**NASA INVESTIGATES BIRTHING PROCESS OF TROPICAL HURRICANES**

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the worst hurricane season on
record with damages estimated to top \$100 billion. This hurricane
season is not expected to be quite as severe, but still more active than
normal.

This summer, NASA is applying its unique space-based, airborne and
ground-based observational technologies in an African mission to study
where and how tropical cyclones are born. The term \"tropical cyclones\"
is the generic name for tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes. By
studying the birthplace of tropical cyclones, scientists hope to better
understand their formation, movement and intensity.

The explorations of these factors are major elements in the NASA African
Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses 2006 (NAMMA), which runs from Aug. 15
to mid-September. This campaign is a component of a much broader
international project, called the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary
Analyses, aimed at improving the knowledge and understanding of the West
African Monsoon.

NAMMA will include over 100 scientists and engineers from NASA, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), universities and
international agencies. This field campaign will mainly focus on
tropical cyclone development, and more closely on the creation or
birthing process of hurricanes that possibly could make landfall along
the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Every summer, a mass of very dry, dusty air called the Saharan Air Layer
(SAL) forms over eastern Africa\'s Sahara Desert. It moves westward
across the African continent and into the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Another westward moving African weather phenomenon is the African
Easterly Wave (AEW), which a precipitation system also moving from the
continent into the Atlantic where is occasionally initiates the
development of tropical cyclones. By basing the NAMMA 2006 campaign in
Cape Verde Islands, 350 miles off the coast of Senegal in West Africa,
researchers will be able to investigate the interplay of the SAL and AEW
and possible impacts on the early stages of hurricane development.

\"We are trying to figure out what causes the African Easterly Waves to
sometimes concentrate and strengthen into organized storm systems that
can grow into hurricanes,\" said Bjorn Lambrigtsen, a scientist at
NASA\'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. \"Most hurricanes
that affect the Caribbean and the United States originate from such
'waves.' But most of these waves do not grow into significant storms,
and we want to figure out why.\"

These dust storms put large amounts of tiny particles, called aerosols,
into the atmosphere. Some theories suggest that dust prevents the
development of cyclones. Therefore, it is important to measure the
strength and structure of the disturbances caused by SAL, as well as its
composition and structure. Researchers want to know if dust changes
cloud formation, rainfall and lightning production. If dust suppresses
cyclone development, scientists want to know if this information be used
to benefit coastal residents.

To study these environmental conditions, researchers will use NASA\'s

DC-8 research aircraft as a platform for advanced atmospheric research
instruments. Remote and on-site sensing devices will allow scientists to
target specific areas in developing storms. Sensors on-board the
aircraft will measure cloud particle sizes and shapes, wind speed and
direction, rainfall rates, atmospheric temperature, pressure and
relative humidity.

NAMMA will use extensive data from NASA\'s fleet of earth observing
satellites, including the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission,
QuikSCAT, Aqua, and the recently-launched Cloudsat and CALIPSO. These
advanced satellites will provide unprecedented views into the vertical
structure of the tropical systems, while the field observations will
help validate data from the new satellites.

\"Cape Verde is in a unique geographical location to study the birth of
Atlantic hurricanes.\" explained Michael Gaunce, NAMMA's project manager
at NASA\'s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. \"However, its
remote location also presents logistical challenges to getting the
people and equipment in place to conduct the science. Fortunately, the
people and government of Cape Verde have been enthusiastic supporters of
our mission.\"

Observations from NAMMA 2006 will help characterize how African easterly
waves grow and develop. NAMMA will also study mesoscale convective
systems (MCS), which are large clusters of thunderstorms. MCS are
important because they produce the majority of rainfall in the tropics
and have a big effect on the atmospheric circulation.

NAMMA will also investigate how these MCS\'s interact with easterly
waves off the African coast, if dust affects them, and how they change
when they move from over land to ocean. \"The transition has a big
effect on the amount and location of latent heat that these MCS\'s
produce and their effect on the large scale circulation of the
atmosphere,\" said Robert Cifelli, NAMMA investigator from Colorado
State University, Boulder, Colo.

\"Hurricane formation is a multi-scale process, requiring observations
in scales ranging from microscopic dust and precipitation particles to
small-scale cloud clusters to large-scale aggregations of clouds,
requiring measurements over thousands of miles,\" explained Edward
Zipser, NAMMA's chief scientist from University of Utah, Salt Lake City.