to improve understanding, prediction, and response to these impactful storms.

Close to 60 million Americans live within counties along the East and Gulf Coasts (140 million total in East and Gulf coast states), exposing them to potential hazards caused by Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico landfalling hurricanes. Many millions more are affected by similar storms worldwide. Advances in satellite observing systems, airborne instruments, numerical models, and scientific understanding of hurricanes have led to significant advances in the predictions of storm track, and are more gradually leading to improvements in storm intensity forecasts. However, major challenges remain related to rapid changes in storm intensity, storm structure, precipitation, and related storm surge. Furthermore, global warming is likely making storms wetter and potentially stronger. The need for improved observations and understanding of storm track, intensity, and associated precipitation has been underscored by the occurrence of recent major landfalling events such as Hurricanes Michael (2018), Ian (2022), and Helene (2024).

Scott Braun, Research Meteorologist, NASA GSFC

Dr. Scott A. Braun, a research meteorologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, is the project scientist for NASA’s GPM and TROPICS missions and is a member of the Science and Applications Leadership Team for ACCP. He was previously project scientist for the TRMM satellite and PI for the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) airborne investigation. He received his PhD in atmospheric sciences from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1995.