For Opal, Andrew, Bob, Gloria and Hugo are, after all, hurricanes, not wayward juveniles. And one reason University atmospheric scientist Molinari works hard to document their life cycles is to improve scientists' understanding of, and ability to predict, hurricanes. But only in the last three years have Molinari and Idone started using data from the network in the study of hurricanes. The network is an important forecasting tool and research tool for a variety of meteorological studies. But all the sensors are on land, and because of that fact, says Molinari, he didn't initially consider using the network for his hurricane research.
Hurricanes develop over water, although many do eventually hit land.
Molinari, who has devoted most of his career to studying hurricanes, certainly ranks as one of the nation's leading researchers in this field. But he could be said to be something of a novice when it comes to lightning. Fortunately his colleague Idone is an expert on lightning and on the workings of the National Lightning Detection Network. As a doctoral student at Albany, Idone worked with network founder Richard Orville. It was a natural collaboration, and Molinari and Idone, and their co-workers Paul Moore and Ronald Henderson, chose Hurricane Andrew , one of the most intense hurricanes in U.S. history, as their first joint research project.