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| Atmosphere and the Water Cycle - a Real-Time Look |
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Information - AW03 Severe Weather and Atmospheric Hazards
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Event Information |
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In spite of its intrinsic beauty, Earth's atmosphere hosts several phenomena that represent a serious menace for people and property as well as a challenge for the scientists and technologists that try to deal with their comprehension, observation and forecasting. Among these phenomena, the following are worth to be mentioned:
· severe thunderstorms;
· lightning;
· tornadoes,
· hailstorms;
· severe straight-line winds;
· freezing rain;
· heavy rain;
· flash floods;
· storm surges;
· tropical and extra-tropical cyclones;
· cold waves;
· ...
Even if our understanding of the atmospheric phenomena considered as potentially dangerous highly increased in the recent years, it is even evident that Society has become much more sensitive to atmospheric hazards than in the past (e.g. today hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico affects even European economy). Moreover, in several cases, the public awareness of atmospheric hazards did not grow proportionally nor to the scientific understanding and forecasting capabilities neither to the increased social sensitiveness. This lack of connection between science, technology and Society brought to the so called “Katrina syndrome”, from the name of the infamous hurricane that, in 2005, struck the town of New Orleans.
This session would like to face all the three above mentioned points-of-view of atmospheric hazards, that is Science, Technology and Society.
· Contributions devoted to the comprehension of atmospheric hazards by way of case-studies or by the developing of theories and numerical or conceptual models useful for their interpretation as well as for their forecasting will be really welcome and will find suited room in the session.
· Atmospheric hazards should not be only understood or interpreted, in fact they must be first of all observed. For this reason contributions dealing with the observational techniques by way of in-situ (e.g. airplanes, soundings, ...) or remote sensing (e.g. radar, satellite, lightning detectors, ...), specially those that make joint use of different techniques (e.g. radar and satellite, ...).
· All the understanding and observational efforts might become vain if their results are not enough good or not properly traduced into Society. For this reason contributions devoted to the description of tools, procedures and communication techniques or experiences as well as atmospheric hazards forecast verifications will be extremely welcome. But Society is not only a mere group of end-users. It is as well a source of knowledge and experiences worth to be highlighted and spread. For this reason contributions describing the cultural aspects of atmospheric hazards will find room in this session.
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Preliminary List of Solicited Speakers |
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 Back to Session Programme
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