Re: Video from Global Hawk UAS above Fred on September 5th
Posted by
Chris in Tampa on 9/13/2015, 8:50 am
The Global Hawk can fly over it, but not into it. It could drop dropsondes into it from high above, but measurements at flight level by the plane inside the storm are not possible. The aircraft would not survive. I don't know at what point it would fail, but it has a massive wingspan and you also would not want any communication issues that you might possibly experience. (or maybe communications would not be much a problem, I don't know) But at well over a hundred million each (perhaps even over $200 million), you don't take chances with them.
NOAA has a small drone that they are testing that is dropped from a P-3 plane, not that much larger than a dropsonde, where its wings open once out of the plane and it lasts for a few hours. It is more a glider I believe. It can fly close to the ocean's surface where manned aircraft cannot. You have to launch it in the storm though. And it doesn't come back of course.
For now the best data is still gathered with manned reconnaissance. Maybe one day they will retrofit some of the aircraft that can fly into the storms to be automated. That would probably be at least decades away though. |
119
In this thread:
Post A Reply
This thread has been archived and can no longer receive replies.