HS3 video resources and interview clips

LEAD: NASA is using a special plane to help hurricane forecasters this summer. This unmanned plane, Global Hawk, flies at 60,000 feet (twice the height of commercial planes) It takes x-ray-like “cat- scans” of the inside of a hurricane: such as the towers of heavy rain that help energize storms.Because it can stay up for 24 hours it can examine the entire hurricane, Head to toe.TAG: Information will help forecasters determine why some hurricanes blow up from a minimal category one (1) storm to a devastating monster category 5 in less than a day. Especially critical when they approach landfall. Related pages

This animation shows how NASA scientists investigated the Saharan Air Layer during Hurricane Nadine. The blue to white data in the curtains is attenuated backscatter from CPL. The dropsonde data is showing relative humidity where blue represents dry air and red represents moist air. September 11/12 flights with backscatter and dropsondes showing relative humidity September 14/15 flight with CPL and relative humidity September 19/20 flight September 22/23 flights This frame sequence has the CPL backscatter data without the dropsondes. This frame sequence contains just the dropsonde geometry colored by the relative humidity data.Areas in blue are dry and red are moist. Relative Humidity measured from the dropsondes CPL Attenuated Backscatter at 532 nm Dust localities in the CPL backscatter are highlightedin orange. Sep 11/12 flight label Sep 14/15 flight label Sep 19 flight label Sep 22 flight label This is the hyperwall 6840 by 2304 frame set of this movie. It was rendered to be displayed on a 5 column by 3 row hyperwall, but it may be shown on a 3 column by 3 row hyperwall as well. Date overlays NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel mission(HS3) is a mission that brings together several NASA centers with federal and university partners to investigate the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change in the Atlantic Ocean basin. Among those factors, HS3 will address the controversial role of the hot, dry and dusty Saharan Air Layer(SAL) in tropical storm formation and intensification and the extent to which deep convection in the inner-core region of storms is a key driver of intensity change.One instrument used to investigate the SAL is the cloud physics lidar(CPL). CPL uses a laser to measure vertical profiles of dust; a dropsonde system that releases small instrumented packages from the aircraft that fall to the surface while measuring profiles of temperature, humidity, and winds; and an infrared sounder that measures temperature and humidity in clear-sky regions.The CPL is an airborne lidar system designed specifically for studying clouds and aerosols. CPL will study cloud- and dust-layer boundaries and will provide optical depth or thickness of aerosols and cloudsOn Sept. 11 and 12, during the 2012 HS3 mission, the NASA Global Hawk aircraft covered more than one million square kilometers (386,100 square miles) going back and forth over the storm in a gridded fashion in what's called a "lawnmower pattern."Dropsonde data from HS3's flights show temperature and humidity conditions in the storm. In this movie, the dropsondes are colored with the relative humidity data where blue represents dry air and red represents moist air.For more information about NASA's HS3 mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/hs3 Related pages

The Global Hawk UAV flies over Hurricane Karl to reveal a hot tower. Red shows reflectivity that is 12 km from the surface, orange is 10 km, yellow is 7.5 km, green is 6 km, and blue is under 6 km.This movie shows the eyewall of the storm develop as the UAV monitors from above. This image shows the eyewall develop. The eyewall convection persisted for over 11 hours and rotates cyclonically along the eyewall. This image shows the 11 hours of data without the overlay labels. Passes are from the KU inner band at the following times:September 16 from 18:53:10 through 19:19:18September 16 from 19:38:29 through 19:57:40September 16 from 20:09:56 through 20:55:23September 17 from 05:37:55 through 06:00:45September 17 from 06:09:33 through 06:29:01 Wind measurements are crucial for understanding and forecasting tropical storms since they are closely tied to the overall dynamics of the storm. The dual-wavelength (Ku and Ka band) High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) flew for the first time on the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) during the 2010 Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP).The HIWRAP is able to measure line-of-sight and ocean surface winds for a longer period of time than obtained by current satellites and lower-altitude instrumented aircraft. HIWRAP is conical scanning, and winds and reflectivity can be mapped within the swath below the Global Hawk. HIWRAP utilizes solid state transmitters along with a novel pulse compression scheme. This results in a system that is considerably more compact in size, requires less power, and ultimately costs significantly less than typical radars currently in use for clouds and precipitation observation. HIWRAP is able to image the winds through volume backscattering from clouds and precipitation, enabling it to measure the tropospheric winds above heavy rain at high levels. The first interesting case from the HIWRAP flights were the rapid intensification of Hurricane Karl on September 16 and 17, 2010. This visual will highlight the precipitation structure of this storms during their intensification as derived from the HIWRAP KU observations. Please note, the dimensions of the Global Hawk were exaggerated by a factor of 10 so the viewer could see the UAV. The Global Hawk actual dimensions are 44.4 ft (13.5 m) length by 116.2 ft. (35.4 m) wingspan by 15.2 ft (4.6 m) height. The movie starts as the Global Hawk flies over Hurricane Karl to reveal a Hot Tower. Hot towers are important to understanding hurricane intensification because they can carry hot moist air through the high layer of cirrus clouds above a hurricane. Hot towers are hard to study because they go so high and they do not last very long. In this movie, several of the paths have been placed in storm-centered coordinates and laid together to reveal the storm's hot towers and eyewall development. The structure of this storm is seen through reflectivity data where dbz is between 25 and 40.The HIWRAP data is colored based on the height. Red is 12 km, orange is 10 km, yellow is 7.5 km, green is 6 km, and blue is under 6 km.More information on GRIP and other elements of NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel project visit http://www.nasa.gov/HS3. For More InformationSee [http://espo.nasa.gov/hs3](http://espo.nasa.gov/hs3) Related pages

The Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle records HIWRAP KU data of Hurricane Karl on September 16, 2010.This video is also available on our YouTube channel. HIWRAP measures a burst of convection often called a "Hot Tower" measuring over 12 km high. This is the same data sequence with the "Hot Tower" labeled. The dual-wavelength (Ku- and Ka-band) High Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) flew for the first time on the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) during the 2010 Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP). The HIWRAP is able to measure line-of-sight and ocean surface winds for a longer period of time than obtained by current satellites and lower-altitude instrumented aircraft. HIWRAP is conical scanning, and winds and reflectivity can be mapped within the swath below the Global Hawk. This visual will highlight the UAV measuring Hurricane Karl's HIWRAP Ku-band observations on September 16 from 18:53:10 through 19:19:18. The dimensions of the Global Hawk were exaggerated by a factor of 10 so the viewer could see the UAV. The Global Hawk actual dimensions are 44.4 ft (13.5 m) length by 116.2 ft. (35.4 m) wingspan by 15.2 ft (4.6 m) height. The movie starts as the Global Hawk flies over Hurricane Karl to reveal a hot tower. Hot towers are important to understanding hurricane intensification because they can carry hot moist air through the high layer of cirrus clouds above a hurricane. Hot towers are hard to study because they go so high and they do not last very long. The structure of this storm is seen through reflectivity data where dbz is between 25 and 40. The HIWRAP data is colored based on the height from the surface. Red shows 12 km above sea level, orange is 10 km, yellow is 7.5 km, green is 6 km, and blue is under 6 km.For more information on GRIP and other elements of NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel project, visit http://www.nasa.gov/HS3. Related pages