Satellite Meteorology

For Grade 7-12

8

Wild Weather

Overview

Satellites are critical for tracking storms, especially over the ocean. The deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States was a hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in September 1900. Communications were very different then so people had no advanced warning of the storm and over 8000 died.

This surprise weather scenario is unthinkable in the 21st century thanks to weather satellites. Meteorologists track possible hurricanes worldwide from the moment they start as small tropical depressions over warm ocean waters to the time when they dissipate days or weeks later. The same is true for thunderstorms, tornadoes, and blizzards.

In this module, you will learn about (with lots of fun hands-on applets):

1. thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards.
2. the key features for each type of wild weather using satellite images.

This Satellite Meteorology Course was developed at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) located within the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the UW-Madison. Funding was provided by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) and NOAA/NESDIS.