Prototype of an Integrated Hurricane Information System for Research: Design and Implementation of the Database and Web Portal

Many hurricane websites provide historical hurricane information and real-time storm tracking. These sites often include images from various remote-sensing satellite sensors with such atmospheric and oceanic quantities as wind, temperature, rain, and water vapor. However, it has been determined that the hurricane analysis community is lacking a web portal that provides researchers a comprehensive set of observed hurricane parameters (both graphics and data) together with large-scale and convection-resolving model output. We have developed a prototype of an integrated hurricane information system of high-resolution satellite and in- situ observations along with model outputs pertaining to: i) the thermodynamic and microphysical structure of storms; ii) the air-sea interaction processes; iii) the larger-scale environment as depicted by quantities such as SST, ocean heat content and the aerosol loading of the environment. Our goal is to provide a one-stop place to access all the available information of a specific hurricane for researchers to advance the understanding, modeling and predication of hurricane genesis and intensity changes. Our hurricane information system prototype consists of high-resolution satellite data measuring three- dimensional atmospheric and oceanic parameters that includes observations from AIRS, MISR, MODIS, CloudSAT, AMSR-E, TRMM, GOES, MLS, QuikSCAT, SeaWiFS, and COSMIC GPS, in-situ observations such as ARGO floats, large scale data assimilation products from NCEP, and high resolution hurricane model output from WRF. High-resolution satellite data are sub-setted within 2000-kilometer-square area centered at the closest storm location and large-scale environmental datasets are divided into 6 predefined geographical regions. When accessing this hurricane portal, users may browse through data by year, region, category, and hurricane. At the front page, we show the hurricane track using Google Map. Users may pan and zoom, or click on the track location placemark to see the time, location, and the intensity of the hurricane. Large scale datasets, such as SST or aerosol optical depth can be overlaid on top of the hurricane track in Google Map. In addition, available satellite and in-situ data during the hurricane period are displayed as little bars in a time line organized by datasets. When clicking a little bar, pre-generated plots for the selected dataset will be displayed in a separate window together with all other datasets co-located around the same time. The raw data in user-specified format can be downloaded for further analysis or model integration. As for the 3D model data, Live Access Server (LAS) is used to provide custom subsets and on-the-fly visualization. The site is dynamically configured using a backend relational database that is designed to let users easily browse through the website to find data and plots that are pertinent to their research. In this presentation, we will describe the current status of the integrated hurricane information system prototype, the design and the implementation of the hurricane database and portal, and future enhancements.