The first NOAA P-3 mission of the 2019 hurricane season is scheduled to take off from Lakeland, FL at 4 pm EDT (2000 UTC) this afternoon to sample Potential Tropical Cyclone Two in the northeastern Gulf of America. The P-3 “Kermit” (NOAA42) will fly a lawnmower pattern (shown below) to collect 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) Thursday morning, 4 pm EDT (2000 UTC) Thursday afternoon and 4am EDT Friday morning. HRD will have 3 to 4 scientists on each mission supporting data collection.
Below: NOAA P-3 flight plan to sample AL92 this afternoon. Each green dot is the location of a dropsonde release.
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DISCLAIMER: The above discussion is intended to provide a brief summary of recent and future HRD Hurricane Field Program Operations. Any use of this material beyond its original intent is prohibited without permission of the HRD Director. Media inquiries should be directed to Erica Rule (305-361-4541) or Erica.Rule@noaa.gov, Monica Allen (301-734-1123) or Monica.Allen@noaa.gov.