Drones To Scour The Clouds For Hurricanes' Secrets

A drone happened to catch Tropical Storm Karl’s intensification off the Mexican Gulf Coast two years ago, providing an unprecedented 3-D view of the transformation at work. That mission’s success has prompted new research that will include two drones — called Global Hawks — monitoring more hurricanes this September with some of the most advanced weather equipment on the planet.

One drone will fly over storms, with the other surveying the surrounding environment as part of a three-year project based out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

The data should give scientists many of the clues they need to solve a pressing mystery: why some tropical storms suddenly become monsters and what signs predict looming changes.

“That’s sort of a holy grail in hurricane research,” said Bjorn Lambrigtsen, a scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and principal investigator for the original intensity research. “We have an unprecedented set of data that we can analyze.”

Karl nearly tripled in strength in less than a day, intensifying without warning from a 50 mph tropical storm to a dangerous 120 mph hurricane.

Such rapid strengthening has long baffled and intrigued scientists seeking to improve forecasting that is key to life- and property-saving evacuation and preparation decisions.

The ultimate goal is to give better warnings to communities before storms increase in strength, and to reduce false alarms.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120212/ARTICLE/120219846/2416/NEWS?Title=Drones-to-scour-the-clouds-for-hurricanes-secrets