Mother Nature is poised
to unleash hurricane-force winds and torrential downpours on
MacDill AFB in the wee hours of Aug. 13 from Hurricane Charley.
While most people at MacDill have battened down the hatches and
headed away from danger, the pilots and meteorologists at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grabbed their gear
to head directly into the storm.
NOAA officials study these violent and often devastating storms
to more accurately predict their patterns and intensity. Hot and
humid July, August and September are the peak of hurricane season,
and the NOAA’s aircraft are ready to rock when an approaching
storm threatens to develop into severe weather.
“The aircraft we use is very unique,” said Lt. Cmdr.
Randy Tebeest, executive officer for NOAA. “Most general
aviation aircraft couldn’t physically withstand the
turbulence and debris inside a hurricane.”
The hurricane chasers have flown the WP-3D Orion used since
1977.
Commander Tebeest added that the equipment on the plane is
specifically designed to study the environment around it, so the
pilots are much better informed than most aviators about any
dangerous conditions that could develop.
“We take the planes to their limit ... but we’re not
cowboys,” he said about flying into hurricanes.
“It’s different than anything I could have imagined. We
have a plan when we take off, and as soon as we are airborne, that
plan changes. You never know exactly what it’s going to be
like.”
According to NOAA’s Web site, www.noaa.gov, a
hurricane is a category of tropical cyclone, the general term for
all counterclockwise-circulating weather systems over tropical
waters in the Northern Hemisphere.
They are classified three ways:
- Tropical depression, an organized system of clouds and
thunderstorms with a defined circulation and maximum sustained
winds of 38 mph or less.
- Tropical storm, an organized system of strong thunderstorms
with a defined circulation and maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73
mph.
- Hurricane, an intense tropical weather system with a well
defined circulation and maximum sustained winds of 74 mph or
higher. In the western Pacific, they are called
“typhoons,” and similar storms in the Indian Ocean are
called “cyclones.”
Jack Parrish, NOAA chief meteorologist, said one of the primary
tools used to study these storms is called a dropsonde.
“It’s a small tube with instruments in it that has a
parachute attached. It also has a radio transmitter to send data
back up to the airplane. When we get to the center of a hurricane
at 10,000 feet, the dropsonde operator will release it into the
center of the eye,” Mr. Parrish said. “It sends back
information about wind speed, temperature, humidity and most
important, pressure. This is the information the hurricane
forecasters use to decide if the storm is getting stronger or
weaker.”
Mr. Parrish said hurricanes are products of the interaction
between the tropical ocean and the atmosphere. He said the storms
are helped by Earth’s rotation, and they are powered by heat
energy from the sea and are steered by the easterly trade winds and
the temperate westerlies as well as by their own energy. Of the 60
to 70 tropical waves originating in Africa, most storms never fully
mature into hurricanes.
Each year on average, 10 tropical storms (of which six
become hurricanes) develop over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea
or Gulf of Mexico. Many of these remain over the ocean; however,
about five hurricanes strike the United States coastline every
three years. Of these five, two will be major hurricanes (Category
3 or greater on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale.)
The Tampa Bay area was last hit by a major storm in 1960. The
death toll attributed to Hurricane Donna was more than 150, and
damages were estimated at $400 million. This storm was a catalyst
for the foundation of NOAA, officials said.
Originally created as the Research Flight Facility in 1961, the
goal of the combined effort of the Weather Bureau and the
Department of Defense was to learn more about hurricanes. The main
objective was to see if a storm’s intensity could be
decreased through dynamic cloud seeding. A WC-130B aircraft was
obtained on loan from the U.S. Air Force in 1970.
President Richard M. Nixon proposed the creation of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in July 1970. His goal was
to unify the nation’s scientific efforts under one
agency.
NOAA became a reality in October 1970. The organization was
tasked with the responsibility to predict changes in the oceans,
atmosphere and living marine resources. Data collected by NOAA was
shared with other agencies, private industries, the research
community and the public.
The aircraft operations center moved to MacDill in January
1993.
NOAA’s aircraft operate throughout the United States and
“wherever the weather takes us,” Commander TeBeest
said. He said the agency takes an interest in projects from
air-quality studies to aeronautical charting and marine mammal
studies. The P-3, known affectionately as “Miss Piggy,”
has been to multiple countries including Tahiti, Honduras,
Newfoundland and Trinidad.
While hurricane chasers have the high-profile jobs, NOAA
officials are involved in much more than severe seasonal weather
patterns. Their research is leading the way for meteorologists and
safety experts alike to develop new technology for coping with
Mother Nature. [ANN Thanks Staff Sgt. Randy Redman, 6th Air
Mobility Wing Public Affairs]