The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a series of videos that graph the work of its “hurricane hunter” air fleet. While the Hurricane Milton approaches the coast of Floridathe agency shared the images of what the climate phenomenon looks like from above.
He Hurricane Milton became a category 5 climate threat and advances from the Gulf of Mexico towards the coasts of Florida. In this context, the inhabitants of the state evacuate risk areas before landfall next Wednesday. As the phenomenon strengthens in the ocean, specialists showed what the eye of the storm looks like. “Inside the flight station aboard NOAA’s WP-3D Orion ‘Miss Piggy’, as we fly directly into Hurricane Milton,” they wrote in a social media post.
In their X account, NOAA authorities explained that “These flights collect critical data that helps improve forecasts and support research about hurricanes. In the images you can see a team of professionals who flew over the cyclone.
In a second video they specified that the NOAA WP-3D Orion ships They are equipped with a radar in the frontanother “multimode” at the bottom and a third Doppler type at the tail. “Together, help us navigate safely through the storm while we complete the mission objectives,” they noted.
He Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) NOAA is located at Lakeland Linder International Airport in Florida. This is the main operations center for the fleet of specialized aircraft. Aircraft play a critical role in environmental data collectionvital for the protection of the population and for the understanding of the planet, as indicated on your website.
NOAA has a series of aircraft that “hunt” hurricanes; Your job is to collect data on these climatic phenomenaNOAA
The AOC is under the supervision of the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) and has an experience of more than four decades in the coordination of aerial missions for data collection about the environment.
AOC’s fleet includes ten manned aircraft, including the famous “Hurricane Hunters” (hurricane hunters), who fly directly to the heart of these phenomena to collect information in real time.
The best-known aircraft in this fleet are the Lockheed WP-3D Orion, nicknamed “Kermit” and “Miss Piggy,” which are equipped with advanced technology such as radar systems and GPS instruments that allow measure parameters such as pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed. These data are essential to improve the hurricane prediction models and to conduct large-scale meteorological and ocean studies.
The passage of Hurricane Milton over Yucatan in Mexico.ZoomEarth
In addition to the P-3 aircraft, the AOC has a Gulfstream IV-SP jet (G-IV), which is used to study atmospheric conditions at the highest levelswhich complements the low-altitude information obtained by aircraft used, for example, to analyze Hurricane Milton.
The AOC not only carries out missions in hurricane seasonbut It also supports atmospheric research in different parts of the world throughout the year. Its team, composed of NOAA Corps officers and aviation specialists, is highly trained to operate in extreme weather conditions.
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