Hurricane Increase Leads to Scientific Debate
It’s no question how devastating last year’s Hurricane Katrina was to the United States, but the question is whether or not we can expect a repeat. The hurricane season of 2005 topped the charts with 28 named storms and 15 hurricanes. Scientists are currently debating why we are seeing this increase of Atlantic storm activity. The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmoshperic Administration) says that the Atlantic Basin, an area in the Atlantic Ocean, has been in an “active phase” for the past couple of years, which has caused the last 9 out of 11 hurricane seasons to be above normal.
Video taken from Google.com http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=550050310260683365&q=Hurricanes&hl=en
New measures are being taken by the NOAA and NASA such as establishing more technologically advanced satellites and hiring more hurricane specialsts to prepare for an increase in these deadly storms.
The NOAA believes this increase is due to the AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscilation) which can cause an increase in surface temperature resulting with droughts in some areas, and an increase of storms in other areas. This natural cycle has varied about every twenty years.
On the other hand, Kerry Emanuel, a professor or atmospheric studies at MIT, believes that an increased amount of storms is due to individual factors, not one natural cycle. He uses the examples of greenhouse gases, volcanic eruptions, solar activity, and pollution to prove that these individual contributions have caused a dramatic change in temperature, thus increasing the amount of oceanic storms.
The real question is, if things continue how they are now, with our atmospheric temperature rising considerably every year, will there be more devastating storms to come? Perhaps if we could significantly reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted, we could see if in fact that Emanuel’s theory is true, or if the increase of hurricanes was at the fault, of the AMO, or as we know her by name: Mother Nature.
Source for article: CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/06/06/hurricane.science/
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