Simulate Hurricanes under Conditions Representative of Projected Future Temperatures
By Riley Keating
Since I was young, I have always been interested in hurricanes. I became increasingly interested after witnessing hurricanes taking place, specifically Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy in New York, when I was in elementary school. Instead of being scared of these natural disasters, I wanted to learn more about them. I followed the news of every major hurricane that impacted the United States, eager to know the most that I could about each hurricane. When I was presented with the opportunity to conduct my own research through my school’s Advanced Science Research class, I immediately knew that I would be researching something related to hurricanes. As I prepared for this class by completing the summer project, which was to read ten research articles of our choice on any topic, I noticed a trend in the articles concerning hurricanes. Most of them were about the effect of climate change on hurricanes, specifically how climate change was making hurricanes stronger and more dangerous. After reading these articles, I settled on the idea of researching the impact of climate change on hurricanes. My teacher then suggested that I look into climate modeling, as this was a realistic way to research hurricanes … After securing mentors to help me with my project, we decided to use the Columbia Hazard (CHAZ) Model to simulate hurricanes under conditions representative of projected future temperatures …