While you’re preparing to ride out the storm, the United States Geological Survey team is doing some work of their own to ensure better preparation for future hurricanes.
The USGS installed 13 wave sensors between Venice and Panama City on Wednesday. USGS has been using this technology to measure storm surge since 2005.
As a federal organization with the sole aim of collecting scientific data about the earth sciences, USGS has laboratories, observatories, and larger local outposts called 'Science Centers' around the country.
Kevin Grimsley is the associate director for data with the Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center. He says the sensors can accurately capture wave patterns, such as speed and peaks, because they’re highly advanced.
“They’re pressure sensors, they collect data at a very high frequency," he said. "We collect data at four Hertz, or four times a second.”
Even with the precise technology, selecting appropriate sites for the sensors is a task of its own - since the chosen sites need to be strong enough to make it out of the storm unscathed.
According to Grimsley, the sensors work best when they're the first point of contact with an incoming wave. Usually, this is something like a pier or dock.
Grimsley specified that USGS doesn't operate with a specific end-user in mind. Their aim is to provide as much accurate, relevant scientific data as possible. Various entities can then use that information for their unique purposes.
“It’s used by academia, it’s also used by insurance companies. It helps the [National] Hurricane Center improve their modeling," he explained.
Over 100 people make up the data collection team within the Caribbean-Florida Water Science Center.
The sensor deployment team is much smaller, and they have to act quickly to install and remove the technology.
“We will go and retrieve these sensors early next week, we wanna put out that raw water level data because different researchers like to develop those wave statistics slightly different ways," Grimsley said.
The data will eventually be published on the USGS website. With wave statistics from Hurricane Helene, the hope is that future models and storm preparation can be more efficient and preic
