The G-IV is scheduled to fly a research mission today with a take-off time of 1800 UTC (2:00 PM Eastern) from MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, FL. The jet will fly around and over Tropical Depression Three that is located over the Yucatan Peninsula. The data collected from this flight will helps us understand the atmospheric weather conditions around and over the system. The data also goes into NOAA’s weather forecasts models to improve the track and intensity forecasts. Additional information on the type of research mission the the jet will fly is found here. Below is the proposed G-IV flight track. The dots on the flight track (shown in green) represent the aircraft turn points. The red dots in the figure show the locations that launch weather balloons twice a day while the purple dots are the locations that launch balloons once a day.
