Robotic Storm Tracker Gets a Big Test with Earl

As Hurricane Earl barrels toward the eastern seaboard of the United States, coastal residents don't know if they should evacuate in case the storm makes landfall. They rely on forecasters analyzing computer models, but those predictions differ. A new hurricane-monitoring mission that's now underway hopes to reduce this uncertainty by gathering atmospheric and environmental storm data never before obtained.

NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are conducting the largest tropical storm and hurricane monitoring mission to date. The mission involves simultaneously flying up to eight aircraft, each equipped with sophisticated instrumentation, to gather data from the time of a storm's inception to its dissipation.

"There is a lot about storms that we don't know--why does a storm rapidly intensify? How do things like aerosols, atmospheric moisture, and ocean currents affect a storm's development?" says Gerry Heymsfield, a NASA mission scientist. "The new measurements we are making will significantly enhance our understanding and ultimately improve forecast models."