NOAA 2005 Hurricane Field Program

1
NOAA 2005 Hurricane Field Program Intensity
Forecast Experiment (IFEX)Frank Marks
NOAA/AOML Hurricane Research Division

• NOAA is pleased to partner with NASA in the 2005
  hurricane research program. This collaboration is
  a continuation of efforts to unravel the
  mysteries of these devastating storms started in
  1998 under a multi-agency effort, the U.S.
  Weather Research Program. This effort is focused
  on the meteorological research community's
  contribution to the reduction in the impacts of
  disastrous weather on the nation, in particular
  hurricanes. To date, this collaboration yielded
  many new insights, in particular on
  characteristics of hurricane rain and the impact
  of moisture on model guidance. This years effort
  represents the third of these collaborations.
• NOAAs focus for research missions over the next
  few years is to improve our understanding and
  prediction of hurricane intensity by collecting
  observations that will aid in the improvement of
  current operational models and the development of
  the next-generation operational hurricane model.
  Observations will be collected in a variety of
  hurricanes at different stages in their
  lifecycle, from formation and early organization
  to peak intensity and subsequent landfall or
  decay over open water.
• Our collaboration with NASA will focus on the
  early phase of the tropical cyclones life, or
  genesis. The experiments, flown with the two NOAA
  P-3 aircraft in conjunction with the
  high-altitude ER-2 NASA aircraft, are intended to
  improve our understanding of how a tropical
  disturbance becomes a hurricane. Less that 10 of
  our aircraft measurements have been made in these
  weak tropical disturbances over the past 25
  years, largely because it is so difficult to
  collect data in these systems. These measurements
  will cover an important portion of a hurricanes
  lifecycle that will aid in the understanding and
  prediction of hurricane formation.
• The NASA ER-2 research aircraft provides a unique
  capability to sample the hurricane at altitudes
  where NOAA aircraft cannot. The ER-2 provides in
  situ data in the lower stratosphere, and remote
  sensed measurements or wind and precipitation
  through the troposphere. The experiment plans
  include flight tracks for the NASA aircraft,
  flying together with at least one NOAA P-3 to
  take advantage of NASAs unique observational
  capabilities. NOAA looks forward to the
  contributions this unique aircraft platform and
  NASA scientists make to NOAAs objectives.

2
NOAA WP-3D Aircraft
N43RF
N42RF