A considerable amount of reconnaissance is scheduled for today into what is currently tropical depression Ten, but forecast to become Ingrid later today (Friday, September 13th). Multiple flights will occur from three different agencies with a total of six different kinds of aircraft.
The Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters are tasked by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) for missions scheduled to take off at both 5am and 5pm EDT from Keesler AFB in Mississippi, arriving for scheduled fixes three hours after each departure time.
There are many research missions however.
From the Hurricane Research Division (HRD) blog about the NOAA Hurricane Hunter's G-IV (NOAA9) and NOAA3 (a P-3):
"G-IV: Is tasked by HRD to fly a Tail Doppler Radar Experiment into [TD Ten] (Bay of Campeche). Take off time is scheduled for 1300 UTC (9AM Eastern). No HRD scientists will be on this flight.
NOAA43: Is tasked by EMC to fly a Rapid Intensification/EMC Tail Doppler Radar Experiment into [TD Ten] (Bay of Campeche). Take off time is scheduled for 1800 UTC (2PM Eastern). Two HRD scientists and an HRD intern will be on this flight."
NOAA's aircraft will depart from Tampa, FL.
NASA will have three aircraft in the storm.
A NASA Global Hawk UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) will depart at 7am EDT from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and fly at around 55,000 to 65,000 feet on a twenty four mission dropping 66 sondes as part of NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission.
A NASA ER-2, flying at around 60,000 to 65,000 feet, will depart from Houston, Texas at 9:30am EDT.
A NASA DC-8, flying at anywhere from 1,000 to 35,000 feet, will also depart from Houston, Texas at 9:30am EDT.
(Departure locations for NASA's ER-2 and DC-8 are based on the last landing location, on September 11th, available in NASA's tracker below.)
For information on all these types of aircraft, including all of NASA's, visit NASA's page here:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/hurricane_aircraft.htmlTo track the path of NASA's flights, use their tracker here:
http://airbornescience.nasa.gov/tracker/You can also track NOAA's aircraft as well.
Additional Air Force and NOAA flights will also occur on Saturday and Sunday. Another NASA Global Hawk mission is possible on Sunday.
You can view more information about the reconnaissance schedule for today, and for some of the links below, subsequent day(s), at the following locations:
NHC's Plan of the Day:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/recon.phpNOAA's HRD Blog:
http://noaahrd.wordpress.com/Daly Schedule for NASA's HS3 Mission:
http://espo.nasa.gov/missions/hs3/daily-schedule