Hurricane planes get overhaul as NOAA eyes next generation
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Howard Altman
Tribune Staff
The Tampa Tribune
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June 28, 2015
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TAMPA — "Miss Piggy" is flying again.
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But even as the lumbering P-3 Orion aircraft takes part in its first mission since getting two new engines in a life-extending overhaul, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is looking for the next generation of hurricane hunting aircraft.
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"Miss Piggy" and NOAA’s other Orion, named "Kermit", are stationed at MacDill Air Force Base. Each plane was put into service during the mid-70s and has flown more than 10,000 hours, into more than 80 hurricanes. They are long, grueling missions, often subjecting the crew to zero gravity as the aircraft lurch up and down in buffeting winds. With the pounding they’ve taken, the planes need the $42 million refurbishing to stay on the job during the June through November hurricane season and beyond.
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But even with new engines, new wings, and upgraded avionics and scientific instrumentation, they won’t fly forever. More like 15 years.
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So last week, NOAA awarded a $1.2 million contract to Analytic Services Inc. of Falls Creek, Virginia, to conduct a study on what to do after "Miss Piggy" and "Kermit" outlive their service lives.
Still, NOAA isn’t waiting for the study results to move into the future.
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Last September, the agency began using Coyote unmanned aerial vehicles, dropping the small drones from tubes aboard the Orions to fly horizontally into Hurricane Edouard and winds of up to 103 mph.
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The agency acquired five Coyotes with money made available after Hurricane Sandy devastated portions of the coastal northeastern United States.
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But because there is no way to recover the drones once launched, the agency has only one left. It plans to acquire three more.
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"Miss Piggy" is now taking part in a NOAA study called Plains Elevated Convection At Night, or PECAN for short, collecting data before and during nighttime thunderstorms in the arid western Great Plains.
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PECAN, which began on June 1 and is expected to last until July 15, is designed to help scientists learn what triggers these storms, how the atmosphere supports their life cycle, and how they affect lives, property, agriculture, and water in the region,” according to the NOAA website.
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Likewise, by flying into hurricanes, NOAA collects data used in creating computer models that predict hurricane intensity and landfall. The information gives emergency management officials more time and information for their disaster planning.
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"Kermit", meantime, is grounded while it gets new wings — a procedure that "Miss Piggy" will undergo next year.
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While the two Orions are expected to keep flying until at 2029 at the earliest, NOAA solicited bids in December for companies interested in helping the agency determine what kind of aircraft should replace them.
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NOAA wants to get a clearer picture on what kind of storm data it will be collecting in 15 years, how that information will be measured and what kinds of sensors, instruments, and other technology might be used, said NOAA Cmdr. Kristie Twining, a pilot and the study’s project manager.
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Once that’s determined, NOAA will try to figure out whether to follow the Navy and use the service’s next-generation P-8 Poseidon airframe, powered by jet engines rather than propellers, Twining said.
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NOAA last conducted a study like this in 2009, Twining said, and determined "Miss Piggy" and "Kermit" would need upgrades. but could keep on flying.
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It’s not all about hurricanes, she said. The two planes fly many types of missions seeking atmospheric and meteorological data.
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And its not inconceivable, she said, that drones could play a larger role.
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Last September, "Kermit" made history when it flew into Hurricane Edouard as the storm swirled around the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean from September 11 to?19.
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It was the first major hurricane to develop over the Atlantic basin since Sandy in 2012, NOAA said. It was also the first time NOAA used the Coyote drones, which were launched from "Kermit".
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The Coyotes are three-foot long aircraft weighing 12 to 14 pounds with a cruising airspeed of 60 knots an operational limit of up to 20,000 feet. Launched out of a tube and deployed with a parachute, they were developed to provide the Navy a drone to release from its sub-hunting aircraft to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information.
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The five fully-equipped Coyotes purchased by NOAA cost a total of $500,000, including sensor packages and pods, development, research, and testing, said NOAA research meteorologist Joe Cione.
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Remotely piloted from "Kermit" by engineers with the company that outfitted the drones, the Coyotes provided greater detail about the storm than the traditional data collecting device, called dropsonde, Cione said. A dropsonde is a cardboard cylinder filled with sensors.
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Both drone and dropsonde collected data about pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction, but because the drones can fly horizontally, under direction, and about ten times longer, they provided a clearer understanding of storm intensity.
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“The dropsonde is up for five to six minutes and gives you a vertical slice,” Cione said. “We flew one of our Coyote missions for 68 minutes. Think of the dropsonde like a snapshot and the Coyote as a short movie.”
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That’s especially important because the Coyote can fly close to the water, where "Kermit" cannot safely go.
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“We get a lot of detail of how energy gets extracted out of the ocean,” Cione said. “We can get a lot more understanding at a low altitude with something like the Coyote.”
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Cione has secured additional money for another three Coyotes, at about $20,000 per drone including sensors and testing. The reduction in price was made possible, in part, he said, by the Navy’s bulk purchase of the devices. He hopes to field the new drones by August, a process that will include a test flight over the Avon Park Air Force Range in Polk and Highlands counties later this summer.
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The new Coyotes will be upgraded to collect ocean temperature, adding to their value. Cione said he hopes to create what he calls a "smartsonde", with the maneuverability and flight length of the drone, the distance capability of the dropsonde, and the capacity to communicate with engineers for about 200 miles — at least twice as far as the Coyote.
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But Cione said that’s not going to happen for several more years and only if NOAA is interested.
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“That’s my vision,” he said. “Whether we get funding is another story.”

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A NOAA P-3 Orion turboprop named "Kermit" is seen on the tarmac prior to flight on Tuesday, August 23, 2011. With Congress looking to slash funds wherever possible, the MacDill-based hurricane hunter program is on the chopping block. NOAA will make several flights into the eye of hurricane Irene in the coming days in order to predict where the storm is headed and its intensity. (CHRIS URSO/STAFF)
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