Skip to main content

Fierce Old Warplane Has a New Mission: Flying Into the Hearts of Thunderstorms


The National Science Foundation provided $10.9 million to convert an old military A-10 Thunderbolt into the world’s most formidable storm-chasing research vessel, outfitted to withstand the lightning, turbulence, and hail that big clouds unleash. “The A-10 was designed to be shot at,” says Paul Smith, an atmospheric scientist at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, who helped acquire the aircraft.
The A-10 will replace the T-28 Trojan, which retired from chasing storms in 2005. It can soar more than eight miles high compared with the T-28’s five, carrying meteorological equipment into the tops of thunderheads where lightning is generated. Optical imagers will use lasers to cast shadows, capturing the motion of rain, hail, and snow. And the A-10 can stay aloft for three hours, three times as long as the T-28, allowing researchers to observe a storm’s full life cycle. The data could improve precipitation forecasts and models of hail formation, ultimately providing more accurate and timely warnings for hurricanes and other severe weather.
But first, the Air Force must reconfigure the A-10 for peacetime duty. The wings will carry instrument pods with sensors to detect wind speed, temperature, and pressure. The 30mm Gatling gun will be removed to make space for computers that analyze sensor readings. To protect the rear engine during extreme precipitation and cold, engineers will install heaters and inflatable bladders that swell to shed ice.
The jet will be especially useful in validating data taken from afar, says Haflidi Jonsson, a chief scientist at the Naval Postgraduate School, which will operate the craft. Today, the only way to probe the depths and heights of thunderheads is with remote instruments, such as satellite cameras. The A-10 will cross-check those readings. “Without some details, people trying to model storms are running blind,” Jonsson says.
Expect an A-10 maiden flight in late 2013.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is the difference between a frigate,cruiser,destroyer, battleship ?

Usually the size and the purpose. The period of time sometimes distinguishes the name.Modern navy combat ships are generally divided into seven main categories. The categories are: Aircraft Carriers, Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Frigates, Submarines, and Amphibious assault ships. There are also support and auxiliary ships, including the minesweeper, patrol boat, and tender. During the age of sail, the ship categories were divided into the ship of the line, frigate, and sloop-of-war. Frigate Frigate is a name which has been used for several distinct types of warships at different times. It has referred to a variety of ship roles and sizes. From the 18th century, it referred to a ship smaller and faster than a ship-of-the-line, used for patrolling and escort work rather than fighting fleet actions. In modern military terminology, the definition of a frigate is a warship intended to protect other warships and merchant marine ships and as anti-submarine warfare (ASW) combata

The 101 Most Useful Websites

Here are my picks for the 101 most useful websites of the year. The Most Useful Websites and Web Apps The sites mentioned here, well most of them, solve at least one problem really well and they all have simple web addresses (URLs) that you can easily learn by heart thus saving you a trip to Google. 01.   screenr.com   – record movies of your desktop and send them straight to YouTube. 02.   bounceapp.com   – for capturing full length screenshots of web pages. 03.   goo.gl   – shorten long URLs and convert URLs into   QR codes . 04.   unfurlr.come   – find the original URL that’s hiding behind a short URL. 05.   qClock   – find the local time of a city using a   Google Map . 06.   copypastecharacter.com   – copy special characters that aren’t on your keyboard. 07.   postpost.com   – a better search engine for twitter. 08.   lovelycharts.com   – create flowcharts, network diagrams, sitemaps, etc. 09.   iconfinder.com   – the best place to find icons of all sizes. 10.

How does a search engine fetch answers to your queries in less than second?

Ever wondered how does a  search engine  fetch answers to your  queries  in less than second?  Google  says it's a mixture of science, creativity, experimentation and cold, hard maths. This is how it works: