The pilots of the hurricane hunter They cross the wall of water to the eye of the cyclone to collect data, a risky flight path.
Nick Underwood, program and integration engineer at the air operations center of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), recorded a video from inside one of these planes when it was passing through Hurricane Milton, amid strong turbulence.
How do they approach the eye of the hurricane? And for what?
These are some answers.
Crew
The two Lockheed WP-3D Orion turboprop planes, nicknamed “Kermit” and “Miss Piggy,” examine changes in wind and pressure during a mission of between 8 and 10 hours, NOAA explains on its website.
A basic crew of five people travels on board an airplane: a pilot, a co-pilot, a navigator (in charge of following the position and movement of the aircraft and monitoring the radar), a meteorologist (in charge of the atmospheric data collected). ) and an expert who checks the cargo before the flight and collects and records data during the mission.
flight plan
Hurricanes always rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, NOAA explains in a publication.
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They form around an area of very low atmospheric pressure called the eye, which is usually between 24 and 56 km in diameter.
In the center of the eye the wind speed is almost zero, while on the surrounding wall the winds can reach more than 350 km per hour (kph).
The spiral bands surrounding the wall extend to the edge of the storm, resulting in constant rainfall.
The flight director uses the plane’s radar equipment to determine where it is safest to pass through the wall.
Its objective is to enter perpendicular to the direction of the wind “without entering the most extreme parts of the storm,” explains NOAA.
When the wall of water passes over land it causes torrential rains, destructive winds and sometimes lightning and tornadoes.
A huge storm surge pushes water towards the coast and usually causes extensive damage.
How do you collect the data?
According to NOAA, an expert drops a lightweight cylindrical tube equipped with a parachute and a weather sensor that measures air temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure through the hatch. Transmits data to the aircraft.
Hurricane hunters typically launch more than 50 of these sensors during each flight.
Another important instrument is the AXBT airborne bathythermograph, which is released to measure sea temperatures at various depths.
“Our mission is to go out and find the exact center of the storm and determine how big the radius of the wind is and find out what is happening in the environment of the storm, to transmit that information to the hurricane center and help improve forecasts,” says a member of the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters in a video posted this week to their website.
“Satellites are great these days, but there is still a lot of information missing that we simply can’t get from them. That is why it is very important for us to be able to go out and take three-dimensional samples of what is happening in the storms,” he explains.