Hurricane Hunting

It is something I would like to do someday before my time on earth is over, but it will be difficult to arrange it. I think it would be so cool to fly with the Hurricane Hunters to investigate some type of tropical system. The National Hurricane Center relies heavily on data from the aircraft to estimate the maximum winds inside the hurricane or tropical system. There is some rather sophisticated technology on board, including Doppler radar to help see and locate the actual center of the system. If you have time, take a closer look at the picture I posted. Although it is a little hard to read, you can see one type of radar dish is located toward the front of the aircraft with the Doppler radar in the back. A "dropwindsonde" is dropped out of the plane (hence the name) into the storm to find out temperature, humidity, and other pressures within the rainbands surrounding the eye.

As you can well imagine, it wouldn't be the smoothest ride in an airplane considering the intensity of the storms involved. I did talk to a gentlemen several years ago that flew on the aircraft and he said you definitely need a strong stomach to stand the rough nature of the ride. I'd be willing to try!!