The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) houses a small fleet of “hurricane hunters,” which researchers deploy to predict a hurricane’s structure, intensity, and path. And with Milton forecast to remain a major hurricane when it impacts the Tampa area on Wednesday, the data they gather will be as important as ever.

“This data will then be sent to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and into the weather models to help us pinpoint this track forecast,” said Sofia de Solo, a NOAA flight director, in a preflight brief, “which is extra important this time around, being that the hurricane is expected to hit in a highly populous and highly vulnerable region that just got hit by Hurricane Helene.”

For more than four decades, NOAA’s AOC has managed and maintained ten crewed aircraft at Lakeland Linder International Airport (KLAL) in Florida. Among them are the hurricane hunters: a pair of Lockheed WP-3Ds, or P-3s, affectionately dubbed “Kermit” and “Miss Piggy”, and a Gulfstream IV-SP nicknamed “Gonzo.”

“Kermit” and “Miss Piggy” are designed to fly directly into hurricanes. The four-engine turboprops handle both storm research and reconnaissance when called upon by the NHC, measuring storm structure and intensity, producing real-time forecasts, and scanning for indicators of deadly storm surges. These missions typically take the P-3s into the eye of the storm to measure its central pressure.

“Gonzo,” meanwhile, flies above and around hurricanes with its range of about 4,000 nm and cruise altitude of 45,000 feet. NOAA uses the G-IV to study weather systems in the upper atmosphere surrounding a storm, which can help predict its path. According to the agency, it has flown around nearly every Atlantic-based hurricane that has posed a threat to Americans since 1997.

Outside hurricane season, the aircraft are also used to study weather phenomena such as the El Niño system, atmospheric gases over the North Atlantic, and winter storms on the U.S. Pacific coast.

“Miss Piggy” so far has made two flights into Milton, passing through the eye of the storm multiple times in what NOAA calls a “butterfly pattern,” used to identify the center of a hurricane.

“Essentially, every time we pass through the center, we’re going to get a look at the structure of the storm,” said Jonathan Zawislak, a NOAA flight director.

During each pass, the P-3 released dropsondes, which NOAA describes as “weather balloons in reverse.” These expendable devices float on the ocean surface and collect temperature, dew point, wind speed, and pressure data, which can help researchers predict intensity and pathing. The aircraft also produced 3D imagery of Milton using its tail doppler radar.

“Gonzo” so far has flown three missions to collect readings on the air and water in front of Milton, which can “steer” the storm. The G-IV also released dropsondes and gathered tail doppler radar data, beaming it back to the NHC.

“On satellite imagery, the storm presents itself very small. It has a very small pinhole, and due to the intensification, the storm is evacuating air at a very rapid rate,” said de Solo during the preflight briefing. “Up at where we’re flying at 40,000 feet, we’ll feel that.”

NOAA hurricane hunters use tail doppler radar to create 3D imagery of storms, such as this map of Hurricane Sam from September 2021. [Courtesy: NOAA]

According to NOAA, similar missions will be flown before Milton makes landfall. On Tuesday, hurricane-force winds and a life-threatening storm surge are expected across the north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The hurricane will remain “extremely dangerous,” NOAA and the NHC said Tuesday morning, and could produce an “extremely life-threatening situation” along Florida’s west coast, where a hurricane warning is in place.

“Preparations to protect life and property in the warning areas should be complete by tonight,” the agencies said in an update on X.

NOAA also intends to deploy uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) to assist its hurricane hunters. The agency owns two such systems, the Altius 600 and Blackswift S0, that measure temperature, pressure, wind, and humidity both for storms and the ocean surrounding them. Both aircraft are deployed from the P-3 and piloted remotely, capable of staying aloft for up to four hours.

Aircrews eject the drones from beneath the aircraft at about 220 knots, transporting them as close as possible to the eye of the storm. Data is beamed directly from the UAS back to the P-3, which then sends it to the NHC. The drones are capable of going places crewed aircraft cannot, particularly near the ocean’s surface.

As Hurricane Helene approached the U.S. Southeast, “Miss Piggy” and “Kermit” deployed several Blackswifts to study its composition and path. NOAA told FLYING the agency will fly similar UAS for similar missions as Milton grows closer.

NOAA and the NHC encouraged the public to pay attention to the latest Milton updates on the NHC’s website, noting that forecasts are constantly shifting.

Some NOAA hurricane hunter missions are supported by the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, also known as the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters. Stationed at Keesler Air Force Base (KBIX) in Biloxi, Mississippi, the 53rd deploys a WC-130J Super Hercules to survey storms in the Atlantic, Pacific, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico for the NHC.

A spokesperson for the Hurricane Hunters told FLYING the squadron flew three missions apiece on Sunday and Monday, with two more scheduled for Tuesday. It flew nine reconnaissance missions into Hurricane Helene last month.

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The post ‘Hurricane Hunters’ Fly Into the Eye of Hurricane Milton appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“Clearly, this is a very powerful major hurricane that’s going to have major impacts, both on impact in southwest Florida, but then as it continues to work through the state,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday morning, the Orlando Sentinel reported. “It is going to have major, major impacts in terms of wind, in terms of rain, in terms of flooding, so this is going to be a nasty, nasty day—two days.”

Wednesday morning, the storm churned off the southwestern coast of Florida, with hurricane-force winds approaching near Sanibel Island, according to a 10 a.m. report from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft. Wind speeds were increasing to maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, just 2 mph shy of officially becoming a Category 5 storm. 

By 11 a.m., “catastrophic wind damage” was beginning along the coast, the National Hurricane Center reported, warning that in its wake would be heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding across portions of central Florida.

Hours earlier, as the storm maintained its advance in the Gulf, defense officials in Washington, D.C. announced that more than 3,200 of Florida’s National Guard troops had been activated. An additional 1,800 troops, along with aviation assets, such as helicopters, remained on stand-by, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon.

“Florida has pre-positioned Guard soldiers, airmen and equipment at bases and armories around the state in preparation for deploying them to areas impacted by the storm,” Ryder said. “These Guardsmen will provide route-clearing search and rescue teams to support flood control and security.”

Scenes from today’s flight into #HurricaneIan as it makes its way toward Florida

Make sure you’re paying attention to the forecast (@NHC_Atlantic) as well as heeding local advisories.#ReserveReady pic.twitter.com/BY9JA1elKI

— Hurricane Hunters (@53rdWRS) September 27, 2022

Bracing for the Storm

Hurricane preparations have been underway for months, Rear Adm. Jim Aiken, Commander U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet said Wednesday.

“Aircraft will initiate evacuations from area airfields or be secured in hangars rated to withstand hurricane force winds,” the Navy Command said in a statement Wednesday. “Four ships and multiple rotary and fixed-wing aircraft are expected to relocate and remain out of the local area until it is determined safe to return.”

All Navy aircraft not relocated will remain hangered between Naval Air Station Jacksonville (KNIP) and Naval Station Mayport (KNRB), the service said.

The Air Force began its preparations for Ian Monday with the evacuation of some aircraft from Air Force installations in the storm’s path, an Air Force spokesperson told FLYING.

More than two dozen F-35A Lightning II aircraft were repositioned from Eglin Air Force Base (KVPS) to Barksdale Air Force Base (KBAD), Louisiana, ahead of the storm’s expected damaging winds, the 33rd Fighter Wing said. Wednesday morning, the base was at a Hurricane Condition Level 5, or HURCON 5 status, meaning that surface winds were expected in excess of 58 mph (50 knots) within 96 hours.

Less than 100 miles away, Tyndall Air Force Base (KPAM) near Panama City was not under an evacuation order but warned that the base was at HURCON 4, with surface winds greater than 58 mph possible in 72 hours. According to the Air Force, the base’s fleet of T-38 Talon supersonic jet trainers were tied down, while its F-22 aircraft were listed as “TBD.”

Four years ago, Tyndall was decimated by Category 5-strength Hurricane Michael. Its current $5 billion reconstruction, which is about four years away from completion, marks the largest military construction project ever awarded, NBC News recently reported. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, Air Force and Space Force aircraft preparations also included:

Hurlburt Air Force Base (KHRT)

• U-28 Dracos, MC-130J Commando IIs, repositioned to Eglin AFB, Florida

• AC-130J Ghostriders, MC-130Js, MC-130H Combat Talon IIs repositioned to Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio
• U-28s repositioned to Cannon AFB, New Mexico
• A-29 Super Tucanos repositioned to Kansas City, Missouri
• AC-130J, CV-22s and MC-130Js listed as “TBD”

Jacksonville International Airport (KJAX)

• F-15s Eagles repositioned to New Orleans, Louisiana

MacDill Air Force Base (KMCF)

• 9 KC-135 Stratotankers repositioned to Bangor, Maine
• 1 KC-135 repositioned to Pease, New Hampshire
• 15 UH-60 Black Hawks repositioned to Miami, Florida

Moody Air Force Base (KVAD)

• A-10 Thunderbolt IIs repositioned to Barksdale

Patrick Air Force Base (KCOF)

• C-130 Hercules repositioned to Little Rock AFB
• HH-60s repositioned to Orlando Convention Center​ and Little Rock AFB
• UH-1 Iroquois helicopters repositioned to Cape Canaveral, Florida

“Aircraft relocations are being conducted based on [wing commander] determinations so not all listed below are on the move at this time,” an Air Force spokesperson said.

• READ MORE: New Air-Launched Hurricane Drones Are Close to Operational

The DOD has designated Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; Moody Air Force Base, Georgia; Warner Robins Air Force Base, Georgia; and Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia, as incident support base federal staging areas.

Live views of #HurricaneIan from the @Space_Station as it flies over the storm. https://t.co/hGjzrBmuyw

— NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2022

Sitting in the projected path of the storm, which is expected to begin cutting across much of central Florida Wednesday afternoon, is U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, both located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.

MacDill Air Force Base issued a mandatory evacuation order for all non-essential personnel, including dependents and civilian employees as of noon Tuesday.

“Hurricanes hitting the state of Florida are not new,” Ryder said. “There are very comprehensive contingency plans that are put together to address these types of eventualities to ensure that there’s 24/7 connectivity and command and control capability. The bottom line is neither of those commands will miss a beat regardless of whether the storm hits in the Tampa area or not.”

The post Military Aircraft Repositioned as Florida Bases Prepare for Hurricane Ian appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

It’s an approximately three-foot-long drone called Altius. These small, fixed-wing drones are launched from NOAA’s Lockheed WP-3D Orion twin turboprops and are designed to fly into the most active parts of a hurricane at lower altitudes and remain aloft for one to three hours. The drones then send precious weather data back to the Orion, which would be flying at altitudes around 8,000 to 10,000 feet. 

“This new technology is going to really advance what we know about how storms form—not just where they’re going—and when a storm is going to form and when it’s going to intensify,”  NOAA Corps Lt. Cmdr. Becky Shaw told FLYING on Friday.  “We’re going to have the whole story on the storm now.”

Since the 1960s, NOAA pilots have been putting it on the line to fly through some of the roughest storms nature has to offer. Based at Lakeland Linder International Airport (KLAL) in Lakeland, Florida, NOAA’s hurricane hunter fleet includes two Orions that essentially perform as flying research labs for studying storms. The team’s third aircraft is a twin-turbofan Gulfstream IV-SP, which is used to fly above and around hurricanes. 

Currently, NOAA is completing safe separation and communication tests of the drones, to make sure they deploy as designed and can effectively send data back to the aircraft. They’re launched in tubes from openings on the underside of the P-3s. A small parachute deploys, which triggers the unfurling of the drone’s wings. At that point the drone begins controlled flight. 

The Altius drones are different from dropsonde devices which NOAA currently uses to study hurricanes. Dropsondes are data-gathering objects that are released from aircraft and parachute to the ocean surface. As they fall, they send information to the aircraft about air temperature and pressure, wind speeds, and humidity. These devices offer a snapshot of storm conditions, while the new drones will be able to measure changing conditions over time. 

Altius is not intended as a replacement for dropsondes, Shaw said. Instead, the data from Altius will be used to augment what scientists learn from dropsondes. 

Not only does this kind of data help scientists understand the structure and intensity of each storm, it also gives people in a storm’s path ample time to prepare for disaster or evacuate, if necessary. 

Flying into the Storm

Shaw—a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School—shared with FLYING a few details about the actual flight dynamics of piloting an airplane into a hurricane. In a phrase, she said, the experience is “really incredible.”

During flight inside a hurricane, “I’m not touching the power levers at all. The wind speed and the windsheer will change very quickly, so the flight engineer is actually moving the power levers really quickly. If you’ve seen the videos online, you’ll see they go to max power, then to idle—and you never fly an aircraft like that. But in a storm you have to, because the wind can change so quickly. 

“In the left seat, I’m just doing everything I can to hold wing level and to have the pitch at 210 knots. 220 is our turbulent air penetration, and then what we call 200, slow. In the brief we’ll say, ‘I’m going to fly 210. If we get down to 200 knots and you’re at max power and there’s still no changes, we’re still being slow (and that happens most normally), I’m going to start to pitch down to get some speed back.’ 

And that’s the only time you’re going to prioritize your air speed over altitude—because you need to get that altitude for the science data.”

• READ MORE: Inside NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter Fleet

The Fleet

Plans call for NOAA to replace its G-IV jet in 2024 with a Gulfstream G550, Shaw said.

Although the current NOAA Hurricane Hunter fleet remains in good condition, she estimates the Orions will be replaced around 2030 with a turboprop type that has yet to be determined.

Taking Altius Operational

Meanwhile, the first operational Altius drones are expected to be sent into storms soon. 

“We have a couple more milestones we need to make in order to sign off the new drones for fully operational crews,” she said. NOAA expects to hit those milestones within the next two weeks. “We’re very close.”

Shaw believes NOAA is leading the way when it comes to flying drones from aircraft. 

“We’re doing it safely and we’re doing it systematically and we’re creating a lot of really good lessons learned,” she said. “Even though we’re an oceanic and atmospheric organization—through our test team, our science team, and our engineering team—we’re pushing forward on aviation as well.”

The post New Air-Launched Hurricane Drones Are Close to Operational appeared first on FLYING Magazine.