During the summer of 2009 as a CMMAP intern, Terreka Hart worked with Dr. Wayne
Schubert and graduate students Kate Musgrave, and Gabriel Williams researching
hurricanes. Her research assignment focused on Atlantic basin hurricane
intensity mechanisms. She looked for concentric eyewalls and mesovortices
present in the eye simultaneously. She found that both events separately
influence the intensity of hurricanes. Terreka was able to find a simultaneous
case in hurricane Ivan from 2004.
This phenomenon can aid in improving predictions for intensity and landfall damage, particularly if it occurs before landfall. This research looks into how the structure and conditions of tropical storms affect their own intensity level, longevity, severity and other factors. Terreka and her mentors concluded that both events can occur simultaneously though this is not known as a common occurrence. This finding was a pleasant result and Terreka feels that more research should be conducted to find other cases. Terreka's poster may be found here. 
Terreka attends Tennessee State University about to begin her senior year with a major in Physics. Her research interests lie in the atmospheric sciences and medical physics. During her downtime, Terreka enjoys movies. |