Thumbnail and Header Photo Credit: NOAA
In late September 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwestern Florida. The Category 4 storm, which had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, was one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States. It resulted in over 100 deaths, severe storm surge and flooding, and, prior to reaching U.S' shores, a nation-wide power outage in Cuba.
Sofar’s expansive network of Spotter smart buoys in the Gulf of Mexico collected real-time data about Ian’s intensity and location as it approached Florida. The buoys’ observations of wave spectra are particularly valuable; in a hurricane, these observations convey the distribution of wave energy as a function of direction and frequency, providing a more granular view of the wave dynamics generated by these powerful storms. Below, we analyze the observations of wave spectra collected by SPOT-010445 (Figure 1) along Ian’s outer edge as it moved through the Gulf of Mexico.
In the leftmost animation, a map colored by significant wave height shows the path of Hurricane Ian and the drift track of SPOT-010445 (yellow pentagon).
The middle animation is a time series of the observations of significant wave height made by SPOT-010445. As Ian rapidly intensifies over the Gulf of Mexico, its eastern edge passes over SPOT-010445. This moment is captured by the spike in wave height to around seven meters (~23 feet) observed by SPOT-010445 on September 28th.
Observations of significant wave height, though useful, are one dimensional. In the rightmost animation, SPOT-010445’s observations of wave spectra expand our understanding of Hurricane Ian’s wave dynamics. The polar plot shows:
Interested in learning more about wave spectra? Check out our recent blog post, which defines the components of a wave spectrum and details how Sofar assimilates wave spectra to improve its ocean weather forecasts.
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