Hurricanes (ESS3-2)
Engage:
1. Fill in question 1, the activator graphic organizer using PowerPoint
2. Activator questions: “How is water helpful to humans?” and “How is water harmful to humans?”
3. Answer question 2 on the capture sheet. Discuss natural hazards.
4. Classify the list of natural hazards by those that are caused by too much water and too little water.
5. Watch the video, “Too Much, Too Little:” .
Explore:
1. Think-pair-share, “How do we measure rainfall?”
2. Answer the questions about rain gauges on your worksheet
3. Think-pair-share effects that warmer ocean temperatures can have on the atmosphere as opposed to cooler ones.
4. History Channel video (2:31) about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, taken from a news helicopter.
Explain:
1. Satellites can provide important information to help scientists predict when and where hurricanes will be and how they will intensify. Fifteen years ago, NASA Earth scientists and engineers developed and built the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission will allow scientists to look at hurricanes beyond the tropics.
2. Video: “Hurricanes Beyond the Tropics” (04:14)
3. Think-pair-share the question, “How can data gathered by TRMM be useful to those who are responsible for deciding what actions should be taken before a big storm hits?”
4. Continue working on Capture sheet
Evaluate:
1. With the rainfall data images of two different storms and the sea surface temperature data image answer the question, “If each of the storms were to cross over an ocean with the given sea surface temperatures, which one would pose the greatest threat to life on land, where it makes landfall?”
Elaborate/Extend:
1. Video: “Towers in the Tempest”
“Hot towers” are one of the factors scientists analyze when studying tropical storms. Data about hot towers help to determine how a tropical storm might intensify or weaken. TRMM has allowed scientists to look inside a tropical storm in 3D and see these hot towers. By adding information about hot towers to a host of other data, such as sea surface temperatures and rainfall rates, the models used by scientists will be even more accurate.
2. Answer questions about hot towers on worksheet
3. Article about how winds are another major factor in the development of hurricanes: How winds can help to organize or break up hurricanes
Additional Resources:
• TRMM: Extreme Weather Page – contains links to data images of many storms: http://pmm.nasa.gov/trmm/news.
• Monthly Mean SST Charts (1984-1998): http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Products/ocean/sst/monthly_mean.html.
• Hurricanes in History: A list and description of historic hurricanes on the National Hurricane Center website: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/outreach/history/.
• My NASA Data – Hurricane Frequency and Intensity: http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov/lesson-plans/1332-2/?page_id=474?&passid=105.
• Article: GPM Takes Rain Measurements Global – This is good background information:http://pmm.nasa.gov/articles/gpm-takes-rain-measurements-global.
• Article: “Hot Towers Intensify Hurricanes”: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=7733.
• Article: Comparing the winds of Katrina and Sandy, NASA’s Hurricane and Tropical Storm page: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2012/h2012_Sandy.html.
• Article: Joanne Simpson, “Hot Tower” Hypothesis: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Simpson/simpson3.php.