Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi I made the mistake of picking an advanced project but I can't back out now. I understand all steps of "Do Hurricanes Cool the Ocean," except 4k. It says
"You don't need to save the entire data file, just the time period around the hurricane of interest. You should decide for yourself (using information from your background research) what time window to use for the sea surface temperature measurements. You can copy-and-paste the parts you need to make your own data table. Use a plain text editor (e.g., Notepad) for this. Copy-and-paste the data header line. Then scroll down and find the dates of interest and copy-and-paste the data into the same file. You should also add a line or two at the top of the table to identify the data buoy and its location. In our example, we have decided to use a single data point for each day, taken at 18:00, UTC. We did this by first copying the entire date range, and then deleting the lines we didn't need."

Yeah I have absolutely no idea what time period to do. I know it says to be an independent woman and decide what "time window to use for the sea surface temp measurements," but I cannot decide for the life of me what to do. Someone please help soon because my data is due in two days and I've been working so hard but I just cannot get it.

HELP
edit: no seriously i know like 25 people saw this post i want some freaking replies

Hi!
I'm not an expert but I've viewed this project and I might know something about it.

Chose the period in which there is the greatest variance in temperature, if you're trying to prove the question. Conversely, chose the period in which there is the smallest variance in temperature, if you're trying to disprove the question. Anything, really, that helps to support your hypothesis.
For example, if you have two time periods a and b and a indicates a temp variance of 30 degrees and b indicates a temp variance of 12 degrees (totally hypothetical) chose the former if you're looking to prove the question and the latter if you're looking to disprove it.

Hope this helped and best of luck on your project/fair,
Aarush

Hello Bhella,
If you look at the question that your project is designed to answer, you will need to follow the instructions in the Procedures of the project:
"just the time period around the hurricane of interest. You should decide for yourself (using information from your background research) what time window to use for the sea surface temperature measurements. "


That is, in order to test if the hurricane cooled the ocean, you will need the measurements taken before, during, and after the hurricane. So, pick a hurricane, and follow the instructions in the project procedures to make some graphs to see how temperature increases and/or decreases with time before, during, and after the hurricane that you select.

Let us know if this helps and be sure to let us know if you have more questions.