{"id":3737,"date":"2017-04-21T17:29:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T21:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/?p=3737"},"modified":"2017-05-03T18:18:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T22:18:46","slug":"hurricane-hunters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/?p=3737","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Hunters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading the new issue of CoastWatch<\/em><\/strong>, I noticed an announcement that the NOAA Hurricane Awareness Tour<\/em><\/strong> is stopping in Raleigh at the RDU airport on May 10th. Two Hurricane Hunter aircraft are open to the public from 2 to 5PM, along with technical specialists and air crews to explain their jobs. The planes for viewing will be a US Air Force Reserve WC-130J<\/em> and a NOAA G-IV<\/em>. Staff from the National Weather Service Office in Raleigh, emergency management personel, American Red Cross, and North Carolina Sea Grant will also be on hand.<\/p>\n

In 2007, I went to the Coast Guard Air Station in Elizabeth City to check out a similar \u201copen house\u201d. A crew had just landed\u00a0one of two existing Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft used in weather reconnaissance. It was fascinating to see everything up close, personal, and learn from the scientists, pilots and technicians that fly these machines into powerful storms. The experience must be exhilarating yet perilous, but I think I\u2019d go up in a heartbeat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Orion is powered by four\u00a0Allison T56-A-14<\/a>\u00a0turboprop engines rated at 4,600 shp each. The striped pole on the nose is a sample collector. The nose is also equipped with radar.\"\"<\/a>Doppler\u00a0radar is built into the tail section.<\/p>\n

\"\"Additional radar is located on the bottom of the aircraft. Radar scans the storm vertically and horizontally for real-time analysis.<\/p>\n

\"\"Underneath are launching tubes that fire out buoys with transmitters to record ocean temperatures at different depths.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Missions are documented on the fuselage, and I noticed quite a few familiar names. Two in the top row were Australian cyclones Rosa\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Kerry<\/em> in 1979. Occurring in the southern hemisphere, they rotate the opposite way ours do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Before I entered the aircraft,\u00a0Cdr. Tom Strong explained\u00a0the workings of a dropsonde.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The receiving end of the dropsonde tube extends well into the plane.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Inside is a\u00a0flying science lab\u00a0for gathering vital information.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then there’s the cockpit!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>These P-3 aircraft, first introduced in the 60’s, have been upgraded and highly modified.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The service they provide makes a difference in public preparedness, and it’s information I’ve used numerous times on Hatteras Island.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading the new issue of CoastWatch, I noticed an announcement that the NOAA Hurricane Awareness Tour is stopping in Raleigh at the RDU airport on May 10th. Two Hurricane Hunter aircraft are open to the public from 2 to 5PM, along with technical specialists and air crews to explain their jobs. The planes for viewing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,44,30,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aircraft","category-military","category-storms","category-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3737"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3773,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3737\/revisions\/3773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}