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From: Monster Storms Mission 4: The Hunt (pp: 73)
Wind Shear In Hurricanes

Wind shear is important to hurricane development. Jason Dunion and his colleagues look for light wind shear to help foster the growth of a monster storm. Without wind shear a convection cell does not form, but too much wind shear can tear the storm apart. In this lab, you will build a model to examine the effects of wind shear on the updrafts that fuel a monster storm.
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wind shear in hurricanes
student Argonaut Matthew Worsham in flight suitWind shear is important to hurricane development. Jason Dunion and his colleagues look for light wind shear to help foster the growth of a monster storm. Without wind shear a convection cell does not form, but too much wind shear can tear the storm apart.

You’ve probably experienced wind shear. If you’ve ever been in a car that was passed by a large semitrailer truck on the highway, you might recall your car being rocked back and forth as the truck passed. That “disturbance” is the result of wind shear. Now imagine what even stronger wind shear can do to a hurricane.

In this lab, you will build a model to examine the effects of wind shear on the updrafts that fuel a monster storm.

Materials
  • tape
  • several blocks or books
  • protractor
  • 1 box fan or window fan
  • 2 hair dryers with low and high speeds
  • multiple Mylar™ streamers

Lab Prep
  1. Begin to assemble the model by placing the blocks or books on the floor in an arrangement that will support the fan as it lays on top. Stack the supports to a height of at least 10 cm (4 in.). Lay the fan on its back on top of the blocks so that it is blowing upward. Use tape to attach several Mylar™ streamers (each approximately 1 m long) to the front of the fan. Position them around the inner area of the fan grating, about one-third the distance from its center to its outer edge. What do you expect the streamers to do when you turn the fan on? What do they represent in this model?

  2. Plug in the fan and turn it on. What do the streamers actually do?

  3. What does the fan represent in this model?

Make Observations
Using the model built in the Lab Prep section above, demonstrate how wind shear can impact convection in a hurricane. Design an experiment using hair dryer position, height, and speed to produce varying amounts of wind shear, and answer the following questions.

Record your data for each case, and describe the effects you observe. Include the height of each hair dryer and hair dryer settings. Looking at your model from above, use the protractor to estimate and record the angle between the directions of the two hair dryers.

  1. From the data that you collect, identify the level of wind shear and conditions that prove that you have stopped the hurricane. What evidence in the model leads you to this conclusion?

  2. From the data that you collect, identify the level of wind shear and conditions that can move a hurricane and still maintain the convections. What evidence in the model leads you to this conclusion?
journal icon Journal Question
Describe the decay of a hurricane, using what you have learned from your reading and your experiments.

 
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