Lunar Dust Predicts Flooding?

After major cities like Atlanta, Nashville, and Dallas just to name a few, have experienced major flooding events in the last few years, forecasters are looking for anything that may provide better flood notice. Thanks to NASA, meteorologists may get just that.

John Lane, a Kennedy Space Center physicist, has spent much of his career trying to preserve the historic lunar landing sites, but stumbled on something very interesting. Apparently measuring lunar dust is no different than measuring rain.



courtesy: NASA

Lane used a laser to measure exactly how much lunar dust a rocket ship would displace as it landed on the surface. (This is key for NASA because the Apollo landing sites are considered sacred, so future moon landings would have to be precise as to prevent any damage to the historical sites.)

That same laser also has the ability to detect tiny particles, smaller than most raindrops. That is key, because if forecasters can see how large or small the raindrops are within a cloud, they can better predict rainfall rates. If the rates are high, then the chances of flooding are also high.

Lane does not have a degree in meteorology, nor does he even have any meteorology experience, but that didn’t stop him from realizing the connection to flood forecasting.



courtesy: NASA

Robert Molleda, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Miami, Florida is very excited about the possibilities of using the lasers to make more accurate computer model forecasting.

"If you can accurately determine the size of a raindrop, you can find the relationship between the amount of rain and rainfall rates [considering current weather radar has a hard time estimating the size of raindrops]," Molleda said.



courtesy: National Geographic

The best part..... putting these lasers into widespread usage is not expensive because the lasers cost less than $100.

Sources: Sun Sentinel, NWS, NASA, National Geographic