Speaking of hurricane research, people probably won’t think of JPL as an important player. However, there are a lot of scientists in the lab who are interested in hurricanes and there are a lot of instruments developed at JPL that are very useful for hurricane forecasts. About two years ago, Dr. Yi Chao initiated a hurricane seminar series and it evolved into a hurricane research group with more than 20 scientists and engineers from various disciplines. The virtual hurricane group (I am an active member) meets every other week to share research results related to hurricanes and worked together to develop a hurricane data portal (http://tropicalcycle.jpl.nasa.gov) under the leadership of Dr. Svetla Veleva. Despite of limited funding, the hurricane data portal grew into a comprehensive hurricane information system with observational data for tropical cyclones over the globe since 2005 and interactive data analysis tools. It will include WRF model simulations of hurricanes as well. Next year, the JPL hurricane data portal will participate in a field campaign to provide near-real-time monitoring of tropical storms over the Gulf of Mexico region.