NOAA’s G-IV will fy today around Hurricane Irma. Take off time is set for 1:30 PM ET (1730 UTC) from Barbados. The crew has been tracking Irma for a few days now. With each flight we learn more and more how Irma interacts with the surrounding environment. The jet will also sample the ridge northwest of Irma. This ridge in the atmosphere is one of the key features that will determine the future path of Irma. The data collected from this and all of the NOAA flights we’ve been conducting will go into NOAA’s weather prediction models. Below is the flight track. The dots represent the dropwindsonde launch locations. These instruments collect critical data inside of Irma.
