Even today, when weather satellites can watch every corner of the Earth, its still necessary to have hurricane hunters fly into hurricanes. Airplanes with instruments can gather certain important information, such as surface pressure, that is not possible to get with a satellite. Airplane crews can find the exact center of a storm, which may be different from what it appears to be in a satellite picture. The data gathered from these flights, along with satellite data, is used by weather trackers to predict where a storm is going, so that they can issue warnings to people in the storm's path

Take a cyberflight with the Air Force 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron and find out what it would be like to be part of their crew. Be prepared to tell others what you have learned after participating in this activity by being able to answer the questions below.

List at least 4 jobs of crew members on board and tell what their duties are during the flights.

Where was the dropsonde instrument placed or dropped? What does it measure?

How does the "eye" of the hurricane appear to those inside the reconnaissance plane?

Where is the information sent that is gathered during the flight?

Why are hurricane hunting missions important ?

Which hurricane was used for this activity?

Where did this hurricane make landfall?

Cyberflight into the Eye of a Hurricane

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