NOAA Aircraft Operations Center expanding to support growing fleet
The NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) will be expanded under the terms of a new 20-year lease NOAA signed today with the City of Lakeland, Florida. Located at Lakeland Linder International Airport, AOC serves as the main base for NOAA’s current fleet of nine specialized environmental data-gathering aircraft, including the agency’s three “hurricane hunter” planes.
NOAA King Air aircraft team surveys the coast of the U.S. Virgin Islands
The crew of NOAA King Air 350 CER N68RF conducted coastal mapping missions for NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS) in the U.S. Virgin Islands during a two-week mission earlier this year. The team used the aircraft's onboard remote sensing technology to collect shoreline imagery prior to hurricane season. The imagery will serve as a baseline in the event that any of these areas are damaged by a hurricane or tropical storm this coming season.NOAA Hurricane Hunters fly north for the winter...for science
When hurricane season concludes, some hurricane hunters fly north for the winter. The NOAA Hurricane Hunters and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Reserve Hurricane Hunters swapped their summer mission for a winter project from January to March 2020.NOAA deploys aircraft to support weather satellite data validation project
NOAA deployed one of the agency's two Lockheed WP-3D Orion "hurricane hunter" aircraft (N42RF) to Shannon, Ireland on Jan. 23 to support an ongoing NOAA Satellite and Information Service project to measure ocean surface winds in winter storms over the North Atlantic. The project helps NOAA calibrate and validate data collected by weather satellite sensors. The project also helps scientists and engineers improve the quality and consistency of satellite-based weather data.Cmdr. Christian Sloan assumes command of NOAA Aircraft Operations Center
On Dec. 2, Capt. Timothy Gallagher turned over command of the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) to Cmdr. Christian Sloan during a ceremony inside the center's hangar in Lakeland, Florida. The change-of-command ceremony was officiated by NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations Deputy Director for Operations Rear Adm. (Lower Half) Nancy Hann, who also serves as deputy director of the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps.
NOAA 'Hurricane Hunter' supports tornado study
One of NOAA's Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft is supporting a project to better understand the relationships between severe thunderstorms and tornado formation. The more than 50 researchers and students involved in the study are deploying a wide variety of tools, including the NOAA P-3 aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and ground-based observation systems, to collect data on supercell thunderstorms across the Great Plains during 2019 and 2020.