DRONES

Cruising at about 60 mph, the Coyote is able to obtain atmospheric data that no other aircraft can – because it can fly into the lowest levels of a hurricane, which would be far too dangerous for a plane with people on board.

“It has GPS, so we can tell exactly where it is in the storm at any time,” Cione said.

Last September, four Coyotes investigated the inner workings of Hurricane Edouard while it was east of Bermuda and at Category 3 strength.

In the process, the small planes encountered115 mph winds, remained inside the storm for up to 68 minutes and collected a bundle of atmospheric data on the wind, temperature and moisture structure of Edouard at very low altitudes.

However, the overall effectiveness of the little drones was somewhat limited because the hurricane hunter plane had to remain within five to seven miles of a Coyote to pick up its signal.

Thanks to engineering upgrades, the Coyote this year should be able to fly between 65 and 95 miles away from the hurricane hunter.

It also

has

an

infrared sensor that will allow the small aircraft to measure sea surface temperatures around a storm. That should help scientists better understand how a hurricane extracts energy from the ocean – and how strong it might get, Cione said.

“We use that type of information to better understand how these storms maintain themselves and most importantly how they rapidly intensity,” Cione said.

NOAA also drops numerous devices called dropsondes in and around storms to collect atmospheric information. Although those are equipped with parachutes, they remain aloft for only a few minutes, limiting the amount of data they can gather.

Eventually, Cione would like to see the Coyotes examine a storm for up to three hours. “It would be like a movie vs. a snapshot,” he said.

Whenever a hurricane is close enough to land, NOAA dispatches several aircraft to investigate it. Among them are the WP-3 hurricane hunters, Air Force Reserve hurricane hunters, a Gulfstream IV high-altitude jet and NASA Global Hawk drones. The idea is to obtain a top-tobottom view of the storm.

Yet none can fly inside a hurricane’s eyewall at very low altitude, where the Erica Rule, NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division in Miami strongest winds are, and remain there for an extended period of time. The Coyote, on the other hand, can.

Costing about $22,000 apiece and manufactured by Raytheon Co., of Waltham, Mass., Coyotes were developed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which clobbered the U.S. East Coast in October 2012.

Because they can’t be recovered after they fly into the ocean, Cione hopes the pricetag eventually will come down enough to fly dozens of the drones into several storms per season.

“We’re not there yet, but you have to have some vision and start somewhere,” he said. kkaye@tribpub.com or 561-243-6530