Hurriances Idalia and Franklin Wind Flows

This visualization shows the development and evolution of winds from tropical storms Idalia and Franklin. The visualization highlights the life cycle of Idalia from when it was a tropical depression (TD-10 on August 26th), to when it made landfall (category-3 hurricane on August 30th), and eventually it moved into to the Atlantic Ocean (as a post-tropical cyclone on August 31st) off the coast of North Carolina.

Wind speeds are higher on the east side of storms in the northern hemisphere as the storm’s rotational and translational velocity are added on the east side of the storm and subtracted on the west side. There are other factors playing a role in intensifying the asymmetric nature of the cyclone which can be seen for Idalia. For example, as the cyclone moves northward the changes in latitude results in an increase in the Earth’s planetary vorticity, the Coriolis parameter, and therefore large wind velocities at the right side of the eyewall.

The wind field used to create the visualization is from Goddard Earth Observing System near-real time model known as GEOS-FP. All GMAO data products are experimental and are intended for use by NASA investigators and scientific researchers.