CRAFT TO CHART STORMS' BIRTH AIRPLANE TO STAY NEAR COSTA RICA FOR PACIFIC OCEAN WEATHER STUDIES.Byline: Daily News EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - A NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. Dryden Flight Research Center The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. ER-2 aircraft will join NASA hurricane researchers investigating the birthplace of eastern Pacific tropical cyclones. A modified version of the famous U-2 spy plane that can fly higher than the tops of the storms, Dryden's ER-2 will be carrying instruments that will observe a storm as the aircraft flies in patterns above it for several hours. The aircraft left last week for the Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes mission and will be based in Costa Rica through late July. NASA hurricane researchers will be searching for clues that could lead to a greater understanding of hurricanes in a monthlong research effort primarily intended to document ``cyclogenesis,'' the birth of tropical storms, hurricanes and related phenomena. Tropical cyclones are labeled hurricanes - or typhoons in the northwestern Pacific - when their winds reach 74 mph. Researchers will monitor oceanic thunderstorms thunderstorms a storm characterized by thunder and lightning caused by strong rising air currents; identified as agents of animal disease because of their involvement causing (1) spasmodic colic; (2) lightning strike; (3) injuries of cattle acquired in stampedes initiated by storms. to study why some systems develop into tropical cyclones and some do not. The aim is to understand how such weather systems evolve and travel, leading to more accurate and timely warning systems. The NASA team will work with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and and the Costa Rican Centro Nacional de Alta Tecnologia. Missions will be flown over the region using NASA's ER-2 and NOAA's WP-3D Orion aircraft and with unmanned aerial vehicles
The airborne experiments will measure temperature, humidity, precipitation and wind. The field operations will also take advantage of several NASA and NOAA NOAA abbr. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. NOAA - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; satellites. Costa Rica is an ideal location for the research because many of the tropical storms and hurricanes impacting the eastern Pacific are spawned near the nation's western coast. In the Atlantic, cyclogenesis often occurs off the western coast of Africa, or sufficiently far out over the ocean that long-duration science flights are extremely difficult, officials said. Researchers also will be able to take advantage of their proximity to the Caribbean and the western Gulf of Mexico Noun 1. Gulf of Mexico - an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico Golfo de Mexico Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east , studying tropical systems off Costa Rica's eastern shores during more mature phases of development. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) Airplane will stay near NASA ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft soars in 2001. The model will be used to carry instruments to observe storms on the new mission. NASA |
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