Hurricane hunters: Where drones and satellites can’t reach

When a hurricane or a typhoon begins lumbering across the ocean toward land, most of us hunker down or get out of the way. But one small group of adrenaline-loving scientists and pilots flies directly into the storm, braving winds [up to 215 miles per hour (314 km per hr)]( to bring home crucial meteorological data. Over the open ocean, there are no weather stations. Satellites can only measure so much from space. The only way meteorologists can get the readings they need is to fly instrument-laden aircraft, dubbed hurricane hunters, through a storm again and again. The US Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have flown these treacherous missions for decades. But one day in the not-too-distant future, drones may finally supplant crewed flights. Buckle up—we’re going in. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Daily Obsession] Hurricane hunters January 03, 2020 Riders on the storm --------------------------------------------------------------- When a hurricane or a typhoon begins lumbering across the ocean toward land, most of us hunker down or get out of the way. But one small group of adrenaline-loving scientists and pilots flies directly into the storm, braving winds [up to 215 miles per hour (314 km per hr)]( to bring home crucial meteorological data. Over the open ocean, there are no weather stations. Satellites can only measure so much from space. The only way meteorologists can get the readings they need is to fly instrument-laden aircraft, dubbed hurricane hunters, through a storm again and again. The US Air Force and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have flown these treacherous missions for decades. But one day in the not-too-distant future, drones may finally supplant crewed flights. Buckle up—we’re going in. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [8-12 hours:]( Length of a hurricane-hunter flight from takeoff to landing, including three to four hours inside the storm [10,000 ft (3,000 m):]( Typical altitude for hurricane-hunter flights—which makes the occasional 6,000-ft (2,000-m) drop in a downdraft particularly harrowing [>10,000:]( Bad weather flights NOAA’s P-3 propeller plane has flown since its launch in 1976 [70:]( People working around the clock when the US Air Force is tracking a storm, including four rotating five-person flight crews [40:]( Dropsondes (an $800 tube-shaped device used to take weather readings) deployed on a typical flight [6:]( Weather reconnaissance planes the US military has lost, along with 53 crew members [3:]( Engines, out of four, that burst into flames within minutes of each other on one memorable NOAA hurricane hunter flight (NOAA has never lost a plane or a crew member) Giphy ORIGIN STORY Boredom, and a bet --------------------------------------------------------------- It all started with [a gentleman’s wager](. In 1943, a group of British fighter pilots were stationed in Galveston, Texas to learn the art of “instrument flying” (flying blind using only the indicators in the cockpit) from the American colonel Joe Duckworth. Many of the Brits had already seen combat in World War II and weren’t enthused about the rickety training planes they had been assigned. On July 27, the pilots got word that a hurricane was coming ashore and they needed to evacuate their planes. The Brits teased their instructor about the fragility of the planes until an exasperated Duckworth bet his students that he could fly one of their planes into the hurricane using instrument flying. He grabbed navigator Ralph O’Hair and took off without asking permission from headquarters. O’Hair later compared the flight to “being tossed about like a stick in a dog’s mouth,” but the pair broke into the eye of the storm—basically by accident. When they flew triumphantly back to base, weather officer William Jones-Burdick asked if he could fly into the storm, too. O’Hair hopped out and Jones-Burdick hopped in, completing the first truly meteorological flight into a hurricane. brief history [1936:]( The US Congress passes a “storm patrol bill,” which authorizes military planes to follow hurricanes over the ocean. [1945:]( The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron of the US Air Force adds storm chasing to its duties and takes on the nickname “Hurricane Hunters.” [1947:]( As part of [weather control experiment]( Project Cirrus, the 53rd Squadron drops dry ice into a growing hurricane in an attempt to weaken it; the storm changes direction and makes landfall, sparking public outcry and lawsuits. [1953:]( The 53rd Squadron takes on the responsibility of delivering children’s letters to Santa. [1963:]( Hurricane hunters begin flying the C-130 Hercules, which the 53rd Squadron still uses to this day; for the first time, crews could fly through a storm without getting soaked by rain. [1976:]( NOAA hurricane hunters start flying the P-3 propeller plane, a submarine-hunting aircraft heavily modified to become an airborne meteorological lab. [1997:]( NOAA debuts the G-4 jet, which flies above and around hurricanes to help scientists understand the conditions near a storm that will influence its path. [2005:]( Hurricane Katrina devastates Keesler Air Force Base, home of the 53rd Squadron, which temporarily relocates without missing a mission. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert QZ&A From the hurricane hunter’s mouth --------------------------------------------------------------- Zoë Schlanger chatted with Justin Kibbey, a hurricane hunter pilot and commander for the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, about what it’s like to fly into a hurricane. ([Read the full transcript here.]( Quartz: What was your most intense hurricane mission? We did a flight on Irma just before it made landfall in Barbuda. That was by far the most intense-turbulence storm that I’ve ever flown before. The plane can shake violently, and it can be very, very loud. It’s hard to read instruments, it’s hard to read air speeds. It can be a very unnerving experience for folks who haven’t done it before. What is it like crossing through the eye wall and into the eye? I like to say that the storm kind of spits you out into the eye. [Inside the eye] it’s very nice. It’s usually pleasant. Sometimes it can be a little turbulent but normally it’s calm and smooth and easy flying within the eye. For Irma, it had this beautiful stadium effect where the clouds were just thousands of feet above you. It’s a surreal experience. How do you train to fly into a hurricane? There’s no simulators or training sessions to learn how to fly into a hurricane. The only way is to go out and do it, to have a junior pilot in the left seat and a senior pilot in the right seat. And the first time that you’re going to fly into a hurricane, you’re flying—you’re at the controls. You just have to listen to what the senior pilot and flight engineer are saying. They’re talking you through it. It’s very much the epitome of on-the-job training. quotable “I could see the lights of Charleston going out, and I knew they were catching hell down there. I’d much rather be in the air. When the wind pushes, a plane gives.” —[Terry Lynch, chief technician for a NOAA hurricane-hunter crew, recalling flying into Hurricane Hugo in 1989]( Watch this! Into the eye of the storm --------------------------------------------------------------- Step inside a NOAA P-3 hurricane hunter plane as it breaks through the clouds into the eye of Hurricane Irma in 2017. Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Hurricane hunters? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Daily Obsession email – to the email – MILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION Why do we need people to fly into hurricanes? --------------------------------------------------------------- Hurricane-hunter planes are outfitted with an array of instruments that [gather data scientists can’t get from satellites]( Dropsondes: These look something like the capsule you place in a pneumatic tube at a drive-through bank, only they’re dropped using a parachute to take pressure, humidity, temperature, and wind velocity readings at different altitudes as they fall. Doppler radar: Mounted on the tail of the aircraft, this radar system scans the storm vertically and horizontally to give scientists a map of its cloud structure. Bathythermographs: A fancy name for thermometers flung out of the airplane to measure ocean temperatures. Stepped frequency microwave radiometers: The newest addition to the toolkit, these devices measure windspeeds at the ocean’s surface and the rate of rainfall to help meteorologists predict storm-surge flooding. GPS: The precise location of the storm center is a simple but crucial bit of information. Prior to the past decade, meteorologists used this information to guide their forecasts, but [couldn’t actually plug most of the data into their computer models](. “We’ve been flying through these storms for years collecting observations and all that stuff fell on the floor,” said Frank Marks, who leads NOAA’s Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program. But as computers have gotten faster, meteorologists have devised ways to work all this data into their models. Giphy fun fact! NOAA’s hurricane-hunter planes are [named after Muppets]( because an early pilot remarked that the P-3 plane “really flies like a pig”—so they named it Miss Piggy. The other P-3 is named Kermit and the G-4 jet is named Gonzo. LOOK INTO THE 🔮 The end of crewed hurricane hunter flights? --------------------------------------------------------------- NASA has been working to retrofit the Global Hawk drone to hunt hurricanes. The plane can hover above a storm at 60,000 ft (18,288 m) for 24 hours at a time, tirelessly dropping dropsondes, mapping the system with doppler radar, and reading temperature and humidity via microwave scans. Researchers have been [flying the plane over storms since 2010]( but it’s still in the experimental stages. Meanwhile, NOAA has been tinkering with smaller, disposable drones, dubbed Coyotes, that crews can launch through the dropsonde chute on the P-3 aircraft. The nimble aircraft can [fly down to 300 ft (61 m) above the sea]( and take measurements at the crucial boundary layer between the ocean and the atmosphere, which fuels the storm. Another set of oceanographers has been [using underwater drones]( to measure sea temperatures in hurricanes’ paths for a similar purpose. take me down this 🐰 hole! The arrival of drones will seem like especially welcome news after you read [The Weather Channel’s account]( of six of the most dangerous flights in hurricane hunter history. Giphy poll Would you fly on a hurricane-hunter mission? [Click here to vote]( AbsolutelyNever 💬 let's talk! 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