The NASA Global Hawk took off from Edwards Air Force Base, California last night at 8:50 PDT for a long endurance flight over Hurricane Earl. The Global Hawk will be flying over and around Earl throughout the day today. Below are some images from the first Global Hawk overpass of the eye of Hurricane Earl. The first image shows the real-time mission monitor (RTMM) plots used by the NASA and NOAA pilots and scientists directing the mission showing the Global Hawk position superposed over a visible and infrared (IR) satellite image of the inner core of Hurricane Earl. Next to the RTMM plots is an image from the high-resolution video camera mounted on the Global Hawk showing the inside of Earl’s eye. The second image is a blow up of the video camera image showing the details in the clouds within the eye.
