As people from around the country come together to support Hurricane Katrina victims, researchers at the University of Wisconsin's little-known Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies are already busy tracking the next threatening tropical storms, just as they have for decades.
Since 1982, the institute's dedicated team of researchers and meteorologists has diligently collaborated with various weather networks to track some of the deadliest storms around the globe using its "Man computer Interactive Data Access System," an ever-evolving software program that is used to "ingest, analyze and display" storm-satellite data and turn it into storm-intensity and atmospheric figures.
Team leader Chris Velden said while the institute does not track tropical storms and hurricanes in the usual sense of the term, it specializes in providing quantitative "products," such as wind intensity and direction, to help other meteorological centers — including the National Hurricane Center in Miami — predict storm patterns.
"The hurricane responds to those steering currents and our technology helps better define what those steering currents are," he said. "Not only does this go to the hurricane analysts, but a lot of other quantitative data go to computer models that predict the [course] of the hurricane."
Currently, Velden said the institute is tracking Hurricane Ophelia up the East Coast, but added the storm is too weak and distanced to pose any threat on land.
Velden helped develop McIDA in the early '80s with the UW Space Science and Engineering Center and specializes in the use of satellite technology to predict storm paths — an idea he facilitated in his college thesis paper. He has helped it evolve into a multifaceted tool for providing not only the size and location of a storm, but essential sensor readings that can determine its nature.
"We are really on the cutting-edge of hurricane research using satellite data," he said.
Velden added by processing satellite data through McIDA's algorithms, the team goes "well beyond the pretty pictures" often displayed on television.
"That's the power of it," he said. "By tracking clouds and water-vapor motions, we can get a better estimate of the steering winds of the storm."
While Hurricane Katrina is clearly a disaster of epic proportions, Velden said that by accurately tracking and monitoring the storm, the Cooperative Institute and other storm centers helped forewarn those caught in its path.
"Our data was being sent down to the hurricane center [in Miami] throughout the whole event," he said. "A lot of lives were saved by the forecast. … It was a major success story that the forecast worked."
And, for Velden, that's a good feeling.
"It's always rewarding to know you're part of a process that's saving lives," he said. "Being a part of that team is very much a reward."
Cooperative Institute team member and research meteorologist Tim Olander also feels rewarded from his work with the group under Velden.
"It's hard to quantify it because you know what you're doing is important," Olander said. "It does make you feel good when you know the hurricane center has done a good job. It gives you a great feeling of pride because you know you're saving lives."
