KING AEROSPACE TO BUILD, TEST RADAR FOR NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT

Oct. 3, 2006 — NOAA announced that it is exercising a contract option with King Aerospace Inc. of Addison, Texas, for the construction, integration and system testing for a tail Doppler radar, or TDR, to be installed on the agency's Gulfstream-IV hurricane surveillance aircraft. The option is valued at $3.1 million. (Click NOAA image for larger view of NOAA Gulfstream-IV Jet, in the forefront, and P-3—the agency’s hurricane hunter surveillance aircraft in flight. Click here for high resolution version. Please credit “NOAA.”)

"By installing the tail Doppler radar on the G-IV jet, NOAA will be taking a first step toward improving intensity forecasts," said Rear Admiral Samuel P. De Bow Jr., director of the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps. "This ultimately will help forecasters save lives and property during hurricanes."

With the TDR system, the G-IV will be able to acquire three-dimensional hurricane core wind field data. The raw radar data will be processed onboard the aircraft through quality-control software being developed by the NOAA Hurricane Research Division in Miami, Fla. This quality-controlled data will then go into the new Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model being developed by the NOAA National Weather Service Environmental Modeling Center in Suitland, Md. The model will be used by the NOAA National Hurricane Center to aid forecasters in hurricane intensity forecasts. (Click NOAA image for larger view of artist’s rendering of tail Doppler radar concept for NOAA’s Gulfstream-IV hurricane hunter aircraft. Please credit “NOAA.”)

NOAA expects the system to reach full operational capability by the beginning of the 2009 hurricane season on June 1.

As part of the NOAA aircraft fleet, the G-IV is operated, managed and maintained by the Aircraft Operations Center of the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.

In 2007 NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, celebrates 200 years of science and service to the nation. Starting with the establishment of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA. The agency is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations

NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps

NOAA Aircraft Operations Center

NOAA Hurricane Research Division

Media Contact:
Jeanne Kouhestani, NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, (301) 713-7693