Hurricane Research Division (HRD)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Mark Powell

Presented by: Sonia Otero

Aircraft Operations Center(AOC)

Real-time hurricane monitoring onboard NOAA aircraft

Partnership of:

with the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS)

Background

- Every hurricane season, scientists of HRD participate aboard NOAA's hurricane research aircraft on over 200 hours of reconnaissance, surveillance and research of tropical cyclones.

- The fleet, operated by AOC, consists of: 2 WP-3D Orion turboprops 1 Gulfstream IV jet

- Aircraft instruments collect 1 Hz flight-level and Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) observations, and 2 Hz dropsonde data.

Background ...

- Local Ethernet network on aircraft

- Real-time data are sent straight to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) through a 9600 baud satellite link.

- 20-year old aircraft measurement system provides limited plotting

- Scientists of coordinated missions with multiple aircraft (NOAA, Air Force, NASA, Navy) have little measurement information from other planes.

About the data...

MINOB:

URNT40 KWBC 261950NOAA3 WX02A BONNIE194030 3136 07758 6849 +0152 251053 +171 +106 251054 040 005194100 3138 07758 6847 +0148 247053 +171 +102 249053 040 005194130 3141 07758 6849 +0146 246053 +166 +106 247053 039 005

.

. 30-Second Data Interval

time, position, pressure altitude, wind direction and speed, air and dew point temperatures, peak wind direction and speed, SFMR wind speed, SFMR rain rate

About the data...

TEMPDROP:

UZNT13 KNHC 061851XXAA 56187 99251 70786 08158 99990 26444 ///// 00540 26247 13070 9282722856 12565 85560 17834 13075 70200 13045 13585 88999 7799931313 09608 8182851515 10166 0027061616 AF968 0204A MARIE OB 1462626 MXWNDBND SPL 2525N07835W 1826 LST WND 012 MBL WND 13065

Upper-level pressure, temperature, humidity and wind report from a sonde released by carrier.

Important pressure mandatory levels are (mb):1000, 925, 850, 700, 500, 300, 250

Currently, these are your “eyes”aboard a WP-3D:

Next season, we aim for

Air Force

SFMR aboard N43RF Orion WP-3D N43RF

GPS dropsondesC-MAN marine Moored Buoys

C-MAN land

Hurricane Katrina, August 29, 0600-1100 UTC

Air Force flying at ~2500m, NOAA 43RF at ~3000m.

Strategy

• a Linux server aboard 1 P-3 Orion that:

a) acquires MINOB and TEMPDROP from local aircraft network. FTP to NHC brings

additional data (2nd aircraft, buoys, etc.)

b) maintains relational database to archive flight's local and foreign data

c) hosts J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) Application server to support web client

• Scientists launch Java web application from their laptops connected to aircraft network

Progress (“So many hurricanes, so little time!”)

Aircraft: MINOB and TEMPDROP distribution within aircraft network.

Ground:• Long-term open-source database (PostgreSQL) ready to archive local and SatCom data feeds.

• Java applet derived from code re-use of established HRD H*Wind application (HPCC supported 1998-2001)

• Leading open-source J2EE Application server (JBoss) hosting Java applet

Future Steps

* By January 2006, AOC will equip P-3 N42RF with:

- a 64K baud SatCom link

- a Linux server with the new display

* First tests of system during winter storm experiments based on flights in the Pacific

* In Spring 2006, use system in instrument calibration flights

* Next hurricane season, it becomes a regular tool

Benefits

- Comprehensive monitoring of all involved aircraft measurements in a mission

- Increased onboard productivity and effectiveness to diagnose structure, dynamics, intensity

- Ground truth measurements included for neighbor comparisons

- Open-source approach facilitates standard and cheap software deployment

Realistic Potential

• Deployment on the other NOAA aircraft

• Plots of time series, profiles

More Ambitious

• Add visualization of lower fuselage radar, and eventually of tail Doppler radar

• 3-D graphics

more info: www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrdwww.aoc.noaa.gov