The second EMC-tasked NOAA P-3 (NOAA 42, aka “Kermit”) mission into Tropical Storm Barry successfully completed their flight objectives this morning, landing back in Lakeland, FL around 11 am EDT. Below shows the completed flight pattern, in which the crew flew a “butterfly” pattern sampling multiple legs through the developing center of the storm. After the butterfly, they accomplished a module sampling an area of rainfall on the southeast side of the circulation by flying a series of east to west legs. In addition to providing Hurricane Hunter aircraft data of Barry to EMC, the data will prove valuable to HRD scientists as they continue to pursue a better understanding and forecast of the processes responsible for tropical storm formation.
Below: Flown NOAA P-3 (“Kermit”) flight plan into Tropical Storm Barry this morning
“Kermit” is scheduled to takeoff from Lakeland, FL at 4 pm EDT (2000 UTC) this afternoon to once again sample Tropical Storm Barry in the northern Gulf of America. The P-3 will be flown in a “rotated Figure 4” pattern, passing through the storm center four times, collecting data for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center (EMC). The data collected on the mission — which includes dropsondes (measuring the humidity and wind in the atmosphere) and a Doppler radar (measuring the 3D rainfall and wind structure) — will be assimilated into the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model to help produce a better representation of the atmosphere in the northern Gulf of America at the start of its forecast run.
Subsequent missions, tasked by EMC, will be flown at 4 am EDT (0800 UTC) Friday morning, and possibly 4 pm EDT (2000 UTC) Friday afternoon. HRD will have 3 to 4 scientists on each mission supporting data collection.
Below: NOAA P-3 (“Kermit”) flight plan to sample Tropical Storm Barry this afternoon
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