NASA UAV Is Micro Hurricane Hunter

With Gustav and Hanna under the belt, and Ike and Josephine right behind them, make no doubt, the 2008 Hurricane season is in full swing. With that, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) are teaming up with Aerosonde North American to deploy a UAV that flies directly into hurricanes in an attempt to understand them better. While hurricane flying is nothing new, the new aerosonde will do it a little differently than its manned counterparts. The Aerosonde Hurricane Boundary Layer Mission takes the little UAV into the core of a hurricane system at only 500 feet off the water. This is an area of a hurricane typically considered too dangerous for manned missions, but also containing critical storm dynamics that scientists know little about. First deployed during Hurricane Noel last October, the aerosonde is controlled via satellite link from NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami, FL.

[NASA]

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