BRIEFING OF TROPICAL CYCLONE
and other locations. In the event that the probability of
EVASIVE/SORTIE
RECOMMENDATIONS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Identify GFMPL
products used as aids in assessing tropical
cyclone evasive/sortie recommendations.
Aerographers can’t have too many METOC
products at their disposal to assist them in their
day-to-day duties. They must put all their experiences
and learning to use, particularly when a tropical
system is bearing down on an activity or unit. The
Geophysics Fleet Mission Program Library (GFMPL)
Summary,
GFMPL-SUM-91-01,
provides
meteorological, oceanographic, electromagnetic, and
acoustic software for use as aids in planning various
operations.
WARNINGS PLOT
The Warnings Plot program is composed of three
primary functions: Tropical Cyclone Plot, High Winds
Plot, and High Seas Plot. The Warnings Plot program
provides the capability to enter Tropical Cyclone, High
Winds, and High Seas warning messages and their
subsequent forecasts or both. This product is available
on GFMPL HP-9020.
ADDITIONAL GFMPL AIDS
Two additional programs available in GFMPL to
assist the Aerographer with tropical cyclone preparation
are Tropical Cyclone and Tropical Cyclone Applications
Software System (TCASS).
Tropical Cyclone
GFMPL offers the program, TROPICAL
CYCLONE, which plots tropical cyclone track and
forecast information on a map background.
Tropical Cyclone Applications Software
System (TCASS)
Tropical cyclones can pose a serious threat to the
safety of ship and battle group operations. TCASS is
designed to be used by Aerographer personnel to
evaluate the probability that dangerous tropical cyclone
winds will threaten the ship or battle group. These
tropical cyclone applications programs can also be used
to evaluate the threat of tropical cyclone winds at ports
encountering dangerous winds exceeds the critical
probability specified by the operator, these tropical
cyclone applications programs may also be used to
reroute the ship around hazardous areas.
SURGE BRIEFING AIDS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Identify
Geophysics Fleet Mission Program Library
(GFMPL) products used as aids in assessing
surge threats.
The greatest danger to coastal areas being
threatened by a tropical cyclone is not necessarily the
extreme winds, but the wall of water being pushed ahead
of the storm by those winds. Tropical storm surges have
caused much devastation over the last 50 years to
structures along the coastline. Forecasting of maximum
surge heights will allow preparations to be made
accordingly.
The GFMPL Summary, GFMPL-SUM-91-01,
contains a program called SURGE that serves as an aid
in the planning of the surge threat.
The SURGE program provides an approximation
of peak storm surge for tropical cyclones moving
onshore or alongshore on the Atlantic or Gulf coasts of
the United States (a similar program for the Pacific
region is not yet available). This estimate provides a
“worst case” storm surge for any given storm and
location. This information can be used in choosing
precautionary actions for coastal activities. The
estimated peak storm surge is a function of storm and
coastline characteristics. Radius of maximum winds,
central pressure drop, and storm speed and direction are
inferred from the tropical cyclone warning. The user
may specify a coastal station of interest from the list
provided by SURGE, in which case the shoaling factor
(the effect of the surge approaching shallower water)
and coastline orientation are retrieved from the SURGE
data base, or the user may also enter these values
directly. Now let’s look at METOC effects on various
warfare operations.
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