Forecasters employ new technology to get jump on hurricanes
August 22, 1999 From Correspondent Rick Lockridge (CNN) -- New
technology is helping forecasters better understand and predict
hurricanes -- but these monster storms can still surprise even
the experts. Satellite imaging has given scientists a much
better picture of how hurricanes work and what makes them grow
stronger or weaker. But predicting which way the zig-zaggedy
storms will move next remains an inexact science. "It's like
sampling public opinion," says Jerry Jerrell, director of the
National Hurricane Center in Miami. "You have to know where to
go, what's representative. You wouldn't just go into one
neighborhood and talk to everybody there, because you may find a
very skewed picture of public opinion." Recent additions to the
tool kits of hurricane forecasters should help them cover all
the "neighborhoods" and provide earlier warning to those in the
path of a storm. This summer, NASA launched the $98 million
Quick Scatterometer, or Quick-Sca