Scientist talks on ‘billion dollar disasters’

Christopher Velden, an atmospheric scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, will be among the experts interviewed on the upcoming Discovery Channel series entitled “Billion Dollar Disasters.”

Velden, a tropical cyclone researcher, will appear this coming week in an episode about Hurricane Floyd, which struck the Bahamas and the eastern U.S. in September 1999.

“Billion Dollar Disasters: Hurricane Floyd” premiered Jan. 23. It will be shown again Monday, March 4 at 10 p.m.; Tuesday, March 5, at 2 a.m.; and Saturday, March 9, at 4 p.m.

Velden and other scientists at the center have worked with forecasters to develop new satellite-based tools for tracking hurricanes and predicting and monitoring their intensity. Those tools have given forecasters the ability to provide earlier storm warnings to the public and emergency government officials.