Drones will give scientists continuous data from inside hurricanes for better detecting intensity and structure.
In clear skies over Maryland the week of January 11, NOAA scientists launched a new uncrewed small aircraft — a research drone — from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter plane to test its ability to gather weather data that could improve hurricane forecasts.
“We’re hopeful this new technology, once it can be successfully tested in a hurricane environment, will improve our understanding of the boundary layer and advance NOAA forecast models used in forecasts,” said Joseph Cione, lead meteorologist at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory Hurricane Research Division. “Ultimately, these new observations could help emergency managers make informed decisions on evacuations before tropical cyclones make landfall.”
For many years, NOAA Corps pilots have flown the agency’s two WP-3D Orion Hurricane Hunters into the eye of tropical storms to gather vital weather data. But they avoid the perilous lower eyewall in the boundary layer where the ocean meets the atmosphere. This violent area of high winds and towering ocean waves is of key interest to scientists, but it’s too dangerous for piloted aircraft.
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