NASA is asking to your assist in monitoring hurricanes like Erin

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NASA is hoping people who find themselves experiencing storms themselves can be prepared to share their very own observations.

• The heart of Hurricane Erin continues to swirl east of Florida because it strikes Wednesday morning, Aug. 20 at a north-northwest trajectory.
• Amid Hurricane Erin, NASA is introducing a challenge inviting those that reside in hurricane-prone states, together with Florida, to submit photographs of their atmosphere.
• Each submitted photograph can be geotagged and time-stamped, offering scientists and catastrophe response professionals with real-time details about storm harm.

As Hurricane Erin swirls around Florida, NASA is asking the general public to affix a citizen scientist challenge to submit their hurricane-related photographs to assist enhance emergency catastrophe response.

When weather-related disasters hit, emergency responders depend on instruments like satellite tv for pc photos, climate radar and discipline stories to assist them perceive what is going on on the bottom. But now, NASA is hoping people who find themselves experiencing storms are prepared to share their observations.

This summer time and fall, NASA invitations the general public to take part in a brand new citizen science effort.

Those who reside within the Southeast U.S. are invited to submit photographs taken earlier than and after hurricanes hit their space.

“Your contributions could ultimately help emergency managers make faster and better-informed decisions when it matters most and strengthen your community’s ability to respond and recover from disasters,” NASA mentioned on a webpage explaining the project.

Here’s what to learn about NASA’s hurricane mapping challenge, and the way you can assist throughout hurricane season.

Hurricane Erin swirls close to Florida, making seashores harmful

The heart of Hurricane Erin continues to swirl east of Florida because it strikes Wednesday, Aug. 20, at a north-northwest trajectory.

Erin weakened extra in a single day, with most sustained winds all the way down to 100 mph. It stays a Category 2 hurricane, down from its peak as a Category 5 storm with 160-mph winds Aug. 16. Dangerous rip currents are anticipated alongside U.S. east coast beaches from Florida to Canada.

How you possibly can assist NASA strengthen response throughout hurricane season

Amid Hurricane Erin, NASA is introducing a challenge inviting those that reside in hurricane-prone states, together with Florida, to submit photographs of their atmosphere.

The challenge, known as NASA Response Mappers, is a collaboration between the U.S. house company’s Disasters Program’s Disaster Response Coordination System and the science-focused GLOBE Program, partly sponsored by NASA.

Because it’s only in its pilot section, the challenge is because of final from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31 – spanning the most active months of hurricane season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30 yearly.

Here’s how one can become involved:

• Download the GLOBE Observer app in your smartphone.
• Join the NASA Response Mappers workforce within the app.
• Use the GLOBE Observer app to take land cowl photographs of the identical location over time, ideally as soon as per week or month.
• NASA will by no means ask you to take photographs throughout harmful circumstances. The emphasis is on protected, routine observations made earlier than a storm hits and after it has handed.

Hurricane Erin photographs may assist catastrophe groups observe circumstances

Each submitted photograph can be geotagged and time-stamped, offering scientists and catastrophe response professionals with real-time details about storm harm in particular areas. The photographs will develop into a part of an open dataset that’s meant to validate and even enhance upon assesments from satellite tv for pc imagery.

Satellites, that are adept at offering imagery of vast areas, could miss some hazards relying on the place they’re of their orbit or whether or not cloud cowl is obscuring their views. NASA hopes photographs from eyewitnesses on the bottom assist fill in these gaps by offering a closeup look on the bottom of particulars satellites could miss.

While the general public is discouraged from taking photographs throughout an lively storm, photographs exhibiting the aftermath may assist first-responders decide the place to ship cleanup crews. Photos may additionally, for example, assist scientists decide how well being wetlands helped scale back flooding or perceive potential crop losses.

“We’re exploring how citizen science can support disaster response in ways that Earth observation data alone can’t,” Kristen Okorn, a middle coordinator for the DRCS who helps lead the challenge, mentioned in an announcement. “A single photograph of land cowl, whether or not it’s a flooded avenue, fallen bushes and even an undamaged space, can provide useful context.” 

NOAA climate satellites, NASA house station additionally monitor hurricanes

Satellites are additionally a vital device for scientists and different officers to watch the event of tropical storms and preserve the general public knowledgeable about incoming hazard.

The National Hurricane Center at NOAA maintains a fleet of orbital satellites that keep an eye on tropical storms much more effectively than land-based observations alone. The center’s geostationary satellites orbit Earth at a speed allowing them to stay fixed over the same area of the planet so they can continuously monitor a tropical storm and its development.

NASA’s International Space Station, which orbits Earth from around 250 miles high, also routinely captures imagery of tropical storms and hurricanes that provide a striking bird’s-eye view.

For instance, as Hurricane Milton moved in on Florida in October 2024, the U.S space agency released photos and a timelapse video showing the eye of the storm as it churned and swirled its way toward the coast.