The team of UAHuntsville students and scientists who went into the storm to study Hurricane Isaac is home and back at work or class, albeit somewhat storm lagged from lack of sleep.
Data collected from instruments set up in southern Mississippi and Louisiana will allow the team to do more in-depth analysis of the storm over the next several weeks and months. The researchers will study how the storm evolved as it moved inland, spinning off bands of heavy rain and cells that might have spawned tornadoes. Their goal is to improve the ability to predict severe weather events that spin off from hurricanes.
"We had a very successful trip," said Ryan Wade, a doctoral student in the atmospheric science program. Wade handled hurricane forecasting and logistical responsibilities from his office at UAH during this deployment. "We are very happy with the data we collected. We were right in the middle of a lot of the rain bands. We had storms that were rotating that moved right in our network of instruments, so it was a very successful trip, and we're excited to get in there and analyze the data."