NASA has developed a suite of instruments to provide insight into the science of hurricanes. We will continue to fly ever more advanced spacecraft and instruments to bring us closer to precision forecasts that will save lives and prevent unnecessary economic hardships. The state of technology for studying hurricanes today shows how far we have come but also points out that we have a long way to go. Hurricane Bonnie provided NASA researchers with the opportunity to make incremental advances in the understanding of hurricanes. Concerns about Earth reach beyond the scientific community to the business world.
Natural disasters cost the United States tens of billions of dollars each year.
The trillion-dollar banking and insurance industries are beginning to see the value of Earth observation in such areas as forecasting hurricanes. Such businesses are built on a stable world climate. Their well-being depends on good information about the future of Earth's environment and its weather. Instead of being held captive to whatever climate changes may occur over time, NASA and its partners are striving to discover climate patterns that will allow us to predict, and perhaps respond to, environmental changes well in advance of their occurrence. The information on hurricanes provided here is but a small piece of the complex climate patterns that we are only just beginning to understand.