Part of the difficulty of forecasting tropical cyclone (TC) track and intensity (where the TC is going and how strong it will be) stems from the lack of frequent, accurate observations over tropical oceans where TCs form and develop. While Hurricane Hunter aircraft can collect vital observations in and near TCs, those observations are limited […]
NOAA has so far completed five flights into and around Hurricane Ida as it crossed over the Cayman Islands and western Cuba toward its forecast landfall along the Louisiana coast. Two synoptic surveillance missions were conducted by the NOAA G-IV high-altitude aircraft to gather dropwindsonde and Doppler radar data around the hurricane to be ingested […]
NOAA Hurricane Hunters completed 6 missions into Tropical Storm Fred, and 11 and 7 missions in and around Hurricanes Grace and Henri, respectively. The first mission into Fred occurred before the system had a well-defined center and was not yet named a tropical depression. Subsequent missions sampled the dry air and wind shear around Fred […]
In the middle atmosphere in and around tropical cyclones, around 2 to 5 km above the surface, air is cooler and drier than near the ocean surface. It is well known that this cool, dry air can be brought down toward the surface by heavy rain in thunderstorms, where the air flows toward the tropical […]
Microdop consists of a 2-micron laser that remotely senses wind velocity and other air measurements above the ocean and over land. This system is also smaller than other commonly used Doppler lidar systems which allows it to be easily added to aircraft payloads. Microdop has the potential to improve sampling of winds inside the storm […]
Available at https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Apr-Jun-2021-AOML-Keynotes-Newsletter.pdf