21st Century Hurricane and Tropical Cyclone Encyclopedia – Research, History, Reports, Studies, Evacuation and Survival, Images, Meteorological Data, Katrina, National Hurricane Center (DVD-ROM)

This incredible DVD-ROM – greatly revised and expanded for 2010 – provides a comprehensive guide to hurricanes and tropical cyclones with an extraordinary collection of reports, studies, and documents with history, track maps, research papers, images, and much more. This is the most comprehensive collection of official documents available on hurricanes and tropical cyclones. This detailed material is heavily illustrated with color photographs, drawings, tables, and charts. The disc contains over 4 gigabytes of material, and over 55,000 pages reproduced using Adobe Acrobat software. There are over 1000 documents and over 420 image files. There is full coverage of the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) Hurricane Research Division, and the Joint Hurricane Testbed (JHT) program. There are thorough histories of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic ocean, TC reports for individual storms, forecast verifications by year from 1968 to 2009, studies about improving wind probabilities, oceanic models, parameterizations, eyewall formation, NOAA Technical Memorandums, and National Hurricane Conference overviews. There is extensive coverage of hurricane evacuation planning, with reproductions of dozens of reports, studies, and operational guidance documents, including a library of documents from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and NOAA, along with lessons learned after Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane survival guides and emergency response information is included. The disc has complete coverage of the government response to the heartbreaking Hurricane Katrina disaster of August September 2005, which created an incredible human catastrophe and devastation in Louisiana (especially New Orleans), Mississippi, and Alabama. Material from the NHC includes: Hurricane Awareness; AOML Hurricane-Research Division; Hurricane Hunters; Saffir-Simpson-Hurricane Scale; Forecasting Models; Inland Wind Model; Eyewall Wind-Profiles; TPC Glossary; NWS Glossary; TPC Acronyms; Storm Names; Hurricane History ; NHC/TPC Archives; Forecast Verification; Climatology – 1492 to today (Atlantic); 1900-2009 (USA); Most Expensive; Most Intense; US Strikes by Decade; US Strikes by State; Satellite Imagery; Weather Radar; Aircraft Recon; Advisory Archive; Tropical Analysis and Forecasting; Atlantic Products – Eastern Pacific Products. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) maintains a continuous watch on tropical cyclones over the Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Eastern Pacific from 15 May through November 30. The Center prepares and distributes hurricane watches and warnings for the general public, and also prepares and distributes marine and military advisories for other users. During the “off-season” NHC provides training for U.S. emergency managers and representatives from many other countries that are affected by tropical cyclones. NHC also conducts applied research to evaluate and improve hurricane forecasting techniques, and is involved in public awareness programs. NHC also contains the Chief, Aerial Reconnaissance Coordination, All Hurricanes (CARCAH) unit. It is a small three person unit, an Operating Location of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Hurricane Hunters) out of Keesler Air Force Base near Biloxi, Mississippi. CARCAH’s mission is to coordinate all aerial reconnaissance requirements at NHC (Atlantic requirements) and at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (Central Pacific requirements), then task the flying units to meet these requirements. Data from the reconnaissance aircraft (normally a WC-130) is fed directly to CARCAH via satellite down link. It is quality controlled then provided directly to the hurricane specialist for use in the forecast and warning process.

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