Air-Sea Interactions, Heat Fluxes, High Winds, High Impacts and Resilience, Associated with Hurricane Harvey Over Gulf of Mexico using Satellite and RADAR Data

We calculated the heat, momentum, moisture, and vertical fluxes using bulk and empirical models and determined the air-sea interactions associated with Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Harvey was a category four storm that made landfall in Texas near the Gulf of Mexico on August 25, 2017. It created 180 billion dollars’ worth of property damage and caused a total of eighty-two fatalities. We created an empirical model that is designed to calculate the large-scale heat fluxes of Hurricane Harvey. We developed the model by differentiating the ideal gas law and by using the large-scale heat fluxes equation. Large-scale heat fluxes are the measurement of energy flow per unit of area per unit of time. We used satellite data to collect wind speed, air pressure, air temperature, and ocean temperature. We collected data from NOAA, NDBC, and Upper Soundings. Hurricane Harvey was at its strongest point on 26 August 2017 at 4:00 GMT. We know this because the pressure was at its lowest point, 938 millibars. There is an inverse relationship between pressure and large-heat fluxes, so when pressure is low, the large-scale heat fluxes must be high. The difference between air and sea temperature was highest at 7.1 degrees Celsius, and wind speed was highest at 58.1 m/s. Our results show that Harvey’s maximum large-scale heat fluxes were around 4600 j/s/m^2. Our model functions well since it can accurately replicate actual observations made from the hurricane. In the future, we could use satellite data and our empirical models to determine the severity and track of any Atlantic hurricane.