The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the US federal agency tasked with conducting research on weather phenomena and the oceans, has announced that it is ordering two new C-130J Hercules aircraft from Lockheed Martin.
NOAA plans to use these two aircraft as “hurricane hunter aircraft”. These are essentially flying laboratories fitted with a whole array of research instruments and equipment fit for the task of collecting and processing atmospheric data.
The aircraft will be customized with multi-mode radar, a vertically scanning doppler radar, automated dropsonde launchers, high speed internet connectivity and a number of other specialized instruments and sensors to allow scientists to collect meteorological and atmospheric data.
According to NOAA, the use of aircraft to track hurricanes, and on occasion fly close to their nuclei, improves the hurricane’s track and intensity forecasting accuracy by 15 to 20% and 10 to 15%, respectively.
The two new aircraft, which are expected to enter service in 2030, will replace NOAA’s existing fleet of WP-3D Orion aircraft, which has been fulfilling this mission since the 1970s. Like their predecessors, as well as the remaining NOAA fleet, the two C-130Jswill be based in Lakeland, Florida.