Ms. Robbie Hood (Atmospheric Expert, Global Hydrology and Climate Center, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.) discusses NASA's involvement in hurricane studies.

Transcript: "NASA realized that the public needed some extra help in trying to understand hurricanes, and that the scientific community in general needed some assistance. We've had the right kind of instrumentation to help out, and so we volunteered to take on this job."

Ms. Robbie Hood (Atmospheric Expert, Global Hydrology and Climate Center, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.) outlines the financial benefits of hurricane study.

Transcript: "It costs approximately a million dollars per mile to evacuate citizens living along the coastline, and if there is no hurricane, that's been a false alarm, but a million dollars has been spent. A lot of revenue. A lot of revenue, people have been impositioned, and businesses have lost revenue. So we feel that the amount of money that we're spending on a NASA investigation is going to be greatly offset if we're able to decrease the number of people that have to evacuate a given region."