Hurricane Hunters Acronyms
Posted: July 2, 2007 7:48 pm
For those of you that don't know... I fly with the Hurricane Hunters (out of Keesler AFB)... The Hurricane Hunters are a specialized group of Air Force Reservists that fly into the Tropical Disturbances.... Yes fly INTO.... Low Level Invests and Tropical Disturbances at ~500-1500ft, Tropical Storms we fly at 5000ft, Hurricanes at 10000ft (FL100)....
Here are a few acronyms that I'll be using (this way you won't be lost when I start talking about my job)
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53rd WRS - 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squardon (aka. the Hurricane Hunters)
POD - Plan of the Day (tells Recon flights where to go)
CARCAH - Chief Aerial Reconnaissance Coordination, All Hurricanes (this person communicates with NHC and CARCAH (North) for the Storm MSNs.)
ARWO - Aerial Recon Wx Officer (USAF - Flight METs... these are the people that push out the OBS from the aircraft... their computer is connected to the CARCAH at the NHC and Keesler AFB via SATCOM).
ATL - Atlantic Basin
CARIB - Caribbean Basin
GOM - Gulf of Mexico
EPAC - Eastern Pacific Basin
CENPAC - Central Pacific Basin
NHC - National Hurricane Center (Miami, FL)
CPHC – Central Pacific Hurricane Center (Honolulu, HI)
ITCZ - Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (15N - 05N & 05S - 15S).... around the globe were most of the tropical activity takes place
SST - Sea Surface Temps (>80*F needed for development)
SFC - Surface
P - Pressure
LLI - Low Level Invest ~500-1500ft above SFC
FIX - Center of Circulation Location (where the sonde is dropped)
MSN - Missions
TD - Tropical Depression
TS - Tropical Storm
CAT# - Category (+ Saffir Simpson Scale #) ie. Cat3 = Category 3
WDIR - Wind Direction
WSPD - Windspeed
HDOBs - High Density Observations
RECCO - Reconnaissance Observation
CALs - Calibrations for Wx Computers onboard Aircraft
FL - Flight Level (in 1,000 ft intervals ie. FL099 means 9900ft.)
SFMR - Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (we call it the smirf).... it measures wave frequencies from the sfc for wind direction/speed of systems
CV – Cape Verde (Cape Verde storms form around the Cape Verde Islands... ie Hurricane Andrew 1992 formed there)
SATCOM - Satellite Communications (onboard all Hurricane Hunter planes and at 2 ground stations)
WX- Weather
I hope this helps for the non-weather people out there.
Shannon
Here are a few acronyms that I'll be using (this way you won't be lost when I start talking about my job)
--------------------------------------------------
53rd WRS - 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squardon (aka. the Hurricane Hunters)
POD - Plan of the Day (tells Recon flights where to go)
CARCAH - Chief Aerial Reconnaissance Coordination, All Hurricanes (this person communicates with NHC and CARCAH (North) for the Storm MSNs.)
ARWO - Aerial Recon Wx Officer (USAF - Flight METs... these are the people that push out the OBS from the aircraft... their computer is connected to the CARCAH at the NHC and Keesler AFB via SATCOM).
ATL - Atlantic Basin
CARIB - Caribbean Basin
GOM - Gulf of Mexico
EPAC - Eastern Pacific Basin
CENPAC - Central Pacific Basin
NHC - National Hurricane Center (Miami, FL)
CPHC – Central Pacific Hurricane Center (Honolulu, HI)
ITCZ - Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (15N - 05N & 05S - 15S).... around the globe were most of the tropical activity takes place
SST - Sea Surface Temps (>80*F needed for development)
SFC - Surface
P - Pressure
LLI - Low Level Invest ~500-1500ft above SFC
FIX - Center of Circulation Location (where the sonde is dropped)
MSN - Missions
TD - Tropical Depression
TS - Tropical Storm
CAT# - Category (+ Saffir Simpson Scale #) ie. Cat3 = Category 3
WDIR - Wind Direction
WSPD - Windspeed
HDOBs - High Density Observations
RECCO - Reconnaissance Observation
CALs - Calibrations for Wx Computers onboard Aircraft
FL - Flight Level (in 1,000 ft intervals ie. FL099 means 9900ft.)
SFMR - Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (we call it the smirf).... it measures wave frequencies from the sfc for wind direction/speed of systems
CV – Cape Verde (Cape Verde storms form around the Cape Verde Islands... ie Hurricane Andrew 1992 formed there)
SATCOM - Satellite Communications (onboard all Hurricane Hunter planes and at 2 ground stations)
WX- Weather
I hope this helps for the non-weather people out there.
Shannon