Global Hawk Collects Information on Tropical Storm Karl
Through the UAS Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology (SHOUT) program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deployed its Global Hawk UAS over Tropical Storm Karl this weekend. This was the sixth flight conducted by the SHOUT team.
As the Global Hawk worked alongside the National Hurricane Center, the Hurricane Research Division, and the manned Hurricane Hunters, here is the information that was gathered about Karl:
“Karl continues to produce a large area of cold-topped convection to the northeast of the center. However, data from the NOAA P-3, NOAA G-IV, and the NASA/NOAA Global Hawk aircraft indicate that the circulation is losing definition as the cyclone accelerates toward the northeast. The initial intensity of 55 kt is based on a combination of dropsonde, flight level, and SFMR winds from the three planes, and the central pressure of 992 mb is based on data from a Global Hawk dropsonde.”
One of Global Hawk’s upcoming missions will include sampling by the North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment (NAWDEX) team. According to a release from NOAA, that campaign will seek to obtain a variety of information, including “increasing the physical understanding and to quantify the effects of diabatic processes on disturbances to the jet stream near North America, their influence on downstream propagation across the North Atlantic, and consequences for high-impact weather in Europe.”
