NASA is studying storms by taking to the skies above the Atlantic Ocean – in fact, above the storms themselves. Two pilotless Global Hawk aircraft will collect measurements so scientists can learn how hurricanes come into existence.
Scott Braun is a research scientist, a meteorologist, at NASA. He describes the goals of HS3.
“What we’re really after, scientifically, is to better understand the relative roles of the environment and those inner-core processes in the formation and intensification of hurricanes in the Atlantic.”
Global Hawks can reach a height of almost 20 kilometers. That is about two times as high as a passenger airplane can fly. Special instruments let scientists gather details about storms from high above. The instruments include a device with a long name -- the High Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Profiler.
The Global Hawks will study the environment near the storms to see how surrounding conditions affect intensity. The airplanes also will collect information about the storms themselves. One plane will deploy dropsounds. These instruments measure temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and wind direction from above the storm down to the surface.
NASA says the Global Hawks are loaded with state-of-the-art equipment. Scott Braun notes that there are good points about using aircraft without pilots in this research.
“With the Global Hawks, we can fly for up to about 28 hours, and because all the crew and the scientists are on the ground rather than on the plane, we can swap out (exchange) shifts. And that just means that you can go much farther or stay out over a storm much longer than you can with a manned aircraft.”
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25