Catastrophe modelling company, AIR, said that the company will sponsor research efforts by Texas Tech University to further scientific understanding of hurricane winds over land.
AIR said Texas Tech has designed and built a fleet of mobile observation platforms that can be quickly deployed in the path of an approaching hurricane and its funding will enable the company to increase the number of platforms it can deploy for each storm.
"Our ability to understand the variability of wind speeds over land has been hampered by the limited number of reliable observations," said Dr. John Schroeder, assistant professor at Texas Tech University's Wind Science and Engineering Research Center.
"The scientific, engineering, and risk modelling communities will all benefit from the research being undertaken by Texas Tech," said Dr. Jayanta Guin, vice president for research and modeling at AIR.
"The team has an impressive track record for the collection of land-based wind speed data. For example, they obtained the only complete wind speed record from the eastern eye wall of Hurricane Katrina, which has proven invaluable to the many meteorologists and wind engineers who continue to analyse the storm and its impact on structures."
