Hurricane Hunters NOAA uragano Milton

Two NOOA planes flew into Hurricane Milton, what they are and what they do: the video

Credits: NOAA Aircraft Operations Center

Milton hit Florida as a hurricane category 3 with winds over 180 km/h, causing at least 4 victims, over 120 buildings destroyed and 2 million buildings without electricity. One of the most impressive images that have come to us before landfall they were those of the two planes that crossed the hurricane showing us its interior. The video that accompanies this article bears witness to them impressive turbulences inside the hurricane before the surreal calm inside the eye of the storm. It wasn’t made by a group of madmen, but by the crew of the plane “Miss Piggy” of the program Hurricane Hunters of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Objective: to enter hurricanes to collect information that would otherwise be impossible to obtain, which is fundamental to better understand hurricanes but also to improve forecasts in order to best organize strategies to protect the population.

How Hurricane Hunters are made and why they fly in hurricanes

There are two planes used Lockheed WP-3D Orionfour-engine turboprop aircraft (i.e. in which a propeller is connected to the turbine) known for their extreme robustness. They are long 35 metershave a wingspan of 30 meters and can reach a maximum speed of 460 km/h. The two aircraft are nicknamed Kermit And Miss Piggylike the two Muppets characters. One of the main objectives of these aircraft is to locate precisely where the center of the hurricane is located and his central pressure. This data is essential for making accurate predictions on the trajectory and evolution of hurricanes.

NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion
One of the Lockheed WP–3D Orions used by NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters to study hurricanes. Credit: Jonathan Shannon.

The planes are also equipped with radar Doppler on the tail and fuselage to do a sort of “3D mapping” of the hurricane, e microwave radiometers to measure the wind speed and the precipitation rate near the sea surface, two key factors that determine the intensity of tidal wavesone of the leading causes of death related to hurricanes. Specifically, radiometers measure the low-frequency radiation emitted by sea foam following interaction with strong winds, and this allows extremely precise data to be obtained.

All this information that cannot be obtained by other means (such as monitoring satellites or ground-based radars) is of fundamental importance to ensure the safety of the population in areas that will be affected by hurricanes.

How an air mission takes place inside a hurricane

The missions of these planes usually last 7-8 hours (but they can last from 4 to 10 hours) with departure and arrival from the regional airport of MobileAlabama, or from Lakelands in Florida. They expect to rise to shares of approximately 3000 meters and cross the hurricane several times in order to monitor all the variations in the main parameters on which its dynamics and evolution depend. The crew is made up of 18-20 people including pilots, navigators, engineers, technicians and meteorologists, all highly trained. During the crossing of the cyclones the crew releases dropsondean English term for tube-shaped measuring instruments that continuously collect data as they fall with small parachutes.

Image
A dropsonde used to study hurricanes. Credit: Staff Sgt. Randy Redman of the US Air Force, via Wikimedia Commons

These probes are battery operated and contain sensors for measuring pressure, temperature And air humidityas well as a GPS antenna for precise localization and a radio transmitter to send the collected data. Once released at high altitude, these instruments fall with speed between 60 km/h and 40 km/hfor a total fall time of approximately 7 minutes.

dropsonde release
The release of a dropsonde by one of NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters. Credit: Javier Chagoya, via Wikimedia Commons

In the case of Milton, between October 6 and 9 the plane Miss Piggy has completed 9 missions of data collection in the hurricane, while Kermit carried out 4 between 7 and 9 October. The work of these missions has made it possible to obtain very accurate predictions about places and times of landfall, risks of flooding and precipitation, and so on. This information was then used by the Florida government to take all the necessary measures to limit the damage.

The path of the Miss Piggy aircraft during its October 6, 2024 mission into Hurricane Milton. Credit: NOAA