With thanks to Mark Beaubien for the info, you should know that when NASA recently sent a special plane to monitor Hurricane Gonzalo:
"The WB-57 aircraft is also testing a new dropsonde system developed by Yankee Environmental Systems. The WB-57's focus is on the upper-level outflow from storms and its connection to the inner-core region."
Weather tracking and modeling will improve and probably save lives because of our man Mark!
See also this mission summary:
TCI-HS3 Mission Science Planning Summary
Friday, October 17, 2014 1500 EDT
Mission Scientists: A. Emory, J. Doyle, P. Newman, J. Dunion
Aircraft Conditions:
The WB-57 returned to MacDill AFB earlier this afternoon after its third successful flight to Category 4 Hurricane Gonzalo. HIRAD and HIWRAP appeared to perform well again during the flight today. The WB-57 flew over NOAA43 on its northbound leg and again as the WB-57 flew west outbound from the center of Gonzalo. All 61 HDSS dropsondes were successfully deployed manually from the aircraft cockpit. It appears that the sondes performed well at first in the upper levels close to the aircraft and then experienced dropouts of data at lower altitudes. Tracking of the aircraft was done with SATCOM relayed GPS positions of the sondes in the dispenser.
