Uncrewed Ocean Gliders and Saildrones Support Hurricane Forecasting and Research

Miles, Travis; Zhang, Dongxiao; Foltz, Gregory R.; Zhang, Jun; Meinig, Christian; Bringas, Francis; Triñanes, Joaquín; Hénaff, Matthieu Le; Vargas, Maria Aristizabal; Coakley, Sam; Edwards, Catherine; Gong, Donglai; Todd, Robert E.; Oliver, Matthew J.; Wilson, DW; Whilden, Kerri A.; Kirkpatrick, Barbara; Chardon-Maldonado, Patricia; Morell, Julio M.; Hernandez, Debra; Kuska, Gerhard; Stienbarger, Cheyenne D.; Bailey, K.; Zhang, Chidong; Glenn, Scott; Goñi, Gustavo

doi:10.5670/oceanog.2021.supplement.02-28

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…A fleet of 54 underwater gliders was deployed in the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, the South and Mid-Atlantic Bight during the 2019 hurricane season as part of a U.S. government, academic, and private industry wide effort to carry out ocean observations in support of Atlantic hurricane research and forecasts (Miles et al, 2021). Underwater gliders are autonomous vehicles that use variable buoyancy to travel in a sawtooth-like profile and are equipped to collect a variety of ocean variables.…”

Section: Observational Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since 2011 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with the participation of other government, academic, and private industry partners, is leading efforts to conduct ocean observations from an array of underwater gliders in support of hurricane research and forecast, in areas of the North Atlantic Ocean, tropical Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, where tropical storms form and evolve (e.g., Glenn et al, 2016;Miles et al, 2017Miles et al, , 2021Domingues et al, 2019). These efforts are complemented by the already in place components of the sustained ocean observing system and of targeted observations dedicated specifically to tropical cyclone research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of the ocean component on different coupled hurricane forecasting models using upper-ocean metrics relevant to air-sea heat fluxes during Hurricane Dorian (2019)

Aristizábal Vargas,

Kim,

Le Hénaff

et al. 2024

Front. Earth Sci.

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In August 2019 Hurricane Dorian traveled through the Caribbean Sea and Tropical Atlantic before devastating the Bahamas. The operational hurricane forecasting models under-predicted the intensity evolution of Dorian prior to the storm reaching its maximum strength. Research studies have shown that a more realistic upper-ocean characterization in coupled atmosphere-ocean models used to forecast hurricanes has the potential to lead to more accurate hurricane intensity forecasts. In this work, we evaluated four ocean products: the ocean component from one NOAA operational hurricane forecasting model that used ocean initial conditions from climatology, the ocean components from two NOAA experimental models using ocean initial conditions from a data-assimilative operational ocean model, and one US Navy data-assimilative operational ocean model for reference. The upper-ocean metrics used to evaluate the models include mixed layer temperature, mixed layer salinity, ocean heat content and depth-averaged temperature in the top 100 m. The observations used are temperature and salinity profiles from an array of six autonomous underwater gliders deployed in the Caribbean region during the 2019 hurricane season. We found that, even though the four models have good skill in predicting temperature and salinity over the whole observed water column, skill significantly deteriorates for the upper-ocean metrics. In particular, the models failed to capture the barrier layer that was present during the passage of Hurricane Dorian through the glider array. We also found that even small differences in the mixed layer temperature along the storm track on the hurricane models evaluated, led to noticeable differences in the total enthalpy fluxes delivered from the ocean to the atmosphere throughout the storm’s synoptic history. These findings highlight the need to improve the upper-ocean initial conditions and representation in coupled atmosphere-ocean models as part of the larger efforts to improve the various modeling aspects that control the hurricane intensity forecast.

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Section: Observational Data Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the ocean component on different coupled hurricane forecasting models using upper-ocean metrics relevant to air-sea heat fluxes during Hurricane Dorian (2019)

Aristizábal Vargas,

Kim,

Le Hénaff

et al. 2024

Front. Earth Sci.

Self Cite

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“…Thus, they generate strong surface and sub-surface currents, and impact the atmosphere and marine boundary layer through air-sea interactions, with feedbacks of moisture, momentum, mass and including climate-related greenhouse gases such as CO2. Various instruments have been used to measure ocean currents during hurricanes, including Airborne eXpendable Current Profilers (AXCP) [1], Electromagnetic Autonomous Profiling Explorer (EM-APEX) floats [2], underwater gliders and wave gliders [3]- [4], uncrewed surface vehicles (e.g., saildrone) [5]- [6], and surface drifters [7]- [8]. These devices provide high-quality measurements of near-surface currents, depth-average currents, and current profiles, even under extreme weather conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping Radial Ocean Surface Currents in the Outer Core of Hurricane Maria From Synthetic Aperture Radar Doppler Measurements

Fan,

Zhang,

Kudryavtsev

et al. 2024

IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Observations Remote Sensing

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Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Doppler shift measurements have been used for remote sensing of ocean surface currents during non-storm events. However, mapping strong currents under storm conditions is still a challenging and unsolved issue. In this study, we attempt to retrieve radial current velocities from Sentinel-1A SAR Doppler shifts acquired over the outer core regions of Hurricane Maria for the first time. In these areas, the maximum wind speed is 28.7 m/s. Doppler shifts arising from the scalloping effect are first calculated using a linear fitting method. The non-zero Doppler shift measurements over the land within SAR scenes are then used to estimate Doppler shifts caused by antenna electronic mis-pointing and residual error. Finally, we compute sea-state-induced Doppler shifts (wave Doppler) based on our recently developed ocean surface Doppler velocity (DPDop) model. The retrieved radial current velocities are compared with collocated high-frequency radar measurements, and show a bias of 0.02 m/s and a root-meansquare error (RMSE) of 0.19 m/s. These results suggest that it is possible to retrieve reliable radial current velocities under high wind conditions, as the contributions of non-geophysical terms and sea state to the Doppler shifts can be accurately estimated and removed.

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“…However, few models or official forecasts captured Ida's peak winds at landfall including as Ida rapidly intensified over the warm waters of the central GoM and fresh Mississippi River plume coastal waters (Figures 2, 3). Fortunately, as part of the 2021 Hurricane Glider Program (Miles et al, 2021) a Navy operated and NOAA coordinated autonomous underwater glider, NG645, was deployed ahead of and during Ida's eye passage over the region (Figures 1-3). Ahead of the storm, in the deep ocean (>100m depth) just south of the GoM northern escarpment NG645 observed (Figure 2) warm sea surface temperatures, low salinity, and heat content near a threshold (60 kJ cm -2 ) typically conducive for intensification (Mainelli et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocean mixing during Hurricane Ida (2021): the impact of a freshwater barrier layer

Miles,

Coakley,

Engdahl

et al. 2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Tropical cyclones are +ne of the costliest and deadliest natural disasters globally, and impacts are currently expected to worsen with a changing climate. Hurricane Ida (2021) made landfall as a category 4 storm on the US Gulf coast after intensifying over a Loop Current eddy and a freshwater barrier layer. This freshwater layer extended from the coast to the open ocean waters south of the shelf-break of the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM). An autonomous underwater glider sampled this ocean feature ahead of Hurricane Ida operated through a partnership between NOAA, Navy, and academic institutions. In this study we evaluate hurricane upper ocean metrics ahead of and during the storm as well as carry out 1-D shear driven mixed layer model simulations to investigate the sensitivity of the upper ocean mixing to a barrier layer during Ida’s intensification period. In our simulations we find that the freshwater barrier layer inhibited cooling by as much as 57% and resulted in enhanced enthalpy flux to the atmosphere by as much as 11% and an increase in dynamic potential intensity (DPI) of 5 m s-1 (~9.72 knots) in the 16 hours leading up to landfall. This highlights the utility of new ocean observing systems in identifying localized ocean features that may impact storm intensity ahead of landfall. It also emphasizes the northern Gulf of Mexico and the associated Mississippi River plume as a region and feature where the details of upper ocean metrics need to be carefully considered ahead of landfalling storms.

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Uncrewed Ocean Gliders and Saildrones Support Hurricane Forecasting and Research

Cited by 12 publications

References 8 publications

Evaluation of the ocean component on different coupled hurricane forecasting models using upper-ocean metrics relevant to air-sea heat fluxes during Hurricane Dorian (2019)

Evaluation of the ocean component on different coupled hurricane forecasting models using upper-ocean metrics relevant to air-sea heat fluxes during Hurricane Dorian (2019)

Mapping Radial Ocean Surface Currents in the Outer Core of Hurricane Maria From Synthetic Aperture Radar Doppler Measurements

Ocean mixing during Hurricane Ida (2021): the impact of a freshwater barrier layer

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