This weeks "Pick of the Week" (27 Jun-03 Jul) is the United States Air Force’s own WC130J, aka the “Hurricane Hunter.” This week, the first hurricane of the 2010 season, Hurricane Alex made landfall late Wednesday (30 Jun 2010) as a Category 2 storm. Prior to it making landfall, the WC130J’s were tracking the storm system as it made its way across warm waters, over the Campeche Peninsula, and into the Gulf of Mexico. Without the data that the WC130J's collect, the National Hurricane Center located in Miami, Florida, would not be able to make their predictions as accurate or timely.
The WC130J, assigned to the 53d Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, an Air Force Reserve Unit stationed at Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi, is a one-of-a-kind unit of 10 aircraft and crews. Flying missions into the heart of tropical systems since 1944, the WC130J collects movement, size, and intensity of storms. Launching a GPS Dropsonde from the aircraft, it descends into the heart of the storm system from an altitude of 5000-38000ft, at speeds of 2500 feet per minute. On its descent, it measures current pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed/direction, and GPS data. The Dropsonde transmits this data twice per second to the computer suite located on a pallet within the aircraft.
After the Dropsonde has terminated its transmission, the data is collected and analyzed by the ASPEN (Atmospheric Sounding Processing Equipment) software. Once the ASPEN has completed its format to standard code, the data is immediately ready to be transmitted via SATCOM to the ground station. This process will most likely be repeated several times so that the ground stations and its operators (NOAA, NWS) can evaluate the data and issue the appropriate warnings and forecasts.
The WC130J is a rather new aircraft, arriving to the Air Force inventory in 1999. New turboprop engines with composite 6-bladed props, stretch versions allowing an additional 15 feet to the former fuselage, and an impressive and updated cockpit suite are some of the new features of the WC130J. The 53d WRS and it’s impressive mission are an invaluable resource to the US Air Force and the weather community.
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