Hurricane "Pinhole Eyes"

[Susan Strom]

I thought that picture might be quite a feat to get. Hurricane chasing is long and involved messy business. Very nice work!

 

[StephenLevine]

Ed, when looking in the eye at sunrise in FL, and witnessing the blue sky, did you see the clouds rotating around the clear sky?

 

[Chuck Vlcek]

Speaking of seeing rotations in the eyewall, I calculated that from the center of Wilma's pinhole (at max intensity -- 160 kt.) it would appear to make one complete revolution in about 2 minutes. A two mile diameter gives a 6.28 mile circumference (2 x pi) while 160 kt. is about 3 miles per minute. In the exact center the eyewall is only a mile away, but the cloud tops are at least 10 miles high, so you get quite a crick in the neck seeing blue sky. Wide angle lens, shooting straight up, played back at 10x or so -- now THAT would be awesome video!

My ultimate fantasy -- watching a total eclipse of the sun through a pinhole just wide enough for the sun to come into view, with lightning zigzagging along the eyewall. It can happen -- over the Pacific Ocean SE of Japan on July 22. 2009, where six minutes of totality will occur at local noon.

 

[Chuck Vlcek]

Following up on my eclipse fantasy, I checked my desktop planetarium and selected 25 degrees north, 142 degrees east for my viewing location. The totally eclipsed sun will be just under 85 degrees altitude. A view from the center of a 2 mile wide eye with a perfectly vertical eyewall 10 miles high would show (very dark) blue sky above 84 degrees, so the sun and corona would be just above the top edge of the eyewall. However, there are several planets (Saturn, Mercury, Venus) and first magnitude stars (Regulus, Gemini twins, Sirius, Betelguese, etc.) scattered about, so a wider eye would be all right.

So let's say a miracle happens and a supertyphoon does pass over the right spot at the right time. How do we get there? Perhaps National Geographic can rent a slightly used nuclear sub to dive deep below the storm-churned surface waters and pop up in the eye -- preferably before it goes super and tightens up. The crew then films the spectacle with an IMAX camera while Tim Samaras releases "sea turtles" to sample eyewall conditions. Hey, I can dream, can't I?