The flight and science crews are ready to fly. Takeoff is scheduled for 10AM ET for both aircraft. The P3 will depart from Lakeland Linder Regional Airport, Lakeland, FL, for a seven-hour mission. The NOAA P3 Hurricane Hunter aircraft is tasked by NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center. The Center runs NOAA’s weather forecast models. They are particularly interested in the Tail Doppler radar. The data from this flight will go into the models to better predict the track and intensity of Harvey. Below is the proposed 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.
The Unmanned Global Hawk aircraft will also take off at 10AM ET from NASA’s Armstrong Research Flight Facility, Edwards, CA. This flight is part of the NASA East Pacific Origins and Characteristics of Hurricanes (EPOCH) Project. NOAA and NASA are collaborators in this field campaign. Below is their flight track. The Global Hawk will fly for 24 hours before returning to base. The squares on the flight track below represent the dropwindsonde launch locations. The green aircraft shown is the Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft who are also collecting data.
