The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is using u-blox GPS technology to determine the strength, direction and speed of hurricanes. Most recently, close to 40 sondes were employed to measure the characteristics of hurricane Katrina to study and predict its behaviour.
NCAR, which works closely with the US Government's National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has designed a highly sophisticated GPS dropsonde, that is used by the 53rd Air Force Reserve Weather Squadron. Dubbed 'Hurricane Hunters', their job is to fly aeroplanes directly into hurricanes, and drop GPS dropsondes attached to parachutes above the hurricane.
During the free fall, the sondes take measurements relative to the behaviour of the hurricane every half-second and transmit these to the aircraft for later analysis. The GPS dropsondes provide high-resolution vertical profiles of temperature, pressure, humidity and winds. This data is then used to predict hurricane intensity, severity and direction changes. The high altitude data also helps scientists better understand the structure and dynamics of hurricanes.
"u-blox GPS technology proved superior to any other commercial GPS solution we looked at for our dropsonde," said Terence Hock, head of RF Engineering at the Atmospheric Technology Division of NCAR. "The true 4 Hz update rate and the high position and speed accuracy are vital for our measurements. The more accurate the data we can collect during the fall of the sonde, the better our predictions can be."
"u-blox GPS technology's superiority was once more demonstrated when we recently used almost 40 dropsondes to measure hurricane Katrina's strength and predict its path," he added. "Accurate prediction of hurricane path and intensity can avoid human casualties and help save billions in damages."
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