Hurricane hunters test new technology to take them deeper into the storm

ORLANDO, Fla. — Even though hurricane season is over, there is no break for the hurricane hunters.

Hurricane hunters are testing new new technology for next season. They are deploying drones from within a hurricane and then flying them right into the part of the storm so dangerous, even the hunters can’t fly there.

NOAA Chief Test Pilot, Lieutenant Commander Adam Abitbol said that despite flying a record number of hurricane flight missions in 2020, January of 2021 is not his downtime. Abitol just finished a clear air test on drones for the next hurricane season.

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“We actually flew the hurricane aircraft,” Abitol said. “The drone we deployed, was from the p-3 in the middle of the flight.”

“It’s not safe to fly down there, you’ve got 100 mph or greater winds, you’ve got 40-50 foot waves,” said NOAA Lead Meteorologist Joseph Cione. “It’s just very unsafe to fly down there.”

However, it’s not unsafe for drones. Drone can fly continuously at low levels within a hurricane, taking continuous measurements of the atmosphere’s boundary layer, a critical zone in more accurately determining a hurricane’s current strength and predicting its future intensity.

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“Now they use that information to help with emergency managers to say hey, you know, the drones may be showing us winds that are stronger, or maybe weaker too, so do we need to evacuate or do we not need to evacuate?” Cione said.

NOAA tested similar drones in previous hurricanes, Michael and Maria, but they only had a flight life of 40 minutes before crashing at a max range 20 miles from the hurricane hunter airplane it deployed from.

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This recent test of these new drones gave more than three hours of flight time and nearly 200 miles away from the hurricane hunter.

Cione said, “There’s a lot of big advances were making and we hope to build a certain numbers of these and then have a certain number available for the 2021 hurricane season.”

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The goal is to get four of these drones out this upcoming year and deploy them in strong developing tropical storms or hurricanes, and then, to start testing two other models of drones to add to the tool kit.

We have four months until our next hurricane season begins.

Cox Media Group