Indian weather and disaster monitoring agencies may soon be able to chase the storms. The National Disaster Management Agency and Indian Meteorological Department are keen on acquiring Hurricane Hunter, which could fly round-the-clock into the thick of a storm and pin-point the centre of a hurricane and find whether a cyclone is strengthening or weakening and also continually record the wind speed and direction.
Hurricane Hunter is the moniker earned by Weatherbird variant of the US Lockheed Martin?s C-130 J aircraft. Exhibited at the Aero India-2011 at Yelahanka airbase, the weather bird is capable of staying aloft for nearly 15 hours. It can fly weather reconnaissance missions while the crew collects and reports weather data every minute.
Company sources told FE that, ?After the Aero India is over, Lockheed Martin officials will conduct sorties for the officials of Meterological department and NDMA. Both the agencies are likely to purchase one aircraft each for achieving a technology-driven disaster management in the long run.?
The storm chaser aircraft which is fitted with computerised weather instrumentation for penetration of severe storms to obtain data on storm movement, dimensions and intensity, is currently operational in the US Air Force. According to the company executives, the aircraft?s most important function is to collect high-density, high-accuracy weather data from within the storm?s environment.