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Research Divisions

NOAA's new G-IV SP, N49RF, has a certified ceiling of 45000 feet, a range of 4075 nm, and a cruising true air speed of 440 knots. The aircraft is instrumented to measure 1-Hz flight-level data, including GPS position, radar altitude, pressure, all three wind components, temperature, and humidity. The primary instrument systems are the GPS dropwindsonde system, a main aircraft data system and local area network capable of handling specialized sensors, and a workstation (HAPS) for processing and coding the data from the GPS sondes for direct transmission to NHC and NMC via a 9600 baud (2400 bd initially) satellite communications link.