|
NOAA G-IV Flies Day and Night Missions in Hurricane Katrina
The NOAA G-IV high-altitude surveillance jet flew six full-endurance missions to support the track and intensity forecasting efforts of the National Centers for Environmental prediction (NCEP) and the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Starting with the first mission when Katrina was still a tropical storm in the eastern Bahamas, the jet crews flew daily between Tuesday, August 24th and Sunday, August 28th, using dropwindsondes to measure the environment surrounding the growing tropical cyclone. While conducting five daily missions and one overnight flight when Hurricane Katrina was reaching her strongest and making the critical turn toward the Gulf Coast, the jet flew a total of 49.7 hours in five days, while launching 153 dropwindsondes and covering 21, 015 nautical miles of flight track.
Data from the G-IV, quality assured while aboard the aircraft, was fed by satellite communication directly into the primary NCEP forecasting computer models. These data helped the NHC first catch Katrina's turn toward the southwest as she reached hurricane strength just before the South Florida landfall. The G-IV continued its storm coverage as the tropical cyclone re-emerged into the Gulf of Mexico, and detected perfect atmospheric conditions surrounding the storm for rapid development. Finally, as Katrina reached Category 5 hurricane status, the NOAA jet used dropwindsonde coverage to help the NHC accurately define the range of hurricane and tropical storm force winds, while adding to the accuracy of the forecasted position and time of landfall on the northern Gulf Coast.
|
