"Gravity Waves" says TWC

[Terry]

Never heard of those - gravity waves, which indicate something to do with possible weakening? Someone please elaborate!

[al79philly]

He said that they are indicative of the fact that Ivan is moving into a more stable environment, which will cause it to weaken... I definitely don't follow.

[CFLCaneWatcher]

Sorry, that's a new one on me. Maybe an exp. MET can comment?

[AL Chili Pepper]

Don't know much about gravity waves, but I do this kind of wave.

COASTAL FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOBILE AL
224 PM CDT MON SEP 13 2004

...INCREASING SURF LIKELY LATER THIS EVENING FOR THE ALABAMA
AND WEST FLORIDA PANHANDLE COASTS DUE TO EFFECTS FROM HURRICANE
IVAN...

HURRICANE IVAN HAS GENERATED A SERIES OF LARGE SWELLS OVER MUCH OF
THE SOUTH CENTRAL GULF OF MEXICO. OFFSHORE WEATHER BUOYS SHOW LARGE
SWELLS HAVE MOVED NORTH OF 27 DEGREES NORTH LATITUDE...TRAVELING
NORTHWARD AT 30 TO 35 KNOTS. AS A RESULT LARGE SWELLS SHOULD BEGIN
AFFECTING THE COASTS OF ALABAMA AND THE WESTERN FLORIDA PANHANDLE
LATER THIS EVENING.

ALTHOUGH DANGEROUS SURF CONDITIONS WILL BE LIKELY LATER TONIGHT
AND CONTINUE THROUGH TUESDAY THE RISK OF MAJOR COASTAL FLOODING IS
NOT EXPECTED...MAINLY THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

PEOPLE IN THE COASTAL AREAS...ESPECIALLY THOSE RESIDENTS ALONG THE
WEST END OF DAUPHIN ISLAND...SHOULD REMAIN ALERT AND BE READY FOR
INCREASING SURF WHICH MAY BRING MINOR FLOODING OR BEACH EROSION
THROUGH TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BECOME LIFE THREATENING TUESDAY NIGHT
THROUGH WEDNESDAY AS HURRICANE IVAN MOVES INTO THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF
OF MEXICO.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...LOCAL TV OR THE INTERNET FOR
FURTHER UPDATES ON HURRICANE IVAN FROM THE TROPICAL PREDICTION
CENTER.

[Innotech]

Ive seen severe storms forming in gravity waves. I think its the opposite effect to storms...

[charleston_hugo_veteran]

http://pcl.physics.uwo.ca/pclhtml/gravitywaves.html

[Stormsfury]

Haven't heard much on Gravity waves in association with a tropical cyclone, but such an event occurred in the GSP CWA in December 2002 ...

Go here and read the writeup of the effects, and follow the links to a vert detailed and highly technical discussion on such events ...

http://www.stormsfury1.com/Weather/GravityWave.html

[Terry]

Thank you for the link, Stormsfury.

When S. Lyons was speaking about the gravity waves in (in TWC Tropical Update at 7:50 pm EDT) he was pointing to a sat. picture and pointing at the area in the GOM to the NW of Ivan...mid GOM and the waves looked sort of of like very faint feeder bands, except in the wrong location.

He clearly mentioned that the waves indicated some weakening of Ivan.

[Stormsfury]

Thank you for the link, Stormsfury.

When S. Lyons was speaking about the gravity waves in (in TWC Tropical Update at 7:50 pm EDT) he was pointing to a sat. picture and pointing at the area in the GOM to the NW of Ivan...mid GOM and the waves looked sort of of like very faint feeder bands, except in the wrong location.

He clearly mentioned that the waves indicated some weakening of Ivan.

Ok, I know what you're talking about now ... actually, to me, it looked more in the way of arc clouds, and outflow boundaries along the NW periphery of Ivan ... hmmm, very interesting coming from Dr. Lyons ...

SF

[ldelatorre]

Here's a good writeup:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/er/akq/GWave.htm

but the name "gravity wave" is misleading as it can be confused with those predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity - "disturbances in the curvature of spacetime caused by the motions of matter. Propagating at (or near) the speed of light, gravitational waves do not travel "through" spacetime as such -- the fabric of spacetime itself is oscillating. Though gravitational waves pass straight t hrough matter, their strength weakens proportionally to the distance traveled from the source. A gravitational wave arriving on Earth will alternately stretch and shrink distances, though on an incredibly small scale -- by a factor of 10^-21 for very strong sources. That's roughly equivalent to measuring a change the size of an atom in the distance from the Sun to Earth! "

Apples and Oranges...