Hurricane Research Flights Grounded?

[cycloneye]

For the first time since NOAA began flying research aircraft into hurricane in the 1950's, there is no money to fund airborne hurricane research for an upcoming hurricane season. NOAA's state-of-the-art flying weather research laboratories, the two P-3 Orion hurricane hunter aircraft, may sit idle this hurricane season due to a lack of funding.

Read more at link below.



Link



It's unbelievable that no money will be assigned for this important research project.Now we only depend on the folks of the squadron of hurricane hunters and that will be it.I hope that money can be provided to this research program that is very important and see those P-3 planes up there during the hurricane season.

Any comments about the not good news are welcomed.

[P.K.]

Interesting quote from that article which looks like all the reconnaissance this year will have the SFMR on board.

And with the Air Force C-130 hurricane hunters receiving the advanced SFMR surface wind measuring instrument this year, it is questionable how much flying time the P-3s will get from NHC.

[brunota2003]

are they freaking nuts?!?!?!?!?! I would think hurricane research would be a huge issue by now...but no, the gov't has to go and cut funding...I can see it now "There is a Cat 5 off the coast" "Well...where is it goingand how strong will it be?" "We dont know...you got rid of our funding remember!?"

[brunota2003]

Question: If this happens as planned, wouldnt it affect winter flights as well? how about this?: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2712.htm

[pojo]

OMG!!! That means massive flying hours for us! On one hand it is nice to have the flying hours, but on the other hand we also relied on the NOAA guys to trail our flights. I'll double check this tomorrow.

[HURAKAN]

This happens because Iraq doesn't have problems with tropical cyclones. I don't want to make this political, but this problem is surely tied to the cutbacks on the new budget.

[vbhoutex]

This happens because Iraq doesn't have problems with tropical cyclones. I don't want to make this political, but this problem is surely tied to the cutbacks on the new budget.

Unless you have something other than your opinion about this I wouldn't go making statements like this.

I hate the fact that the funding has not been provided but trying to tie it to something of a political nature without any kind of proof is nothing but that-political.

[Aslkahuna]

Unfortunately, the Federal Budget process of which funding for the P-3 flights is a part of, is a very political process. Part of the problem has been the fact that the FY07 Budget processing was totally garbaged up thanks to political shennanigans by both parties. As far as FY08 is concerned, Bush's Budget is DOA so everything will be up for grabs.

Steve

[pojo]

It has been confirmed by people at the Hurricane Hunters.... yes, we are the only Hurricane flights for this season.

Steve's right, this is completely political. Notice that members of the FL and LA senates are trying to push more funding. They know in part what a Cat 3-4 Hurricane can do to their state.

[harmclan]

So we can revamp our budget to support a major increase in funding for global warming studies and research, but we can't supply enough money to support the research of one of the key off sets to global warming? looks like someone forgot to get a copy of Lessons Learned From Katrina for Dummies.

[Jim Cantore]

Wasn't Katrina a wake up call that this is something that requires our attention?

What will it take to wake them up? Does an entire city need to be wiped off the face of the planet?????

[HurricaneBill]

What will it take to wake them up? Does an entire city need to be wiped off the face of the planet?????

Probably only if it's Washington D.C.

[Aslkahuna]

Of course if Washington DC were wiped off the map that would be reason for a major celebration since we wouldn't have Congress screwing things up anymore.

Steve

[AussieMark]

were these cuts made just because 2006 was such a quiet season?

Wasn't more money allocated in the aftermath of the 2005 season?

Has one season of low activity reignited the complacency issues?

[cycloneye]

It has been confirmed by people at the Hurricane Hunters.... yes, we are the only Hurricane flights for this season.

Steve's right, this is completely political. Notice that members of the FL and LA senates are trying to push more funding. They know in part what a Cat 3-4 Hurricane can do to their state.

A sad confirmation from the inside.I really hope that the funding is approved.

[Aquawind]

This should be no real surprise. Were going to have to make cuts to pay for some of our expenses. yea it sucks for weather data junkies. We will still be getting data. Everyone is still safe. Hopefully the funding comes back soon. The Hurricane Hunters will be working some overtime alrighty.

Per the article

No follow-up work on last years promising field study that examined the effect of African dust on suppressing hurricane activity will be performed. And with the Air Force C-130 hurricane hunters receiving the advanced SFMR surface wind measuring instrument this year, it is questionable how much flying time the P-3s will get from NHC.

[wxman57]

According to Jeff Master's blog (linked to in the 1st post of this thread):

"It is also possible that if the President's newly-proposed budget gets approved (which contains an extra $2 million in funding for hurricane intensity research), some of that money will go towards keeping the P-3s flying. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) does have money to keep the P-3s flying this year, but not for reasearch projects. Flights done for NHC would be strictly operational--one altitude, one airplane at a time, with the intent of providing center fixes and surface winds estimates. HRD scientists would be allowed to take research data, but would not be able to fly both P-3s at once, or do custom flight patterns to use the P-3s' Doppler radar and other advanced instrumentation to gather state-of-the-art research data. "

So the federal budget contains the money to keep the P3s flying. I suspect the flights will continue in 2007. Remember years back when they were going to suspend all recon flights for lack of money? That, of course, never happened.

[Aslkahuna]

The President's newly proposed Budget (which is DOA in Congress) is for FY08 which begins on October 1st 2007 so the funding request there will have NO effect on 2007 operations. BTW, the Hurricane Hunters may work a lot of overtime but they will not be PAID overtime since they are Military

Steve

[cycloneye]

So after the replies from wxman57 and Steve,the P-3's will continue to fly in 2007? Tell me to then edit the title.

[Derek Ortt]

There is also a possibility that this will mean INCREASED P3 flight time.

One mission that is supposed to be conducted in the near future is to use the P3 Doppler radar to initialize the HWRF model. I have heard reports of a massive increase in P3 hours for this project; however, pure research hours would be cut.

Research can still be conducted with the operational flights. Most her eknow that I have made extensive use of G-IV flight data for research purposes. In addition, the figure 4's were modified in Katrina and Rita so the NOAA P3 could coordinate with the Navy P3 during RAINEX