. | . |
Another day on the job, in the eye of a hurricane By Leila MACOR Miami (AFP) May 13, 2017 Hurricanes can be monstruous, terrifying things to live through. Garrett Black flies through them for a living and likes it. Last year, for instance, Black flew through Hurricane Matthew, which reached the maximum category five strength, to measure its fury as the storm struck the Caribbean and the southeast US coast. "It's a lot like a roller coaster ride. It's exciting," Black, a meteorologist, told AFP Friday at a hurricane awareness presentation at an airport near Miami. The Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through November 30. Garrett flies with four other crew members on an Air Force WC-130J, a lumbering gray prop plane affectionately called a Hurricane Hunter. Flying at 10,000 feet, the team's mission is to measure the strength of a hurricane and which way it is headed, among other things. "If it's close to the coastline, we'll go through many different times. It gets really bumpy. The turbulence could be anything from 1 to 10," Black added. "Sometimes it is fine and you really don't feel anything, and sometimes it will bump you around quite a bit." Part of the team's job is to release in different areas of the hurricane small cylinders known as dropsondes. Equipped with a small parachute, they fall through the whirling madness of the storm and measure temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, speed and direction of the hurricane. The gadget has a transmitter to send this data back to the plane, which then passes it on to the National Hurricane Center. The plane releases the dropsondes as it flies through what is called the eyewall of the hurricane -- the area just outside the eye and the spot where the fiercest winds and rainfall are. It also drops them in the eye itself. - 'Not too nervous' - Last year with Hurricane Matthew, winds hit a stunning 270 kilometers per hour (170 mph) although Black's team flew in later when the storm was downgraded somewhat. "Usually, I'm not too nervous to be honest with you. We train a great amount of time. We are very prepared. We never had an accident during a storm," said Black. The data that the hurricane hunters planes send can save lives. "You would think ... we wouldn't need to have planes going into the hurricanes if satellites could do it," said John Cangialoso, a meteorologist with the NHC. But satellites only give an estimate of a hurricane's strength and render a picture of what it looks like, he added. "In order to really understand how strong it is, the only way it's actually to get in it and collect data," Cangialoso said.
Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 11, 2017 The first tropical storm in the Eastern Pacific Ocean has formed west of Costa Rica as NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP Satellite passed overhead. Tropical Storm Adrian's formation has already made a mark in hurricane history. Although Eastern Pacific hurricane season doesn't start officially until May 15, it's just a marker. We've already seen the first tropical storm in the Atlantic Ocean form in e ... read more Related Links Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters When the Earth Quakes A world of storm and tempest
|
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us. |