Global Hawk Takes High Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) Data

Music credit: 'Cellular Signals' by Laurent Levesque [SACEM] from Killer TracksComplete transcript available.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. NASA scientists are investigating key questions about hurricanes in a new mission from the skies. This August, the East Pacific Origins and Characteristics of Hurricanes, or EPOCH, mission will fly over East Pacific storms to better understand how they form and intensify. EPOCH will conduct up to six 24-hour science flights using the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft. Three of the flights are being supported through a partnership with the NOAA UAS Program. Data will be collected using three instruments (EXRAD, HAMSR, and AVAPS) aboard the aircraft that will map out the 3-D patterns of temperature, pressure, humidity, precipitation, and wind speed - key factors that influence hurricane behavior. NASA scientists use a combination of ground, modeled, and satellite data to re-create multi-dimensional pictures of hurricanes and other major storms in order to study complex atmospheric interactions. For More InformationSee [https://atmospheres.gsfc.nasa.gov/meso/index.php?section=260](https://atmospheres.gsfc.nasa.gov/meso/index.php?section=260) Related pages

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

A pre-mission video file looking ahead to NASA's 2012 HS3 campaign, featuring video of the Global Hawk aircraft in flight, instruments being integrated into the aircraft, and an interview with NASA scientist Scott Braun Additional interview clips from Scott Braun including information on why we need to study hurricanes in general, and also the highly collaborative nature of the HS3 campaign, which involves several NASA centers, NOAA, and several universities. Footage of a Global Hawk aircraft leaving a hangar at Dryden Flight Research Center and taking off for deployment out of Wallops Flight Facility prior to the HS3 hurricane campaign. Footage of instruments being integrated into a Global Hawk at Dryden Flight Research Center prior to deployment as part of the HS3 hurricane campaign. The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) is a five-year mission specifically targeted to investigate the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change in the Atlantic Ocean basin. The NASA Global Hawk UASs are ideal platforms for investigations of hurricanes, capable of flight altitudes greater than 55,000 ft and flight durations of up to 30 h. HS3 will utilize two Global Hawks, one with an instrument suite geared toward measurement of the environment and the other with instruments suited to inner-core structure and processes. For more information on the above item, visit this story.For more information on the above item, visit this story.For more information on the above item, visit this story. For More InformationSee [nasa.gov/hs3](nasa.gov/hs3) Related pages