UT model helps predict hurricane impact

AUSTIN (KXAN) - University of Texas scientists now believe they can project the impact of a hurricane on the Gulf oil spill and quickly predict where the oil will be dispersed well before a storm hits.

This can be time critical in deploying resources to respond to the incoming oil.

Dr. Clint Dawson, a professor or aerospace and mechanical engineering, heads the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. He said staff use a combination of historical hurricane data to test their models, then crunch satellite images and the latest data from the Gulf, through "Ranger," one of the most powerful super computers in the world.

Ranger is located at the Jake Pickle Research Center at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. It can work the latest data and predict dispersal patterns in just three hours, not a week.

Scientiests hope soon to have 3-D simulations that cannot only project surface oil movement, but plumes of oil deep under the surface.