Ocean surface a boon for extreme event forecasts, warnings
photo by NASA under creative commons attribution-share alike 2.0 generic
The Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 will allow scientist to improve hurricane intensity prediction models, as well as tsunami early-warning systems.
"When it comes to predicting hurricane intensity, the curve in the last 40 years has been somewhat flat, with little advance in how to reduce error in predicted intensity", said NOAA expert Gustavo Goni. Ocean surface satellite maps could represent a drastic innovation.