• Validation of Hurricane Surface Winds Measured by the HRD SFMR
  January 2003

  The HRD Stepped-Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) that is carried aboard NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft has been determined to be the most accurate and reliable remote sensing device available for measuring hurricane force winds at the sea surface. Results of a study show that surface winds measured by the SFMR are comparable to the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) dropwindsonde measurements that are the current standard. The benefit of the SFMR is that winds are continuously measured during flights, allowing for more complete mapping of hurricane surface wind structure. Press Release
  Scientific paper available through Eric Uhlhorn's webpage

• Distributed Real-Time Hurricane Wind Analysis System
  October 2001

  The H*Wind program integrates information from a variety of platforms in and around a hurricane and creates a real-time wind field analyses, for use by the hurricane specialists.

• Designed a satellite-based modem method for transmitting data from the NOAA WP-3 aircraft
  
  October 2001

  Designed a system that allows satellite communication with the computers onboard the NOAA WP-3 hurricane aircraft to fascilitate the real-time transfer of data.

• Rapid Intensification Index
  August 2001

  A technique for estimating the probability of tropical cyclone rapid intensification (RI) using the operational SHIPS model output was developed for the Atlantic basin. This product was provided to NHC hurricane forecasters in real-time in support of Joint Hurricane Testbed (JHT).

• Atlantic hurricane data (HURDAT) re-analysis project
  August 2000

  This project has extended the Atlantic hurricane database back 35 additional years so that it now covers the period of 1851 to date. It includes the estimated tracks and intensities for all tropical storms and hurricanes every six hours, the "raw" observations from ships and coastal stations from which the HURDAT was derived, specific U.S. landfall data, basin-wide track maps of all tropical storms and hurricanes, and comments from/replies to the OAR's Best Track Change Committee.

• First (only) real-time hurricane ensemble forecasting system
  June 2000

  A 41-member daily hurricane track ensemble forecasting system using the VICBAR shallow water model has been run during the 1998 and 1999 hurricane seasons and will be run in realtime during the 2000 hurricane season. These forecasts will provide, for the first time, estimates of the reliability of individual forecasts and probabilistic landfall forecasts based on numerical guidance.

• Improvements in track forecasts / targeting of observations
  2/2000

  By finding locations in which the atmosphere is unstable to small perturbations, and by sampling in and around these targets with dropwindsondes, improvements of up to 35% can be achieved in forecasts through four days.

• Transmission of airborne surface wind speed and rainrate measurements
  August 1999

  The airborne Step Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) measures microwave emissions from the ocean surface at six frequencies. These are transformed with radiative transfer equations to obtain measurements of surface wind speed and rain rate below the aircraft. These data are transmitted in real time.

• Ground-based hurricane wind fields from single Doppler Radar
  September 1998

  Doppler wind data from a single land-based radar can be used to deduce the tropical cyclone windfield in much the same manner as data from a single airborne Doppler Radar. These wind fields can provide continuous monitoring of tropical cyclones as they approach landfall along the U. S. coast for the first time.

• Surface wave measurements from aircraft in tropical cyclones
  August 1998

  An airborne scanning radar altimeter (SRA) generates a topographic map of the sea surface in hurricanes over open ocean. Wave heights, their variation around the tropical cyclone, and their direction of motion are all measured, and can provide realtime estimates of wave height and storm surge at landfall.

• First (only) skillful realtime hurricane intensity forecast model
  June 1998

  The Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction (SHIPS) model provides the first and only consistently skillful guidance for tropical cyclone intensity prediction.

• Warm oceanic features and hurricane intensity change
  January 1998

  Regular satellite-based oceanic topographic information provides information on the underlying ocean structure, such as warm rings and boundaries. Passage of hurricanes over such features affects their intensity, allowing for improvements in intensity forecasting especially in cases of rapid intensification.

• First high-resolution measurements of vertical wind and thermodynamic structure in hurricanes
  July 1997

  Newly-developed dropwindsondes based upon Global Positioning System technology can measure winds every half second during descent in the eyewall of tropical cyclones. These measurements have become the standard by which studies of the reduction of flight-level winds to surface winds are made, and is now standard operational procedure on all reconnaissance flights.

• Empirical Hurricane Inland Intensity Model
  January 1996

  An empirical model for predicting the winds in landfalling hurricanes has been developed for the Gulf and east coasts of the U.S. This model predicting the two-dimensional field of maximum surface winds (wind swath) for storms after landfall. As of the 2000 hurricane season this model is included in the operational SHIPS model, to make possible over land predictions of intensity.

• Shift to climatologically active Atlantic hurricane seasons
  Cover article SCIENCE 20 July 2001
  January1996

  In the 70's and 80's, the overall hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin was much lower than the previous several decades, especially the stronger ("major") hurricanes. Several long-term climatic signals have been found to have shifted, first in 1988, and again in 1995, leading to the conclusion that the Atlantic had shifted back into a more active and destructive phase that might last for at least the next 10-20 years.

• Vertically Scanning Doppler Radar
  August 1996

  A Vertically Scanning Doppler Radar (VSDR) has been developed for use on the NOAA aircraft. This instrument directly measures wind velocity beneath the aircraft, and can provide wind profiles through the boundary layer.

• Global Positioning System Dropwindsonde
  August 1996

  The GPS dropwindsonde was developed for use with NOAA and Air Force aircraft to take measurements in the environment and inner core of hurricanes to improve their analysis and forecast.

• Real-time hurricane surface wind analyses
  August 1995

  A real-time system for objectively analyzing meteorological observations in hurricanes using a common framework for wind exposure, measurement height, and averaging time, has been developed. These analyses are presented to NHC hurricane specialists as often as eight times per day and have become the standard for assessing winds from new remote sensing platforms. They are used to initialize numerical forecast models, to provide forcing for storm surge models, and in disaster management.

• Transmission of airborne radar reflectivity images and Doppler windfields from within the hurricane
  September 1993

  Radar images of hurricanes, and analyses of windfields from Doppler rada, previously only available from coastal radars when the hurricane was near landfall, are now regularly available from the NOAA research aircraft. This enables specialists to see convective features in hurricanes generally obscured from satellites by high clouds and windfield structure inside the storm. Features such as eyewall replacement cycles and asymmetries that can help in forecasting of intensity are now regularly seen before landfall.

  National Hurricane Research Laboratory Achievements
  (1965-1983)

  National Hurricane Research Project Achievements
  (1956-1964)

  • First woman to fly into a hurricane
    October 17, 1962

    During a research flight into Hurricane Ella, Miree Moore, a meteorological technician with the National Hurricane Reseach Project, becomes the first woman to fly into the eye of a hurricane.

    • First hurricane flown throughout its life cycle.
      1961

      NHRP follows a disturbance in the western Carribbean until it makes landfall in Texas as Hurricane Carla 1961. They were able to fly scientific missions into the growing storm over six days, the first time a tropical cyclone had been followed throughout its formation at sea.

      • First three plane scientific mission into a hurricane
        September 15, 1957

        Both NHRP's dedicated Air Force B-50 aircraft fly a scientific investigation into Hurricane Carrie 1957 in coordination with the B-47 high altitude jet, the first such planned coordinated flights between three planes.

        • First two plane scientific mission into a hurricane
          November 2, 1956

          One of NHRP's dedicated Air Force B-50 aircraft flys a scientific investigation into Hurricane Greta 1956 in coordination with the B-47 high altitude jet, the first such planned coordinated flights.

        • First flight into a hurricane solely dedicated to research
          August 13, 1956

          Bob Simpson flys aboard one of NHRP's dedicated Air Force B-50 aircraft into Hurricane Betsy 1956, inaugurating the Project's field program and the first such flight solely dedicated to scientific investigation of tropical cyclones.

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