Interested in hurricanes or typhoons?

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Last semester I was hired by the Atmospheric Sciences Dept here at UNC-Asheville to provide research on discrepancies in tropical weather data; specifically, classification of tropical depressions, storms/cyclones, and hurricanes/typhoons. The chair of this research project (with the help of others) created a website that allows 'civilian scientists' to provide help in eliminating discrepancies found on classifications of numerous tropical cyclones.

The website is called: www.cyclonecenter.org (http://www.cyclonecenter.org)

Recently, visits/hits have dropped off dramatically, so I'm asking for your help to get those numbers back up. What can you do? In a nutshell, as little or as much as you desire. When you visit the site, you will have the power to classify tropical storms/cyclones much in the same way as official tropical meteorologists do.

You do not have to create an account and you do not need to have any knowledge or experience about weather as well; simply go to www.cyclonecenter.org (http://www.cyclonecenter.org), read the short tutorials provided to get you started, then select a storm you wish to begin classifying. There are no right or wrong answers in the classifications you provide; your input will be evaluated with thousands of others to provide the best picture possible...this is all explained on the website. We are also looking for ways to improve the website, so your feedback is important to us as well.

So, if you have a 'secret obsession' with hurricanes/typhoons, this website is definitely for you!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[lji372]

Hmmm typhoons!!!! :D

[boatmangc]

I have lots of 1st hand experience in hurricanes.
I'll visit and play

[champ1173]

I seriously thought you were gonna talk about the GMC Typhoon.:lol:

[License2Bill]

What about Syclones? Cool site! Thanks for the share!

[lji372]

I seriously thought you were gonna talk about the GMC Typhoon.:lol:

Exactly what I was thinking :lol:

[Mr. Man]

I tried to help but the site says I'm not logged in and need to set up an account.

[boatmangc]

I tried to help but the site says I'm not logged in and need to set up an account.

Same thing for me

[IwantmyMMnow!]

When you go to www.cyclonecenter.org (http://www.cyclonecenter.org), you should have the homepage show up (see attached image). All you need to do is select one of the 4 featured storms shown or select 'classify a random storm'.

You don't have to sign in or create an account...just click and go. There are tutorials available to the right of the image you are classifying to help you. You will be classifying one image at a time...this can take as little as 10 seconds or several minutes, depending on what the image is.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask...thanks for your support.

[Bluerauder]

When you go to www.cyclonecenter.org (http://www.cyclonecenter.org), you should have the homepage show up (see attached image).

All I get is a blank blue page with a menu bar across the top. Nothing on the menu works for me ... just blank pages.

[Mebot]

What browser are you using Charlie?

[Limited360]

Hmmm typhoons!!!! :D

My thoughts too!

[Mr. Man]

When you go to www.cyclonecenter.org (http://www.cyclonecenter.org), you should have the homepage show up (see attached image). All you need to do is select one of the 4 featured storms shown or select 'classify a random storm'.

You don't have to sign in or create an account...just click and go. There are tutorials available to the right of the image you are classifying to help you. You will be classifying one image at a time...this can take as little as 10 seconds or several minutes, depending on what the image is.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask...thanks for your support.
I did Kyle. I was going to give my 2cents on Maria but it said "you no loggy in you no get to participate"

I'm starting to think this is an exercise in social network futility and you are doing a paper on how long people will try before giving up. Hope you get no better than a B as you are using your MM brethern for your experiment. Booooooo :down:

[IwantmyMMnow!]

All I get is a blank blue page with a menu bar across the top. Nothing on the menu works for me ... just blank pages.

I sometimes have the same issue from my home PC as well and have mentioned this to my 'boss'. Never have any issues accessing the site using a computer on campus. All I can tell you is keep trying to load the webpage and sorry it's not working like it should. Thanks for the input, as what you're experiencing may be one reason why the number of visits/hits/classifications have dropped recently.

I have submitted my first 'blog' to be posted on the website and it should appear early next week; it's an article about super typhoon Fengshen that made landfall in southern Japan back in 2002 and was the first typhoon to sustain 'super typhoon' status (winds >165mph) for 5 straight days.

[IwantmyMMnow!]

I did Kyle. I was going to give my 2cents on Maria but it said "you no loggy in you no get to participate"

I'm starting to think this is an exercise in social network futility and you are doing a paper on how long people will try before giving up. Hope you get no better than a B as you are using your MM brethern for your experiment. Booooooo :down:

Trust me, this is not the case. When I created the screenshot image I posted earlier, I was using a computer on campus. I was able to select one of the 4 featured storms and was able to classify several images without logging into my account or having to create one.

I'm home now and tried to get onto the website, but am having issues similar to Charlie...no images. I'm certain this is happening because of my crappy internet connection setup (using cell phone plugged into PC to get on internet) and I've had this happen before. I'm required to do 100 classifications a week as part of the 'job', and I usually do this on campus because of the issues with my home PC.

I will shoot the research dept head an email and relay the issues you guys are experiencing so far as these issues may be reason for the drop in hits/classifications recently. Thanks for your input.

[boatmangc]

I have been able to complete 2 now

On my iPad

[Bluerauder]

All I get is a blank blue page with a menu bar across the top. Nothing on the menu works for me ... just blank pages.

I got in using my home computer. Have been clicking classifications for the past 30 minutes .... I'm done. :)

[maineiac]

Hurricanes dont i have to go see Barry in N.O. for those?

[IwantmyMMnow!]

I have been able to complete 2 now

On my iPad


I got in using my home computer. Have been clicking classifications for the past 30 minutes .... I'm done. :)

So what are your first impression(s) now that you've been able to use the site?

I really appreciate you guys taking the time to do this.

[Bluerauder]

So what are your first impression(s) now that you've been able to use the site?.

Overall, I thought it was pretty easy to use and very user friendly. Not hard to figure out at all.

The strong, well defined storms were easy to classify. Some were rather disorganized and didn't match any of the pictures at all. Some I couldn't even estimate the rotation from the images.

Not sure about the accuracy of the classification system with respect to the experts measurements; but the numbers and wind estimates seemed to be reasonable with strong, well defined storms with higher winds and the disorganized storms with lower winds.

After about 30 minutes, I kinda got tired of running the same sequence over and over .... so if someone has to do this for long stretches of time, there will be a huge fatigue factor. If I had to do it for 8 hours a day, I'd be looking for work at McDonalds or WalMart. ;)

[Curless]

Did somebody say Typhoon????

[lji372]

Did somebody say Typhoon????

Knew you couldn't stay away from that one :D

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Overall, I thought it was pretty easy to use and very user friendly. Not hard to figure out at all.

The strong, well defined storms were easy to classify. Some were rather disorganized and didn't match any of the pictures at all. Some I couldn't even estimate the rotation from the images.

Not sure about the accuracy of the classification system with respect to the experts measurements; but the numbers and wind estimates seemed to be reasonable with strong, well defined storms with higher winds and the disorganized storms with lower winds.

After about 30 minutes, I kinda got tired of running the same sequence over and over .... so if someone has to do this for long stretches of time, there will be a huge fatigue factor. If I had to do it for 8 hours a day, I'd be looking for work at McDonalds or WalMart. ;)

Thanks for the feedback, Charlie. One thing to keep in mind is that the storms available for choosing come from the Atlantic, Pacific (North and South), and Indian Oceans and cyclones that are south of the equator spin in the opposite direction than cyclones north of the equator, so trying to figure out rotation based on one image is a bit tricky if you don't know what area of the world you are in. Essentially, everyone that classifies a storm is using a technique call the "Dvorak technique"...it's been around since the 70's (after satellites began snapping pictures overhead).

I do agree that it can get tedious somewhat quickly, but eventually you will go through all the images for a specific storm and can begin another one. You don't have to complete the entire set of images on one storm...for example, if you really like classifying just the images of well-defined storms, that is perfectly acceptable to do. You're in charge, so do what you feel to keep your interest up; there are no expectations on our part, so even if you just classify one image a day/week/month, that's fine...it's better than none!

Thanks again!

[Mr. Man]

Why is this project interested in what laymen think in the first place? Don't we pay experts at NOAA or NASA good money to this correctly as it's happening? I'm finding it hard to understand why people who have no expertise are getting the opportunity to catagorize hurricanes. :dunno:

[Haggis]

Why is this project interested in what laymen think in the first place? Don't we pay experts at NOAA or NASA good money to this correctly as it's happening? I'm finding it hard to understand why people who have no expertise are getting the opportunity to catagorize hurricanes. :dunno:

It is your tax dollars at work.

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Why is this project interested in what laymen think in the first place? Don't we pay experts at NOAA or NASA good money to this correctly as it's happening? I'm finding it hard to understand why people who have no expertise are getting the opportunity to catagorize hurricanes. :dunno:

Sorry I didn't respond sooner...just now saw this. I believe most, if not all, of your questions can be answered by perusing the website.

A hurricane/typhoon/tropical cyclone spends most of it's life over open water, where we have no way to gather 'surface' data like we do when these storms make landfall. When satellites were finally on the scene and used to track these storms, their capabilities were limited, but as technology has improved, so have the capabilities of satellites. Satellites can now determine wind speeds on the surface of the ocean by focusing in on 'ripples' as small as 1-2cm. We rely heavily on satellite data to determine a cyclone's strength; it is imperative that we get a good read on the cyclone's strength while it is in the open water in order to produce a more accurate forecast, both short and long-range. It has happened too many times in recent history that the strength of a cyclone was underestimated and when it made landfall, the loss of life and property was greater than anticipated throughout the world.

Yes, there are 'experts' around the world that are employed for this, but even the experts don't always agree with each other. One says X and the other says Y....who are you going to believe? However, if you have 1,000 people that say X and 100 people that say Y, who are you going to believe? Again, the purpose of the website is not to make the inexperienced do the work, but to get the opinion of thousands upon thousands of what the data says to them, because the 'experts' cannot come to an agreement on what it says to them. This is an effort to be able to better analyze the strength of a cyclone when the only data source is satellites, which in turn will improve forecast accuracy in strength and storm track.

Again, take a look around the website...heck, you can even post up the same questions on there as you did on here; I'm certain you'll get a better answer than what I just typed off of the top of my head. We've only been able to get a better handle on tropical cyclone forecasting recently (past 10-20 years) and are trying to find ways to improve our capabilities.

[6d8muscle]

I seriously thought you were gonna talk about the GMC Typhoon.:lol:

Awwwwww man me too! Oh well.......

[Bluerauder]

I'm not too happy with any weatherman right now. They all are far too giddy and girly giggly over all this crappy weather and cold that we are having. I'm beginning to like weathermen as much as telemarketers. :P

[IwantmyMMnow!]

My first 'blog' just got published....it can be viewed here:

http://blog.cyclonecenter.org/

Our recent numbers indicate an increase in activity on the website...thanks to all that have visited recently!

[JMan]

I enjoyed the exercise. It was fun! Of course, I'm from West Central Florida and we 30,000' + thunderstorms 90 out of the 120 day season (Jun-Sep). We also experience some tropical cyclones from time to time. It probably makes a difference in my enjoyment as a result of studying meteorology for many years. I tweeted it out as well and should probably put it on Facebook also. I have a few geek friends on the planet . . .
Thanks

J

[IwantmyMMnow!]

I enjoyed the exercise. It was fun! Of course, I'm from West Central Florida and we 30,000' + thunderstorms 90 out of the 120 day season (Jun-Sep). We also experience some tropical cyclones from time to time. It probably makes a difference in my enjoyment as a result of studying meteorology for many years. I tweeted it out as well and should probably put it on Facebook also. I have a few geek friends on the planet . . .
Thanks

J

No, thank YOU JMan! Since I don't use many social media outlets, I don't have the ability to 'tweet' or use Facebook, so thanks for taking the time to do so.

I'm not a bird, I think Facebook is the devil, and flicker is something you do after you pick your nose...:D :rolleyes:

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Bump before I go to bed....

[IwantmyMMnow!]

Just posted my second blog on the cyclonecenter.org website....

http://blog.cyclonecenter.org/

[IwantmyMMnow!]

My research job on this ended last Friday. Just wanted to say thanks to all that participated. Preliminary estimates show the number of hits during the Jan-May timeframe from this year compared to last year was up by nearly 20%.

Thanks again for your support, and feel free to check out www.cyclonecenter.org (http://www.cyclonecenter.org) any time....hurricane season starts in 26 days!

[gdmjoe]

http://www.gdmjoe.com/miscellaneous/1991gmcsyclone-r.jpg

http://www.gdmjoe.com/miscellaneous/1993gmctyphoon.jpg

[gdmjoe]

Mr. Man ... I'm finding it hard to understand why people who have no expertise are getting the opportunity to catagorize hurricanes. :dunno:
We have 3 sizes. Wee. Not so wee. And Frickin HUGE!



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