September 3, 2010 — There is someone who has an even closer eye on Hurricane Earl as it moves up the east coast of the United States other than the people of the region.
Something, actually.
NASA completed a historic day for its hurricane research on September 2 as it put the Global Hawk over Earl, marking the first time the unmanned drone flew over a fully formed hurricane. The Global Hawk also flew in concert with NASA's DC-8 during the DC-8’s fourth and final research flight to Earl. Both planes are outfitted with highly advanced instruments that scientists hope will bring new insight into how hurricanes form and intensify.
According to NASA, the first hurricane science flight of the Global Hawk has “met or exceeded every objective.” After making repeated passes over the eye of Hurricane Earl in the Atlantic, the aircraft was being flown back to its base at NASA Dryden in California today.
Thursday also marked the first day of the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment when two NASA aircraft involved were flying and studying a storm at the same time. The experiment was designed to take advantage of having multiple aircraft above a storm at once, in order to observe hurricanes and tropical storms in as many facets as possible.
“That series of flights alone really helped us achieve a great goal, which is to observe rapid intensification,” said GRIP mission scientist Scott Braun from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Earl had surprised scientists earlier in the week when they saw that it was surrounded by dry air. Hurricanes often derive strength from moist air and weaken when dry air infiltrates the cyclone.
“What happened?” said GRIP mission scientist Ed Zipser of the University of Utah. “The storm continued to intensify in spite of that. And we need to know why.”
Then during Thursday’s flight, as Earl spun toward North Carolina but also lost strength, GRIP scientists made measurements from the storm as its eye wall collapsed and as it dropped from a Category 3 to a Category 2 hurricane. At first blush, it appeared that wind shear played a role in breaking up the storm.
“It doesn’t matter if it did what we thought it was going to,” Zipser said. “It matters that it did something interesting and that we were there to observe it.”
Now that the Global Hawk has successfully flown over an Atlantic hurricane all the way from its base in southern California, the GRIP team is hoping for more opportunities to put the aircraft in the field. Because of the drone’s 30-hour flight range, it can remain directly over a storm to make high-quality measurements far longer than a manned plane or a satellite.
The GRIP mission will continue to fly until September 25.
|
|
NASA’s Global Hawk drone made its first flight over a fully formed hurricane on Thursday. Photo credit: NASA 
NASA’s DC-8 flew to Hurricane Earl four times in the past week to collect data as the storm both strengthened and weakened. This image shows one of the DC-8’s passes through the eye of Earl on August 30.Photo credit: NASA Jane Peterson
Hurricane Earl from the International Space Station taken the morning of September 3. Photo credit: NASA
|
News Archive | Air Shows & Events | KidVenture
PRINTER
FRIENDLY
Privacy Policy 
