Postcards III: Robot aircraft for hurricane research
I'm in Orlando this week for the 28th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, sponsored by the American Meteorological Society. The conference, held once every two years, brings together the world's experts on hurricane science.
Robot aircraft for hurricane research
The age of Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for hurricane research is upon us. NASA promoted the use of their Global Hawk UAV in a talk Monday here in Orlando, and yesterday, talks about another UAV--the aerosonde--were delivered by Joe Cione and Guy Cascella of NOAA. Unlike the Global Hawk, the aerosonde has already made flights into hurricanes--into Category 1 Hurricane Ophelia in 2005, and into Category 1 conditions in the extratropical version of Hurricane Noel in 2007. The aerosonde can monitor conditions near the sea surface, where it is too dangerous to fly crewed aircraft. Data taken near the sea surface are particularly important for determining if a hurricane may undergo rapid intensification. The researchers propose to fly the Aerosonde as low as 200 feet inside a hurricane.
Figure 1. The Aerosonde in flight. Image credit:NASA.
The aerosonde is a $50,000 propeller-driven airplane with a 1.6 horsepower engine, made by Aerosonde, based in Melbourne, Australia. The plane can fly 2300 miles on 1.5 gallons of fuel at a cruising speed of 60 mph--good enough for a 20 hour flight. In 2007, an aerosonde spent 17.5 hours in 'Noreaster Noel off the U.S. East Coast, after the hurricane had transitioned to a powerful extratropical storm.
The aerosonde has not been given clearance by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly near the U.S. coast, because of concerns that the robot aircraft might encounter other aircraft skirting the storm, according to a Florida Sun Sentinel article posted earlier this year. The FAA does plan to give the aerosonde clearance late in 2008--with restrictions. So, for this year, the aerosonde will fly out of Barbados, where it has been given approval to fly. A 2-week research project is scheduled beginning September 1. So far, the aerosonde has not flown into anything stronger than a Category 1 storm, and the researchers are eager to test the aircraft in a "real" storm this year. The aerosonde will also be "on call" for rapid deployment anywhere in the Caribbean during the period September 15-October 31.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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I'm trying to finish my blog for you guys today. There is so much stuff I wrote I had to save it in Microsoft Word yesterday and continue today....
....whao, Drakoen! That sounds serious! But, looking forward to it!
251. Drakoen 3:40 PM CDT on May 01, 2008
I'm trying to finish my blog for you guys today. There is so much stuff I wrote I had to save it in Microsoft Word yesterday and continue today....
....whao, Drakoen! That sounds serious! But, looking forward to it!
The good news is that I finished more than half of it. I have 3 more topics left to cover and I will be able to release when I have seen and my predictions.
with this year now being neutral my forcast is for 28 name storms this like 2005
I don't think we will get quite that many storms...Maybe a little more then what the current forecast calls for, ONLY if we stay in Neutral and dont switch to El nino to quickly, And that is also if conditions fall into place the right way, I say about 17-18 named storms.
238. Ivansrvivr 3:05 PM CDT on May 01, 2008 Personally I think the warming will slow quite a bit from here on but if the warming doesnt hit the brakes soon, the whole picture changes.
If one were to go strictly by ENSO historical values alone, from cooling to neutral to late warming conditions, the seemingly more fitting years with those similarities are 1951, 1968, or possibly 1986, 1994 and 2004. Those season scenarios here
2004 out of those for years would seem like the most fittings, As the other 3 of those years were before the "Active Hurricane Period" began.
All the best of luck to anyone in its path.
244. moonlightcowboy 8:26 PM GMT on May 01, 2008
238. Ivansrvivr 3:05 PM CDT on May 01, 2008 Personally I think the warming will slow quite a bit from here on but if the warming doesnt hit the brakes soon, the whole picture changes.
If one were to go strictly by ENSO historical values alone, from cooling to neutral to late warming conditions, the seemingly more fitting years with those similarities are 1951, 1968, or possibly 1986, 1994 and 2004. Those season scenarios here
2004 out of those for years would seem like the most fittings, As the other 3 of those years were before the "Active Hurricane Period" began
Also that year would seem to be the best comparison due to it being within the Active Hurricane Period, If you notice for example Taz's post with the 4 La nina years, 4 El nino years and the 4 Neutral years they were all years AFTER the "Active Hurricane Period" began, Which goes to tell me the best comparing would be with years AFTER the active hurricane period when it comes to numbers and such.
I wonder if T.C. Nargis will disrupt production.
I was very sad to read this today about Chevron in Burma:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050108C.shtml
tommy
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