Flying

Hurricane Hunters' Storm-Tracking Season Starts Early

posted: 14 May 2007 05:56 pm ET

: The 10 WC-130J Hercules weather research aircraft of the Air Force Reserve's 53rd Weather Research Squadron -- 'The Hurricane Hunters' -- are being fitted this year with a stepped-frequency microwave radiometer so they can gather even more accurate data about Atlantic storms. Credit: U.S. Air Force Photo/Tech. Sgt. James Pritchett
: Subtropical Storm Andrea brought the Hurricane Hunters of the U.S. Air Force Reserve's 53rd WRS, 403rd Wing into storm data-gathering action off the Georgia Coast on May 9. Credit: U.S. Air Force Photo/Tech Sgt. James Pritchett

The Hurricane Hunters of Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. have already been called into action this year even though the 2007 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season doesn't officially start till June 1.

Operating a specially equipped Lockheed Martin WC-130J Hercules, a crew from the Air Force Reserve Command's 403^rd Wing tracked their first tropical disturbance on May 9 off the coast of Georgia, reported AFNEWS.

Data the airmen collected resulted in the National Hurricane Center naming the storm Subtropical Storm Andrea. The timing of the mission was reminiscent of the early beginning of the record-breaking 2005 hurricane season, the Air Force news service noted.

The 2005 hurricane season started on May 20 with Tropical Storm Adrian.

Andres's minimum central pressure was 29.62 inches of mercury, moving west at 3 mph with sustained winds of 45 mph extending outward up to 45 miles

This year, the WC-130J operating the mission was equipped with a pod containing a stepped-frequency microwave radiometer (SFMR) that constantly measured surface winds directly below the aircraft's flight level and rainfall rates within the storm.

Together, these measurements can provide structural information about storms that is so detailed it increases the accuracy of the National Hurricane Center's forecasts by as much as 30 percent, AFNEWS reported.

Forecasters from the center said the newly detailed data should enable them to predict the paths of storms more accurately to save lives and narrow areas of evacuation.

Two Hurricane Hunter WC-130Js will be equipped with the new radiometers by the end of June and one additional aircraft will be equipped each month thereafter until all of the 403^rd Wing's 10 WC-130Js have the SFMR pods fitted.